RKMBs Forums .::Important::. off topic and offensive posts The Revenge of Frank Burns.

The soccer ball

5. We could say that the trend was always renewed each 4 years, with the introduction of a new World Cup soccer ball. It has been almost a tradition to have a new and improved soccer ball at each World Cup, each with its own characteristics.

For example, the World Cup soccer balls used in 2002 in Korea and Japan were lighter than those used as standard before and made out of a material that would be more controllable, favoring technically skilled players and thus, rising the entertainment value.

In 2006 at the Germany World Cup, a new soccer ball was introduced, which sparked the anger of many goalkeepers, including veteran Oliver Kahn.

The soccer ball

6. The soccer ball, as Kahn and many other goalies would notice, is "built in favor of the striker" meaning that it has several characteristics that make shots stay on the ground and thus, having more chances to hit the goal.

On the other side of the barricade, many strikers stated that the 2006 World Cup soccer ball was extremely comfortable to shoot and that it didn't have the usual unintentional mid-air swerve that most other balls had.

International Soccer - Argentina
Argentina has been a constant presence on the World soccer scene and they were always considered a strong soccer country. Argentina managed to reach the World Cup final on its first tournament in 1930, losing in front of Uruguay, who organized the event on that occasion.

But Argentina's best period was between 1978 and 1990, when they managed to win the World Cup twice, in 1978 and 1986, reaching another final in 1990, but losing it in favor of Western Germany.

Players like Maradona, Burruchaga or Valdano are still considered national heroes for their performances during that period of time and Maradona is considered the best footballer in the World, next to Pele of Brazil.


International Soccer - Brazil
Throughout history, Brazil had the best performances in World Cup tournaments, winning the big prize on 5 occasions, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002 and participating in two more finals in 1950 and 1998. Players such as Zico, Garrincha, Pele, Rivelino sparked the huge passion for soccer in Brazil by winning the first three World Cups and today, names like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Romario or Dunga are modern heroes that every Brazilian kid has as a role model.

International Soccer - England
Although soccer wasn't invented in England, since documents of early versions of the game were found all across the World, it's the English that modernized soccer and started the international phenomenon that it's become today. They were the first nation to have professional soccer clubs and it's the English that created the Laws of the Game as early as 1863, the "constitution" that is still the book of soccer rules nowadays (obviously, some of the laws were modified to adapt to modern times). You would think the English, being the modern "re-inventors" of soccer, would be the dominant nation in soccer history, but in truth they only managed to win one World Cup in 1966, on home ground. They're still regarded as a force amongst soccer nations though and players such as David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard or Wayne Rooney are international stars.


International Soccer - France
Although France was one of the first countries to adopt professional soccer, their early performances were nothing compared to the ones obtained in the past three decades. The string of successes at national team level was sparked by Michel Platini and his 1984 France squad, which won the European Championship hosted on home grounds. Their best years however were at the end of the millennium, when they managed to win the World Cup in 1998 for the first time (again, on home ground), achieve the second European Championship win in the 2000 tournament hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium and recently managed to reach the 2006 World Cup final, a final that they lost after a hard struggle against Italy. Players like Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry or Fabien Barthez are stand poles of these recent performances.

International Soccer - Germany
It's amazing how a country which was heavily involved in both World Wars and had to go through major economic, politic and social struggles managed to be so successful as a soccer country. Germany beat all odds, winning the World Cup on three occasions, in 1954, 1974 and 1990, reaching another 4 finals in 1966, 1982, 1986 and 2002 and obtaining 3 bronze medals in 1934, 1970 and 2006.
German soccer clubs are also extremely powerful in European competitions and the German Bundesliga is considered one of the top championships in the World, next to the Italian, Spanish and English.


International Soccer - Italy
If England invented modern soccer, it's Italy that brought in the concepts of tactics and defensive play. Basically, Italian players were always renowned for their tactical and defensive prowess and the Italian Serie A is considered one of the toughest championships from this point of view. The Italy national squad managed to take advantage of these new soccer concepts and won the World Cup on 4 occasions, in 1934, 1938, 1982 and in 2006. Although Italian soccer was always accused of being too score-driven and lacking beauty, it's certainly the most efficient out there.

