The 2011 Womens World Cup Final: USA 2-2 Japan (Japan Win On Penalties)
It started slowly, before rising to a beautiful tumult and ended with a penalty shoot-out which ended in a victory for the team of the aesthetes. And then, on top...
Posts Tagged: "United States of America"
The 2011 Womens World Cup: A Possible Revolutionary Encounter
Back in 1950, Harry Keough perhaps summarised best the general attitude toward the quality of the American game that might still hold true in some quarters of the international football...
World Cup 2010: United States 1-2 Ghana (aet)
When Ghana becamse independent in 1957, the first of the wave of sub-Saharan countries to do so in that period, there's a nice story about then Vice-President Richard Nixon attending...
The United States Of America And The 2010 World Cup
It was a small point that was rather overlooked in the hysteria that followed England’s 1-0 win against Slovenia in their final group match on Wednesday afternoon but, in the...
World Cup 2010: The United States Of America 1-0 Algeria
This match isn’t, as Gary Lineker insists twice, just for “you Americans and Algerians.” England’s struggles to date have turned this into a tight group where three teams need a...
World Cup 2010: Slovenia 2-2 United States of America
I’ve seen both of these nations in major competitions. As you may have noticed from the Slovenia-Algeria report, I saw the Slovenians at Euro 2000. The USA however, were one...
World Cup 2010: England 1-1 USA
Okay, let's get it out the way first up: Robert Green. He had only one save to make in that first half, when Clint Dempsey hit - or in truth...
World Cup Tales: Colombia 1986 – The World Cup That Never Was
The upcoming World Cup will the first to take place in the entire continent of Africa but there are several countries that have already held the tournament more that once,...
World Cup Tales: The Miracle Of Belo Horizonte, 1950
When the draw for the 2010 World Cup finals was made in December of last year, the British press went into a depressingly familiar mode in their dismissal of their...
World Cup Preview: Group C
The 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off in six weeks today, close enough that you can start to hear the vuvuzelas. Continuing his preview of this summer (winter)'s events,...
Good Hosts and Bad Hosts
Until someone figures out how to astroturf the moon and stop the corner flags floating away, all major sporting events have to take place somewhere. And when you have...
The World Cup Of National Anthems (Part Two)
For many people, major sports tournaments are the only occasion that national anthems are heard. These peculiar tunes have become a genre of their own, transcending the mere hymns that...
The England World Cup Madness Starts… Here & Over There
The hype machine will run into overdrive over the next few months or so and there is nothing that anyone can do about it, apart from gently remind the watching...
The Confederations Cup: Brazil 3-2 USA
The Brazilian coach Dunga’s name translates as “Dopey” in Portuguese, but this soubriquet could have applied to his entire team this evening as the South American champions rode their luck...
The Confederations Cup: Spain 0-2 USA
Yes, yes, yes. Spain had an off night. It has been a long season and their players may have been tired. And so on. Let’s drop the excuses, here. Spain,...
The Confederations Cup: USA 0-3 Brazil
The problem with the Confederations Cup, aside from those bloody, bloody, bloody vuvuzela air horns, is that it brings about more mismatches (in terms of quality) than even the World...
The Confederations Cup: Italy 3-1 USA
It starts off as a low whining sound. You turn the sound down on the television wondering whether the washing machine is playing up or whether the cat is ill,...
The Confederations Cup – A (Very) Rough Guide
For some people, the end of the football season in years that end with odd numbers means a return to the real world. For two and a half months they...
England vs USA – Live!
Ah, international friendlies. I’m not altogether certain what the point of this evening’s match actually is. A week after Manchester United and Chelsea slugged out their Battle Royale in Moscow,...
Czech Mate
Czech 0-2 Italy / Ghana 2-1 USA You have to respect the Italian fans. They’re the only set of fans in the whole of the World Cup that are even...