Germany: The Best team in the World

Apt that in the World Cup that Spain fell, Germany rose to replace them. Indeed, there was no other national team worthy of the prize of world champions.

For nearly half a decade, no two national teams have been run so well. To an extent, both countries epitomise

The Netherlands World Cup journey is bound to continue into the future

Crisis brewing, egos clashing and a deference to arrogance. That has always been the story told of the Netherlands. An international football team which is prescribed on its own philosophy rarely lives up to the expectations demanded. The ambitions have only ever been met in 1988. Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten added international glory to Rinus Michels’s CV at the European Championships in Germany.

They have never gotten as close again.

Indeed, maybe they have. At the 2010 World Cup, they were in the final and were four minutes away from

Angel Di Maria in the shadows of greatness

Among other things, Jurgen Klopp’s conclusion was clear and simple. “You can’t mark Di Maria,” was what he said after Borussia Dortmund had played Real Madrid during the 2012-2013 Champions League group stages.

Klopp would find a way as his Dortmund later on defeated Madrid in that season’s Champions League semis. But after meeting them again in the knockout rounds of the 2013-2014 Champions League, Klopp had to watch once more as Angel Di Maria ran rings around his defence.

It does help that Di Maria is at Real Madrid — the most expensively assembled team in football history. It also helps that alongside him is Cristiano Ronaldo — one of the greatest footballers of his generation and definitely among the pantheon of the greats. The other player of that calibre is Lionel Messi. He is Di Maria’s teammate at international level.

A rare prestige thus falls upon Di Maria. For club and country, he plays with two of the game’s immortals. As such though, that privilege is in itself

World Cup 2014: Talking Points from the 1st Group Phase

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by Fridah Kariuki

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The World Cup will either remain in South America or leave with a European nation

The prestigious trophy will remain in either of the two above regions. The other regions are not up to standard and do not pose enough competition. Africa and Asia are performing dismally. North and Central America may

Spain exit football’s throne

Their dominance is now but just a memory as World Cup exit heralds the end of an era

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Tick, tock, went the clock as Spain’s time came to a stop. Dominance lasts long, but never longer than the natural order of things. At some point, everything — whether good or bad, special or mediocre, extraordinary or not, revolutionary or evolutionary — comes to an end. For Spain, this is it!

And what a ride it was. Since mid-2008, no national team has so dominated international football. It could be that in terms of success, this generation of players is the greatest group ever in football history. Three major international tournaments were conquered with style, identity and philosophy.

The whole world watched in awe. For six years, there was no answer to that passing game — those fluid motions, those probing punches that asphyxiated opponents into submission. Football technique rose to a whole new level and

Messi’s Moment

Lionel Messi clenched his fists and pumped the air, the joy outpouring and the passion overflowing. Tensions had been relieved, derision cancelled. It was a goal the World Cup had waited for; a goal his nation expected and one that his team — and probably his career — needed. Given the stakes, given the occasion, that was the moment.

Minutes earlier he had skied a free kick and the Maracana had descended into boos. The Argentine fans were growing impatient. One moment was enough to

Germany’s versatility a gifted curse for Joachim Low

It is the Germans who always find a way to adapt to football revolution.

In the 1970’s, when Ajax Amsterdam and Holland developed total football, Bayern Munich and West Germany found a way to take it to the next level. In a team boasting Franz Beckenbauer, they had a complete footballer; a defender, a passer, a scorer. That carried onto the rest of the team, and Bayern Munich dominated club football while West Germany did the same on the international stage.

Something similar seems to be happening. While Barcelona and Spain have dominated via the development of tiki-taka, Bayern Munich and Germany have seemingly evolved it. By adding

Didier Deschamps hopes to inspire the French to victoire

Franck Ribery has literally had an annus horribilis. At the start of the year, he was a treble winner with Bayern Munich and potentially a Balon D’Or winner. However, a third place finish in FIFA’s Player of the Year Award, a less than impressive end to the club season with Bayern and niggling injuries have seen his brilliance slide down a slippery slope.

France on the other hand seems to be going in the inverse direction. There is a huge improvement, a massive heightening of hope since four years ago when capitulation at Knysna brought about embarrassment. Didier Deschamps has ensured that does not happen again. By not picking Samir Nasri in his squad, he as at least guaranteed that

Messi magic could take Argentina all the way

If Brazil’s number 10 jersey is the most revered jersey number in the world, then Argentina’s number 10 comes a very close second.

It is more than just a jersey number — it is a tradition, a culture, a realisation of an ideology steeped in football romanticism. The enganche, a sly silky skilled, languid playmaker, with art and grace, beauty and poise epitomises the beauty of that albiceleste shirt number.

In Lionel Messi though, it bears a wearer cut from a slightly different cloth. If Juan Roman Riquelme was the epitome of enigmatic genius, Messi is the image of short, quick and Maradona-esqueness.

He is also the picture of frustrated greatness.

For all that he has achieved,

Could Spain pass their way into history again?

For some, tiki-taka is dead, while for others, it is merely evolving. Whichever side of that argument you lay, there is no denying that Vicente Del Bosque has questions to answer coming into the World Cup. The world champions and double European champions are in a state of transition. Some players are ageing, some new ones are showing promise and in between is a period where the sheer surprise and awe of that passing philosophy