Players to watch out for FIFA World Cup 2010

South Africa football talisman Steven Pienaar has come a long way since cowering on the floor of his childhood home to ensure he was not hit by a stray bullet.

He was voted Everton Player of the Year last week, testimony to accurate passing and a high work rate that triggered media speculation of a move to champions Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal or Tottenham Hotspur.

And after a short end-of-season break to recharge batteries drained by a punishing English season, Pienaar will join his international team-mates and Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira at their Johannesburg base.(AFP PHOTO)

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Players to watch out for FIFA World Cup 2010

Thierry Henry has ridden a seemingly smooth path through a wave of criticism to be the sole survivor of France's victorious 1998 team to travel to South Africa for this year's World Cup.

Henry, a widely-respected poster-boy in the world of football who has appeared alongside Tiger Woods and Roger Federer in adverts, was guilty of an outrageous handball that ultimately secured France's spot at the June 11-July 11 finals.(AFP PHOTO)

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Players to watch out for FIFA World Cup 2010

Liverpool forward Fernando Torres has seen injuries blight his season and Spain will hope their star forward can make a full recovery following knee surgery and get match sharpness back in time to spearhead his country's attack at the World Cup.

Torres scored the winning goal in Spain's Euro 2008 final win over Germany to help his country lift a first major honour since 1964 and confirm his status as one of the most deadly strikers on the planet.

However, his build-up to the South Africa showpiece has been ruined by injuries and he has not played since injuring his knee in the Europa League match against Benfica on April 8.(AP PHOTO)

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Players to watch out for FIFA World Cup 2010

Regarded as the conductor of the orchestra for club and country, midfielder Xavi Hernandez is often an unsung hero for Barcelona and Spain.

His importance cannot be underestimated with his simple, yet highly effective, passing crucial to make Spain tick and he will have to be at his best if the European champions are to go all the way at the 2010 World Cup finals.(AFP PHOTO)

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Players to watch out for FIFA World Cup 2010

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo is the archetype of the modern attacking player.

Blessed with blistering pace, immense physical strength and bewildering technical dexterity with both feet, the 25-year-old is also courageous in the air and possesses a thunderous shot.

Ability and hard work have turned him into one of the most recognisable athletes on the planet and his stock shows no sign of falling after a largely successful first year at Real Madrid.(AFP PHOTO)

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Pic of the Day - 14th June

This picture released by Greenpeace on May 19, 2010 shows an aerial view vesels passing through leaking oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead off the Louisiana coast. BP said that a tube inserted into a ruptured oil pipe now is sucking up about 40 per cent of the crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, about twice as much as it did one day earlier. The company said in a statement that its 'riser insertion tube tool' is estimated to be collecting and carrying about 2,000 barrels a day of oil to flow up to the drillship Discoverer Enterprise on the surface 5,000 feet above. (Photo: AFP/Greenpeace)

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Robin Hood - Review

The first thing you must know about Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is that it is unlike any Robin Hood movie you’ve seen before.

So put aside visuals of a cheery Errol Flynn swinging from trees or Kevin Costner battling the Machiavellian Sheriff of Nottingham. There are no men in tights here; they aren’t very merry; the Sheriff of Nottingham isn’t the worst villain; there’s barely any robbing the rich to give to the poor and Marion isn’t a maid but a lady.

This Robin Hood is an origins story. It tells us how Robin Hood came to be Robin Hood. The film reunites Scott with Russell Crowe for the fifth time and has been dubbed Gladiator with bows.

Sadly, Robin Hood doesn’t have the propulsive power or the emotional strength of Gladiator. But if you’re willing to be patient, it does work as a handsome historical epic with some crackling battle scenes.

The first hour or so of Robin Hood establishes the various power centers, alignments and treacheries that push our hero on the path of rebellion. He begins as Robin Longstride, a valiant archer in Richard the Lionheart’s army. Here he meets the men who will eventually become his comrades in arms in Sherwood Forest.

After a furious battle, the King is killed. His sadistic brother takes his throne and Robin returns to England, assuming the identity of a dead man. The man’s widow, Marion played by Cate Blanchett, goes along with the charade because it’s the only way they can hold on to the sprawling family estate.

Blanchett is elegant and fiery and these scenes of the two living together as husband and wife have a real chemistry and vigor. The trouble is that there just aren’t enough of them. Scott keeps returning to the politics, which, beyond a point, are dreary and joyless.

But Robin Hood picks up pace in the second hour, moving toward an all-guns-blazing climax in which, Marion fights alongside Robin and Scott demonstrates once again, his ability to stage a grand, rousing battle.

Crowe plays Robin Hood with just the right degree of brooding self-righteousness. He has both physical and emotional heft.

Crowe and Blanchett light up this somewhat plodding film. Check it out.

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Pic of the Day - 13th June

Football players wear blindfolds during a football match in front of the Reichstag, the building which houses the lower house of parliament, in Berlin on May 20, 2010. Turkish and German teams took part in the Blind football competition. (Photo: AFP)

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