“‘When you win the World Cup, you start to become a legend — for the people around the world, you are different.’ For Fabio Cannavaro, this legendary status was hard earned. At just 5 foot 9 inches tall, he wasn’t built to be the world’s greatest center back. And he certainly never expected to be named the world’s best player.” CNN
“World Cups are never just about what transpires on the field. When the 2014 soccer World Cup kicks off in Brazil on June 12, tens of thousands of Brazilians will likely protest, angered by the wasteful government spending that has led up to the tournament. What better platform to make a statement than one watched by billions around the planet? Soccer’s unchallenged place in the global imagination also means that what happens on the field carries special resonance. The goals scored aren’t just markers of sporting success: they are moments of national glory and humiliation, acts of cultural expression and political defiance. World Cup goals can change history. Here are 20 that did.” Washington Post (Video)
“There is a point of view among some soccer fans that the sport is unassailably other. I assume that since I used the word ‘soccer’ in the first sentence, those fans are gone now, and I can talk to the rest of you. Because here’s the thing: The idea that the ineffable foreignness of soccer is best left to continents like Europe and South America — because all us Yanks will do is take away its beauty, what with our ‘stats’ and ‘analysis’ — is no more than a steaming pile of merde. All those things that go on around the game don’t make it fundamentally different from other sports. It’s an athletic competition, and as such, it has certain things in common with every other type of athletic competition.” Grantland (Video)
“If you’ve followed the International football scene for the past few months leading up to the World Cup, you would have learnt how certain experts & pundits have touted Belgium as the real dark horses of the tournament; many have stated how this current crop of players is the golden generation of Belgian football, and we agree. As the months went on, many caught on to the Belgium dark-horses bandwagon, so much so that nearly every football enthusiast now thinks Belgium are the dark-horses for the tournament. Let’s go back a little.” Outside of the Boot
“In Cameroon’s biggest city, Douala, we name streets and squares for the alcohol and sex trade (rue de la Joie), for corruption (Carrefour des Trois Voleurs, or Junction of the Three Robbers, for three officials who used public funds to build houses in the area), for violent deaths and footballers. All these names are unofficial. The only official names are those of the colonisers. Carrefour Eto’o Fils, the junction named for our striker and captain Samuel Eto’o, is in New Bell, the populous quartier where he was born. It is a few blocks from Place Roger Milla and Carrefour Thomas Nkono, named for past footballers. New Bell is Cameroon’s Soweto – revolutions begin here.” FT
“Not everything that Michel Sablon writes down goes to plan. At Italia 90, Sablon was part of Belgium’s coaching staff, and a couple of minutes before the end of extra time in their last-16 match against England, he compiled a list of the penalty-takers. He had just finished scribbling the names when David Platt, in one of those iconic World Cup moments, spectacularly hooked the ball past Michel Preud’homme.” Guardian
“It’s disappointing, though not terribly surprising, that this is how Jonathan Clegg begins his jeremiad against American soccer fans, published in the Wall Street Journal Thursday night: ‘Growing up as a soccer fan in England…’ Here we go. To lend credibility to the screed that follows, Clegg reminds us that his English upbringing allows him to understand the sport in a way that Americans never will: ‘I’ve witnessed my fair share of horrors. I’ve seen shocking acts of violence, overheard hundreds of abusive chants and watched Pelé retire to sell erectile dysfunction pills.’ He’s seen things. Clegg’s nod to his nationality also gives away his real reason for writing, the familiar hipster lament: he liked soccer (football) before it was cool, and now these neophytes are ruining everything.” New Republic
“Love them or hate them, you certainly cannot ignore referees, the individuals who arguably, have the greatest influence on the outcome of a football match. It’s with that in mind that Sports Interaction has provided what they call the ultimate analysis of the men in black for this tournament. The exhaustive piece of research analyses the performances in international matches of all the World Cup referees and identifies those to avoid if, like Raheem Sterling, you might be prone to the occasional rush of blood to the head.” World Soccer
“MOST people associate FIFA, the organization that oversees international soccer, with the quadrennial joy of the World Cup. But as the 2014 tournament begins next week in Brazil, FIFA is plagued by levels of corruption, graft and excess that would shame Silvio Berlusconi. Despite the palatial estates, private planes and pompous airs of FIFA’s current leaders, the organization actually has quite humble origins. FIFA was founded in 1904 in Paris as a simple rule-making committee that aimed to regulate the guidelines for a new, rapidly expanding sport when played between nations.” NYT – Opinion
