Fans deserve better than the tripe spouted by commentators and managers

The football season usually begins with a clampdown of some sort, whether it's on dangerous tackles, player dissent or managers’ post-match criticism of referees. But a variety of comments made in relation to the game escape censure every year and it’s high time that their perpetrators were brought to book. There should be a moratorium on public whinging about there being "too many foreigners in the game", an observation especially popular among club chairmen whose own teams are packed with players from outside the UK.

Read more…

Josh Widdicombe knows how unattractive, overpaid and self-important England are, but he’s still going to support them

It was in the 20 or so minutes between Germany’s fourth goal and the full-time whistle that I decided I had finally had it with supporting England. It was the same decision I made four years ago – when defeat on penalties to Portugal finally opened my mind to the fact that England had been rubbish for the whole World Cup – but this time I told myself I definitely meant it. Maybe.

Read more…

Despite a respectable performance in South Africa some think the US could have achieved more. Ian Plenderleith explains why

When US coach Bob Bradley substituted Ricardo Clark 30 minutes into the team’s final World Cup game against Ghana, he whispered intensively into the player’s ear for several seconds before packing him off to the bench. As Clark’s sole contributions in his half hour had been to lose possession in the lead up to Ghana’s opening goal, and to receive a yellow card for an amateurish late tackle, there was much lively speculation about the words Bradley had directed towards the central midfielder.

Read more…

South America’s beaten semi-finalists were neither of the teams you might have expected. Sam Kelly reports

At around 10.30pm on Monday July 12, the Uruguayan World Cup squad touched down at Carrasco International Airport just outside Montevideo to a country which, when it bade them farewell, could scarcely have imagined the circumstances in which they’d return. World Cup semi-finalists? Uruguay? It’s not meant to happen in the 21st century, surely?

Read more…