Who Wore It Best: Christine Ohuruogu vs. Serena Williams

The smallest of questions can impel the most vociferous judgements and debates: in grammar, in philosophy, in sociology, but most of all in matters of aesthetics. We do not believe that our eyes can lie to us. ‘Who wore it best?’ implicates a primal dual as much as it does centuries of human refinement. It is a question we are bound to ask ourselves anytime we see two similar or dissimilar people wearing somewhat similar items of dress.

This series will succeed in capturing not only the fashion zeitgeist, and emerging trends or brazen singularities, but also frozen moments in the history of time. For some of the pieces in this series will be archival, delving into a long and rich past of people wearing clothes, and their clothes vaguely or less vaguely resembling the clothes worn by others. At issue are fashion’s broadest strokes and most minute details: sweeping concepts may be compared as often as certain designers and specific items of clothing. A vivid and sympathetic visual imagination may be required to navigate apparently disparate garments, and to discover the hidden connections which lie between.

The first piece in this series features 400 metres runner Christine Ohuruogu, an Olympic and twice World champion in her chosen event; and Serena Williams, multiple-time Grand Slam tennis victor, and one of the greatest players ever to have adorned her exterior with racket and fuzzy balls.

Christine Ohuruogu raced on Saturday in the Great North CityGames. A concept devised by the ever-innovative Brendan Foster and his Nova International, the Great CityGames see elite athletes competing on specially designed track and field structures, in the hustle of city centres and with spectators afforded the opportunity to stop by and watch free of charge. The Great North CityGames is located on the Quayside between Gateshead and Newcastle, and has been held annually since 2009 on the day before the Great North Run. With the stretch of track running between the Sage Gateshead concert venue and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, this is an eminently suitable place for fashion as well as athletics.

Ohuruogu was one of many athletes who had competed the previous evening in Brussels – the last Diamond League meeting of the season, but one which produced a number of world-leading performances. In the men’s high-jump, Mutaz Essa Barshim recorded the second-best jump of all time at 2.43 metres, beating Bohdan Bondarenko into second place after he managed a still-impressive 2.40-metre leap. The two men jumped 2.42 metres in New York earlier this year, and appear ready to break Javier Sotomayor’s twenty-one-year-old world record of 2.45 metres sometime in 2015. Justin Gatlin achieved the best ever combined time for an athlete running a 100 and 200 metres on the same night: his 100 metres time of 9.77 seconds was the fastest in the world this year, while his 200 metres time was 19.71, combining to better a mark set previously by Ato Boldon.

Renaud Lavillenie established a new world-leading height in the men’s pole vault of 5.93 metres. Barbora Spotakova threw a world-best of 67.99 metres in the women’s javelin. Allyson Felix’s time of 22.02 in the women’s 200 metres saw her take the world lead in the event ahead of Daffne Schippers, who ran a seemingly unbeatable 22.03 in the process of taking gold at last month’s European Athletics Championships. And Mercy Cherono impressed in the women’s 5,000 metres to take the overall victory in the event – and $40,000 in prize money – ahead of Genzebe Dibaba.

On one bank of the Tyne on Saturday, Ohuruogu proved victorious in the women’s 500 metres – a unique event which pitted her against 400 metres hurdler Eilidh Child, and 800 metres competitors Lynsey Sharp, Jenny Meadows, and Alison Leonard. Child won a gold medal at the European Championships in Zurich after taking silver at the Commonwealth Games; and Sharp has bolstered two silver medals with some exceptional performances across recent Diamond League meets. But Ohuruogu has had a relaxed season, and easily possessed the strength to win out over this unusual distance, which saw the five ladies hurtling and jostling down an incline before reaching the track.

As the athletics in Brussels wound down on Friday evening, Serena Williams took to Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York and was soon busily dispatching with Ekaterina Makarova. Makarova’s journey to the semi-finals was exceptional: she progressed against Eugenie Bouchard in the fourth round and Victoria Azarenka in the quarter-finals, and hadn’t lost a set all tournament. Yet Serena beat the twenty-six-year-old Russian 6-1, 6-3 in precisely one hour. So she found her way through to to the 2014 US Open women’s singles final. There on Sunday she faced Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniacki was participating in only her second Grand Slam final – having reached the same stage of the US Open in 2009, only to fall to defeat against a then-returning Kim Clijsters.

Williams reached this year’s final without dropping a set, while Wozniacki had to endure tough battles against Magdalena Rybarikova and Maria Sharapova in the early rounds. And in the final, Williams proved typically too strong and too accurate for her opponent, winning in two sets – 6-3, 6-3 – to claim her sixth US Open crown, and her eighteenth Grand Slam in total. Tying her with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, in the open era she is behind only Steffi Graf, who reigns supreme with twenty-two titles to her name.

If New York trumps even the Quayside as a centre of world fashion, still by virtue of performing over the weekend on Saturday rather than Sunday, Christine Ohuruogu managed to display her outfit first. She wore a vest with prominent black splotches and spots over a white background; with black side panels and the Adidas stripes running down the sides in white. Her shorts were black with pink trim. And she wore bright pink running trainers. Serena Williams wore an animal print dress in black and white, with a pink Nike logo; and with a ruby headband and ruby print wristband. Her trainers were black with a pink Nike swoosh.

The similarities between the outfits worn by the two ladies rest upon their bold black and white prints, offset by highlights in shades of pink. To call the prints worn by these women merely ‘animal’ would be to resort to the inexact. Animal prints differ from one another. Cheetahs have a fur which is covered with relatively small black spots. Unlike cheetahs, leopards and jaguars possess not spots but rosettes. Rosettes are rose-like markings, comprised of a dark outer line and a lighter inner shading. Jaguar rosettes are larger than leopard rosettes, have thicker lines, and their inner shadings are marked by lines and dots. The image immediately below shows, from left to right, the coats typical of cheetahs, leopards, and jaguars:

So it is clear that Serena Williams wore a leopard print dress. Indeed, she varied during the two weeks of the US Open between the black and white leopard print and a version in pink. On the other hand, it is debatable whether Christine Ohuruogu wore an animal print at all. If it is determined that she did, her animal must surely be some sort of hybrid – showing the solid black of a cheetah’s spots, but with the patternation somewhere between a leopard and a giraffe, and the intensity of the blacks also calling to mind the zebra. Perhaps her wardrobe simply cannot be defined in animal terms. Regardless, of these two highly accomplished and endearing sporting outfits, my modest preference is for Ohuruogu’s.

