The second round of the World Cup was the round in which football, politics and footballing politics smashed together. It started well with Uruguay and South Korea playing out an interesting game and Ghana’s win over the USA being the highlight of what turned out to be a poor round of games. Poor for performances. [...]
The South Americans clash. Nominally the best against the most impressive so far and Chile. Brazil look as good as one might expect but Chile look – well – as you would hope Brazil would be. Cavalier and attacking. Exciting but strong and in Alexis Sánchez, they have the exciting young talent of the World [...]
The third round of games in a World Cup makes decisions. It does it quick – sixteen games in four days – and it does it without pity. The wheat is separated from the chaff and before the first game in the second phase teams will be home, managers will have left and the World [...]
This is Spain’s group. The media call it “The Spain Group” and predict that Spain will progress through it and past Portugal for a semi-final match up with Argentina/Germany/England. Spain are expected to win. No South American side has been behind this World Cup – let alone lost – and Chile qualified second in the [...]
The World Cup is the biggest event on the planet and that the pressure has got to some of the players is perhaps understandable. Until Jesus returns – not Navas but the Biblical one – there will be nothing that has so many pairs of eyes on it. That the pressure gets to some players [...]
The first round of games has been marked by fear and the results of giving into that fear. If one moment summed up the opening sixteen games it was New Zealander Winston Reid heading home in the last minute against a Slovakia side who feared adding to the one goal they had and were punished [...]
The final day of the first round of this World Cup sees two nations which are fancied by few – although Chile think that despite not having won a game at the finals since 1962 when they hosted believe they can get to the semi-finals – but unseen by many. Chile finished runners up to [...]
The best thing about the World Cup is its elusiveness. Try as they might in forty four years England have yet to catch up with the thing again – in a winning sense at least – and they are not alone in this near fruitless quest. The list of countries to have tried and not [...]