Thiago Silva
“Major international tournaments are generally underwhelming in terms of attacking football, with managers preferring to play cautiously, keep it tight at the back and then spring quick counter-attacks. This approach, which we can expect at the 2014 World Cup, has delivered more cautious, subtle defending — to the point where some may question where all the highlight-reel worthy tackles among centre-backs have gone.” ESPN – Michael Cox
“Jack Keane is recalling the days when he’d be threatened with physical violence for televising football in New York City. How dare you show that shit? shouted an instigator, some drunk East Village punk who was offended at the sight of the game. Don’t you know where you fucking are? ‘He grabbed me by the collar over the bar,’ Keane remembers. ‘He didn’t like me much, I’ll tell you that.’ This was the mid-’90s, when Manhattan’s East Village still had an extra layer of Giuliani-era grit to it and Nevada Smiths, the bar on Third Avenue that Keane ran, was the only place in town showing European football. ‘It was a completely different neighborhood,’ he says. ‘Filled with fucking crazy people. Cars being broken into, drug deals on the streets. It was a different era.’” 8 of 8
“It’s the question Edin Dzeko is constantly asked. ‘You ask me again about war…’ sighs the 28-year-old, rolling his eyes and smiling as he enjoys a rare moment of peace outside Bosnia-Herzegovina’s team hotel in the picturesque suburb of Ilidza. Perhaps the line of questioning is understandable given that just a short drive away is Dzeko’s home city of Sarajevo, where the national hero lived throughout the Bosnian War which raged between 1992 and 1995.” CNN
“What is a legend? Does winning define a legend? Building on the above questions, what would an individual’s first thoughts be when he thinks about a World Cup Legend? The first images that flash by the mind are those depicting the player raising the illustrious WC Trophy in his hands. Obvious logic takes over when categorizing a player as a World Cup legend, he has to have won a World Cup trophy. History however has shown the world exemplary examples of individuals standing up and being greater than life.” Outside of the Boot
Darijo Srna, Croatia
“Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup’s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to take on a team that has won the World Cup a record five times—and is this year’s favorite—before nearly 70,000 people in São Paulo’s brand new Itaquerao stadium. The game is the first World Cup match to take place in Brazil since 1950, when the country last hosted the event. Brazil was the favorite that year, too, but it lost in the final in a shocking upset to Uruguay—and the country has never forgotten it.” The Paris Review
“Ten years ago the England football team played a friendly in Portugal. Afterwards I shared a taxi with some England fans. We chatted about the game. Then one of them asked: ‘What was the score, then?’ This man must have spent hundreds of pounds coming to Portugal to see the match. It begged the question: why are people football fans? Why will the coming World Cup be the biggest media event in history, measured by the numbers of TV viewers and clicks on websites? Football seems to give people something they can’t get elsewhere.” FT – Simon Kuper
“There’s always something of a novelty about a new nation qualifying for the World Cup. This time, the sole debutants are Bosnia-Herzegovina, who reached the Promised Land by topping Group G in UEFA Qualifying, ahead of Greece on goal difference. Bosnia, who have only been a member of FIFA since 1996, topped their group and thus avoided the dreaded play-offs, where they were narrowly defeated by Portugal prior to the last tournament in South Africa. For a small country with a population of under four million, it is a colossal achievement, especially considering that, twenty years ago, the nation was embroiled in a long, bloody civil war, with its roots deeply entrenched in complex ethnic divides.” backpagefootball
“The World Cup starts in less than a week and, great and all as it is, some of the shine is taken off the tournament when your own nation isn’t involved. Ireland have only been to three World Cups but managed to create enough memories to last a life time. Here’s a look at the five best and worst moments from 1990, 1994 and 2002.” backpagefootball (Video)
