After four years of waiting, not quite with bated breath, the World Cup arrived and here we are already at the semi-final stage. What is surprising about this year’s tournament is that England’s players are still there!
For the first time since 1990, (Gazza’s tears at missing the final they never made it to, and all that), England have reached those dizzy heights once again.
Whether by luck, good judgement or good play is debatable but they are there, no denying it. (more…)
(Harry opens the scoring but it isn’t Kane, it’s Maguire!)
So the final match in England’s bid to reach their first World Cup semi-final since 1990 got underway today. After a cagey opening twenty minutes or so England grew into the game. Sweden didn’t really threaten at all in the first half and it was no real surprise when an Ashley Young corner was headed powerfully into the net by Harry Maguire.
They would have scored at least another goal, if not more, had they had someone other than Raheem Sterling on the pitch. He dithered, dallied, lost the ball, made the wrong decisions and was almost personally responsible for the score only being 1-0 at half-time.
He hasn’t yet scored at this tournament and, on the only occasion he was dropped in favour of Marcus Rashford, the United player looked a lot better in the role. (more…)
After what seemed to be a year-long wait, which actually lasted a whole two days, football is finally back. We never thought we would be pleased to see the return of the international version of the game but, when nothing else is available, beggars can’t be choosers.
No doubt we will even sit up through all hours of the night watching meaningless pre-season tour games when they begin in three or so weeks as well.
Still, there’s some meaningful stuff has to happen between now and then such as the little matter of who is going to be crowned World Champions. Now that we are sure it won’t be Germany, picking the winner is not as straightforward as it once was. (more…)
Nothing is happening. It’s as if somebody has pressed the global pause button. The World Cup has ground to a halt, even if only for two days. The transfer window is in danger of becoming even more boring than that game between France and Denmark.
What is going on and where is the news?
It got so bad that poor old Jim White on Sky Sports News had to resort to reporting the “incredible” news that a man had seen a bear in the woods in Montana and a shark had been spotted in the sea off the Australian coast! Truly incredible stuff!
Not to worry, avid readers, if there is any football-related news we will find it. Even if we have to actually read some other rags to do so. As far as the World Cup goes, this is what we think we know. (more…)
The early game this time out was the one between Sweden and Switzerland and was always going to be a close run thing due to the two sides being of similar quality.
Sweden, post-Zlatan, look more of a team now than when the big striker was insisting on being the star man but, on the other hand, they don’t appear to have anybody with a magical touch who can turn a game for them.
That necessity didn’t arise during their match with Switzerland, who were over-reliant on Xherdan Shaqiri who, in turn, didn’t have one of his better days. (more…)
The first game of the day between Mexico and Brazil was a pretty mundane affair and resulted in a fairly routine win for the South Americans.
Mexico rarely threatened and goals from Neymar Jr. and Roberto Firmino did the trick.
What the game may be remembered for, for a short while at least, was the ever-improving acting ability of Neymar. He isn’t quite there yet as it is evident, to anybody who knows anything about thespianism, that he is playing a part because he overdoes it.
What is also obvious is that he has been told that a career in Hollywood awaits his retirement from football and he has already started auditioning for roles. (more…)
Having scraped through the group stage by the skin of their teeth, the Spanish decided to take on Russia without Andrés Iniesta in the starting line-up or, to be more accurate, Fernando Hierro made the decision to leave him on the bench.
It was a tactical manoeuvre designed to counter the counter of Russia and, in the main, it worked, giving the Spain team a little more pace to chase back.
Everything certainly started off going to plan as the visitors took the lead after 12 minutes. The goal was rather scrappy and was actually an own goal scored by Sergei Ignashevich who was busy trying to wrestle Sergio Ramos to the ground when the ball hit his heel and left Akinfeev stranded. (more…)
(“It’s goodbye from me and it’s goodbye from him”)
It seemed as though the World Cup exploded into life. The tournament, which is destined to be remembered as “the-dodgy-Russian-one-before-the dodgy-Qatar-one”, had thrown up some decent games during the group stage but the real excitement could only really be felt once the knock-out stage arrived.
The first two matches had the potential to be enthralling or boring because they featured South American teams against European teams. Argentina versus France, given their showings in the previous stage of the competition, was a meeting we hoped would provide entertainment rather than expected it to.
In the end it was a cracking game which had virtually everything. (more…)
And on the 16th day they rested. Let’s face it, this football malarky is tiring. Since the tournament started on the 14th of June, the poor players have only been managing an average break of four days between games.
What kind of break is that? The selected combatants have had, occasionally, to run around on a football pitch which some of them have had to grace with their presence for a whole ninety minutes!
Now, in fairness, they have been training between matches on the days they haven’t been allowed off by their coaches. (more…)
The afternoon matches today were from the tightest group. Going into the games Japan were top with four points, Senegal were second, also with four points, and Colombia were third with three points. By this time Poland were already eliminated having lost their two opening games.
So it was a three horse race whereby the first two would progress to the last 16. From a fan’s point of view it was extremely nail-biting stuff particularly if the flavour of those nails happened to be Colombian, Senegalese or Japanese! (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 