June 25 – Groups E and F play to conclusion with Nigeria needing to avoid defeat against Argentina to be Africa’s first, and potentially only, representative in the last 16. Though Iran will be looking to do the same for Asia. The Swiss need a good win over Honduras to beat Ecuador into the next round, assuming the South American can overcome a high flying French team.
One of Roy Hodgson’s favourite writers, Stefan Sweig, killed himself in Petropolis, a town near Rio in 1942 despairing of where European civilisation and culture was headed. Now what has happened to Hodgson in Brazil does not bear any comparison with what Sweig was going through as the fight with Nazism raged in Europe with no definite indication that this evil could be defeated.
Those of us who write about sport often use absurd,
Die Unken haben gerufen, und was ist geschehen? “The best world cup ever”, meinte ein ITV Sportskommentator. “Die besten Fussballspiele seit Jahrzehnten”, meinte ein anderer Kollege aus deutschen Landen. “Korruption aller Orten”, heisst es allerdings in einschlägigen Kreisen.
Die FIFA soll also nicht bloss Fussball organisieren, behüte! Sie soll sich um soziale Anliegen und um soziale Gerechtigkeit kümmern, soll das lösen, was korrupte Regierungen von links nach rechts offensichtlich nicht zu lösen vermögen.
June 24 – Final matches in Groups C and D see all teams, bar England, as contenders for places in the Round of 16.
June 24 – English head for the beaches as the Mexican wave rolls on and a Scolari look-a-like fools a reporter and a nation
June 23 – The final round of group games kick off today with Groups A and B playing to conclusion. The two matches in each Group match will have the same kick off times.
June 22 – Closing second round matches have all sides needing a win for qualification security. The final round of group games starts Monday with each group’s matches kicking off at the same time.
June 21 – Africans play for survival and continental pride while the battle of the Boatengs sets up a family feud. Meanwhile, expect Messi to march on in Belo
With the World Cup in Brazil being the first in which Goal Line Technology (GLT) is used, to ascertain whether a ball has crossed the line, its effectiveness – and using similar aids, to reduce other refereeing errors – will certainly be a regular talking point.
And not just amongst fans, as the animated conversation between Didier Deschamps and Luis Suarez, the managers of France and Honduras, over Les Bleus’ second goal, in their 3-0 win in Group E,
June 20 – Italy are on the longest goal streak of any team in the World Cup but they need to beware an underestimated Costa Rica; the last three France vs Switzerland games have been drawn; Honduras have yet to win a World Cup game but Ecudor can expect a muscled approach.
June 20 – From foaming at the mouth to foam on your boots, Brazil 2014 is providing the lot. INSIDEworldfootball chief correspondent Andrew Warshaw is in Belo Horizonte awaiting the arrival of Lionel Messi and his mates. Here are some of the other things that are occupying his agenda
“How does it feel to have a trillion dollars burning a hole in your pocket?” Andrew Blackman, the Wall Street Journal
Not since the conquistadors discovered Potosí, Bolivia’s famed silver-ore mountain and “Cerro Rico”, has anyone known the answer to the question Blackman rhetorically posed this week. But with the data-cruncher Prequin estimating that private-equity firms now hold $1.141 trillion in investible funds, the managed-investment arm of the financial-services industry seems to have a fair idea.
June 19 – Didier Droga has already proved he should never be written off as Ivory Coast carry a continent’s hopes. Uruguay and England, Japan and Greece are must-win face-offs.
Let’s be realistic. Not many of us expected for one moment that one of the greatest dynasties to grace the game would actually be able to clinch an unprecedented fourth straight major crown.
After all, no European country has ever won the World Cup on South American soil. And not since 1962 had the reigning world champions retained the title.
But by the same token, few believed that the reign of Spain would come to such a shuddering halt before the end of the first week –
June 18: With the first round of group games complete, round two brings a series of make or break games. Croatia need to pull their socks up (and put their clothes on), Spain can expect a spicy contest with Chile, and the Aussies will need to show a lot more than their much trumpeted fighting spirit against high flying Dutch.