Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
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.
The Mail on Sunday recklessly puts England's World Cup bid at risk and the press leap on a half-hearted scandal, forcing Lord Triesman to resign as FA chairman
Should you be held publicly accountable for every remark you’ve ever made during casual conversation? Yes, according to the Mail on Sunday, only in their world such remarks are “serious allegations” and having dinner with a former mistress constitutes a “meeting”. And having somehow reached those conclusions they unleashed yet another quintessentially English media scandal about nothing in particular.
John Chapman looks back on a highly successful season for Anderlecht
The long-term significance
This season was a highwater mark in Belgian football. Not only did Anderlecht retain the championship but they also reached the second group stage of the Champions League. In the decade since, no Belgian team has achieved anything like that in Europe. Unfortunately, success was a double-edged sword, as an exodus of players led to Anderlecht losing their way. Only recently are the club beginning to return to 2000-01 levels. Further down the table, promoted Antwerp finished 12th in the first of their two seasons in the top flight – this was the peak of their collaboration with Manchester United. The Old Trafford hierarchy had expected much more.
Simon Tyers watches ITV and Sky attempt to outdo each other in the calamity stakes as television football coverage slowly becomes a parody of itself
The comedic songwriter Tom Lehrer once said that satire died on the day that Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. Seeing Neil Ruddock cast as an expert on a show entitled England’s Worst Ever Football Team, I knew exactly how he felt. At the other end of the scale, ITV’s commentary is the satirical equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel.