Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
James Eastham assesses public recrimination and media reaction following a campaign that left even the pessimists disappointed
As France manager Raymond Domenech and his players sloped home from their disastrous World Cup campaign to face the biggest communal ear-bashing since somebody suggested abolishing the 35-hour week, the media lined up to take pot shots at a squad whose downfall was anything but a shock.
Central Berlin seemed an excellent place to take in a successful World Cup for Germany. Not so simple, as Karsten Blaas explains
German Team Let Their Fans Down read a headline two days after the semi-final against Spain. It wasn’t the 1-0 defeat by the future world champions that had caused outrage but the news that the players had gone on holiday after returning home rather than showing up on the so-called Fan Mile in Berlin to celebrate their successful campaign.
An anti-climatic exit, injured star player and end of an era – the next World Cup hosts need to improve. Robert Shaw explains
Brazilians don’t anticipate winning every World Cup. But they do at least expect to bask in their technical superiority until a defensive howler denies the assumed divine right to be world champions. Frustration at losing to Holland – opponents overcome in 1994 and 1998 – was compounded by the sense that the Dutch posed the biggest hurdle to Brazil’s fourth final appearance in five World Cups.
At the 2010 World Cup, England underperformed at a major tournament. Again. Although the same solutions are called for, nothing seems to change
All the stock phrases came out as England staggered through the group stage at the 2010 World Cup en route to a second-round mercy killing in Bloemfontein. The team just needed to step up, the pundits said, play at their best, find their real form. However limp the performances might be, there is still a belief than an England team should be able to compete on equal terms with the best international sides at any given time.
Tub-thumping one minute, critical the next. The English press switches from swagger to insecurity
Wayne Rooney proved irresistible to the tabloids during the World Cup, with his features grafted onto a striking variety of cartoon characters, superheroes, animals and members of the Beatles. When not coloured green and depicted as Shrek, Wayne was gurning menacingly in front of a St George’s cross. Such excesses nothwithstanding, the tone of the England coverage was distinctly different to recent tournaments, albeit not until the games had started.