Soccer - The Netherlands -EURO 2020r: Bounced out of Euro 2020, the Netherlands looks to future

After a seven-year wait for a spot in a major tournament, the Netherlands got three workmanlike wins against outmatched opponents and a humbling loss to the Czech Republic.

What looked like a Super Sunday for Dutch sports fans following Max Verstappen’s win at the Styrian Grand Prix and Mathieu van der Poel’s Tour de France stage win, turned sour when the Netherlands lost 2-0 in Budapest and tumbled out of the European Championship.

Read more at: Bounced out of Euro 2020, the Netherlands looks to future

EU - Soccer: Why European Super League could reshape the future of soccer

On Sunday, 12 of the biggest soccer teams in Europe announced their intention to form their own breakaway Super League in a bold move that challenges the tradition and long-standing history of the European club game, and could change the financial and competitive nature of the sport for generations to come.

Here's what you need to know about this seismic development:

Read more at: Why European Super League could reshape the future of soccer | CBC Sports

Soccer: Italy 1-1 Netherlands: Improved Oranje earn point in Bergamo - Italy

The Netherlands kept their chances of progressing in the Nations League alive with a well-earned point against Italy in Bergamo.

Frank de Boer is still searching for his first win after four games as manager, but his team looked far more assured and incisive than they did in the goalless draw against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Saturday.

Read more at:
Italy 1-1 Netherlands: Improved Oranje earn point in Bergamo - DutchNews.nl

Soccer: 2018 World Cup final score,France 4- Croatia 2 recap: France beats Croatia as Pogba, Mbappe, Griezmann shine - by Roger Gonzales

The French national team was crowned world champions after defeating an underdog Croatian team 4-2 in the World Cup final in Moscow on Sunday, capturing its second World Cup title and its first since it hosted the 1998 tournament 20 years ago. Les Bleus manager Didier Deschamps was the captain in 1998 when his team shocked Brazil in Paris, and on Sunday he became the third to ever win the World Cup as a player and coach.

In a match that featured anything you could have ever imagined, an own goal, a goalkeeper gaffe, pitch invaders and a teenager wunderkind finding the back of the net, France rolled to a convincing 4-1 lead and managed to hold on to earn its second star.

Read more: 2018 World Cup final score, recap: France beats Croatia as Pogba, Mbappe, Griezmann shine - CBSSports.com

Soccer Powerhouse Italy Copes With The 'Indelible Stain' Of Missing The World Cup - by Colin Dwyer

This is the way World Cup hopes end — not with a bang, but with a whimper.

With their tournament dreams on the line against Sweden on Monday night, the Italian men's national team — the four-time World Cup champion Italian men's national team — simply could not get the win they needed. They didn't even demonstrate the knack for tragedy that might have made for a dramatic defeat, à la the U.S. men.

Instead, Italians watched their opportunity to play in the 2018 World Cup wither slowly as the scoreboard stayed empty, drifting to a scoreless tie with the Swedes in Milan. With the 0-0 draw, Sweden booked their own ticket to Russia to play in one of the world's most watched events.

Not since 1958 has the World Cup lacked an Italian team.

Luckily, though, it appears Italians are taking it in stride: "Italy, this is the apocalypse," declared the Italian sports publication La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Read more: Powerhouse Italy Copes With The 'Indelible Stain' Of Missing The World Cup : The Two-Way : NPR

Soccer: Euro 2016: France beats Germany, advances to final

France is through to the finals of Euro 2016 after defeating Germany 2-0 on Thursday in its semi-final matchup in Marseille.

Antoine Griezmann scored his tournament-leading fifth and sixth goals for France, who advances to Sunday’s final in Saint-Denis where it will meet Portugal.

Les bleus will try win their third European Championship after claiming the title in 1984 (on home soil) and 2000 (in the Netherlands).

Read more: [[[=Euro 2016: France beats Germany, advances to final - Sportsnet.ca

France is deploying anti-drone technology to protect football fans at Euro 2016

An unidentified drone buzzes a soccer stadium crammed with spectators at the European Championship. It might just be carrying a camera. Or something more sinister. Toxic chemicals, perhaps.

Either way, the unauthorized flying machine is violating a no-fly zone in place for Europe's biggest sports event since deadly attacks in Paris last November.

Taking no chances, Euro 2016 organizers said Tuesday that new technology will be deployed at the June 10-July 10 tournament in 10 French cities to protect against unwanted airborne intruders.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Euro 2016 security chief Ziad Khoury said no-fly zones will be declared over all 10 stadiums as well as training grounds for the 24 teams.

