There’s 5 months left until England (and indeed all 32 World qualifiers) pick their final 23 man squad. This is possibly the worst time to suffer a drop in form and as we can see from these incidents the safest looking seats on the plane to the tournament can actually be ejector seats (not literally). Italia […]
Month: December 2017
Remembering England’s Euro Under 21s of 2009
With England currently flush with youth team trophies I’m writing a series of articles on successful England youth teams of the past and how far they went at senior level, starting with the most recent- Stuart Pearce’s Under 21s who made the European Championship final in 2009. England arrived in Sweden that summer with reasonable […]
World Cup Draw Review: Groups G & H
Group G: Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England So the nation whose golden generation have failed to live up to their immense individual talents have drawn a group with…England, the irony. Belgium will arrive in Russia for another shot at lighting up a major tournament, this isn’t this Belgian sides last chance but with Toby Alderweireld (aged […]
World Cup Draw Review: Groups E & F
Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia Just like every little boy who grows up loving cars loves Ferrari, every kid who loves football loves Brazil. But it’s a love that’s grown cold in recent years as a series of prosaic Brazilian sides have served up one dull World Cup campaign after another, when Brazil […]
World Cup Draw Review: Groups C & D
Part 2 of my look at the World Cup draw takes on Group’s C & D with contrasting fortunes for Argentina and France. Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark Didier Deschamps couldn’t have handpicked a better group for France than this one. France have more quality attacking players than any side in this tournament with […]
World Cup Draw Review: Groups A & B
On Thursday afternoon it finally begins- Footballs great and good will gather in Moscow for the World Cup opening ceremony. So whilst the strange national costumes are being ironed down in The Kremlin laundry room how do the groups actually look and who should make it to the knockout phase; Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, […]
World Cup Draw Reaction (Part 1)- England Suddenly Expects
It’s fair to say fate slipped Gareth Southgate an ace yesterday in The Kremlin. With the seeding system revised to reflect World Ranking rather than geographical location a repeat of the Uruguay- Italy- Costa Rica scenario from 2014 was never likely but this draw was pretty much everything England could have hoped for. Firstly they […]
World Cup Draw Countdown: The Groups of Death. Brazil 2014- Spain crash, Van Gaal entertains and Cahill’s corker
A final look back at the infamous groups of death from tournaments gone by. Brazil 2014- Spain, Holland, Chile, Australia How did it go? Defending champions Spain flew into Brazil on the back of a three-peat (Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, Euro 2012) and many were confidently predicting a quadruple with many of the same […]