cup Page 126 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A European Model Named Marcello Caught Hell For Marcelo's Own Goal
See that guy chilling with a dolphin? His name is Marcello (Ferri). He's a European model. There's also a player on Brazil's World Cup squad named Marcelo (Vieira). In today's opening match against Croatia, Marcelo scored an own goal. Angry Brazil fans with no regard for spelling took out their frus...

The World Cup Of Beer
Beer is one of the oldest hallmarks of civilization; parts of the 'Code of Hammurabi' regulated the production of beer, and the Sumerian pantheon featured Ninkasi, a goddess dedicated to that golden beverage. The world's oldest continuing food-production regulation is the Reinheitsgebot, promulgated...

Romário: The Hustler From Brazil's <i>Favelas</i>
From Eduardo Galeano's classic, now available as an ebook. We'll have excerpts throughout the week....

Here's Fred's Dive In The Box To Give Brazil The Lead
Yea, that's not a penalty. ...

Remember: Brazil Will Get A Shitload Of Fergie Time If It's Losing
Brazil are tied 1-1 in the second half against Croatia, and there is real danger of the home side dropping points. We ran down all the many ways that Brazil will have an advantage playing at home earlier today—culturally, by strength of schedule, and beyond—but given the situation, thought it was...

Brazil's Early Own Goal Scares Shit Out Of Betting Market
The bet trend on Croatia, as the match has progressed, is above. Check out that sad gray betting spike right before Neymar's equalizer....

What's Up With That Spray The Referee Used On Brazil's Free Kick?
On Brazil's free kick toward the end of the first half, World Cup viewers got their first look at one of this tournament's new wrinkles: A can of vanishing spray used by referees to mark off the distance defenders must stand from the ball....

Brazil Equalize Opening World Cup Match With Neymar Squeaker
Who else but Neymar? Amidst midfield congestion, the World Cup's most heavily-hyped player delivered with a perfectly-placed, if not exactly solidly-struck, shot. Here's how it sounded on Brazil's Rede Globo:...

Brazil Score First Goal Of World Cup—In Their Own Goal
This certainly isn't how Brazil planned to start things off. Croatia took a 1-0 lead 11 minutes into the match when Marcelo knocked the ball into his own goal....

The Crappy Manaus Pitch Is Being Spray-Painted Green
The turf at Manaus's Arena Amazonia is still going to be shit for Saturday's England-Italy match. It's going to be sandy and uneven and third-rate. But worry not: It's going to look great on TV. Today, workers laid down green spray paint to cover the brown parts....

Why Your World Cup Stadium Sucks: Arena Amazonia, Manaus
This is Arena Amazonia, nestled in the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Brazil. It is the worst....

Paraplegic In Robotic Exoskeleton Performs World Cup First Kick
OK, so after all the hype about the mind-controlled exoskeleton performing the first kick in the World Cup, it turned out to be kind of disappointing. (The opening ceremony broadcast only showed a few seconds of it, seen above.) But still, a paralyzed man controlling a robot suit with his mind kicke...

Fallen Rangers Fan Is The Saddest Subway Rider
A reader sends along this photo of a prone Rangers fan, fittingly adorned in a Rick Nash jersey and camo Rangers hat, lying prone on the Q train at 2:00 a.m. last night. We are told that this guy "barely moved" for at least three stops, at which time our tipster had to get off the train....

How Big Is Brazil's Home-Field Advantage At The World Cup?
Santos da casa não fazem milagres. At home, saints do not perform miracles. —Brazilian proverb...

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times
Send stories, photos, and anything else you might have to [email protected]....

Brazil-Croatia: An Early Trap Game For The Hosts?
Let's stop ourselves for a second. A Brazilian coronation is the most likely outcome. Those masters of the universe over at Goldman Sachs say so. And they're never wrong. But what if, for just a moment, we think skeptically about this opening match of the World Cup 2014?...

Milwaukee Bar Celebrates World Cup In Most Tone Deaf Way Possible
There's a bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, called The Nomad, and like most bars in America, it is putting on all kinds of airs in an effort to lure people inside of it to watch World Cup games this month. But The Nomad is offering potential patrons one thing that other bars are not: tone deaf cultural t...

Everyone Named Their Kid After Maradona During The 1986 World Cup
Diego Maradona in 1986 was essentially an archangel, razing down everything but Argentina on the way to winning the World Cup. This sparked any number of legacies, from a merchandising empire based chiefly on t-shirts with his and Che Guerva's face on them, to, it seems, thousands and thousands of k...

Here's What The Top Prediction Models Say About The World Cup
The World Cup kicks off in a few hours, which means the results of the many, many prediction models that have popped up in the last few weeks will finally be tested. Below are some of the best examples; this is a good time to remind you that betting markets are usually the strongest predictors of al...