"We've noted the general proliferation of drone-usage in society," Khoury said in his Paris office.

"So no-fly zones will be defined over every training ground and every stadium, and in most stadiums and for most matches anti-drone measures — which are quite innovative — will be deployed, working with the state, which will interfere with drones and take control of them if they are spotted."

French authorities have been alarmed by dozens of mystery drone overflights of sensitive sites — mostly nuclear facilities, but also military installations and even the presidential palace. In response, the government is funding research into technology that could interfere with or jam signals that control drones, or even destroy them.

The government's General Secretariat for Defence and National Security confirmed to the AP that anti-drone measures will be in place for Euro 2016 but said the exact type of technologies to be deployed will be decided in coming days.

The French gendarmerie already has powerful but not particularly sophisticated portable equipment that could help steer drones away from stadiums by interfering with GPS signals; its drawback is that it could also interfere with GPS signals for civil use, including for aircraft.

Microwave technology that could bring down drones is also being looked at, as are other ground-based technologies to cut or jam signals to the flying machines.

French authorities have trained for the possibility of drones being used to disperse chemicals over spectators.

A training exercise in April in Saint-Etienne, a Euro 2016 city in southeast France, imagined that a drone carrying chemical agents had plunged into crowds at the Geoffroy Guichard Stadium, which will host three group matches in June and one game in the knockout round.

Read more: France is deploying anti-drone technology to protect football fans at Euro 2016

Germany: Hanover stadium evacuated over terror threat before Germany-Netherlands match

Police official Volker Kluwe told broadcaster NDR that there was "concrete evidence that someone wanted to detonate explosives" at the stadium, providing no other details. The Washington Post cited a security official as saying that the situation was related to Friday's attacks in Paris.

Police at the stadium urged spectators to calmly but quickly leave the stadium, saying the match had been canceled. “Do not stand still. Stay away from the stadium,” police said through loudspeakers.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to attend the match but had not yet arrived.
 
Read more: Hanover stadium evacuated over terror threat before Germany-Netherlands match - BNO News

The Netherlands - Soccer: Nazi chants at Dutch soccer game expose an ugly blot on ‘the beautiful game’ and on the Netherlands - by Michael E. Miller

It was a beautiful day for soccer in the Dutch town of Utrecht. Spring sunshine filled the stadium as the local team, FC Utrecht, kicked off against perennial powerhouse Ajax Amsterdam.

As the beautiful game slowly played out on the field, however, things in the stands quickly got ugly.
“Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas,” sang a section of the home supporters towards the fans visiting from Amsterdam, a city historic in part for its Jewish community. “My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS, together they burned Jews, because Jews burn the best!”

The anti-Semitism was caught on video and quickly circulated among Dutch media. FC Utrecht issued an apology as Jewish organizations demanded action by soccer authorities.

The shocking chants weren’t an isolated incident, however. Instead, they were the latest in a string of anti-Semitic episodes that threaten to mar European soccer.

Discrimination isn’t new to European football, or soccer. The sport has long struggled with racism, a problem which resurfaced recently when Chelsea fans pushed a black man off the Paris metro, chanting: “We’re racist, we’re racist, and that’s the way we like it.”

Note EU-Digest  This incident is not only an ugly blot on Dutch soccer fans, but also on Holland as a nation, and the rest of the world in general. Maybe, "We the People" should be reminded from time to time, that no one is better than another in this world of ours - we are also all equal when it comes to the bad things we do in life - it is only a question of our own perception, as to how we divine what is good, bad or worse. If you have the time, or want to take the time, please listen to the Easter Sermon of Tullian Tchividjian - http://www.crpc.org/mediaPlayer/#sermonvideo/688 - a Pastor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which reminds us, pretty clearly, of this human flaw, know to some of us as hypocrisy.

Read more: Nazi chants at Dutch soccer game expose an ugly blot on ‘the beautiful game’ - The Washington Post

Soccer -European Championship: Wesley Sneijder rescues Netherlands for stoppage-time draw vs. Turkey

Holland continued to struggle in their European Championship qualifying campaign as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Turkey at the Amsterdam ArenA on Saturday March 28.

Burak Yilmaz fired Turkey into the lead thanks to a deflection in the 37th minute and Holland had to wait until second-half stoppage time for Wesley Sneijder to score the equaliser which saw them narrowly avoid their third defeat in Group A.

The result left them six points adrift of leaders Czech Republic and one point ahead of Turkey in third place, five behind Iceland who defeated bottom side Kazakhstan 3-0 earlier in the day.