“Most mornings it’s the same. At the breakfast table Uruguayan-born author, Eduardo Galeano, 72, and his wife, Helena Villagra, discuss their dreams from the night before. ‘Mine are always stupid,’ says Galeano. ‘Usually I don’t remember them and when I do, they are about silly things like missing planes and bureaucratic troubles. But my wife has these beautiful dreams.’ One night she dreamt they were at an airport where all the passengers were carrying the pillows they had slept on the night before. Before they could board officials would run their pillows into a machine that would extract the dreams from the night before and make sure there was nothing subversive in them. When she told him he was embarrassed about the banality of his own. ‘It’s shaming, really.’ There is not much magical about Galeano’s realism. But there is nothing shaming in it either. This septuagenarian journalist turned author has become the poet laureate of the anti-globalisation movement by adding a laconic, poetic voice to non-fiction.” Guardian
“The United States has drawn one tough World Cup group, which includes Germany (currently the second-ranked team in the world), Portugal (ranked third) and Ghana (38th). (In the October rankings used for the Dec. 6 draw, Portugal was ranked 14th and Ghana 23rd.) That much is known. But here is something many fans don’t know: The difficulty of the United States’ group is not merely a byproduct of bad luck. It’s a perfectly normal outcome from the selection rules created by FIFA, soccer’s governing body.” NY Times
“If you talk with Germans about Jürgen Klinsmann’s ill-fated stint as the coach of F.C. Bayern Munich, it’s only a matter of time until they bring up the matter of the Buddha statues. After arriving in July of 2008 at Bayern—the free-spending New York Yankees-style hegemon of the German soccer league—Klinsmann’s first intervention was to personally oversee an overhaul of the team’s training center. The local press openly wondered whether the movie theatre, the so-called ‘quiet room,’ and the high-end d.j. console that he installed had much, if anything, to do with soccer, but they seemed willing to give Klinsmann the benefit of the doubt.” New Yorker
“Chile is once again rallying around the miners who were rescued after being trapped underground for 69 days. However, this time, the 32 men who survived the mining accident are not asking for food or prayers, but rather for support for the country’s soccer team as it heads into this year’s World Cup. And ’32 men’ is not a typo. Thirty-three workers were rescued; however, one of them was from Bolivia and is not featured in a new commercial from Banco de Chile. The bank is an official sponsor of the Chilean team and published its new commercial on YouTube on May 27.” Yahoo (Video)
“You join us for the inaugral Guardian World Cup of World Cup songs. The idea is simple, we’ll put each country’s World Cup song up against each other and you, the reader, can vote on which should go through to the next round. We’ll hopefully end up with a final that will lead us to this year’s best/least worst World Cup song.” Guardian (Video)
“The editor of The Blizzard football magazine and author of multiple books about football including, Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid and Anatomy of England.” Club Med – Jonathan Wilson
Marc Wilmots
“Style & formation: Belgium gave a series of controlled and powerful displays throughout qualifying. Disciplined defensively, they are prepared to be patient but look to break with pace. A feature of their usual 4-2-3-1 system is the frequent positional interchanging between the three attacking midfielders.” BBC – Belgium, Algeria, Russia, South Korea
“A fascinating piece of data emerged from the Confederations Cup – the player who committed the most fouls in the tournament was Brazil striker Neymar. The 22-year-old – also the most fouled player – committed 17 infringements during the 2013 competition, closely followed by team-mate Oscar (14). That Neymar was the most fouled player will come as no surprise, for two reasons. Neymar, who joined Barcelona from Santos last summer for £48.6m, is a wonderfully talented dribbler, superbly balanced and capable of changing direction at pace. On form, he is a defender’s nightmare.” BBC – Tim Vickery
“Saturday’s friendly against Ivory Coast brought a 2-1 win for Bosnia-Herzegovina, two more goals for Edin Dzeko, a glimpse of how they could play without two strikers and perhaps a resolution to the ongoing question at the back of midfield, but the overwhelming conclusion from St Louis, Missouri, was that Ivory Coast are a shambles and need a major improvement over the next 10 days if they are not to go out of the World Cup in the group stage for the third tournament in a row.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
“The year is 2010. The La Liga offseason. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is grappling with his late-season outburst at Barça manager Pep Guardiola — and plotting his way out of one of the most storied clubs in European Football. What follows is an exclusive excerpt from I Am Zlatan, on sale this week from Random House.” Grantland
“The final post of a very enjoyable 2013/14 domestic campaign – the usual XI (and back-ups) of the season. Usual team-by-team previews of this summer’s World Cup contest will commence shortly…” Zonal Marking (Video)