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Highlights of the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zurich

Fast Times in the 200 Metres Sprints

Opting to run in the 100 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and coming away with a silver medal, finishing between the Jamaicans Kemar Bailey-Cole and Nickel Ashmeade, twenty-year-old Britain Adam Gemili returned in Zurich to his favoured event. Last summer at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, Gemili broke the 20-second barrier in the 200 metres for his first time, running 19.98 on his way to the final, where he finished in fifth. The time of 19.98 was a significant improvement upon his previous personal best – 20.17, a time he set in the championship’s heats – and made him the second fastest Britain ever over the distance. John Regis retains the national record, having run 19.87 in Sestriere, Italy, back in 1994. Regis was a European 200 metres champion, and during his career achieved a silver and a bronze in the event across two World Championships: he was a top-class athlete, but Sestriere was also a meet renowned for fast times. At high altitude, over 2000 metres above sea level, in the mid-1990s the organisers of the meet enticed athletes with a Ferrari for any new world record.

Having navigated a heat and a semi-final, in the men’s 200 metres final in Zurich, Gemili took the gold medal, finishing ahead of Christophe Lemaitre and Serhiy Smelyk, and again running a time of 19.98. Thus equalling his personal best, this makes Gemili the only Britain to have broken 20 seconds twice. More, his run in the final arguably bettered his run in Moscow last year, given the adverse conditions this time round: damp weather and a headwind of 1.6 metres per second. While his form in the heats suggested him as the likely champion, upon finishing the race Gemili turned his head and seemed especially delighted with his time, which is also the fastest ran by a European this year.

Gemili is one of the most fluid athletes over the distance, and possesses the potential to challenge the world’s elite. He can go faster still. An exceptional bend runner, his bend was arguably smoother in the semi-final, where he finished with a time of 20.23, but only after shutting down entirely over the last 50 metres, preserving his energy with the race already won. He added to the medal haul which he has accrued over the summer on the final day of competition in Zurich, by taking the last leg and leading the British team to gold in the 4×100 metres relay.

In the women’s 200 metres, Dafne Schippers won her second gold medal of the championships, having taken the 100 metres title earlier in the week. She obliterated the rest of the field in the 200 metres final, running a time of 22.03: a new Dutch national record, and the best time in the world this year by some margin. Establishing so thoroughly her credentials as a world-class sprinter, Schippers’ performance in the 200 metres final was a strong contender for the performance of the Zurich championships.

A World and European Junior champion in the heptathlon across 2010 and 2011, and a World Championships bronze medallist in the event last year in Moscow, Schippers only began focusing on the sprints this season. Already accomplished in the 100 metres and the long jump, her sprint times have rapidly improved through the course of the year. She set a personal best and a Dutch national record in the 100 metres last month in Glasgow, running a time of 11.03; before improving in Zurich on the 22.34 in the 200 metres which she recorded at the same meet.

The closest anyone has come to her 22.03 this year is the 22.18 set by the American Tori Bowie in Eugene, Oregon, at the end of May. Though it is worth noting that the Americans sometimes resemble the Russians in eschewing international events for localised meets – which produce results which do not always translate to successes at major international competitions – Bowie seems like the real thing, and in fact is following a similar trajectory to Schippers, transitioning this year into the sprints having previously specialised in the long jump. Bowie is the year’s world-leader over 100 metres, having run 10.80 at the Diamond League event in Monaco last month. Still, Schippers is the best 200 metres runner in the world at this moment in time – and yet her future over the distance remains unclear.

While she obviously possesses the talent to specialise, and could compete in two years time at the Olympics in Rio for gold medals in what remain the sport’s most prestigious events, Schippers is an ardent fan of the heptathlon; and it is uncertain, at this stage, whether she will return to that event or stick with the sprints. As former heptathlete Denise Lewis concisely explained, there is the feeling that Schippers could break records in the heptathlon too – with the sticking point being the high jump, which is one of her weakest events, but one that affords a considerable number of points. A similar conundrum potentially awaits Jessica Ennis-Hill, who was running world-class times in the 100 metres hurdles in 2012 – on route to eventual Olympic glory in the heptathlon – before taking time out due to an ankle injury in 2013, and in 2014 owing to pregnancy and the birth of her first child. Ennis too, upon her return to the sport, will have to decide whether to stay with the heptathlon or look towards the sprint event.

Distance Running for a Lady and a Man

After Schippers, the Netherlands’ other star performer in Zurich was Sifan Hassan. The world-leader and favourite going into the women’s 1500 metres, she won the gold medal after a storming finish, ahead of Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi and Britain’s Laura Weightman. In the 5,000 metres, however, Sweden avenged this defeat, as Meraf Bahta held off Hassan for the title. Hassan and Aregawi both hail from Ethiopia, while Bahta was born in Eritrea – a country, incidentally but interestingly, from which there has been a marked increase in asylum seekers, particularly to northern European countries over recent months. All still in their early twenties, Hassan especially – at only twenty-one years of age – is full of potential, and should be one of the main contenders for the 1500 metres in Rio in 2016.

At the other end of the age spectrum, Britain’s Jo Pavey backed up her outstanding 5,000 metres Commonwealth bronze with a gold medal in the 10,000 metres. Pavey took silver in the same event at the European Championships two years ago in Helsinki. The gold medal this time around was the first major gold of the forty-year-old’s long career, which has seen her consistently make world finals since her senior international debut in 1997.

In the men’s long-distance events, Mo Farah took gold in the 10,000 and 5,000 metres. Having spent the early part of the season preparing for the London Marathon, then withdrawing from the Commonwealth Games owing to injury, illness, and infection, Farah had only appeared on the track once this year prior to the 10,000 metres final. If his victory in that race seemed understandably tentative, he was more impressive at the end of the week in the 5,000 metres, kicking powerfully away from a persistent Hayle Ibrahimov over the last lap. Farah’s compatriot Andy Vernon managed a bronze behind Ibrahimov, having won silver in the 10,000 metres – ahead of Ali Kaya, whose bronze medal in a personal-best time gave Turkey their only medal of the championships.

Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad and High Drama in the Men’s Middle Distance Events

The men’s middle distance events were a world onto themselves, defined by the French runner Mehiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad. Twice a World Championships bronze medallist, twice an Olympic silver medallist, and twice a European gold medallist at the 3,000 metres steeplechase, Mekhissi-Benabbad is known as a centre of controversy as much as for his undoubted talent. Most infamously, he is a repeat offender against mascots.