Read more: Wesley Sneijder rescues Netherlands for stoppage-time draw vs. Turkey | FOX Sports

The Super Bowl seen through the eyes of a European Soccer fan - by RM

American football -the Super Bowl is here again on Sunday, February 1, 2015

As a "foreigner" It's Interesting watching the news here in the US. For more than 10 days now we have been "pummeled" non-stop with news about a deflated football and its effect on the "Super Bowl" - for the uninformed this is the final game of an American football competition between 4 divisions around America.

For some outsiders American Football looks like Rugby except for the fact that its not about great athletics, but rather about a heavily padded group of guys who keep running into each other for about 3 hours until the least exhausted and battered team wins. 

The winning team is called "the World Football Champion" - world hmm ? For those outside the US who consider "the other football" - called soccer in America - as the real thing, it seems ridiculous. But hey, this is America, the world,s number 1 Superpower 

They are "the boss" when it comes to calling the shots around the world, at least for now. Anyway, I will be watching "the Seattle Seahawks" playing the "Boston Patriots" this Sunday", with my special interest focused on the usually spectacular half-time variety show - and may the best team win.

EU-Digest 

Soccer UEFA: Iceland v Netherlands background

Iceland will try to follow up the 3-0 win over Turkey in their qualifying Group A opener with another famous victory when the Netherlands visit Reykjavik on 13 October

Read more: Iceland v Netherlands background - UEFA EURO - News - UEFA.com

World Cup Soccer: More than 20 million US viewers watched Belgium game

Scientists at Facebook have published a paper showing that they manipulated the content seen by more than 600,000 users in an attempt to determine whether this would affect their emotional state.

The paper, “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks,” was published in The Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences. It shows how Facebook data scientists tweaked the algorithm that determines which posts appear on users’ news feeds—specifically, researchers skewed the number of positive or negative terms seen by randomly selected users.

Facebook then analyzed the future postings of those users over the course of a week to see if people responded with increased positivity or negativity of their own, thus answering the question of whether emotional states can be transmitted across a social network. Result: They can! Which is great news for

Facebook data scientists hoping to prove a point about modern psychology. It’s less great for the people having their emotions secretly manipulated.

In order to sign up for Facebook, users must click a box saying they agree to the Facebook Data Use Policy, giving the company the right to access and use the information posted on the site. The policy lists a variety of potential uses for your data, most of them related to advertising, but there’s also a bit about “internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and service improvement.”

 In the study, the authors point out that they stayed within the data policy’s liberal constraints by using machine analysis to pick out positive and negative posts, meaning no user data containing personal information was actually viewed by human researchers.

And there was no need to ask study “participants” for consent, as they’d already given it by agreeing to Facebook’s terms of service in the first place.

Read more: More than 20 million US viewers watched Belgium game | AccessNorthGa

Soccer: Plan to Replace American Football With Soccer 'On Track,' Says Europe :by Andy Borowitz

A ten-year European plan to gradually phase out American football in the United States and replace it with soccer is “very much on track,” a spokesman for the European Union confirmed today.

The E.U. spokesman, Alf-Jergen Holmboe, said the replacement of American football with soccer was the third in a three-step plan to transform the U.S. into a European country.

“The first two steps were electing a socialist President and instituting national health care,” he said. “Once soccer replaces football, our work will be done.”

Holmboe said that the E.U. could take no credit for the legalization of gay marriage in the United States, but called it “a very welcome development.” He added, “Once a country has socialism, national health care, and gay marriage, soccer is usually next.”

The spokesman offered no timetable for eliminating baseball, but indicated that it was “in the works.”

Read more: Plan to Replace American Football With Soccer 'On Track,' Says Europe : The New Yorker

Football: Why Americans Call Soccer 'Soccer' - by Uri Friedman

New Zealand's largest newspaper is deeply conflicted. With the World Cup underway in Brazil, should The New Zealand Herald refer to the "global round-ball game" as "soccer" or "football"? The question has been put to readers, and the readers have spoken. It's "football"—by a wide margin.

We in the U.S., of course, would disagree. And now we have a clearer understanding of why. In May, Stefan Szymanski, a sports economist at the University of Michigan, published a paper debunking the notion that "soccer" is a semantically bizarre American invention. In fact, it's a British import. And the Brits used it often—until, that is, it became too much of an Americanism for British English to bear.

