Dunga snipes at Neymar and Alves

The new Brazil boss criticised certain behaviour displayed during the World Cup and commented on crying after losing a game, saying: "We're macho, men don't cry". "The main focus has to be the Brazil national team. When you give a press conference on international duty you give it in a Brazil cap. (...) You have to market the beautiful game", said the coach in an interview on 'Globo' TV's programme 'Fantastico'.
One of the players who gave press conferences during the 2014 Brazil World Cup wearing one of his sponsor's branded caps was Neymar.

Dunga made a direct reference to the young Barcelona striker and Daniel Alves for changing their hairstyles midway through the tournament. In Dunga's opinion, they should have done it "before or after the tournament". The new Brazil boss also said that "people should talk more about what I do on the pitch and less about what I do off it".

In another interview, this time published in Brazilian weekly newsmagazine 'Veja', Dunga also criticised those Brazil players who cried during some of the tougher times at the 2014 World Cup. "Tearful scenes like those witnessed during the game against Chile promote a negative image of football. We're macho, we like to think that men don't cry, although we respect everyone", he said.

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Argentine National Soccer Team Sends Autographed Jersey to Pope

VATICAN CITY — In a gesture of gratitude and affection, the Argentinian national soccer team, which lost July 13 to Germany in the 2014 World Cup final, sent Pope Francis an official team jersey autographed by each of its players. “Here’s the present the team sent to our Pope Francis!” team member Maxi Rodriguez said in a post on his Twitter account, which featured a photo of himself and team captain Lionel Messi holding the jersey. The Holy See expressed thanks for the gift on Thursday, noting that although Argentina did not win the final, the team “acknowledged it had faith that the pontiff would keep them in his thoughts throughout the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.”

During their stay in Brazil, the Argentine team kept a large photo of the players posing with Pope Francis on display at their training center in Belo Horizonte. The picture was taken last year, when the Argentine team visited the Holy Father while in Rome for a friendly match with Italy. Papal ceremonialist Msgr. Guillermo Karcher said that although Pope Francis is an avid soccer fan, he did not watch the World Cup final. “The Pope was following the results of the World Cup, but he said he was not going to watch the final for reasons of neutrality,” Msgr. Karcher explained.

“We kept him up to date at each stage,” he added. Before the opening of the World Cup, Pope Francis sent a video message expressing hope that the event would be an occasion for encounter between cultures. He also sent out a message on July 12 via Twitter, noting that the World Cup soccer tournaments have brought people of various nations and religions together. Said the Pope, “May sports always promote the culture of encounter.”

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Real Madrid sell £20m worth of James Rodriguez replica shirts

Real Madrid have reportedly sold an incredible 345,000 James Rodriguez replica shirts since the arrival of the World Cup star.

The Colombian completed his £63m move earlier this week and was unveiled at the Bernabeu on Tuesday night. According to Spanish newspaper Sport based on figures from Euromericas Sport Marketing, in the 48-hours after, £20m worth of shirts were sold.

Gerardo Molina, Professor Emeritus in Sports Marketing was quoted by Sport as saying: "The expectation is that the player (James) will sell product at the same level as Cristiano Ronaldo who has sold over one million shirts since arriving at Real Madrid".

The sales ensure a quick return for Real Madrid on the huge fee they paid Monaco for the striker. The combination of Rodriguez, Ronaldo and Gareth Bale is one that has certainly caught the imagination of fans of the Champions League holders, if not the wider football community.

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Tax-fraud allegations against Lionel Messi

A Spanish judge on Monday rejected a prosecutor's request to drop charges of tax fraud against Lionel Messi and ordered the investigation into three cases of suspected unpaid taxes to proceed. A court statement said there was "sufficient evidence" to believe the Barcelona and Argentina star "could have known and consented" to the creation of a fictitious corporate structure to avoid paying taxes on income from his image rights. The statement was issued by the court in Gava, Barcelona, that was initially called on by prosecutors to investigate if there was a case for Messi and his father to answer.

In June, Messi's public relations firm said a prosecutor had agreed to drop the tax fraud case against the player and his father. Messi's father, Jorge Horacio Messi, is under investigation for an alleged 4 million euros ($5.3 million) in unpaid taxes from 2007-09. Messi's father made a payment of more than 5 million euros ($6.6 million) in August 2013 to cover alleged unpaid taxes, plus interest. Monday's statement said it was not necessary for Messi "to have full knowledge of all accounting or corporate transactions or the exact amount of the fraud" for him to have had a clear idea of an intention to defraud.