After pushing over Barni somewhat playfully in Barcelona in 2010, in Helsinki in 2012 he achieved a similar feat, slapping the parcel ready to be gifted to him upon his victory out of the hands of Appy – the Helsinki mascot, apparently meant to resemble a mobile app, but looking instead like a one-pint carton of milk –  before pushing the mascot firmly in the chest. The incident drew particular condemnation because – presumably unbeknownst to Mekhissi-Benabbad – the Appy costume was being worn by a fourteen-year-old girl. Refusing to allow a year to pass between without provocation, in 2011 in Monaco Mekhissi-Benabbad fought on the track, immediately after his 1500 metres race, with his international teammate Mehdi Baala. While Baala seemed to instigate the brawl which ensued, attempting a headbutt as the two men confronted one another, both athletes were given five-month suspensions from IAAF competition – though they were allowed to compete in the year’s World Championships.

So in Zurich as the steeplechase drew to a close, Mekhissi-Benabbad once more found himself at the head of the race, and set to claim his third European gold in the event. He was so far ahead of his competitors, in fact, as he came into the home straight, that he pulled off his vest and put it into his mouth before clearing the last jump, holding onto it as he crossed the line for apparent victory. Yet removing one’s vest is against the rules, and while he was initially shown only a yellow card by a European Athletics official, the Spanish team – whose athletes had finished in fourth and fifth – made an official complaint, which saw Mekhissi-Benabbad ultimately stripped of his title.

He returned for the 1500 metres, and won the event comfortably, pushing well ahead of his challengers at the start of the final lap before engaging profusely in celebration as he slowed towards the finish line. While this provoked further criticism regarding a perceived lack of respect for his fellow runners, Mekhissi-Benabbad was at least defended by the always engaging Brendan Foster who, making allowances for his own rebellious nature, pointed out that the athlete had crossed the line first on two occasions, to receive just one gold medal. Perhaps Mekhissi-Benabbad serves as a reminder that good sport is not always acutely sportsmanlike.

British Success Comes on the Track

With twelve gold medals and twenty-three medals in all, Britain had their best ever European Athletics Championships and finished atop the medal table for only the third time. Mo Farah’s two golds made him the most successful non-relay athlete in the history of the championships, boasting a total of five gold medals and one silver. And his triumph in the 5,000 metres on Sunday contributed to the five golds which Britain won on the last day alone.

Despite the contributions of Farah and Pavey, what proved decisive were the performances of Britain’s host of talented sprinters. Besides Gemili’s success in the men’s 200 metres, James Dasaolu came away with the victory in the men’s 100 metres, winning in a time of 10.06, while Harry Aikines-Aryeetey finished with a bronze medal in third. The men’s 400 metres saw gold and silver go to Martyn Rooney and Matthew Hudson-Smith respectively: Rooney now one of the veterans of British athletics, while Hudson-Smith is just nineteen and has emerged only during the course of the summer.

Ashleigh Nelson grabbed a bronze for Britain in the women’s 100 metres, and twenty-year-old Jodie Williams took silver with a personal best in the women’s 200 metres, building convincingly on the same result which she achieved at the Commonwealths. And it was the British women’s 4×100 metres relay team who produced one of the performances of the championships, winning gold and setting a national record time of 42.24. Britain fought for golds too in both of the men’s relay races – the old proclivity for mistimed or fumbled baton changes seemingly left in the past.

France finished in second place in the medal table, still with twenty-three medals in total, but with nine golds to Britain’s twelve. Though still performing to a high level, their hopes of topping the medal table were scuppered as they were routinely second best across the sprints. Jimmy Vicaut’s withdrawal after his 100 metres heat left Christophe Lemaitre to carry the flag for the French in the men’s sprints, and he finished behind Dasaolu and Gemili for two silver medals. In the women’s events, Myriam Soumare managed only silver in the 100 metres, and bronze in the 200 metres. Likewise in the men’s hurdles, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde finished with bronze – behind Russia’s Sergey Shubenikov and Britain’s William Sharman – over 110 metres despite entering the competition as favourite; and in the women’s 100 metres hurdles, Cindy Billaud came second behind Britain’s victorious Tiffany Porter. In the men’s 800 metres, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse got his run disastrously wrong, and ended up finishing last after being overtaken by the eventual race winner, Poland’s Adam Kszczot. The French at least managed a gold medal in the women’s 4×400 metres relay – one of the most engaging finals of the week, as three teams finished within 0.07 seconds of one another, the French team coming through on the line over the Ukrainians and Brits.

With so much success on the track, there was a marked contrast in Britain’s performances on the field. Greg Rutherford was Britain’s only medallist in the field events, taking gold in the long jump to consolidate an excellent summer and a thorough return to form. Elsewhere there was little for Britain to get even moderately excited about. The women’s pole vaulter Holly Bleasdale, and men’s high jumper and 2012 European Champion Robbie Grabarz, were both absent through injury. Phillips Idowu, at thirty-five nearing the end of his career, was a late withdrawal from the men’s triple jump; and Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Shara Proctor similarly withdrew from the women’s long jump, leaving Britain with no representative in the event, in spite of Jazmin Sawyers attaining Commonwealth silver just several weeks ago. Goldie Sayers, Britain’s team captain for the duration of the championships, did compete in the women’s javelin, but finished in a disappointing eighth place.

Otherwise in the field, Renaud Lavillenie in the men’s pole vault and Robert Harting in the men’s discus both retained their titles. Finland’s Antti Ruuskanen threw a huge 88.01 in the men’s javelin; while Krisztian Pars of Hungary in the men’s hammer and Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus in the decathlon achieved world-leading results. In the women’s hammer, Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk set a new world-leading and national record distance with a throw of 78.76. In the women’s long jump, France’s Eloyse Lesueur relegated Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic and Russia’s Darya Klishina to second and third. Russia also missed out – in the absence of Anna Chicherova – on gold in the women’s high jump, which saw Spain’s Ruth Beitia hold on to her European title ahead of Mariya Kuchina, while Ana Simic of Croatia took bronze.

