Nobody can bend it like Beckham.

David Beckham, England’s hottest hero, curled a trademark 25-yard free kick just inside the post, giving his team a sweet 1-0 victory over Ecuador on Sunday and a quarter-finals berth against the Netherlands or Portugal. England won this game as -200 favorites, while the game’s final score went  UNDER the posted total (2.5).

Beckham crashed his shot home from 35 meters on the hour mark of what had been a scrappy second round game played in sticky conditions at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion. It was a very precise shot, it was impossible to stop. We just have to congratulate Beckham. It was indeed a precised free kick.

Up next for the Lads are the undermanned Portugese who earned a similar 1-0 win over the Dutch in a brutal encounter. 16 yellow cards, 4 red cards? That can’t be good. It wasn’t pretty, but somehow they managed to squeak out a win. Down to nine men, Portugal advanced to the quarterfinals thanks to a first-half goal from Maniche.

Elbows and cleats flying. Players pushing and shoving. Coaches jawing and sniping. Yellow and red cards whipped out as if the referee was having a sale. Even a couple of brief skirmishes on the field.  So much for the beautiful game.

Portugal and the Netherlands got a year ahead of themselves…

The rest of Brazil couldn’t be any happier at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Brazil’s 4-1 annihilation of Japan enabled them to clinch the top spot and become kings of their own Group F. Oh yeah, that game saw Ronaldo’s return to greatness too.

Well, at least against the weaker Japan.

After what is turning out to be a miserable stint at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Ronaldo came back with not only a bang, but a pair of bombs that BANGED Japan to smithereens.

Ronaldo scored two goals to lead Brazil past Japan, 4-1, leading Brazil to first place in Group F of the FIFA World Cup tournament brackets.

‘’I have complete knowledge of my possibilities, of my condition,'’ Ronaldo said. ‘’I knew I arrived at a level below my teammates, and that I would have to work really hard to reach them.'’

Oh yeah, Ronaldo finally admits that he was indeed a fat ass coming to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. And of course, being the…

I wish I can berate on the Miami Heat more but unfortunately, this is not one of those.

In New Haven, Conn., police arrested two teenagers in the fatal shooting of Jajuana Cole. Jajuana Cole is a 13-year-old student shot in the back outside of her apartment.

In New Bedford, Mass., police investigated the fatal shooting of a 35-year-old man found in a car parked on an exit ramp.

Again in New York City, four people recovered from stabbings they suffered in separate incidents on the subway.

Yup, there sure are a lot of violence happening nowadays and this sudden Northeast crime spike is being blamed by the police to the HEAT.

No, not the stupid Miami Heat mind you, but the rise in temperatures.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the contiguous United States had experienced its warmest spring since 1895, when seasonal record-keeping began.

There are conflicting results over whether there is an actual correlation between rising tempers and rising mercury, but the murder rate perennially increases during the months of July and August, according to the…

England’s 2-2 draw with Sweden was costly.

Michael Owen will miss the rest of the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament in Germany after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. (Wha?)

In other words, the 2006 FIFA World Cup will see England’s Michael Owen no more because of a busted-up knee. (Oh…)

Owen had a scan on his knee near England’s team base in southern Germany. Turns out, it was worse than they expected.

‘’Obviously it’s a massive blow to suffer the injury, and be out of the World Cup,'’ Michael Owen said. ‘’As soon as it happened I knew I was in trouble. It was a major disappointment to pick up the injury so early in the game.'’

Owen’s right knee buckled after he played a pass. He rolled off the field and lay on the sideline clutching his leg while play continued. He was treated by doctors and then strapped to a stretcher and taken away. - ESPN

Ouch.

Normally, players need a good 6-to-8 months to recover from a torn ACL.

‘’I'll be following all the matches very closely and giving them my full support, hopefully all the way to Berlin. My main objective is now to get fit as quickly as possible for Newcastle United,'’ Owen…

‘’I have never finished on the podium there, and that is one of my goals for 2006.'’

Words from a very confident Fernando Alonso. Fresh from his three-straight victories in Spain, Monaco and Britain, Alonso is certainly looking good coming into the halfway point of the Formula One season.

However, as Alonso said, Canada is his Achilles Heel and if the 2004 AND 2005 F1 seasons were to tell us anything, the stupid Spaniard will come out short yet again.

‘’Canada was one of the races on my ‘to-do’ list at the start of the season. I have never finished on the podium there, and that is one of my goals for 2006. So I will be really pushing to get a strong result there,'’ Alonso said.

‘’In the past few years, this has always been a very good circuit for the Renault car. I didn’t finish in 2005 or 2004, but we were very quick in both races, and I set the fastest lap in 2003. It will be a good track for us, I think,'’ he adds.