Once the investigating judge finishes his deliberations, he will give the Tax Office and the State Prosecutor's office 10 days to come up with a strong case against Messi or a final decision to dismiss the case. Should the judge, backed by a new decision from tax and prosecution authorities, rule the case against Messi must go ahead with an indictment, the Barcelona star would have to appear in court to be questioned. Spain has been cracking down on tax evasion as it fights to repair the country's public finances after a prolonged recession triggered by the collapse of its once-booming real estate sector. Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro warned footballers they should make sure they were "comfortable" with their tax affairs.

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Messi: Really sad day for the football community

Argentine national team captain, Leo Messi expressed his condolences to the loss of AFA President, Julio Grondona on Wednesday.



Messi, who is currently on holiday following the 2014 World Cup, posted a message via his official facebook to mourn the passing of the president.

“Really sad day for the football community, for Argentina and for me. Our AFA President, Julio Grondona, has left us. I want to send my condolences to the family and friends of the beloved.

- LIO”

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Woodstown boys soccer goalie Tom Brady making name for himself

He gets it on the athletic field, in school, from friends and even from strangers. He can’t escape it. And he probably never will. When you share your name with one of the best NFL quarterbacks of all time, it just comes with the territory. Tom Brady is the quarterback of the New England Patriots. The Tom Brady we are talking about, though, is the starting goalie for the Woodstown High School soccer team. The senior Wolverine hears about his famous name all of the time. And he means all of the time. “Every person I meet,” Brady said sternly after a Gloucester County Summer Soccer League game earlier in the week. “It’s bad.”
However, he’s learned to deal with it and roll with the punches — and punchlines. Brady has even taken the light-hearted stance that the New England QB shares a name with him and not the other way around. Oh, and Brady is a ... Giants fan. While he can’t escape the jokes, Brady the soccer player is making a name for himself in the Tri-County Conference and throughout South Jersey. Last year, his first on the varsity team, Brady set the school record for wins in a season with 20 and recorded seven shutouts as the Wolverines captured the Diamond Division title and reached the NJSIAA South Jersey Group I final.

He was named to the Diamond Division First Team and got consideration for earning all-South Jersey honors. At the South Jersey meeting where coaches voted for the team, having the same name as the Patriots Super Bowl winning QB may have even helped his cause.
Each coach gets the chance to make a case for their player, but it goes by alphabetical order by school. So that means Woodstown head coach Darren Huck is one of the last guys to voice his opinion. Wondering if anyone was still listening when it was finally his turn, Huck got up and said Tom Brady threw for over 5,000 yards and for 42 touchdowns.

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Conservatives freak out after mistaking soccer jersey for ‘Muslim prayer rug’ left at border

Adding to unfounded worries that immigrant children attempting to enter the U.S. are reintroducing a panoply of diseases such as Ebola and dengue fever, conservatives grew more agitated yesterday after “American security contractors”  found what they believed to be a “Muslim prayer rug” abandoned near the Arizona border. According to Adam Weinstein at Gawker, the “rug” is actually a diamond-patterned Adidas soccer jersey. A spokesperson for American Patriot, Three Percent — a self-styled militia patrolling the Mexican/U.S. border — contacted Breitbart.com  and relayed the discovery of the ‘rug’ Monday night, just south of Sierra Vista in Coronado national forest.

According to  the spokesman,  Matthew Leber, the “patrol” was walking through a wash when he spied something on the ground. “That’s when I saw this thing laying around. And I was like, ‘What the hell is that?’ We walked over there and I didn’t really want to pull at it not knowing what was on it, ” Leber said.  “I poked a bit at it with a stick and noticed some of the Arabic writing and was just like, ‘Oh boy.’ I snapped a couple of photos and then went on our patrol.” Leber did not indicate whether he considered picking up the ‘rug’ and turning it over to Homeland Security. As Weinstein notes, a quick glance at the picture sent to Breitbart by Leber clearly shows a sleeve and the distinctive Adidas three-stripe logo.

Conservatives have recently become alarmed as conspiracy sites like World Net Daily have reported that Mexican drug cartels have formed partnerships with Islamic terrorist group ISIS, leading some to believe the cartels are helping sneak terrorists into the U.S. via Mexico. Breitbart recently reported that the same militia group told them that the U.S. Border Patrol had  picked up six “Special Interest Aliens” near Laredo, Texas, each one carrying 60,000 Iraqi dinars apiece. 60,000 dinars is equal to $51 in U.S. currency.

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