July 12th: The battle of Johannesburg was won by Spain – and many people believe that it was the right result considering the rather questionable tactics of the Dutch. So, that means the final verdicts are in on every team in this World Cup now. Remind yourself how every team fared in what was a [...]
July 8th: After one breathtaking semi-final and one war of attrition, we have our finalists – and it’s no surprise that the two hottest teams in the tournament are in it. Germany failed to wrench possession from the pre-tournament favourites Spain, while The Netherlands hinted at the awesome attacking potential that they possess – and [...]
The World Cup is like an global Expo of football – every nation brings their ideas about the future of the game to one exhibition – and the winner gets to dictate the preferred system of choice for the next couple of years.
July 5th: We’re down to the last four teams, and it doesn’t include Brazil of Argentina – much to most people’s surprise. But after the dominance of South America, we have three European teams in the top four – and two sides who have never lifted the World Cup four. Will we have a new [...]
The visit of sports minister Roselyne Bachelot to berate the French squad for their behaviour during the World Cup in South Africa set the French Football Federation on a collision cause with Fifa, who hold no trunk with government interference
June 30th: Then there were eight. It’s getting serious now – and Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Spain and The Netherlands are all looking like real contenders. But can we really discount Ghana – or even Uruguay and Paraguay – now we are three games from the title?
There was false optimism in spades, but even taking that into account England – with the players available to them and the form they carried as individuals into this tournament – should have done a whole lot better than they did. So, what was it that led to one of the perhaps most disastrous World [...]