International Soccer - Spain
Spanish soccer doesn't have outstanding performances on national team level, since they only managed to win one title, the European Championship in 1964. However, their national La Liga is regarded by many as the most important club championship in the World. Some of the best players in the World have gone through (or are still playing in) La Liga and clubs such as Real Madrid or FC Barcelona are constant contenders to the most valuable European competition, the UEFA Champions League.


International Soccer - Mexico
Mexico slowly built a name in international soccer and despite the fact that they didn't manage to win any important trophy (nor even come close), the Mexican national side is undoubtedly one of the strongest in the Americas. It's hard to compete with Argentina and Brazil for dominance on the continent, but Mexico could definitely step up for the challenge in the upcoming years, with players such as Rafael Marquez or Giovanni Dos Santos rising on the scene of top flight soccer.

International Soccer - United States
The United States were generally regarded as a country where soccer was scarcely popular, with basketball, baseball and American football coming on top of the people's favorite team sports.

However, the past two decades sparked a major interest in soccer in the U.S., with the outstanding performances of the Women's National team (World Cup winners on two occasions), the organization of the 1994 World Cup and the birth of the Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1997.

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Mumford & Sons are an English folk rock band. The band consists of Marcus Mumford (vocals, guitar, drums, mandolin), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards, accordion, drums), "Country" Winston Marshall (vocals, banjo, dobro), and Ted Dwane (vocals, string bass, drums, guitar). The band formed in October 2007, rising out of what some in the media labelled the "West London folk scene" with other artists such as Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn and Noah and the Whale.

Mumford & Sons recorded an EP, Love Your Ground, and toured extensively in the UK to expose audiences to their music and build support for an eventual album. Their debut album, Sigh No More, was released in the United Kingdom in October 2009, and February 2010 in the United States. The album peaked at number two on the UK Album Chart and the Billboard 200 in the US.

The band gained popularity throughout 2010, performing for larger audiences and making their first network television appearances in the U.S. On 1 December 2010, the band received two Grammy Award nominations, one for Best New Artist and the other for Best Rock Song ("Little Lion Man"). They won the ARIA Music Award for Most Popular International Artist in 2010, and the Brit Award in 2011 for Best British Album.

After The Storm
Mumford & Sons


And after the storm,
I run and run as the rains come
And I look up, I look up,
on my knees and out of luck,
I look up.

Night has always pushed up day
You must know life to see decay
But I won't rot, I won't rot
Not this mind and not this heart,
I won't rot.

And I took you by the hand
And we stood tall,
And remembered our own land,
What we lived for.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

And now I cling to what I knew
I saw exactly what was true
But oh no more.
That's why I hold,
That's why I hold with all I have.
That's why I hold.

I will die alone and be left there.
Well I guess I'll just go home,
Oh God knows where.
Because death is just so full and man so small.
Well I'm scared of what's behind and what's before.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

Awake My Soul
Mumford & Sons

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes
I struggle to find any truth in your lies
And now my heart stumbles on things I don't know
My weakness I feel I must finally show

Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall
Lend me your eyes I can change what you see
But your soul you must keep, totally free
Har har, har har, har har, har har

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life

Awake my soul, awake my soul
Awake my soul
You were made to meet your maker
Awake my soul, awake my soul
Awake my soul
You were made to meet your maker
You were made to meet your maker

Dust Bowl Dance
Mumford & Sons

The young man stands on the edge of his porch
The days were short and the father was gone
There was no one in the town and no one in the field
This dusty barren land had given all it could yield

I've been kicked off my land at the age of sixteen
And I have no idea where else my heart could have been
I placed all my trust at the foot of this hill
And now I am sure my heart can never be still
So collect your courage and collect your horse
And pray you never feel this same kind of remorse

Seal my heart and brake my pride
I've nowhere to stand and now nowhere to hide
Align my heart, my body, my mind
To face what I've done and do my time

Well you are my accuser, now look in my face
Your opression reeks of your greed and disgrace
So one man has and another has not
How can you love what it is you have got
When you took it all from the weak hands of the poor?
Liars and thieves you know not what is in store

There will come a time I will look in your eye
You will pray to the God that you always denied
The I'll go out back and I'll get my gun
I'll say, "You haven't met me, I am the only son"

