Well that was quite a day! Belgium can now look forward to trying to be the third best team at this World Cup when, in actual fact, they were probably the best albeit with a manager who didn’t know it.
They created very little in their semi-final defeat to France and, apart from a couple of shots from distance, the French defence coped very well and relatively easily with anything the Belgians threw at them, which wasn’t very much. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s not a bad time to be Mancunian at the moment. The city itself is far and away the best in Britain and would do well, if it were possible, to sever all ties with those idiots in Westminster who think that life begins and ends in London.
The weather is hot and sunny, the two Manchester Premier League clubs are the best two teams in Britain, Lancashire have just beaten Northants in a T20 double header at Old Trafford and England are in the World Cup semi-final.
Now, some of our more discerning readers may be wondering what the last bit about England being in the World Cup semi-final has to do with Manchester but there are tenuous links. Read the rest of this entry »
Win one more game and England are there! They will be participating in their first World Cup final since 1966.
Why is that? Do they suddenly have a team better than the one which included Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne? Are they a notch up from the Alan Shearer generation which included the likes of Paul Scholes and David Beckham? How about the team of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard? Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
(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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 