“The poet laureate of soccer in the United States is not an American. ESPN’s Ian Darke was born on the south coast of England in the naval port town of Portsmouth and since he landed on American shores fulltime for the 2010 World Cup, his soccer calls have thrilled the American public with the most famous being his description of Landon Donovan’s injury-time game-winner against Algeria during that tournament.” SI
“Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has finally released his 23 man squad for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil. However, his decision to omit Fiorentina star, Giuseppe Rossi, has come into heavy scrutiny. After being forced to drop Riccardo Montolivo due to injury in their friendly game against Ireland, Prandelli finalised the team, and the exclusion of strikers Giuseppe Rossi and Mattia Destro was a surprise to the footballing world. However, the exclusion is easy to judge as incorrect, in particular in Rossi’s sake, but when you look at the facts, Rossi and Destro’s sacrifices may have been necessary for the balance of the team.” Outside of the Boot
“Style & formation: Blessed with far more flair than many Germany sides of the past, their fluid 4-2-3-1 is underpinned by Bastian Schweinsteiger and the currently injured Sami Khedira anchoring the side from the base of midfield. Ahead of them lies creative fulcrum Mesut Ozil, who is usually flanked by the dangerous Marco Reus and Thomas Muller.” BBC – Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA
“1. THE ‘SHOT’ THAT STARTED IT ALL. In November 1989, the week-long training camp before the most important U.S. soccer game in 40 years was the usual no-frills affair. In the days before cell phones and the Internet, the U.S. players slept two to a dorm room in Cocoa Beach, Fla., and shared a single pay phone among all of them to call home. But they did have basic televisions in each small unit, and one night defender Paul Caligiuri was sitting on the floor when his roommate, goalkeeper Tony Meola, commandeered the couch and started flipping through channels looking for a show to watch. Their talk turned to the game they would play two days later in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, a World Cup qualifier that bore the highest of stakes. To clinch the U.S.’s first World Cup berth since 1950, the Americans had to win on the road against a team that had not lost at home during the qualifying campaign. If the U.S. tied or lost, tiny T&T would end up grabbing the first World Cup spot in the nation’s history.” SI
“Each World Cup brings its own trends: no defending in 1954, bendy long-range goals in 1978, thinking a crowd wave was both fun and original at Mexico 86. This summer we’re in the country with the image rights to the overhead kick. It’s the kind of acrobatics beloved of commentators and pundits, easily commodifiable as the ‘toughest skill in the game’. But try a backwards header. Atlético Madrid’s last goal of 2013-14, in the Champions League final, was scored like this by Diego Godín. Arguably the best ever headed goal was a reverse effort at the 2002 finals.” WSC (Video)
“A man arrived at the police station here in 2011 with an unusual tip. He told the police that a Singaporean man was fixing matches with the local professional soccer team. The police were incredulous. This city on the Arctic Circle is known as the hometown of Santa Claus. It boasts a theme park with reindeer, elves and jolly St. Nicks. It is also a popular destination for Asian couples looking to make love under the Northern Lights. Rovaniemi is known for many things, but not for organized crime.” NY Times – Part 1, NY Times – Part 2
“PSV’s Memphis Depay was confirmed in Louis van Gaal’s Netherlands squad for the World Cup earlier today, and is part of this year’s The 100. In this two-parter by adidas Football in partnership with Copa90, Depay and the people around him tell the story of a remarkable young player from his childhood in Moordrecht to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.” In Bed With Maradona (Video)
“It looks as if centre-back Dante will get a game when Brazil take on Panama in Tuesday’s warm-up match. Captain Thiago Silva is carrying a knock, and is likely to be rested. Otherwise, the team picks itself. All week, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has been training with the same lineup that won the Confederations Cup. In subsequent friendlies, Scolari has looked at variations here and there, and tested out reserve players. But that same starting eleven has been in his mind for a year now.” ESPN – Tim Vickery
“Style & formation: Argentina often fielded a bold 4-3-3 formation in qualifying, although a more conservative 5-3-2 was deployed for tricky away fixtures. The former system allows Lionel Messi to play as a classic number 10 behind two strikers – typically Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain – who stretch play. But with Angel Di Maria deployed as part of a midfield three, the formation offers little defensive protection.” BBC – Argentina, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Iran, Nigeria
World Cup 2014 Tactics: How will Argentina set-up at the 2014 FIFA World Cup?