Cooly the Cow’s Rhythm and Blues

Zurich’s mascot, Cooly the Cow, has had a busy time of things promoting the championships across the last year – making over 150 appearances at a variety of events throughout Switzerland and Europe, and meeting athletics superstars including Haile Gebrselassie and Usain Bolt. Amidst the competitive athletics on display, Cooly proved one of the highlights of the championships, remarkably agile and full of a surprisingly bold and playful humour throughout the week. Balancing one evening on the ledge in front of the first row of spectators, Cooly lost his footing, and found himself painfully straddling the advertising hoardings, before righting himself and breaking into spontaneous dance. A few days later, he made merry splashing in the steeplechase’s water pit.

Always ready to thrust up his arms and gyrate vigorously from the hips, Cooly successfully completed attempts at the high jump and the hurdles and, perhaps most impressive of all, the pole vault. He rode a bicycle, slid across the wet track in the rain, and performed all manner of rolls and acrobatics. Finally, he challenged former 110 metres – and still current 60 metres – hurdles world record holder Colin Jackson, but after making a meal of the barriers, could only manage to finish behind Jackson in second place. Cooly has been acclaimed the best mascot to ever appear at a major championships; but thus far the heated question has been left coldly unanswered as to just who has been underneath the suit.

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Four Diamond League events remain on this year’s athletics calendar: Stockholm, on Thursday, 21 August; Birmingham, on Sunday, 24 August; back to Zurich on Thursday, 28 August; and finally Brussels, on Friday, 5 September.

Athletics at the Commonwealth Games; Looking Ahead to the European Championships

Athletics at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow saw over 1,000 athletes from more than sixty-five nations compete in fifty events. On the morning of Sunday, 27 July, the men and women’s marathons began the seven days of athletics competition, and were won by Michael Shelley of Australia – the first non-African winner of the men’s event for twenty years – and Kenya’s Flomena Cheyech Daniel. With no walking events on the calendar, the track and field programme which then commenced was held at Glasgow’s Hampden Park: Scotland’s national football stadium, converted into an athletics stadium for the games. With work beginning last December, and costing £14 million, this involved digging up the football pitch, and raising an athletics surface on steel posts and beams 1.9 metres above pitch level in order to meet Commonwealth size requirements. Eight rows of seating were taken out, but Hampden still afforded space for just over 40,000 athletics spectators throughout the duration of the games.

While this construction work was described as ‘pioneering’, from a sporting perspective athletics at the Commonwealth Games remains notable for incorporating – since Manchester in 2002 – para-sports within the mainstream of competition. The standout para-sport event at Hampden saw Scotland’s Libby Clegg triumph in the T12 100 metres, alongside her guide Mikail Huggins. It was Clegg’s first Commonwealth gold, and she came into the competition as a strong favourite, having taken silver medals at the Olympics in 2008 and 2012, a gold and then two silvers at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships, and golds in the 100 and 200 metres at the 2012 European Championships. Fanie van der Merwe from South Africa won the men’s T37 100 metres; while in the women’s T54 1500 metres – a wheelchair event – Australia’s Angela Ballard narrowly beat out Canada’s Diane Roy and England’s Jade Jones.

Blessing Okagbare starred on the first full evening of competition, as she won the women’s 100 metres ahead of a strong field, which saw the Jamaican former Olympic-medalists Veronica Campbell-Brown and Kerron Stewart finish in silver and bronze. Campbell-Brown was returning to major competition on the back of contentious proceedings which saw her provisionally suspended from the sport, then cleared, after testing positive in June 2013 for the diuretic HCT. HCT is one of a group of banned substances which encourage the body’s production of urine, and therefore may be used to mask performance enhancing drugs. After testing positive in 2013 and missing out on the World Championships, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a Jamaican appeal in February, citing blatant flaws in the collection procedure which had resulted in Campbell-Brown’s positive test, and thereby reinstating her right to compete. On the back of her silver and Stewart’s bronze, both athletes went on to help Jamaica to relay gold in the 4×100 metres. Just as Usain Bolt did for the men’s team, so Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce eschewed the individual events, but emerged to effortlessly take the last leg and lead her compatriots home.

Okagbare, from Nigeria, took her 100 metres gold medal in a games record time of 10.85. Starting out in the sport as a jumper – competing in the juniors at both long and triple jump – her first major success came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when she achieved a bronze medal in the long jump. She has increasingly turned her attention to the sprints, complementing her silver in the long jump at last year’s World Championships with a bronze in the 200 metres. And at the Commonwealths later in the week, she added the 200 metres gold – ahead of the young Englishwomen Jodie Williams and Bianca Williams, both twenty years old, but not related – to complete an impressive sprint double which could prove the impetus for a challenge upon the world’s elite.

Her black hair tipped with pink, Stephenie Ann McPherson continued her rise in the 400 metres, heading a Jamaican 1-2-3 which also comprised Novlene Williams-Mills – running well at thirty-two and having overcome surgery for breast cancer in late 2012 – and Christine Day. The women’s middle distance events saw one of the most popular achievements of the games, as Scotland’s Lynsey Sharp fought for silver in the 800 metres, behind Kenya’s Eunice Sum. Sharp has suffered a series of leg and foot injuries over the past couple of seasons, which have resulted in a leg infection which has yet to heal. Worse, a virus saw her in the hospital and on a drip the night before her final, combatting the affects of dehydration. Her silver followed Eilidh Child’s silver in the 400 metres hurdles the night before; and allied to Libby Clegg’s gold and a bronze in the men’s hammer for Mark Dry, saw the home nation come away with four medals from the athletics events at the games.

Elsewhere in the field, Greg Rutherford backed up his 2012 London Olympics gold with a victory in the men’s long jump, while Nigeria’s Ese Brume edged England’s Jazmin Sawyers by two centimetres in the women’s affair. Closely fought too were the men’s shot, won by Jamaica’s O’Dayne Richards; and the men’s javelin, which saw a three-way battle eventually won, with a games-record throw, by Kenya’s Julius Yego, ahead of Keshorn Walcott, from Trinidad and Tobago, and Hamish Peacock, from Australia.

The long distance running events were marked by two exceptional and palpable displays of will. In the women’s 5,000 metres – won comfortably in the end after an accomplished performance by Mercy Cherono – Jo Pavey, at forty years old and with two young children, finished with a bronze medal. While Pavey’s age and perseverance make her result exceptional, equally so was the performance itself, which saw Pavey push a trio of Kenyans from the front only to be passed by them twice in the closing two laps. When they ran past her on the bell, with a lap to go, and kicked away, Pavey could easily have folded; but instead she clung on and, having regained a little ground, drove in the home straight to take the bronze, delighted although only narrowly missing out on silver.

