Posts tagged as:

England World Cup

Well Struck: Deceptive Correlations, Card Waving and a Ball Tom Friedman Would Love

Did England’s early World Cup exit boost English tourism? Did the Jabulani make shots less accurate? Can a soccer ball boost business productivity?

Football Management: England’s early World Cup exit boosted English tourism, and other deceptive correlations

This just in: The Jabulani made no difference to shot accuracy (Touch and Tactics)

The decline, fall and remaining prostrate of World Cup TV punditry (twohundredpercent)

WSC: In defense of card-waving (sort of)

Zonal Marking’s final World Cup final analysis begins: basic shapes and pressing

Tom Dunmore on the example rugby is setting for soccer on dealing with homophobia

The history of the U-20 Women’s World Cup…now on in Germany (Tom Dunmore/Pitch Invasion)

The sOccket ball: Play and plug (Miriti Murungi/Nutmeg Radio)

James Hamilton asks: What is the connection between poverty and skill on the ball?

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An #Englandfail Compendium

When it comes to stylish self-laceration, the French have nothing on the English. England crashed out of World Cup 2010 because its players are soccer-stupid (Martin Samuel/Daily Mail), because it’s an island nation with insular thinking (The Ball is Round), because of the creaky old 4-4-2 (Glenn Moore/Telegraph), because they play with too much passion (Musa Okwonga/New York Times-Goal), because they’re basically Everton (World Cup College), because Capello got 10 things wrong (Richard Williams/Guardian), because of so many things (Left Back in the Changing Room). It needs to take a step backwards and play youth for a cycle or two (twofootedtackle). It even needs to get off the plane better (Barney Ronay/The Guardian).

Reads of the Day: Upon Further Review, England Lose

As clear as Frankie’s goal was yesterday, so too is England’s breakdown: Luke Dempsey at The Goal Post says the squad is 45 years behind other countries in terms of technical ability; The Run of Play’s Alan Jacobs argues England is plagued by “backshadowing,” the belief that one’s cause is always being betrayed by imperfect decision-making; Sid Lowe writes at the CBC’s World Cup blog that England’s tournament play has been “eye-bleedingly awful”; The Guardian editorializes that it might be time for the country to try a new national sport. (Oh, right: And Zonal Marking says Germany was pretty good, too.)

Going Platinum

With eight weeks to go before the World Cup, England’s South African headquarters are far from built — and far from anything, in the Royal Bafokeng Nation in the middle of North West province. Why? One word for you, son: Platinum. (Owen Slot/The Times)

John Terry, All is Forgiven

John Terry, All is Forgiven: In the end, pragmatism won during England’s win over Egypt — John Terry was so obviously vital to the squad that he “could have been spotted making the ‘call me’ hand signal to the players’ wives section of the main stand, and as long as he got back to cover his man in time, the crowd would have agreed to turn a blind eye.“