“The two-time winners topped the South American qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and, as ever, will go into the tournament as one of the favourites. An Albiceleste victory on Brazilian soil would be the perfect way to rub salt into the wounds of the hosts and Alejandro Sabella’s men will be desperate to repeat the feats of ’78 and ’86.” Outside of the Boot
“No World Cup would be complete without a heavy helping of missed hand balls, blown offsides calls, unpunished loogie-hocking, and sharp, flying elbows. This year will be no different: FIFA recently released the list of referees who will be officiating the tournament and, because all referees make mistakes and they’re usually shown on television, we were able to find several highlight reel-worthy howlers. Here, in no particular order, are some of their greatest hits.” Fosion (Video)
“The coaches of the World Cup are more invested in the outcome of the match than almost anyone else on the planet. Players return to their league club between national-team matches—coaches don’t. They simply grit their teeth and bear the weight that comes with carrying an entire country’s sporting expectations on their shoulders. ‘Your biggest question before you take the job is not, do you put them 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1,’ Slaven Bilic, the former coach of the Croatian national soccer team, said, referencing different soccer formations. ‘The biggest question is, can you cope with the pressure?’ One of the great World Cup coaches of all time was César Luis Menotti, the manager of the 1978 Argentina championship team. El Flaco, or “the thin one,” as he was known, had a long flop of side-parted dark hair and thick sideburns, and he routinely used nicotine to help him cope with the pressure—he was rarely seen without a cigarette.” The Paris Review
“VEDAD IBISEVIC ACCELERATES his black Mercedes-Benz into Stuttgart traffic, almost outrunning the memory of his family crammed into an overcrowded bus, fleeing another home. His memories are always there, exerting both lift and drag. Today he is a star striker in the German Bundesliga. Twenty-two years ago, in a four-month period, the following things happened to him and his Bosnian family: Serb neighbors invaded his mother’s village, Pijuke, and called out familiar names on a bullhorn, promising that no one would be hurt. They murdered everyone who emerged. The ethnic-cleansing militia tortured and killed as many Muslims as they could find, burning down every house. They split his grandfather’s head open and carved a cross into the chest of a local shop owner, a man who kept chocolate in his store for children like Vedad. Eleven of the estimated 100,000 killed in the Bosnian civil war died on May 8, 1992, in a little town surrounded by rolling green hills and grazing white sheep.” ESPN (Video)
“1. 204 and counting. ‘All you need to do is walk 50 yards, take a penalty and score,’ wrote former England defender Stuart Pearce in his autobiography, but it is not always so easy. Of the 204 shootout penalties at World Cups, 60 have been saved or missed and Italy’s talisman Roberto Baggio said his penalty failure in the 1994 final affected him for years. Often cruel, always captivating and for some the precursor to huge celebrations, the first shootout took place on 8 July 1982 when West Germany defeated France 5-4 in a semi-final in Spain. Since then penalty shootouts have decided two finals and become a source of huge debate, with Baggio himself arguing that he will never accept a defeat on penalties. …” BBC
“The ubiquity of televised football over the past two decades has resulted in foreign teams losing the sense of exoticism they carried in the 1970s and 1980s. It would be impossible now for players such as Teofilo Cubillas and Roger Milla to sneak under the radar and take the World Cup by storm. The increased knowledge of football outside of British shores has resulted in an unstoppable influx of foreign players into the Premier League. Most of these signings are undoubtedly based on months of careful scouting, however, when the World Cup comes round, it can be tempting for managers to take a punt on the talent on show, even if it is only exhibited over three games against often mediocre opposition. These ten players are examples of why it is perhaps a little foolish to judge on the basis of tournament performance alone.” backpagefootball
“It must be strange for people who are used to see Brazilians as a smiley and youthful nation, proud of its country’s sporting exploits, to learn that most of them are hating to host the Olympics and the World Cup. While the costs are astronomical and no one knows for sure who actually benefits from these soulless mega-events centred on big business, very few countries get the privilege of hosting them and doing so usually is a matter of big national pride. Brazil seems to be an exception, and the question that comes to mind is why. Ask the average Brazilian and he will give you the standard answer: The anger is because the government decided to throw money on these useless events instead of investing in hospitals, schools and infrastructure.” Lost Sambista
Beyond samba, sex and soccer: The World Cup riots in Brazil
