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Roll back four short years…. France vs Italy – World cup final.

Zidane was in his final appearance for Le Bleus and was the best player on the field despite being on the verge of retirement. Since then the French international team have never recovered from a loss of a legend, he was the glue that held the rest of the team together and had been for a decade previous.

So what of today’s crop of Frenchmen?

They are talented, they have players from Europe’s best teams such as Patrice Evra (Man United), Abidal (Barcelona), Ribery (Bayern) Anelka (Chelsea) Malouda (Chelsea). But as with many talented squads that havent achieved in the past there is no glue that moulds it all together.

On top of that they have some trouble makers in the pack including the likes of William Gallas who should be dropped from all future french squads.

And the final nail in the coffin is a terrible manager. Having left out playmakers such as Samir Nasri the french were always destined for a poor world cup.

So what next…

Well Laurent Blanc is taking over… in managerial experience he is not up there however having won things with the national team in recent years he will have the passion and may have a better understanding with the players. He seems a laid back character that will allow the skillful players like Ribery to play in there best positions.

As for this world cup it was an absolute embarrassment of the highest order. Lost two and drawn one. They should of qualified as a minimum and the squad unrest can be the only reason behind such a disappointing exit.

ITALY

Masters of defending and winning 1-0.

Well they used to be… the current crop are awful. I would say the worst italian side for many years.

Big names like cannavaro, pirlo and gattuso are all well past there prime now and it shows. There is no pace in the side and flair has all but disappeared.

Inter Milan did not have one representative at this competition and for the reason that there is not one player in the italian team that is good enough to play in that team.

Having drawn the first match they should have beaten a part time team in New Zealand to have any hope. They had a banker playing who booked time off from work against full time proffesionals.

So what next…

Lippi will probably step down however in this instance it is the players that are not good enough, they do have some emerging players such as Pazzini that could rise in the next few years.

You can be sure they will re-emerge as all good nations do as they go through this cycle (apart from Brazil) and be close to winning something within the next 4-6 years when the current younger players develop.

Until then we can continue to watch more giants fall and minnows prosper in what has been an exciting world cup so far.

I’ve been to many draft parties over 20+ years and I usually do at least two or more live drafts a year so this list comes from my personal experience.

If you’re a first timer holding the draft at your place or you get to chose where the draft should be here’s 10 tips to make sure you have a terrible fantasy football draft party.

1. Don’t provide food or drink or you provide it in the middle of the draft
I get it, you’re busy getting your place in order and it slips your mind to order food or ask your owners to bring any. One time we did have this happen and we just ordered pizzas in middle of the draft but the problem with doing that is that it disrupts the flow so my recommendation would be to order it up early and eat before the draft. Invite over the owners early to eat and allow for chit chat before hand.

2. Don’t have enough places for owners to sit
The sure way to piss off your fantasy football owners is to have them sit on the carpet. Have enough foresight to know that people are going to have magazines and paperwork, they are going to want to spread them out so they will take up space. Make sure you have enough room.

3. Do the draft party during “Little Suzy’s Birthday” party
When you do this invariable the spouses come in and bother everyone by asking “Honey, who was that actor in that movie we watched last night?”. Ugh, don’t do it, just don’t do it. Hold your draft party as it’s own party and if the spouses are going to come you need to put them to work. Have them get food and drink for everyone or ask them to monitor the draft board. Keep them busy or they will get bored and interrupt the flow of the draft.

4. Have your draft outdoors with lots of wind and rain
We had held the draft at my Dad’s house for a few years. The idea was that he’s got a pool and everyone would swim before or after the draft. Well, that wasn’t the case at all. It was an “ok” place to do the draft but being outdoors brings up other issues like not enough seating or if there is seating its loungers which people hate when they are drafting. There’s also the wind and potential for rain, you need to be very careful about doing it outside and make sure you have a backup plan in case it’s too windy or starts to rain.

5. Let owners pay you later
This one always chaps my hide because you are there on draft day and other people are paying their $250 but you always have someone who can’t pay right away. The bad thing is that they don’t end up paying you until the end of the season or maybe even never. Get that money up front and make sure they make a commitment. I’ve had a couple times where someone didn’t pay me and then they ended up winning money and it sucks because they basically played for free all season long, not good. Set the bar high right away and stress payment early or on draft day.

6. Don’t have a fantasy football draft board so owners can visually see who picked who
There’s nothing more irritating then listening to people who don’t pay attention yell out “who was just taken?”. Get a draft board, make a spouse monitor it and you will be very happy. The league will be very happy to see who drafted who visually.