It was a similar story in the men’s 10,000 metres. Mo Farah’s absence from the Commonwealth Games owing to abdominal pain seemed to leave the men’s distance events open. Moses Kipsiro, who had won both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres four years ago in Delhi, was coming into the games still struggling with knee and hamstring injuries, and he finished only eighth in the 5,000 metres final this time around. Yet he returned for the 10,000 metres, and stuck with the race’s leaders on into the final lap. As the Kenyan Josphat Bett Kipkoech and Canadian Cameron Levins kicked with 150 metres to go, Kipsiro grimaced – and appeared to determine at once that he wasn’t in the shape to win the race, but would hang on all the same and see what might happen. As things did happen, he squeezed through on the inside of Levins and won the race on the line, his chest ahead of Kipkoech’s – with the Kenyan initially thinking himself the winner, having failed to spot Kipsiro coming through on his inside.

Perhaps only superficially surprising was David Rudisha’s defeat in the 800 metres. The Olympic champion and world record holder, Rudisha is still recovering his fitness having missed the 2013 season thanks to a knee injury. Though he attempted to control the race from the front, and kicked with just over 100 metres remaining, he was run down with ease by a sprightly Nijel Amos. Botswana’s Amos, who took the silver medal at the Olympics two years ago, is still only twenty and will undoubtedly prove a match for Rudisha as and when the older man regains full fitness and form. He is already the joint-third fastest man of all time over the distance, behind Rudisha and Wilson Kipketer, and alongside Sebastian Coe. Meanwhile, in the 400 metres, Olympic champion Kirani James managed a games record of 44.24 in taking gold.

Hot on the heels of the Commonwealths, the European Championships begin in Zurich tomorrow, lasting until Sunday afternoon. The absence of the Jamaicans and Nigerians in the sprints, and the Kenyans in the distance races, means that the Championships should see a host of new faces and alternative victors. While Adam Gemili will look to continue his good form after a silver medal in the 100 metres, the men’s sprints provide strong opportunities for the French, with the fastest times in Europe this year belonging to Jimmy Vicaut in the 100 metres, Christophe Lemaitre in the 200 metres, and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in the 110 metres hurdles. In the 800 metres too, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse is second only to Nijel Amos in this year’s fastest times.

Mo Farah will be back for Britain in the men’s distance events; a returning Christine Ohuruogu will compete in the 400 metres; Lynsey Sharp will look to defend her 800 metres title; and Jodie and Bianca Williams and Asha Philip will be bolstered by the eighteen-year-old Dina Asher-Smith for the women’s sprints. The Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers and France’s Myriam Soumare will be the athletes they have to beat over 100 and 200 metres; while France’s Cindy Billaud may force Tiffany Porter to be content with another silver in the 100 metres hurdles. The Dutch are strong too in the women’s distance events, with Sifan Hassan preeminent in the 1500 metres and accomplished also at 5,000 metres.

In the field, one of the battles of the championships should see Germany’s shirt-tearing Robert Harting challenge for gold in the discus against Poland’s Piotr Malachowski. The javelins will be hotly contested between athletes from the Czech Republic, Latvia, Germany, Finland, and Ukraine. Christian Reif will push Greg Rutherford in the men’s long jump; and Russia’s Darya Klishina has been the most consistent performer this season from a competitive group in the women’s event. Renaud Lavillenie will see how high he can go in the men’s pole vault. The women’s high jump is routinely a highlight of major international athletics competition, and will see Blanka Vlasic hoping to fend off the Russians Anna Chicherova and Maria Kuchina.

A Sporting and Cultural History of the 2014 World Cup

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In five parts and totalling about 15,000 words – analysing the final of the tournament, viewing all thirty-two competing nations, and offering a wider perspective comprising fashion, politics, music, technology, and football’s myriad engagements with popular culture – my site may provide what is, at this point in time, the definitive history of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The image above affords a perverse but pretty way of accessing the five articles I’ve posted since the event in Brazil came to a close three weeks ago. They are, in turn, Germany 1-0 Argentina: An Analysis of the 2014 World Cup Final; What’s Wrong with Brazil? Evaluating the World Cup: Groups A-D; Evaluating the World Cup: Groups E-H; Fashioning a World Cup Final: How the BBC Dressed; and The World Cup in Wider Culture. Simply click upon the image or image-section which most intrigues or excites.

Evaluating the World Cup: Groups E-H

France

An indifferent World Cup for France was encapsulated by their 1-0 defeat in the quarter-finals against Germany, in one of the tournament’s most disappointing and uninspiring games. France had started the World Cup in blistering form, scoring eight goals in their opening matches against Honduras and Switzerland. Karim Benzema proved particularly impressive, scoring three of the goals and finding himself an early contender for the Golden Boot. But manager Didier Deschamps vacillated over his place in the starting eleven. Against Honduras he had started as the central striker in France’s 4-3-3, with Mathieu Valbuena and Antoine Griezmann as the wide attackers. Yet despite two goals, for the game against Switzerland he was moved out to the left, with Olivier Giroud brought in to head the attack. Needing only a draw from their final group game against Ecuador to guarantee their qualification for the next round, Benzema was restored as the team’s striker, the midfield was reconfigured, and both Benzema and France were flat as the game finished 0-0.

In the round of sixteen, France laboured against Nigeria with some poor play in the final third, before two late goals secured their passage: the first a header by Paul Pogba from a corner which Vincent Enyeama grossly misjudged, the second an injury-time own goal. Griezmann had replaced Giroud and Benzema was moved forward with half an hour remaining; and this brought a qualitative improvement so that, against Germany, Griezmann started the game while Giroud was on the bench. France, however, fell behind in the thirteenth minute and never looked like getting back into the encounter. Their performance was devoid of energy, urgency, and quality up against a strong German defence.

Perhaps Deschamps rotated too much in the group stage; or perhaps this French side is simply inconsistent, and struggled to raise its game when it most mattered. It was and remains a peculiarly inexperienced squad, the third least-capped in the tournament, with only two players possessing more than fifty caps. While France’s first-choice central midfield trio of Pogba, Yohan Cabaye, and Blaise Matuidi are all talented, they struggle to remain present for ninety minutes of games and currently lack the ability to excel at the very top of the sport.