Seal my heart and brake my pride
I've nowhere to stand and now nowhere to hide
Align my heart, my body, my mind
To face what I've done and do my time

Well yes sir, yes sir, yes it was me
I know what I've done, cause I know what I've seen
I went out back and I got my gun
I said, "You haven't met me, I am the only son"

feel the tide turning
Mumford & Sons


She sits him down in a stiff chair
Rubs his back and strokes his hair
Telling him it's okay to cry
But he just sits and stares
The merciless moon outside
Has nothing now he's come to realise
Only the desolation he feels
The cold distance inside

But you and I now
We can be alright
Just hold on to what we know is true
You and I now
Though it's cold inside
Feel the tide turning

While the priest just sits and weeps
Lamenting the fact that he can see
Darkness and light in so much detail
He has given himself over
Refusing what he knows to be real
He turns away from every meal
Starving himself of goodness
He doesn't think he can heal

But you and I now
We can be alright
Just hold on to what we know is true
You and I now
Though it's cold inside
Feel the tide turning

"What if I lost all I had?"
Said the stranger to his dad
And the witness was confused
He can't tell what is bad
Instead he runs up to the nearest girl
And he comments on her glorious curls
Says, "Darling come with me
I'll show you a whole new world"

But you and I now
We can be alright
Just hold on to what we know is true
You and I now
Though it's cold inside
Feel the tide turning

Liar Lyrics
Mumford & Sons


I know that things are broken
And though there's too many words left unsaid
You say you have spoken
Like the coward I am I hang my head

You lie careless your head on my chest
And don't even look at me looking my best
And all these things I can't describe
You would rather I didn't try

But please don't cry, you liar
Oh please don't cry, you liar
Oh please don't cry, you liar

Oh please don't cry, you liar
Oh please don't cry, you liar
Oh please don't cry, you liar

And you lean in for your last kiss
Who in this world could ask me to resist
Your hands cold as they find my neck
Oh this love that I've found, I detest

Nile – Kagera
(4,258) miles in length

Amazon river 6,400 km in length

Yangtze
6,300 km in length

Mississippi river 6,275 km in length

Yenisei river
5,539 km in length

Yellow River
5,464 km in length

Ob – Irtysh 5,410 km in length

Paraná - Río de la Plata
4,880 km in length

Congo river 4,700 km in length

Amur river 4,444 km in length

today in history

William Shakespeare born, 1564

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
John Paul Jones burns Whitehaven, England,
1778

today in history

AUTOMOTIVE
Chrysler buys luxury automaker Lamborghini, 1987

CIVIL WAR
"Panic has seized the country," writes Davis, 1865

COLD WAR
Truman confronts Molotov, 1945

CRIME
Sirhan Sirhan receives death penalty, 1969

today in history

HOLLYWOOD
Otto Preminger dies, 1986


LITERARY
Birth and death of William Shakespeare celebrated, 1564

today in history

MUSIC
Judy Garland plays Carnegie Hall, 1961

OLD WEST
Byers publishes first Denver newspaper, 1859

today in history

PRESIDENTIAL
James Buchanan is born, 1791

SPORTS
Hank Aaron hits first home run of his MLB career, 1954

today in history

VIETNAM WAR
Ford says that war is finished for America, 1975

WORLD WAR I
Poet-soldier Rupert Brooke dies in Greece, 1915

WORLD WAR II
Germans begin "Baedeker Raids" on England, 1942

Hi, Nice to meet you.

Barack Obama is behaving very presidentially now. He's in the Middle East, and he met today with the leaders of Israel and Jordan. And not to be outdone, earlier today, John McCain was in the park playing checkers with Ed Koch.

But there was one little episode while Barack Obama was overseas. He was in Jerusalem, and he was heckled. And he's not used to being heckled, because everybody likes the guy wherever he goes so nobody heckles him. And this woman was just furious and nasty and heckling him, and finally he said, "All right, Hillary, knock it off!"

While Barack Obama was campaigning in Germany, he spoke to a half million people in Germany, a half million people. And while he was doing that, John McCain, he wasn't laying around, no, no, John McCain was out driving in his driveway and he backed over the mailbox.