“Only 22 years old, the footballer known simply as ‘Neymar’ is far more than the ‘face of Brazilian soccer’. Since donning the iconic, canary yellow and blue kit for the first time, Neymar has sidestepped defenders as if dancing the samba, and raced up and down the pitch with the cavalier and carnival spirit definitive of Brazilian football. As Neymar sprints into his prime, Brazil is primed to host its first World Cup in 64 years. This year’s tournament, furnishes the Brazilian government with a rare opportunity to showcase its greatest export on its home soil. Brazil and football are synonymous: A conflation the state has engineered to carry forward its policies inside and outside of the country. Its iconic lineage of soccer stars, starting with Pele and ending with Neymar, provide the state with single-named ambassadors known and loved all over the world.” Aljazeera
Brazil’s evicted ‘won’t celebrate World Cup’
“Every four years, Brazilians decorate their streets in green and yellow, celebrating the arrival of the most anticipated sports tournament in the country. With the kick-off for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil less than one month away, the country’s passion for football should be pulsating more than ever. But there are some signs to the contrary. ‘World Cup for whom?’ read the words painted on a wall on a street in Sao Paulo. Many in Brazil’s middle class are unhappy with the effects the World Cup has already had on their lives. The cost of living has risen in the cities hosting the games, traffic jams have worsened, and a construction boom aimed at improving urban mobility has only compounded problems, they say.” Aljazeera
Eric Cantona: Fifa’s corruption divides Brazilian football from its roots
“It will surprise precisely no one who has taken even a passing interest in his life and career, but Eric Cantona is no great fan of football’s governing bodies. Having recently returned from Rio de Janeiro, where he has been making a documentary about Brazilian football and politics that will receive its UK premiere at Amnesty International’s Sidelines film festival next month, he has a jaundiced view of Fifa’s modus operandi.” Guardian (Video)
Police Repression of Indigenous Protest Against Brasil’s World Cup
“Hundreds of indigenous people and thousands of supporters peacefully marched towards the National Mane Garrincha Stadium in protest of the upcoming World Cup in an effort to block the roads. They were met by riot police and Military Cavalry Police of the Federal District on the afternoon of Tuesday the 27th. The demonstration, which had the support of hundreds of Indians left the Pilot Road, but was surrounded by police personnel about 100 meters from the arena to receive seven games of the World Cup 2014. Police blocked the march and soon were using tear gas, sound grenades and rubber bullets on people to violently disperse the protest march.” Revolution News!
Brazil Is Tired of Being Scolded
“By now, Brazil should probably have been grounded for life, without video games or dessert. Last month, a vice president of the International Olympic Committee, John Coates, said that Rio de Janeiro’s preparations for the 2016 Summer Olympics were the worst he had ever seen. Before that, Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA — the International Federation of Association Football — claimed that Brazil was further behind in its preparations for this summer’s World Cup than any previous host nation, even though it had had seven full years to prepare. Then, in March, FIFA’s secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, declared we could risk being ‘the worst organizers’ of the ‘worst event.’ He had previously said that Brazil needed “a kick up the backside.” Well, that was harsh.” NYT: The Opinion Pages
“The economists at Goldman Sachs apparently can’t wait for the beginning of the World Cup next month. They issued a 60-page report — billed as ‘an unnatural mix of football and economics’ — with detailed analyses of each team and a forecast for outcome of the tournament. Now we know what they’ll be doing once the matches begin in Brazil. Brazil, the host country, is strongly favored to win the championship, according to Goldman’s predictions. These predictions are derived from a formula that estimates the number of goals a team is likely to score in a game based on its past performance as well as on a few other factors, such as whether the team is playing at home. Brazil’s home-field advantage is a major reason why Goldman expects it to do so well.” Washington Post
“Žilina, Slovakia, September 2013. Slovakia’s third largest city is close to the Low Tatras Mountains, the natural border with Poland. The cold wind and rain hint at snow and winter’s early arrival. On the pitch, the Bosnia national football team is training in silence ahead of their next World Cup qualifier against Slovakia in 24 hours’ time. Their coach, Safet Sušić, buried deep in a thermal jacket and hood, is being soaked by a nagging drizzle. The 50 or so Bosnian journalists watching in the stands shuffle their feet and chain-smoke to keep warm. But they, too, watch in silence. No one – not the players, the coach or the journalists – looks as if they want to be here. Which is strange. Bosnia are currently top of Group G in World Cup qualification.” CNN – James Montague
