I don’t know what team can afford to rest players,” Óscar Tabárez told a room full of reporters in Samara last week, the day before Uruguay’s final World Cup group game against Russia. Tabárez’s team had already made it to the last 16 and rumours had spread there would be major changes to his starting XI.



In response he fell back on a familiar phrase. “We do not speculate,” Tabárez…

Amid the blaze of emotion of Colombia’s must-win match against Poland the manager, José Pekerman, lost his head. Juan Fernando Quintero had just slipped a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Radamel Falcao to score his first World Cup goal with a clipped outside-of-the-boot finish. Two-nil to Colombia and victory was in sight. As the weight of pressure subsided, the normally reticent Argentinian coach erupted in elation on the touchline. “Juan! Juan! Genius! Genius! You’re a genius!”…

There are some matches in which the spectre of penalties begins to loom with indecent haste. Everybody knew where this last-16 showdown was heading from an early point in the second half – possibly even sooner – and yet it might have needed only a single penalty.



The second period of extra time was rumbling to its seemingly…

In life it can be known as the moment of truth but in football it is the moment of adversity. It is the moment when as a team you find yourselves trying to cope with pressure, bad performances and even off-field problems which have combined to jeopardise your continued participation in the world’s greatest football tournament. You know that how you react will define your opportunity to lift the World Cup and become part of history.…

Gareth Southgate has admitted he feels “hugely fortunate” to be leading England into the knockout phase of a World Cup after fearing he had passed up his chance for ever to manage the national team exactly two years ago on Thursday.



The Football Association’s chief executive, Martin Glenn, had publicly and confidently suggested Southgate was “a pretty obvious one to pick” as an…

There was joy for Brazil in Moscow, but also schadenfreude at one remove as a 2-0 defeat of Serbia propelled Tite’s improving team into the World Cup knockout stages on the same afternoon Germany left the tournament.



A projected last-16 meeting with Brazil’s nemesis of four years ago can now be safely placed away in the box of horrors. Germany’s defeat by South Korea in Kazan brought great…

Gareth Southgate and his England players have united in praise of the impact made by the national setup’s attacking coach, Allan Russell, who is credited with the team’s startling improvement from set pieces at the tournament in Russia.



England arrived at the World Cup having failed to register from a corner at a major finals since 2010, encompassing 72 attempts stretching back…

It was Australia’s first point at a World Cup since 2010 but it could have been so much more. A draw Jamie Meder Womens Jersey with Denmark has left the country on the brink of yet another group stage exit. Unless the Socceroos beat Peru on Tuesday, and other results are favourable, Australia’s Russia campaign will end in the same manner as their escapades in South Africa and Brazil.…

When he turns up and shows it on the day he’s one of our best players and best assets.” That was the assessment of Tom Rogic by his Socceroo teammate Tomi Juric. Rogic, after struggling to impose himself in Australia’s World Cup opener against France in Kazan, sparked a fightback in their second match in Samara as the green and gold secured a vital draw.



The No 10 has often been…

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is in line to make his first World Cup start, against Panama on Sunday, with Dele Alli rendered a major doubt for England’s second group game after suffering a minor thigh strain in Monday’s victory over Tunisia.



Alli, who had pulled up just Jerry Rice Womens Jersey before half-time in clear…

Oh, Harry. At the end of a fraught, at times puzzling World Cup Group G opener there http://www.broncosshopfootball.com/84-shannon-sharpe-super-bowl-jersey.html was an unfamiliar noise around the Volgograd Arena, an odd feeling of lightness in the air, a feeling of double-take. It took a while to register. Applause. Relief. A skirling of possibilities. England tournament moments: also available in…