Switzerland

Possessing one of the youngest squads in the tournament, with a host of capable youngsters competing for places in the attack, Switzerland’s proactive strategy was undone against France, but saw them progress as group runners-up after victories over Ecuador and Honduras. Boasting two of the most attacking full-backs on display in Ricardo Rodriguez and Stephan Lichtsteiner, and the midfield creativity of Granit Xhaka allied to the directness of Xherdan Shaqiri, Switzerland can be an engaging team to watch. Shaqiri scored a hat-trick in their final group match against Honduras, running off Josip Drmic in a more advanced role. Up against Argentina in the round of sixteen, Switzerland reverted to a more cautious style, and limited Argentina’s chances before succumbing to a goal – created by Lionel Messi, scored by Angel di Maria – deep into extra time, with only a minute to go before an otherwise impending penalty shooutout. Having managed Switzerland since 2008, this was Ottmar Hitzfeld’s last tournament before his retirement from coaching. Vladimir Petkovic is his replacement.

Ecuador

Ecuador’s play was focused down the flanks, with Antonio Valencia and Jefferson Montero meant to supply crosses for Felipe Caicedo and the emergent Enner Valencia. Establishing himself in the national side after an excellent season for Pachuca in Mexico, Enner Valencia scored all three of Ecuador’s goals during the group stage, and thus won for himself a move to West Ham, who are believed to have paid around £12 million to bolster their attack. His goals ultimately proved insufficient for Ecuador’s hopes: despite prevailing 2-1 against Honduras and drawing against France, their opening defeat against Switzerland proved decisive and they finished third in their group.

Honduras

Impressive two years ago at the Olympics, when their under-23 side played a fluid passing game before being cruelly beaten in the quarter-finals by Brazil, Honduras took an ageing squad to the World Cup, featuring such veterans as Maynor Figueroa, Victor Bernardez, Wilson Palacios, Oscar Boniek Garcia, and Carlo Costly. They conceded eight goals and scored only once as they departed with three defeats. Their manager, Luis Fernandez Suarez – who managed Ecuador to the last sixteen in 2006 – has subsequently resigned from his post.

Argentina

Much like their counterparts Brazil – and despite possessing a greater wealth of established attacking talent – Argentina were built around one man, in their case Lionel Messi. They began the tournament conservatively, as they played five across the back against Bosnia and left Fernando Gago out of the side. A fixture of Alejandro Sabella’s first eleven throughout qualification, Gago was widely perceived before the tournament began as crucial to this Argentine team. With Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Rodrigo Palacio, and Angel di Maria to choose from for the attacking positions, and utilising a front three which could readily become a front four with Di Maria breaking down the left, Gago was responsible for linking what could otherwise prove a disengaged defence and attack. Without Gago against Bosnia, Argentina struggled, their play improving after he was brought on at half-time. Reverting to a 4-3-3 with a flexible attack, Gago played against Iran and Nigeria; and twice more Argentina eked out narrow wins.

In the round of sixteen against Switzerland, Sabella retained the same setup, but Argentina were less convincing still as they won by virtue of a single goal scored in the last moments of extra time. Sabella changed things for the quarter-final game against Belgium. Gago was replaced in the midfield by Lucas Biglia and Federico Fernandez was replaced at centre-back by Martin Demichelis. The idea was for Biglia to sit alongside Javier Mascherano, and to provide defensive solidity just ahead of two deep central defenders; while in the attack, Messi became playmaker as well as goal threat, dropping into a number ten position to orchestrate Argentina’s attacking play. Argentina were still focused on counter attacking. But with defensive full-backs and Di Maria falling to an early injury, their play became increasingly narrow and reliant upon Messi.

Again they won through, holding on after an early goal scored by Higuain. Then in the semi-final against the Netherlands, both sides cancelled each other out before Argentina prevailed on penalties. Thus Argentina reached the World Cup final without particularly impressing, and without having beaten a team by more than a single goal. Despite bright moments at the beginning of both halves, in the final against Germany they were dominated throughout the midfield, and couldn’t respond after Mario Gotze’s goal in extra time. Aguero, suffering from an injury which had ruled him out beyond the group stage, was brought on after forty-five minutes, but couldn’t offer the width and running which had been provided by Lavezzi. Palacio and Gago came on in the last ten minutes of normal time, with Palacio spurning a chance early in extra time which would have given Argentina the lead.

Argentina took the oldest of all squads to the World Cup, but their key attacking players remain in their mid-twenties and ought to be available come 2018. While they will need to revitalise their midfield and defence, just as pressing is the need to forge a system that doesn’t result in Messi, Higuain and Aguero simply getting in one another’s way, or playing only as individuals in a limited counter-attacking side.

Nigeria

With Emmanuel Emenike consolidated at the head of the Nigerian attack, in their opening game they played in a fairly narrow 4-3-3, failing to break down the Iranian defence as the match finished 0-0. For their second game, against Bosnia, coach Stephen Keshi made some alterations: replacing central midfielder Ramon Azeez with the more offensive Michel Babatunde, and swapping Victor Moses for Peter Odemwingie, who was given license to stretch play down the right and provide an additional goalscoring threat. These changes worked well, with Odemwingie scoring the game’s winning goal. Despite falling to a 2-3 defeat in their final group game against Argentina – with Ahmed Musa scoring both of Nigeria’s goals – Nigeria progressed with four points and went on to meet France in the round of sixteen. Moses replaced Babatunde at the head of the midfield, but Nigera couldn’t capitalise in the attack and – after midfielder Ogenyi Onazi was forced from the game owing to a bad tackle by Blaise Matuidi – suffered two late goals.

Keshi’s position as Nigeria manager remains uncertain, but otherwise Nigeria’s future looks promising. Of the host of young midfielders and attackers already established within the national setup – including Onazi, Babatunde, and Azeez – Ahmed Musa would appear to be one of the best prospects in world football, a regular goalscorer for CSKA Moscow and having already won 41 caps at the age of just twenty-one.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

A disappointing tournament for the Bosnians, who beat Iran comfortably in their final group game, but exited in the group stage thanks to their defeat against Nigeria. Roma’s Miralem Pjanic impressed in the centre of the pitch, and Ferencvaros’s Muhamed Besic – a transfer target for Everton – worked effectively in a more defensive role beside him. However, in the attack they failed to take their chances. Pjanic is twenty-four and Besic twenty-one, but Bosnian captain Emir Spahic and playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic are in the twilight of their careers; and the side will have expected more from their long-established forwards, Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic.