“Obsession often brings joy and sorrow in equal measure. Inside that thin, shiny packet giving off a mystical glow sits five stickers — five faces of five men whose very presence can turn lives upside down. Welcome to the world of World Cup sticker collecting. … While most relationships survive the sticker phase, Blazer is not alone in his infatuation with the shiny adhesives which smile back at those dreaming of the holy grail — the full sticker album. Some are relentless in their pursuit of that holy grail, setting up spreadsheets and even calling in their spouse to increase the odds of successful swapping.” CNN
“Style & formation: Switzerland’s perfectly-timed rise to become one of the seeded nations for the World Cup is founded on a resilient defence, with two central midfielders shielding the back four. Nonetheless, coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has responded to previous criticism of his defensive tactics and rigid 4-4-2 formation by integrating creative young players into a 4-2-3-1 line-up well suited to a counter-attacking approach.” BBC – Switzerland, Ecuador, French, Hondurans
“Beginning in 1938, when Brazil sent its first integrated team to the World Cup, the players chosen to represent the Seleçao have also represented the country in terms of its ethnic, social, and religious makeup. The current crop of stars still mirror changes to Brazilian society, but in certain ways they have also come to represent the country’s upper class—the very target of Brazilian protestors.” Fusion
“A lot of Nigerian’s ply their trade in Europe. Do you think that doing so brings them an unfair share of attention, and hence greater chances of selection? Or is their experience in Europe deserving of a spot in the World Cup squad? The truth is that playing in Europe will more often than not give you a better chance of catching the attention of the national selectors. This has been more the rule than the exception over the years. However, coach Stephen Keshi has been bold enough in his three years in charge to give players from the domestic league a more decent run in his team so much so that the home-based players are no longer just mere ‘training materials’.” Outside of the Boot
“Before Brazil and Croatia play the first game of the 2014 World Cup on June 12, a paralyzed person will stand and walk on the pitch, then kick a ball. This is the story of the Brazilian neuroscientists who developed the mind-controlled exoskeleton that will make it possible.” Grantland
“I’ve drunk too much coffee. I do this every time. It’s forty-five minutes to kickoff and I’ve got nothing to do with my hands, and so I drink another cup. I’ve got nowhere to put my body. I am not at a bar. I am certainly not at the stadium. I’m not even with my friends. I am sitting, and now standing, and now pacing, and now sitting again, in my apartment. It is a half-hour to kickoff. I am chewing the inside of my cheek. Fifteen minutes. I wish someone would bring me a beer. They’re playing the national anthems. Time to shut the window, set the phone to silent. Someone, somehow, please grant me some other passion. This one is wearing me out. Quiet, please. I am a soccer fan.” Roads and Kingdoms
“BEFORE GETTING TO the alleged mob hit or the mystery of the missing referee, there should be an explanation about how this quest began. An assigned profile of Luis Suarez led to a stack of things to read about his past. Whether it was a tabloid calling him Cannibal! or The New York Times calling him Luis Alberto Suarez Diaz, the portrait is of a cheat and a lunatic. If someone breathes on him near the goal, he falls down like he’s been knifed. He has bitten an opponent. Twice. And, back in his childhood in Uruguay, there’s an oft-reported incident that serves as explanation, or maybe proof, that he is, in fact, batshit crazy. When Suarez was 15, overcome with anger, he headbutted a referee and received a red card in a youth match, making the man’s nose bleed ‘like a cow,’ as a witness said.” ESPN (Video)
“The biggest threat to the World Cup is not Brazilian protestors, FIFA greed, or shoddy infrastructure—it’s women, at least according to the English press The wives and girlfriends of the world’s elite soccer players are about to descend on Brazil, eyes asparkle with the unmistakable glint of women plotting to destroy something we menfolk hold dear. The tabloids of Great Britain will cover these ladies as though they’re the ones down on the field, losing for England. And the tabloids are on the right track, because the WAGs constitute a threat, not just to on-field performance but to the very survival of the game we love. Think about it: before the rise of WAG culture, was soccer beset by melodrama, vanity, copious materialism, TV money, egotism, financial bankruptcy, and exploitative labor practices? No.” Soccer Fusion
“Finals don’t often come down to pretty football, especially those that go into extra time. That doesn’t mean the tactical battles are any less compelling, as Real Madrid’s 4-1 win in the Champions League final over Atlético showed. Both managers made strange decisions in their starting lineups. Diego Costa, supposedly fit after his horse-placenta hamstring treatment, didn’t even last 10 minutes for Atlético, while Sami Khedira played a rather ineffective hour in just his third appearance for Real since recovering from a serious knee injury.” SI
Atlético reaches its breaking point as Real Madrid claims La Decima
