Picking a lineup is useful less for who makes the cut than for what the process says about the current state of the gameThe Fifa world rankings rarely fail to raise an eyebrow. Óscar Washington Tabárez is one of the world’s great coaches but are Uruguay, who scraped a 2-1 win over Chile on Thursday, really the sixth-best side in the world right now? Nobody who saw England’s notional first-choice centre-back pairing of Harry Maguire and Joe Gomez in separate action for their clubs last Sunday would feel comfortable with their ranking of fourth. Germany 14th: when do we start talking seriously about Jogi Löw? And Belgium, whom England face on Sunday, top? Even after 12 straight wins before Thursday’s...
Since 2016-17, Hoffenheim have taken more points from Bayern than any other team. On Sunday, Sebastian Hoeness did it againRarely a day goes by on which the name isn’t in the sports pages, or is writing itself large over news reaction and discussion shows on television. “I don’t believe at all that the name opens doors,” said Sebastian Hoeness, the new head coach of Hoffenheim, in an interview with Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung last week. “Decision makers at this level [just] evaluate your work and something like that doesn’t influence them in one way or another.”The nephew of Uli and Dieter’s son, the 38-year-old boss made his home debut in charge of the Sinsheim side on Sunday and couldn’t have wished for a...
Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick and Leroy Sané dazzled on debut in an 8-0 win for the champions on gala nightFriday night. Opening night. Gala night for the champions. Yet if it was so familiar for Bayern Munich, it was alien too. The Rekordmeister has been here so many times that you could forgive it being cruised through on autopilot, as the board did when they and their guests from Gelsenkirchen sat in the directors box without social distancing or masks, earning the club a ticking off from Bavaria’s minister of health, Melanie Huml.Despite all the regular tells – not least a pair of effervescent wingers wearing the numbers 7 and 10 who tore poor Schalke to bits, more of...
Bayern Munich prevented all-out victory for sportswashing but PSG, with the Qatari state behind them, are not going awayFootball, or that part of it that professes to have a conscience, breathed a huge sigh of relief but as it did so, some still small voice perhaps niggled. The only goal of the Champions League final was scored by Kingsley Coman, a player convicted in 2017 of twice assaulting the mother of his child.The game was won by Bayern Munich, the swaggering superclub whose eight straight league titles means they have won more Bundesligas than the rest of Germany put together. Since 2011, they have regularly trained in Qatar, an emirate with a highly questionable human rights record, and in 2018...
Teenager born in a refugee camp only moved to left-back in October but now looks forward to a Champions League final“eep meep.” In one old-fashioned phrase uttered immediately after the win at Borussia Dortmund that marked the home straight towards the Bundesliga title, Thomas Müller succinctly coined the flavour of Bayern Munich’s season. Yes, he was talking about one player, rather than the team, but that player has come to personify the side that has lifted itself from autumnal ignominy to the verge of being cast into this mighty club’s hall of fame.“For me it’s a dream come true,” said Alphonso Davies in the aftermath of Wednesday’s 3-0 win in the Champions League semi-final against Lyon, which saw Europe’s inexorable...