Nigeria’s players could not have a bigger incentive to perform well against England at WembleyThe main event will kick off in a couple of weeks but for Nigeria Saturday’s meeting with England is more than a warm-up. For some Super Eagles, at least, the heat is really on. Unlike Gareth Southgate, Nigeria’s manager, Gernot Rohr, has not settled on the squad that he will take to the World Cup, preferring initially to name a 30-man panel before ditching surplus players in instalments as if trying to lend his selection process some of the suspense and agony of a reality TV show.Four players were evicted after Monday’s 1-1 draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo, while a fifth, the Gent winger...
The squad is young enough to be more or less intact in 2022 but Gareth Southgate’s players must go for broke in RussiaThis is the phoney-war period before the World Cup, the last couple of friendlies are about to commence and in the absence of actual football to talk about side issues such as Raheem Sterling’s tattoos are being blown up into big news. ’Twas ever thus, though admittedly body-art representations of assault rifles are something new, but what is conspicuously absent from the buildup this time is the old fashioned “England expects” note of patriotic fervour. Related: Brazil's all-time World Cup XI: create your own Related: A beginner's guide to the World Cup 2018 Related: Which is your favourite...
England’s goalkeeper was laid low by food poisoning before their quarter-final – during a World Cup that saw little go rightIt was Friday 12 June. The previous day England, without playing at all well, had beaten Czechoslovakia 1-0 to secure second place in Group C and qualification for the quarter-finals. All four ties were to be played on the Sunday, giving the team a couple of days off. Alf Ramsey decided that there was enough slack in his schedule to allow a little downtime.Not far from the Hilton, where England’s team was based, was the Guadalajara Country Club, a swanky golf course with tennis courts, swimming pools and swanky bar attached that apparently charged £1,500 a year – the equivalent...
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 least Fifa were trying. The 1966 finals was the first to be blessed with a mascot, a small lion wearing a union jack shirt walking along with its eyes narrowed to the point of being totally shut. A myopic nationalist, who’d have thought it. Willie was the creation of the freelance artist Reg Hoye, who had first considered “a little man in a bowler hat” and “a man in a cloth cap” but wished to steer clear of class...
Having been given the largely irrelevant honour of leading England at the World Cup, the Tottenham forward must not lose focus on what got him the jobGareth Southgate may lack tournament experience as manager of a national team though it is already clear he prefers to remove doubt and uncertainty in favour of getting things done. Name the squad early, announce the captain shortly afterwards, and everyone knows where they stand.That makes it sound as if the identity of England’s captain in Russia is something people have been itching to know for weeks, when in reality the honour just bestowed on Harry Kane is simply a formality that needed to be addressed so it could be moved out of the...