“It turns out there was a breaking point for Diego Simeone’s magnificent Atlético Madrid side, and it came with 10 minutes of extra-time remaining. The club had won La Liga and was within two minutes of winning a first ever Champions League. Even after conceding to Sergio Ramos, there was still a chance it could cling on through extra-time for penalties, but once Gareth Bale had headed Real Madrid into the lead, it collapsed — physically and emotionally shattered. Marcelo’s late drive and Cristiano Ronaldo’s even later penalty added an unrepresentative one-sidedness to the scoreline, but there was no shame in defeat.” SI – Jonathan Wilson
Real Madrid 4-1 Atletico Madrid (aet): Tactical Analysis | Game changing substitutions from Carlo Ancelotti
“The Champions League is always a very exciting competition, but this season provided a few more edge of the seat encounters than most others. After a season of incredible football from many teams across Europe, we got to the final in Lisbon last night, which like almost every other game in this season, was exciting from start to finish. Atletico as always, worked had, fought till the end, and made things very difficult for the opposition, but at the end of the day, the sheer determination and energy from Real made the difference, as the Galacticos 2.0 made history by reaching La Decima.” Outside of the Boot
Sizing up the Real vs. Atletico tactical battle
“Big clubs have a nasty habit of ruining their little city rivals’ celebrations. When Everton finished above Liverpool for the first time in years back in 2005, beating them to the final Champions League spot, the Reds went out and won the European Cup. When Manchester City’s 35-year wait for a major trophy ended with their 2011 FA Cup final win, Manchester United clinched the Premier League title on the same day.” ESPN – Michael Cox
“For Andre Ayew to exhibit weariness when talking about his career is understandable, considering the status of his father — brilliant Marseille and Ghana attacking midfielder Abedi Pele. ‘What my father achieved in Ghana is huge,’ Ayew said. ‘He brought a lot to the country. I’m very proud of what he has done, but this doesn’t have any bearing on my game. Sometimes people may make useless comparisons. I suppose it’s normal, but I had to learn to live with that. Some people thought that maybe I would take the ball and dribble past ten players then score. There was a huge expectation.'” SI – Jonathan Wilson
“Colette, the ‘Grand Dame of French literature’, lived with fame and scandal throughout her life. The novelist and performer caused a riot at the Moulin Rouge in 1907 when she simulated sex with another woman on stage. She seduced her stepson when he was 16, telling him: ‘It’s time you became a man.’ She had three husbands, two messy divorces and a string of lovers, both male and female. In 1924, when Paris hosted the Olympic Games, Colette met, and was captivated by, one of its participants: José Leandro Andrade. Their upbringings could not have been more different: Andrade was a Uruguayan footballer who had slept on a dirt floor in his childhood and spent little time at school. But Colette was not the only famous Frenchwoman smitten by Andrade.” Guardian
“Brazil’s national team has started its World Cup preparations amid protests in Rio de Janeiro. A bus bus carrying the players to its hilltop training camp was surrounded by striking teachers chanting slogans against the tournament. Later, upon arriving at Granja Comary, players were greeted by fans – and more protesters. Thousands of people have protested against the cost of staging the tournament beginning next month.” BBC
“How can defenders like Spain’s Sergio Ramos even hope to shut out the world-class strikers they’ll see in Brazil? It all starts at training camp with a clear strategy and a willing body double. Heading into the World Cup, most of the focus has been on the tournament’s large group of elite goal scorers: Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Suarez. All told, 14 goal mongers expected at this year’s Cup scored at least eight times in qualifying — and that doesn’t include the best from Brazil, which qualified automatically as host. But history shows it’s the team with the stingiest defense that hoists the trophy. Of the past five champions, all but one had the best goals-against average among the quarterfinalists. (Brazil was second to runner-up Germany in 2002.)” ESPN
“Elmo Cordeiro is 80 now, but he still stands ramrod-straight, with a ready smile and eyes that shine under a set of bushy gray eyebrows. It isn’t hard to turn back the clock and imagine him 64 years ago, his white hair a darker shade, his skin wrinkle-free, his compact frame darting around the edge of a soccer field chasing down errant balls. In 1950, Cordeiro was a ballboy at the Estádio Independência here in Belo Horizonte, Brazil—stationed yards away from the historic goal itself—for perhaps the most famous upset in the 84-year history of the World Cup.” SI (Video)
“So Landon Donovan is not going to the World Cup. We’ve had a night to reflect. Does it make sense yet? No. Yes. No, because he’s Landon Donovan. Yes, because he’s Jurgen Klinsmann. Klinsmann had always seemed to regard Donovan’s much-publicized sabbatical from the game with barely tolerant bemusement. The player himself may have believed he was back in the fold, after a typically Donovanesque Gold Cup, and his return to the team during late-stage World Cup qualifiers, but Klinsmann always maintained an equivocal cool. It was as if he were mulling over when, and how, to use the entire Donovan episode as a teachable moment. He chose the eve of the World Cup.” Grantland
Scissors Kick 