Iran

Iran went into their final group match with one point, knowing that a win against Bosnia might see them through to the next round. Well organised by Carlos Queiroz, their hopes were high after securing a draw against Nigeria and holding out until the final seconds versus Argentina. After conceding twice, however, the prospect of a late comeback following Reza Ghoochannejhad’s goal in the eighty-second minute was dashed when, mere moments later, Bosnia scored their third of the game. The game finished 3-1 and the Iranians left the pitch distraught, feeling themselves to have come close to the second round for the first time in the country’s footballing history.

Germany

Rewarded for placing faith in Joachim Low – despite the considerable doubts raised by consecutive near misses across recent tournaments – the future looks prosperous for the new world champions. Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil, Mario Gotze, Andre Schurrle, Toni Kroos, Mats Hummels, and Jerome Boateng are all young; they have Marco Reus to return and Julian Draxler and Max Meyer waiting to establish themselves; and Ilkay Gundogan too, out with a back injury over the last year, who may prove the long term partner for and eventual successor to Bastian Schweinsteiger in the middle of the pitch. Schweinsteiger is still only twenty-nine, and likely to remain part of things through to the next World Cup.

Germany are not without issues. Though they have experimented with a false nine, played Muller at the head of the attack through the opening stages of the tournament, and won it by virtue of a goal scored by Gotze, still they looked a more coherent side once Miroslav Klose was restored in the quarter-final against France. As a traditional striker, lethal in the opposition penalty area, Klose maintains his position and forces opposition centre-backs to defend, allowing his teammates space. To excel without him, Germany will have to make the false nine equally effective, or they will have to turn back to Mario Gomez or to the youngsters Kevin Volland and Pierre-Michel Lasogga.

As Philipp Lahm’s stint in midfield during the tournament showed, Germany also lack quality in the full-back positions. This is a problem thrown into stark relief by Lahm’s shock retirement from international football. Just thirty, a model of fitness and intelligence on the pitch, Lahm could easily have played on through 2018. Without him, Germany will look for improvement from the likes of left-backs Erik Durm and Christian Gunter, and may toy with converting a midfielder to fill in at right-back.

For more on Germany, see: ‘Germany 1-0 Argentina: An Analysis of the 2014 World Cup Final’.

United States

Managed by Jurgen Klinsmann – who was responsible for one of the more contentious selection decisions prior to the World Cup, leaving out the USA’s all-time top goalscorer, Landon Donovan – the USA started strongly with a 2-1 victory over Ghana. After losing Jozy Altidore to injury in that match, they switched from a four to a five man midfield, leaving Clint Dempsey as their lone striker. Conceding an early goal in their second game against Portugal, they equalised and then took the lead thanks to Jermaine Jones and Dempsey, only for Portugal to agonisingly draw level in the fifth minute of injury time. Yet given Portugal’s 4-0 defeat against Germany, the USA could afford to lose marginally against the Germans in their final group game and still go through. And so it was, as they lost 1-0, allowing both sides to progress to the round of sixteen.

There the USA faced Belgium and defended valiantly, until they were undone by fresh legs in extra time. Dempsey, Jones, DaMarcus Beasley, Tim Howard, and Donovan too may have seen their last World Cup action. Michael Bradley and Altidore will remain pivotal to the team. Twenty-one-year-old DeAndre Yedlin impressed with bold and energetic runs from right-back.

Portugal

Thumped in their first match against Germany and fortunate to equalise late against the USA, Portugal were effectively out of the World Cup after their second game. Perpetually without a centre forward of note, their 4-3-3 formation was but a pretence, their attack wholly reliant upon Cristiano Ronaldo who was afforded the freedom of the pitch. Yet Ronaldo was some way off his best, and Portugal too short of ideas elsewhere to compensate. Their squad was the second oldest in the competition, and their exit suggested another generation of talented Portuguese footballers who have failed to reach their potential on the international stage. Looking beyond the collective age of their defence, even Ronaldo will be thirty-three by the time of the next World Cup.

Ghana

Ghana took the youngest squad to Brazil of all the thirty-two competing nations, and they were slightly unfortunate not to progress beyond the group stage. They were the only side throughout the competition not to fall to Germany, pulling ahead of the Germans before drawing their match 2-2; but ironically they fell just short against the USA and Portugal and ended at the bottom of a tough group. Still, with Daniel Opare and Jonathan Mensah in defence, Kwadwo Asamoah and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu in midfield, and the Ayew brothers and Christian Atsu in the attack, Ghana should be strong over the coming years.

Belgium

So much discussed, so widely tipped, possessing so many players who are established at top club sides throughout Europe, Belgium could hardly be classed as dark horses going into the World Cup. Reaching the quarter-finals before losing to Argentina, they picked up the results expected of them without ever excelling on the pitch. Like Argentina, they failed to win a game by more than a single goal; and they scored late in each of the matches they won. But their squad is still young, and capable of progressing intact through another four-year cycle. Their striking talents may be the envy of the world: Romelu Lukaku, Christian Benteke, and Divock Origi all look capable modern forwards, powerful and mobile and adept at bringing others into play; and they are supported in the wide positions by Eden Hazard, Kevin Mirallas, Nacer Chadli, and Adnan Januzaj. Kevin de Bruyne showed his ability playing as a number ten; but Belgium perhaps lack a deeper midfielder with a range of passing and composure on the ball. Aside from a player who can connect defence and attack and bring some control to their play, Belgium also struggle for options in both full-back positions.

Algeria

The highest ranked African side at the beginning of the World Cup, Algeria progressed to the round of sixteen with a 4-2 victory over South Korea and a 1-1 draw against Russia. Centre-back Rafik Halliche and star attacking midfielder Sofiane Feghouli were the only constants as manager Vahid Halilhodzic proved more than willing to change his line-up and alter his team’s style of play; but Algeria were most effective and most exciting to watch pressing through the midfield and playing balls in behind the opposition defence for Islam Slimani to attack. In the round of sixteen, their pressing and relentless pace on the counter caused Germany’s high defensive line problems, mitigated by Manuel Neuer sweeping up beyond the confines of his penalty box. They eventually lost the game, but only 2-1 after taking the eventual champions to extra time.

Though Halilhodzic has left Algeria to return to manage Trabzonspor – with Christian Gourcuff his replacement – Algeria possess a core of players in Halliche, Feghouli, Yacine Brahimi, Nabil Bentaleb, Saphir Taider, Slimani, and El Arbi Soudani who ought to be able to maintain the high standards they set in Brazil.

