Five Belgians staking a late claim for the 2014 World Cup

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Hugo Greenhalgh

TFN’s Hugo Greenhalgh picks five young Belgians who could yet find themselves on the plane to Brazil this summer…

1. Thorgan Hazard (Zulte Waregem, on loan from Chelsea, 20)

As Eden continues to cement his reputation as one of the Premier League’s brightest stars, brother Thorgan is making waves of his own. Indeed, Francky Dury, his coach at Zulte Waregem, declared last week, “He is no longer Eden’s brother. He is Thorgan Hazard in his own right”. Now in his second season on loan at the Belgian side, Hazard was recently awarded the Golden Show Award for the best player in the League. Continue reading →

English Football’s Five New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Piers Barber

Piers Barber returns with five resolutions to improve English football for 2014. Do you have any more suggestions?

1. Don’t go out of the World Cup with a whimper

We already know one thing for sure about 2014: England aren’t going to win the World Cup. Even if our national team did possess a higher calibre of player, the odds are completely stacked against European teams at this year’s tournament in Brazil. At the same time, there is no point in going out to South America only to limply make up the numbers. This year it would be fantastic to watch England approach the tournament with attacking ambition and character, and to see some of their more competent flair players really given a chance to express themselves on the international stage. England’s recent tournament exists, after all, have been embarrassing – a return of the heroic defeat would be highly welcome. Continue reading →

Podcast: Episode 6 – The Big Fat Pod of the Year 2013, or how Villas-Boas was sacked

Posted on December 17, 2013 by The False Nine

The False Nine’s bumper festive podcast has been labelled a “beautiful disaster” by critics, and can be downloaded now from Soundcloud.

For The False Nine’s final podcast of 2013, host Greg Johnson and TFN editors James Dutton and Hugo Greenhalgh are joined by a star-studded cast of Tom Victor, Escape To Suomi’s Rich Nelson, Get Goal Side’s Bobby Faghihi and his brother Ash Faghihi.

Chaos reigns as the crew chat about Andre Villas-Boas’ future in a manner detached from reality, why Andy Carroll is going to win the World Cup, City’s key to the Premier League title, and more!

Podcast: Episode 4 – The Audacity of Hope

Posted on November 18, 2013 by The False Nine

Episode 4 of The False Nine podcast is now live and available to listen to and download from Soundcloud, entitled The Audacity of Hope.

With Greg taken ill in suspicious circumstances, James and Hugo valiantly take the reins of the pod with special guests Jonny Singer and Joe Hall.

This time TFN talk England vs. Chile, the Ballon d’Or, league football and the World Cup.

Kelechi Iheanacho & the Stars of the 2013 FIFA Under-17 World Cup

Posted on November 12, 2013 by The False Nine

Nathan Carr profiles Kelechi Iheanacho and two other standout performers at this year’s U-17 World Cup…

This year’s FIFA Under-17 World Cup, held in the United Arab Emirates, proved a great success. Nigeria were tipped beforehand to claim their fourth title and they did just that after comprehensively beating Mexico in the Final. There was shedloads of goals (172, the highest ever scoring edition of the tournament), drama and glowing talents – as we were given an insight into the next wave of young global superstars. In no particular order, here are three individuals that really stood out… Continue reading →

England: Five Potential World Cup Wild Cards

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Joe Hall

Making his debut for The False Nine, Joe Hall looks at a list of potential wild card picks for England next summer…

The World Cup Wildcard: the final, desperate attempt of an England manager who has suddenly realised the impending humiliation and dejection he is about to face.

Ahead of recent World Cups, every England manager has seemed to pick one player he knows nothing about in the blind hope he could be the next Gascoigne. The “wildcard” will not have played for England much (if at all) and will nearly always have displayed some form of skill or invention that deludes us into thinking he can have an effect.

The results have been mixed. In ’98 Hoddle caved into public pressure (The Sun ran a campaign of course) to pick Michael Owen and it worked a treat.

In 2006 not one, but two “wildcard” choices made their way to Baden-Baden. Aaron Lennon, uncapped but impressive for Tottenham, was a bold but typical choice from Sven-Goran Eriksson. Theo Walcott, who had run really fast in the Championship, was inexplicable.

And then there was Mike Bassett’s inspired and redemptive selection of Kevin Tonkinson.

Who will it be this year? Here’s five players who, with a late surge of form, could convince Hodgson they will be the man to send England into the promised land of a semi-final.

Continue reading →

Editor’s Column: Hodgson Approaching his Defining Summer

Posted on October 16, 2013 by James Dutton

James Dutton looks back at England’s World Cup qualifying campaign and how Roy Hodgson will approach the tournament next summer…

After a painstaking 13-month journey through dire stalemates, comprehensive beatings of European minnows and the overriding sense of ‘perpetual crisis’ England have reached the World Cup finals. A World Cup in Brazil without England would have been unthinkable, for Hodgson now this is his self-annointed ‘Utopia'; this has been the driving-force of his nomadic 38-year career, just reward for sheer persistence. What relief to have narrowly sidestepped the screaming vortex that has humiliated his predecessors, among them Graham Taylor, Kevin Keegan and Steve McClaren.

Should two positive results and emphatic performances in the space of a week excuse what came before? Should the previous recriminations be forgotten now that England have handsomely defeated two international sides that they would be disappointed not to beat? After all, England traditionally struggle against the so-called ‘mid-table’ international stratum.

As early as November last year Hodgson had already set his sights on the play-offs, despite a group that was so eminently winnable from the outset. Thus only from the lowering of expectations (a classic Hodgson manoeuvre and one that David Moyes is replicating at Manchester United this season) has this arduous qualifying campaign been quantified as a success. Continue reading →

The False Nine

An analytical and satirical digest.

Tag Archives: world cup