England’s glorious day in the sun lifted the BBC pundits but there was still caution amid the commotionComplain about the licence fee if you must but the bottom line is the BBC’s comprehensive World Cup coverage offers something for everyone. Toddlers across the land, for example, have been cavorting joyously to the simple pleasure of the Kicky Kicky Kick Kick song from the Hey Duggee cartoon. Meanwhile on Radio 5 Live there is the Robbie Savage breakfast show, for those who have not yet graduated to CBeebies.It is a broad church. But the actual match coverage must please everyone at once, no mean feat. England’s support can be roughly split into two categories – the blindly optimistic and the morbidly fatalistic – and...
Germany may have escaped with a last-gasp winner from Toni Kroos against Sweden, but the air of inevitability which preceded it was all too familiarAnd that’s why they’re the champions. More than that, that is why they are Germany. Of all the countries, of all the situations to find themselves in: 30 seconds from leaving the World Cup just 10 days in, only 10 men on the pitch. Then Toni Kroos, a cunning free-kick and a ball curled inside the far post. This time, it really didn’t look like it was coming, but then it did.OK, mathematically, Germany would still have had a chance had Kroos not taken control. But the reality was that, with one game in Group F left,...
In the second of her World Cup columns for the Guardian, Marta examines Brazil’s improved performance against Costa Rica and whether Neymar’s penalty was correctly overturnedBrazil are up and running with their first win of this World Cup and the most impressive part of the victory over Costa Rica was that they never stopped believing they would get a winner.Towards the end Costa Rica were under more and more pressure. Their players went to ground easier and stayed down for longer as they tried to waste time. This is not prohibited in football and is part of the game but Brazil just kept going. Related: Brazil’s Tite insists Neymar will reach his ‘best level’ at the World Cup Related: Philippe...
Kremlin’s state-funded English language TV station is derided for its more sinister motives but its World Cup coverage has largely proved a pleasant surpriseTwo things in Russia are fairly constant. First, there is the scale. In St Petersburg I stayed in an average chain-style hotel that was like a ziggurat for alien giants, its footprint spread over roughly 4% of the world’s crust, spooling down into sub floors and bunkers and swimming lagoons, upper floors dusted with rock deposits from the rings of Saturn.Everything is massive. It’s also, and this is crucial, very far away. Related: England’s Harry Maguire offers perfect antidote to Panama power | Daniel Taylor Related: Stan Collymore: ‘The thing white men hate most is outspoken black...
Brazil are one of the favourites who have got off to a bad start at the World Cup. That is partly because the so-called smaller nations have belief but also because of Neymar’s strugglesThe most striking aspect of the opening week of this World Cup has surely been the difficulty many of the tournament favourites have had to win their games. Something has changed. And the key words here are “intensity” and “belief”.Smaller nations now believe in their capacity to cause problems and to challenge the traditional powers of world football. I was struck, for example, by the terrible disappointment of the Tunisians after losing to England. These so-called smaller nations really have the belief they can do something against...