The story begins, like many good stories do, in a pub. As early as the Middle Ages, Szymanski explains, the rough outlines of soccer—a game, a ball, feet—appear to have been present in England. But it wasn't until the sport became popular among aristocratic boys at schools like Eton and Rugby in the nineteenth century that these young men tried to standardize play. On a Monday evening in October 1863, the leaders of a dozen clubs met at the Freemasons' Tavern in London to establish "a definite code of rules for the regulation of the game.”

They did just that, forming the Football Association. The most divisive issue was whether to permit "hacking," or kicking an opponent in the leg (the answer, ultimately, was 'no').

Read more: Why Americans Call Soccer 'Soccer' - Uri Friedman - The Atlantic

World Cup Soccer: Anti-FIFA mood deepens in Brazil as World Cup starts

 Yes to the World Cup, no to FIFA - that sums up the frosty relationship between Brazil and football’s world governing body. But it hasn’t dampened most Brazilians’ enthusiasm for the mega event.

Read more: Anti-FIFA mood deepens in Brazil as World Cup starts | Americas | DW.DE | 12.06.2014

Soccer: Netherlands win but fail to impress against Wales

Arjen Robben scored the first goal and made the second to give the Netherlands a winning send off before they head to the World Cup but again it was a far from convincing performance as they beat Wales 2-0 in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Robben made up for his profligacy at the weekend, when he missed a host of chances in a 1-0 win over Ghana in Rotterdam, to bury a snap effort from close range just after the half hour mark. The winger struck home a rebound after Robin van Persie’s angled effort had been stopped by the legs of goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. 

He should also have had a goal seven minutes earlier after some mazy skills but his shot was fortuitously blocked by defender Chris Gunter. 

The Bayern Munich attacker then set up substitute Jeremain Lens for a second in the 76th minute after a swift counter attack created by an interception and clever pass forward from Wesley Sneijder. Robben collected and squared for Lens to easily tap home. 

The Dutch performance will have done little to strike fear into their opponents as they depart for Brazil on Thursday, just over a week before they play Spain in their opening Group B match in a repeat of the 2010 final.

Read more: Netherlands win but fail to impress against Wales - International Soccer News | Football Results, Fixtures & Tables - Wed, Jun 04, 2014

Soccer World Cup Friendly: Netherlands-Ecuador ends 1-1 in World Cup tuneup

Robin van Persie scored with a trademark left-foot volley to give a new-look Netherlands a 1-1 draw with Ecuador in a pre-World Cup friendly on Saturday.

Van Persie controlled a long pass from Jordy Clasie on his chest and immediately smashed it past Maximo Banguera in the 37th minute to cancel out a ninth-minute strike by Jefferson Montero that gave Ecuador a surprise lead.

"We saw a magnificent goal," coach Louis van Gaal said. "A fantastic pass by Clasie and the way Van Persie finished it was phenomenal."

Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal started with the formation he plans to use in Brazil — a five-man defense, three in midfield and two attackers. He hasn't yet settled on which players will play where and the sometimes stuttering Dutch performance showed that they still need to get used to playing it.

Read more: Netherlands-Ecuador ends 1-1 in World Cup tuneup

Soccer: Champions League: Atletico Madrid knock-out Barcelona as it happened

Atletico is the first team to knock out Barcelona in Champions League quarter-finals since Juventus in 2003.

It was Koke's early goal that secured Atletico Madrid a first Champions League semi-final spot since 1974.

It could, and should, have been even more as the hosts hit the woodwork three times in a one-sided first-half. Barcelona improved slightly after the break but, except for a Neymar diving header, did little to threaten. A historic and deserved win.

Read more: BBC Sport - Champions League: Atletico Madrid v Barcelona as it happened

Soccer World Cup - Brazil invests heavily in World Cup security

Brazil will employ 170,000 security personnel and spend close to 1.9 billion reais ($798 million) to try and ensure a trouble free World Cup tournament, organisers said on Thursday.

A total of 150,000 armed services and public policing forces personnel will be diverted to the month-long event that kicks off on June 12, plus a further 20,000 trained private security officers hired to bolster security.

But Brazilian government officials acknowledged they were still concerned about the possibility of violence marring the tournament, following last year's unexpected demonstrations at the Confederations Cup.

More than a million people took to the streets during the warm-up event for the World Cup to protest against poor public services, corruption and the high cost of the stadiums.

"We have a lot of concerns, not as much about protests which are a democratic right, but rather at potential violence.

We are committed to preventing violence during any protest activity," Andrei Rodrigues, the secretary for special events at the Brazilian justice ministry, told a FIFA media conference on World Cup security.

Read more: Soccer-Brazil invests heavily in World Cup security