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 final second round game is the most mouthwatering with the Iberian derby arriving at the World Cup as Spain – the European Champions – against Portugal who have suggested much over the last decade but never taken a major trophy. The names involved are a list of the some of the best players in […]
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 final game of the second round of group games and Spain have yet to start the World Cup after a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland that saw them have all the ball but fail to make possession into chances much less chances into goals. They seem set to not make those mistakes again and after […]
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 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 […]