Archive for the ‘The World Cup’ Category

More World Cup Games But No More Surprises, (Other Than England Winning Of Course)

Posted: June 19, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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The first game of the day pitted the wits of Sweden and South Korea against each other.

In what was a fairly mundane 90 minutes of football, Sweden deserved to win purely because they appeared to try and win much harder than the Koreans did.

The goal which did the trick was yet another penalty this time scored by Andreas Granqvist, the Swedish captain. The award of the spot-kick was made after VAR had been consulted and, even then, it still wasn’t totally conclusive. Still, it was given and the match ended 1-0 to Sweden. (more…)

More World Cup Moments: Serbia And Mexico Win, There’s A Draw For Brazil And We Take A Brief Trip Back To The Premier League For Some Transfer News

Posted: June 19, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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Nothing very surprising about that headline you may think. Three good teams not losing their opening World Cup games, so what? What’s so unusual about that?

Well, in the case of Serbia, who managed to scrape past Costa Rica 1-0 courtesy of an excellent Aleksandr Kolarov free-kick nothing really, other than they would have been expected to win by a greater margin.

In the case of Brazil there was also nothing spectacular about the fact that they managed to draw with Switzerland. It was, in fact, not such an unexpected result. (more…)

More From The World Cup Including: Wins For France, Denmark And Croatia, While Argentina Draw And Ronaldo Is Way Ahead Of Messi!

Posted: June 18, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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Well that wasn’t too bad a game. France weren’t very good which should really have given Australia a chance to collect three points. The problem was that The Socceroos, whilst being full of huff and puff for around 70 minutes, also weren’t very good.

First goal went to budding documentary-maker Antoine Griezmann courtesy of VAR, which helped to decide that a foul had been committed in the penalty area and he scored with ease from the spot.

The Aussies then equalised with another penalty confirmed by the VAR team which seemed determined to make up for not being involved even once in the opening game. (more…)

More World Cup Bits & Pieces Including: Ronaldo Finally Starts To Score, Iran Get A Slice Of Luck And So Do Uruguay!

Posted: June 17, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, The World Cup
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Wouldn’t you just know it? Cristiano Ronaldo, at the ripe old age of 33 has suddenly announced himself on the World Cup stage.

Many “experts” are predicting that this will be the Portuguese’s last appearance in this tournament as he will be 37 by the time the next one comes around.

We don’t agree with the experts. Now, there’s a surprise! Our guess is that Ronaldo also doesn’t agree with them assuming that he listens to them at all!

The shape he is in and his single-mindedness in wanting to be the best means that another four years will have little or no effect on him. He may slow down slightly although, on the evidence of some of the counter-attacking runs he made against Spain, this is unlikely to happen. (more…)

More Bits Of Football Including; The New Season Moving Ever Nearer, The World Cup Beginning And Griezmann Makes A Big Deal About Going Nowhere!

Posted: June 16, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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The new Premier League season moved a small step nearer yesterday as the fixtures were announced. This always feels like a hurdle has been…..well…..hurdled, because it is a milestone during the close season which is designed to satisfy two longings.

The first is the millions of fans around the world who are all only a tablet/phone/laptop away from a conversation, friendly or otherwise, with each other. The fixture list will give them something positive to talk about so that they can, temporarily at least, refrain from threatening their club’s management, board, players and each other for a day or two. (more…)

More Football Snippets: Including The World Cup Begins, London Bias From The FA Is Now Beyond A Joke And Anthony Martial Is Not For Sale!

Posted: June 15, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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After all the pomp and circumstance, 2018’s ethics World Cup finally got underway when the hosts met Saudi Arabia in the opening game.

The enigma that is Russia, not only as a football team, but as a country, continues to confound the logic of most sane people. How can a land boasting a population of around 145 million and with such a long history of playing football, a country whose population loves the game, unlike the early days in America, be so poor at actually playing it?

They are currently ranked 70th in the world, only three places above Saudi Arabia! On that basis the result of the opening game was really quite a surprise, particularly when taking into account the fact that the hosts had lost their previous seven. So a 5-0 win was a most welcome start for them. (more…)

Bits & Pieces: A Winter Break, Kane Pockets A Pay Rise, Neville Is Winning And The Injuries Are Mounting

Posted: June 10, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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At last! The Premier League is getting a winter break! Starting in 2019 there will be a ten day hiatus in proceedings in February.

The idea is that this break will help England to better compete in future World Cups and European Championships, (better players would be a much bigger help).

Without wishing to be killjoys on this subject we recently noted that the English players in Russia for this World Cup will have spent less minutes on a football pitch than ANY other nation, including the ones who had a break! (more…)

England Still Think Big, How The Top Six Intend To Get Richer And West Ham May Sign A Very Expensive Player!

Posted: June 9, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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So that’s the end of the meaningless friendlies for the time being. There now follows what, for England at least, will probably be a meaningless tournament. Having beaten Nigeria and Costa Rica both by a scoreline of 2-0 England still haven’t quite grasped the point of these friendly/warm-up matches.

The Germans have them down to a fine art. They spend most of their time outside of tournaments being rubbish. Joachim Löw has drilled it into his players that they must give the impression, to every other coach, that they are now reasonably easy to beat. They must play as though the days when they used to win everything are long gone and the team is now going through a transition which they may or may not come out of positively. (more…)

Why Aren’t England’s Players Tired? + Ramos Didn’t Mean It And Liverpool Have Signed Fabinho Who Isn’t A Goalkeeper!

Posted: May 30, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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(Harry Kane stifles a yawn brought on by the intense tiredness suffered having spent the equivalent of 78 hours, (3.25 days), playing competitive football this season)

Any regular reader of ours will be well aware of our opinions of managers who claim that their players are tired.

You know the ones, they have to play two games in a week and, when they lose one, it’s nearly always down to tiredness. Most of the top Premier League managers will use it as an excuse at least two or three times per season.

They will go whining on about a winter break as though that will suddenly turn their players into world beaters. (more…)

The Consolation Cup Stays In London For Another Year As Manchester United Completely Fluff Their Lines!

Posted: May 20, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, The FA Cup, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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This year’s FA Cup final, as well as being the traditional curtain-downer on the domestic season, was also an example of two managers under pressure for completely different reasons.

Antonio Conte, who is widely expected to resign/be fired within days of the game, is under pressure because he has proven to be a one-season-wonder in the Premier League and that only because he had no European involvement to hinder his side’s progress to winning the title.

JosĂ© Mourinho is widely expected to take some time off and go visiting Portugal, a grand prix or two and then pitch up for RT, a Russian TV station, as a double agent World Cup pundit. He is under pressure because some Manchester United fans find it difficult to accept that THREE trophies and a second place finish in the Premier League in two years should be considered successful. (more…)

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