What we've been saying for years...

Hornby!

Without Nick Hornby Arsenal may never have been adopted as the Guardian's football team. It's easy to blame him for the gentrification of football, but he's actually pretty good.

Here's a piece he did for ESPN challenging the narrative of decline in English football.

So the first point to make about the failure of the 2014 campaign is that progress into the last 16 would probably have necessitated one of England's most impressive World Cup results, a win over either Uruguay or Italy in the group stage, two teams they have never beaten in the finals of any tournament. And as nobody believed that we were going to Brazil with one of England's most impressive teams, it was baffling to listen to the "realists" predicting exit in the quarterfinals. How were we supposed to get even that far?

The problem with expectations

What everyone was saying:

For the first time in decades this England team goes to a World Cup without a nation expecting them to do well. 

What everyone was thinking:

This lack of expectations means they're definitely going to play really well and get to the final playing fearless, joyful football!

World Cup punchline in search of a joke

I continue to wait for a scenario in which I can say in a crowded pub, "Willian, it was really nothing".

International likes, dislikes...

This is good, from the New York Times, an analysis of countries' opinions on other countries' football.

It should be a great source of pride for the English that we only feature once in the "team to root against" column: good old Argentina.

Also, the Japanese and Australia pick the English for "who plays the most beautiful soccer".

It'll probably surprise the media to see that the English are, after the USA, the least interested in football of all the surveyed countries. Maybe we need to separate out the sports coverage into special newspapers like they do in Spain, France etc.

Brazil stinking it up at the 1970 World Cup

Brazil World Cup 1970: Myth & Legend - Video Dailymotion

Hey Yankee!