7. Don’t have wireless internet or enough power outlets
Laptops are the norm now so make sure you have enough power outlets for everyone and make sure you have wireless internet. Have the internet key to log in ready to go so it doesn’t slow down everyone at the draft.

8. Have it in a super loud place or play music in the background so owners get distracted
We had our draft at a few bars like BW-3 and Champps but they are loud. Call up a bar and ask them for a room where you can hold your draft in private. Last year we went to a place that had a room where they closed the doors, it was perfect. The only problem was that they didn’t have good wireless and the projector was down so again, make sure you check out the place you hold your draft and treat it like a big deal because it is.

9. Have owners call in and do it over chat
I will no longer tolerate people doing a draft over IM or by conference, when you do this you are beholden to that persons internet connection or cell phone. If you have someone on AT&T, god help you as they will cut out like 5 times an hour and you have to call them back. The draft has a rhythm, keep with it and it will go smoothly.

10. Rules? What rules, definitely don’t talk about the rules
Make time for people to talk about your rules, it kills me when someone drafts a player and then asks the question, “can this person get points for Kickoff returns?” because when they hear “NO” they will complain. Talk about how you will handle a player who is a WR and also a Kickoff return specialist, do they get points for both of those? Then talk about all the other rules and don’t draft until every question is answered.

A game of billiard is just as fun as any game as it provides enjoyment to people of any age from kids to adults. It also involves many billiard supplies like cue sticks, balls, triangles and many other things to make that game even more enjoyable and complete. We all do well know that billiard supplies do not come cheap, that is why, as much as possible, we should take care of them as best as we can. The best way possible is to keep all of your billiard supplies in an organized way and to prevent them from having all sorts of damages that they can possibly have once they are just left lying everywhere. As much as possible, all of your pool supplies should be kept somewhere near the pool table itself so that it will be much easier to reach them during game time. Not only will it help you in protecting your billiard supplies but will also make you billiard area more enjoyable to play with.

The most popular billiard supply that is made for organization purposes is probably the cue rack and it is also the one that is most recommended. A cue rack gives you a place where you can let your entire billiard cues or sticks stand when they are not in use, especially if you have tons of them that you keep for collection purposes. Most of these cue racks have hooks on them where you can hang your triangles. The kind of cue rack that you will choose depends on you because there are also some of them that comes with storage shelves where you can store other supplies like your chalk and so on although they are sold on a higher value than the simple ones. You can also have dividers or shelves that come with glass doors where you can keep your cue balls and many other billiard supplies out of the way when they are not in use.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa is an historic one, being the first held on African soil. More importantly, this tournament upset the status quo. Italy and France went out in the group stage – at the bottom of Group F and A respectively. Only seven of the thirteen European teams qualified for the second round. In addition, there is guaranteed to be a surprise semi-finalist at the 2010 edition of the world’s biggest sporting event.

Few would have thought that Uruguay, USA, Ghana or South Korea could appear in the semi-finals. Based on the current structure of the tournament, these four sides are in the same pool that would provide one semi-final spot. USA faces off against Ghana, while Uruguay plays South Korea. The winner of the ties would meet in the quarterfinals to qualify for the semi-final.

For those who think that this is a FIFA conspiracy to get a different team in the semifinals – think again. It really was not supposed to be this way. First, the latter stages are defined even before the tournament starts. The winner of Group A plays the runner-up of Group B and the winner of Group C plays the winner of Group D. FIFA does this to ensure that teams that played each other in the group stage do not have the chance of meeting before the final.

According to pre-tournament expectations, the USA and Uruguay were not supposed to be in this section. South Korea probably would not have been the favoured team to be in the second round, but Nigeria failed at the last hurdle. If expectations held true, France would have played Nigeria and England would have faced Ghana or Serbia. That would have meant a France v England quarterfinal while the USA and Uruguay would have battled against Germany and Argentina respectively.

The USA team is not yet a world power, although they reached the quarterfinals back in 2002. Ghana made its debut in 2006 and advanced to the second round before losing to Brazil. Uruguay did not qualify for the 2006 tournament and last advanced past the group stages in 1990. South Korea had a dream run to the semi-finals back in 2002, but that was on home soil and amidst controversy about officiating that helped them to make it that far. Now, one of these sides will make it to the semi-finals. They would likely face Brazil or Holland there, and that is where things would be back to normal. Fans of these countries could dare to dream though.