The R26 has excellent aerodynamics, a strong engine, good traction and is stable under braking, all characteristics that will suit the difficult…

The US football team and the Dallas Mavericks now have something in common.

They were both SCREWED by the damn referees.

USA head coach, Bruce Arena, can now feel for Mavericks head coach Avery Johnson. The ONLY difference here is, Arena wanted no part in sticking around when the final whistle blew in their match with Ghana at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Apparently, Mr. Arena is just sick and tired of these screw jobs happening in sports nowadays.

When the rest of the US football team were swapping handshakes before they thanked all the USA supporters dressed in the familiar red, white and blue, Mr. Arena was heading up the stairs, through the tunnel and into the lockers.

One call in particular, a foul on defender Oguchi Onyewu, in the second minute of injury time in the first half, drew Arena’s ire. The call resulted in a penalty kick for Ghana, a shot that captain Stephen Appiah converted, giving the Black Stars a 2-1 lead it wouldn’t lose. - ESPN

‘’That’s a big call, by the way, if you haven’t figured it out,'’ a sarcastic Arena said afterwards.

What do you expect Bruce? They’re referees. They are SUPPOSE to be dumb and blind.

He adds, ‘’That was a big part of the game. We had control of the…'’

The World Series of Poker is just around the corner and the whole world will be watching if another no - name - online - playing - lucky - bastard will take the limelight away from our beloved proker pros again.

Plus since it has exploded into a truly worldwide phenomenon, and with the World Cup craze prompting fully grown chest-haired men to appear in their bikinis to cheer their country’s team, we decided to make a slight comparison and have some fun.

PokerStars online poker blog started it with their World Cup of Poker, a worldwide poker competition that pits poker teams country vs. country.

Playing for national pride may win them $200,000 cash.

Then a poker article making a parallel between the WSOP and the World Cup. So yeah, ok this is not our original idea. Without any more unnecessary blabbering here’s our Oddsmaking take on the whole thing:

COUNTRY TO WIN 2006 WSOP:

Swedish to win WSOP 10/1

American to win WSOP 2006 8/1

English-UK to win WSOP…

A little bird told me that many Washington residents are considering moving into a new state.

Not because it rains nine months a year in Seattle. The reason being playing online poker, and Internet gambling in general, has become a serious crime.

Yes, it means you will go to jail should a morality guardsman happen to catch you playing your favorite texas hold’em game in your own home at your own private time.

The Washington State law criminalizing online gambling went into effect, June 8. This development gives the state power to charge residents gambling online with a Class C felony punishable by a possible five-year sentence and/or a $10,000 fine.

The thing that’s most puzzling is how will they be able to indentify Washington residences that plays online? Does this mean that the government will begin monitoring our online activities?

Doug suggested: "Think of the NSA effort with phone records. The Bush administration wants to know who you are talking to on the phone and the state wants to know who your poker buddies are. So next time your up late playing a hand of no limit hold’em you won’t just have to…

Wha?!? Are you kiddin’ me?

Yes, Dwyane Wade led the Heat to their first NBA Championship, but c’mon, saying that Dwyane Wade is the AIR APPARENT to Michael Jordan is… well… to come up with a DECENT term… CRAZY.

Hell, it’s like saying that the Heat will RE-PEAT next year.

Dwyane Wade is just another NBA player. (Ooh… I said it…) Yup, he is just another NBA player the NBA referees HELPED become an NBA Champion. Yup, the refs sure did and I already wrote about it with my CONSPIRACY THEORIES right here on OddJack.

Is he ‘’Jordanesque?'’ Well, I got to admit, in Game 5, he sure was. In fact, he was something even better.

OOPS… Hold your horses, I’m not saying that in a good way. No siree. Not by a longshot.

Dwyane Wade was better than being ‘’Jordanesque'’ in the sense that he had a WHOLE LOT MORE FREE THROWS in one game than Michael Jordan himself will ever have. Hell, in Game 5, Wade had 25 free throw attempts, besting that of the entire free throw attempts Dallas had for crying out loud.

Dan Patrick was dumber than a dumbass when he asked…

What the hell has happened to American sports?

This was an epic scene in Germany yesterday, the sort only the FIFA World Cup can provide: Team USA being rent asunder by Africa. Ghana, a great football country mysteriously playing in their first World Cup, went through to the last 16 at the expense of an extremely sore Uncle Sam. 

Bruce Arena, a USA coach who used to coach lacrosse, walked away disgusted at the end, refusing to shake the referee’s hand. The entire stadium, it must be said, did not believe that Ghana should have been awarded a penalty 20 seconds before half-time. Poor Arena… He’ll now take all the blame and of course, the shame from the unforgiving USA media.