“I will miss you.” With those words Arsène Wenger ended his 22-year-long reign at Arsenal, and millions of fans across the globe wondered who would replace the French professor. Some wanted Luis Enrique, others wanted Massimiliano Allegri, the Juventus tactician. Soon, though, it became clear that Allegri was not going to leave Juventus to save…

Grouped with tournament favourites Spain and Portugal, Morocco were always going to face an uphill battle getting out of the group stages. Factor in a demoralizing opening day defeat due to a stoppage time own goal against Iran, and Morocco were as good as gone before the tournament even started. However, that didn’t stop them…

The reason Germany are ranked lower than Costa Rica is because of expectations: while many expected the reigning World Cup winner to challenge for the World Cup, few expected the reigning World Cup Cinderella team to advance to the knockout round. Granted, it wasn’t the hardest group between Serbia, Brazil, and Switzerland, but the odds…

As I was making my way through the thick post-game crowds at Otrikiye Stadium, I noticed two peculiar jerseys in the back. Of course, throughout the course of the Poland-Senegal game, I had spotted an array of interesting kits, from one featuring Senegal’s backup defender Kara Mbodji, to one featuring Argentina’s 2nd choice goalkeeper Willy…

Bland, lacklustre and overall completely devoid of any real ideas in the final third, Germany suffered a similar fate like the past two world champions and exited in the group stages just four years after winning it all. Last time the Germans performed this bad in Russia, they crumbled in Stalingrad.   Joachim Löw started…

Perhaps the most forgettable team of the entire tournament, Australia came and left their fourth straight World Cup without a bang or a whimper. After a chaotic build-up to the tournament, many would have expected a more eye-grabbing campaign from the Socceroos, but perhaps it was the chaos that preceded it which triggered the boring,…