HeraldLoop

World Cup — page 2

Event · 2172 articles
Share

Coverage, page 2

page 2 of 109

Zidane’s next move as France coach may reveal the wizard behind the curtain | Jonathan Wilson

It is apt that the most perplexing football country will now be guided by the most enigmatic of leaders Even in his playing days, Zinedine Zidane seemed unknowable. As a manager, the sense of distance has only grown. He won three Champions Leagues with Real Madrid without ever giving a sense of what his idea of football looked like. France are perhaps the most perplexing football country: a squad that teems with such talent that a B team would be serious contenders at a World Cup, that reached three major finals under Didier Deschamps with a sense of unfulfilment, a team that progressed but rarely entranced, or at least didn’t until this summer’s World Cup, when they attacked with gusto and ended up overrun in midfield by Spain . Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Jonathan Wilson19 Sept

Trent Alexander-Arnold recalled by England but with a warning from Thomas Tuchel

Real Madrid player must help improve defensive solidity Scott, Hall, Lewis-Skelly and Calvert-Lewin selected Thomas Tuchel has told Trent ­Alexander-Arnold he must bring defensive solidity to the England squad after giving him a surprise recall for the upcoming Nations League matches. The head coach has selected the Real Madrid right-back only once before – for the games against Andorra and Senegal in June last year. Tuchel made headlines when he did so by urging Alexander-Arnold to focus on the defensive side of his game or risk a slip that could undermine the team’s World Cup campaign. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•David Hytner18 Sept

Tuchel should listen to ‘the 0.1%’ and learn from England’s World Cup mistakes | Jacob Steinberg

Head coach is keen to focus on positives but Nations League squad hints at desire for greater tactical options Thomas Tuchel should be listening to the 0.1%. As Tuchel unveiled his first England squad since the World Cup, he said 99.9% of supporters he bumped into did not talk about his substitutions during the Argentina game. According to him, the conversation is far more positive. Memories are shared of the knockout wins over Mexico and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It seems those who want to take the England head coach to task over the retreat in the semi-final in Atlanta are in the minority. This is, of course, hard to quantify. Is it really 99.9%? We can take Tuchel at face value, but relying on anecdotal evidence goes two ways. A lot of fans are not ready to move on yet. The national mood is far more downbeat than Tuchel imagines and he is kidding himself if he thinks people have forgiven the way England folded after going 1-0 up against Argentina early in the second half. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Jacob Steinberg18 Sept

Mbappe leaves Nike, signs with On as it forays into soccer

French soccer star Kylian Mbappe has ended his two-decade-long partnership with Nike and signed with ‌Swiss sportswear brand On, the latest blow for the American brand as newer rivals gain ground in the athletic footwear market. On plans to launch its first football boots in 2027, and also named former French player Thierry Henry ⁠as its director of football. On's U.S.-listed shares were up 5% in premarket trading. The Roger Federer-backed company is looking for growth in the Americas, which account for ‌more than half of its revenue. On has focused on full-price sales, but has struggled in the region this year ‌amid choppy economic spending. Mbappé's move to On ‌ends a relationship between the French national team captain ‌and Nike that dates ‌back to 2006, and comes at the heels of Nike's loss of recent World Cup winner ‌Spain's Lamine Yamal to Adidas. "We are proud of ⁠what we achieved together on and off the pitch. As he moves into the next phase of his career, we wish ⁠him continued success ⁠for what comes next," Nike said in a separate statement. Nike had increasingly leaned on Mbappé as one of the ⁠sport's leading global ambassadors following the latter stages of soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo's career. The World Cup winner remained a centerpiece of Nike's football marketing at this year's FIFA World Cup, most recently receiving signature editions of its ‌Mercurial boots. "Once again it (football) has led me to one of the biggest changes in my life. Now, I find myself surrounded by innovators who dream of the same things I do," Mbappé said on his social media accounts.

MBMobile Business•Reuters18 Sept

2025 and all that: Red Roses ready to regnite Canada rivalry after World Cup win

One year on from the epic final women’s rugby is flourishing in both nations while England are aiming to take their successive win total to 40 games Train like you have never won, play like you don’t know how to lose. That is the mantra scribbled on a whiteboard in the Red Roses camp this week as they prepare to take on Canada for the first time since defeating them in the 2025 Rugby World Cup final . The game at Sandy Park on Saturday will be a week shy of the year anniversary of the Twickenham showpiece in front of a record-breaking 81,885 supporters. It is the fans that come to mind when players remember that day: the thousands waiting for both teams to get off of the buses, the noise in the stadium and the reality of a full Twickenham after months of speaking about what it might be like to play in front of that many people. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Sarah Rendell18 Sept

Tuchel considers England recall for Cole Palmer in Nations League squad

Chelsea forward back in form after World Cup snub Alex Scott and Morgan Gibbs-White also in contention Thomas Tuchel is considering an England recall for Cole Palmer and could include Alex Scott in his squad for the Nations League. Tuchel’s first selection since the World Cup will be confirmed on Friday morning and the head coach has been weighing up claims from a host of players who failed to earn a place in his plans last summer. Palmer was one of those to miss out after struggling for form and fitness but the Chelsea attacker has started the season with four goals and two assists , raising optimism around his hopes of inclusion. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Jacob Steinberg17 Sept
  • neutral toward Nations League · 98%

FA chair Hewitt demands Infantino release records of failed World Cup plan

Letter sent before Fifa council meeting on 15 October Infantino under pressure before presidential election The Football Association’s chair, Debbie Hewitt, has written to Gianni Infantino demanding that Fifa releases all documents relating to his abandoned World Cup sell-off plan and the decision to lift the USA striker Folarin Balogun’s suspension during last summer’s tournament. The Guardian revealed last month that Hewitt and other members of the Fifa council were lobbying for an independent review of the proposed Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) sell-off and the Balogun controversy. Their requests have been formalised in a letter sent to the Fifa president and his deputy, Mattias Grafström. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Matt Hughes17 Sept

Two years and one World Cup down, Mauricio Pochettino is still assessing

The US manager’s first squad of the 2030 World Cup cycle leans heavily on youth, injecting intrigue into the four-game window. Sign up for our free newsletter here In the moments after the USMNT’s 4-1 crash-out in the last-16 at this summer’s World Cup, Mauricio Pochettino took the podium for what many assumed would be his last press conference as the US head coach. I had a question for him: “Would you consider your tenure here a success?” His answer was full of the usual platitudes, but one thing did stand out. He said, more or less, that he and his staff had finally gotten a good idea of the player pool. It struck me as bizarre at the time. By almost every account, Pochettino had been brought in to win the game that he’d just lost. Given just two and a half years to get it done, his job had never really been to evaluate the player pool; it had been to maximize results with the tools at hand, something he did with varying levels of success. And now, in the shadow of arguably the most disappointing result in US men’s history , we were finding out that it had been a fact-finding mission? And there were suggestions that he was leaving? Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Pablo Iglesias Maurer17 Sept