From despair and frustration to hugs and flying beers for my dad and I after Lionel Messi struck in style right at the deathThe Argentinian radio journalist Alejandro Fantino shouted “We are a disaster” in the 89th minute. He was right. The match that …
Before things kicked off in Russia we asked you to reminisce about your favourite World Cups. You did not disappointThe Miracle of Bern. Germany weren’t meant to get very far. German players were all still technically amateurs. Hungary were the Goliath…
Wounds from 7-1 thrashing in 2014 semi-final have not healed and fans of Seleção are greatly relieved by Germany’s shock exitEvery day is a different 7-1. This is an expression that became popular in Brazil after 2014, to talk about daily problems or a…
Before kick-off in Russia, England squad members from each World Cup since 1998 reflect on key lessons to be learnedKnocked out in round of 16 Continue reading…
Random tales from the 1966 tournament that have absolutely nothing to do with Azerbaijani linesmen, Kenneth Wolstenholme or Pickles the Dog1. The branding for the 1966 Football World Championship for the Jules Rimet Trophy was all over the shop. But at…
The Azzurri’s controversial second-round defeat in Daejeon was just the start of a barely believable series of eventsFrancesco Janich felt the first tomato fly past his head. Drunk on cognac and disoriented by the darkness as he stumbled down onto the …
Hungary were unbeaten in four years. West Germany had no chance. Yet in the 1954 final the underdogs produced one of the great World Cup shocksThe rain was teeming down in Bern and Hungary were about to win the World Cup. Ferenc Puskas had put the Migh…
Italy should have seen off Haiti with ease in 1974 but the group game burst into life through the unheralded Emmanuel Sanon …The win-or-bust, tension-ratcheting final rounds of the World Cup allow memorable moments and dramatic sub-plots to breed like …
On 4 July 1998 the forward took three divine touches, scored the perfect goal and sent the Netherlands into the semi-finalsBobby Moore never got a bathmat wet in his life. Mike Summerbee, who sometimes shared a room with Moore on England trips, said he…
In 1938 Italy went to France and shrugged off protests and wild unpopularity to successfully defend their World Cup crownThe critical moment was … when our players raised their hands to give the fascist salute … I entered the stadium with our players, …
An own goal at USA 94 led to horrific ramifications for Colombia’s captain, who paid the heaviest of prices for the failings of society as much as his national teamLife doesn’t end here. We have to go on. Life cannot end here. No matter how difficult, …
François Omam-Biyik’s goal and an unheralded team of journeymen defeated Diego Maradona’s world championsOf the great World Cup upsets – the USA’s victory over England in 1950, North Korea’s over Italy in 1966 and Algeria’s over West Germany in 1982 pr…
Dividing teams into groups for a football tournament should be easy but nothing is ever simple when Fifa is in chargeBy Richard Foster for The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Guardian Sport NetworkGary Lineker has faced accusations of hypocrisy after cond…
Almost two-thirds of head collision incidents at the tournament were not followed by players being assessed on the sidelines by medical professionals
Head collisions experienced by footballers during the 2014 World Cup were not tackled according to Fifa’s own standards, research has revealed.
A team of doctors from Canada have found that after almost two-thirds of the head collision events that occurred during the tournament, the players involved did not receive an assessment on the sidelines by healthcare personnel.
Almost two-thirds of head collision incidents at the tournament were not followed by players being assessed on the sidelines by medical professionals
Head collisions experienced by footballers during the 2014 World Cup were not tackled according to Fifa’s own standards, research has revealed.
A team of doctors from Canada have found that after almost two-thirds of the head collision events that occurred during the tournament, the players involved did not receive an assessment on the sidelines by healthcare personnel.
Fifa must finally flex its muscles and deprive Russia from staging next year’s World Cup if the investigation into possible doping offences by the country’s 2014 World Cup squad prove to be true
Of course there were denials. There are always denials. It is part of the dance, the fast‑paced barynya, when it comes to Russia and doping allegations. No sooner had the Mail on Sunday revealed that the country’s entire 23-man squad for the 2014 World Cup was under investigation by Fifa for possible doping offences, than its deputy prime minister, and chairman of 2018 World Cup Russia, Vatily Mutko, put up the shutters. “There have never been and will never be any problems with doping in our football,” he said. “They have written some sort of nonsense.” He was similarly dismissive about allegations about doping in Russian athletics in 2013. So it goes.
This, of course, is the same Mutko that a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation found might have personally intervened to cover up a failed drug test by a banned foreign footballer, which meant the sample was never declared positive and he was free to keep playing. And the same Mutko who was Russia’s sports minister during the period when the Canadian law professor Richard McLaren found that more than 1,000 elite Russian athletes across 30 sports had benefited from a state-sponsored doping programme. Strangely it did not harm his political career. In fact he was promoted.
From his appointment in 2012, through three international tournaments ending with the humiliating defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016, we take a look back at Roy Hodgson’s England reign
Chelsea’s Ramires shows Joel, a pupil at the Archbishop Lanfranc Academy in Thornton Heath, south London, his goal celebration dance. Ramires also talks about going from supporting one team in Brazil to supporting three around the world and the mixed memories of playing in the 2014 World Cup
• England defender keen to make amends for poor showing in Brazil
• Cahill proud of unbeaten season as England near Euro 2016 qualification
Gary Cahill believes England will travel to next summer’s European Championship finals spurred on by “unfinished business”, with the experience of suffering past World Cup traumas improving their chances of success in France.
Related: Jack Wilshere admits he needs to score more goals for England
The name may be the same but much has changed as Brazil try to put the disaster of the World Cup in the past with their first game of the Copa America, against Peru on Sunday
Two weeks ago, Fred, the diminutive Shakhtar Donetsk forward, made his home debut for Brazil in a friendly against Mexico in São Paulo. When his name was read out before kickoff, he was roundly booed: the crowd didn’t realise he was the 22-year-old Frederico Rodrigues Santos, and assumed he was the other Fred, the 31-year-old Frederico Chaves Guedes, the Fluminense striker who was one of the chief scapegoats for the disaster of the World Cup.
The older, taller Fred retired from international football after the World Cup, jumping before he was pushed, but he has not been forgiven. The mood in Belo Horizonte the night of the 7-1 defeat to Germany may have been one of shock, but as the numbness has worn off what has been left is a sense of pain and anger which will perhaps never be wholly erased.