Russia

Russia are not as strong today as they were several years ago: though they failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2010, the squad which reached the semi-finals of Euro 2008 saw genuine competition up front, the magnificent talent of Andrey Arshavin playing behind whichever striker was picked to start, a strong midfield comprised of Konstantin Zyryanov, Sergei Semak, and Igor Semshov, and Yuri Zhirkov and Aleksandr Anyukov full of running at left and right full-back. Russia’s captain and key midfielder this time round, Roman Shirokov, was forced to withdraw from the squad prior to the start of competition with a knee injury. So Russia didn’t go into the World Cup full of confidence, but they still managed to disappoint with three lacklustre, overly conservative performances, which saw them manage only two goals and two draws. Perhaps most frustrating was manager Fabio Capello’s reluctance to use Alan Dzagoev, Russia’s most creative midfielder, as anything more than a late option off the bench. Capello blamed a lazer pen directed towards the eyes of goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev for his side’s elimination; but it was Capello’s own performance that was met with derision among the Russian media, politicians, and populace at large.

South Korea

Tidy through the midfield and looking to bring Son Heung-Min into play from the left side of the attack, South Korea struggled at both ends of the pitch, managing only a draw against Russia. They thereby compounded a poor showing at this World Cup from the Asian Football Confederation, whose sides – South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Australia – failed to win a single game.

South Korea are short of a goalscorer. Two of the strangest transfers in European football over recent years have seen Park Chu-Young sign for Arsenal and Ji Dong-Won sign this summer for Borussia Dortmund. Neither player produced the performances at their previous clubs which would seem to compel such moves; after signing in the summer of 2011, Park managed only one league appearance for Arsenal in three seasons before being released, and it will be interesting to view Ji’s progress over the coming season at Dortmund. Still, South Korea have a young squad, with a balance of players between the Asian, the German, and the English leagues, and they will look to build on their strategy for next time.

What’s Wrong with Brazil? Evaluating the World Cup: Groups A-D

This first set of evaluations of the teams who competed at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil comprises the participants of groups A-D, listed in the order in which they finished the group stage. I explore how the teams’ tournaments progressed, and suggest the course of their futures. And in this first piece, I analyse at length the range of problems within Brazil’s squad, which implicates a crucial flaw in the country’s footballing philosophy over the last twenty years. This is a period which has, admittedly, seen Brazil lift two World Cups and reach one further final. Yet it has also witnessed a marked deterioration in Brazil’s style of play, and has resulted at this juncture in weakness on the pitch.

Brazil

Many of the analyses of Brazil’s semi-final defeat against Germany have been wildly or gravely portentous rather than reflective: they have focused on the potential ramifications of the defeat for Brazilian football, taking its apparently sorry state as a given rather than attempting to identify its precise nature and causes. Talk of ‘Maracanazo II’, the ‘Ghosts’ of Maracanazo returning, and of a fate worse than that defeat on home soil in what was effectively the final of the 1950 World Cup, seems both simplified and sensationalist. While reminiscence of the surprise 2-1 loss to Uruguay undoubtedly added to the weight of pressure which this Brazil side evidently struggled against, the Maracanazo cannot sensibly be said to have tormented the Brazilian mind and the Brazilian game for sixty-four years.

After making the quarter-final stage at the next World Cup in Switzerland, Brazil went on to win three of the next four tournaments, in Sweden in 1958, Chile in 1962, and Mexico in 1970. Against Uruguay – the bogeymen of the tale as much as the Maracana stadium or the concept of home defeat – they maintained a strong record, unfettered, for instance, as they beat their rivals 3-1 in Guadalajara in the semi-finals of Mexico 1970. Among the Brazilian people, following the 7-1 loss against Germany last Tuesday, despite the obvious disappointment in the stands, defeat seemed to be taken with dignity and grace. There was little of the tension in the streets which had been posited as an outcome of Brazil’s elimination, no violent outpouring despite the extent of anger felt and expressed in the build up to the tournament.

Looking at Brazil’s success in 1970 in Mexico, however, as much as Brazil’s attackers – Pele, Rivelino, Jairzinho, Tostao – and their goalscoring full-back, Carlos Alberto, remain emblems of the beautiful game, just as praised and equally as important to the side’s success were their two central midielders, Clodoaldo and Gerson. And looking back to their first World Cup triumph in 1958 and to Didi, and to their 1982 side – fondly remembered as one of the best ever despite falling to eventual winners Italy – and to Socrates and Zico, the great Brazilian sides of the past have been defined by their central midfield players as much as by their forwards and strikers.

Even in the attack at this moment in time, Brazil look relatively weak, with Fred a poor target man, supporting players like Hulk and Jo decidedly limited, and Alexandre Pato a spent force at just twenty-four years old. Yet with Bernard and Oscar, and most of all with Neymar, there is room for optimism regarding the future. The central defence will perhaps not be of the utmost concern given the range of players established and emerging in the position; but at full-back, with Dani Alves and Maicon towards the end of their careers, Brazil urgently require new talent. For a position which has been so important to Brazilian football – and which was so well served for a decade and a half by Roberto Carlos and Cafu – Marcelo is a capable attacker, but too often crude and reckless defensively, while Rafael, Fabio, and Danilo have stagnated at club level and are struggling for an international opportunity.

Most of all though, Brazil lack accomplished central midfielders. In fact, it is arguable that they have lacked a playmaker for the position – someone with a range of passing and the intelligence to dictate the play – since the 80s. Italia 90 all the way through until the World Cup final at France 98 was the Dunga era: a supremely effective defensive midfielder, his short passing and sitting in front of the defence came to symbolise what many thought of as a functional but dull Brazil. Brazil’s World Cup triumph at USA 94 vindicated the approach, as it was Brazil’s first World Cup win – and first final appearance – in twenty-four years. Yet that side received much criticism for its pragmatic and unadventurous approach, Dunga sitting alongside the hardworking Mauro Silva, the team heavily reliant on their two star forwards, Romario and Bebeto. By 1998, Brazil had more exciting wide players to call on in Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Leonardo, and Rivaldo; Ronaldo now starred alongside Bebeto up front; but with such talent to break forward from the wide positions, and with Ronaldo able to score goals out of nothing, even less emphasis was placed on the ball-playing capacity of the centre of midfield.

Four of these superstars remained and excelled during Brazil’s success in South Korea and Japan in 2002. Ronaldo and Rivaldo now had Ronaldinho playing behind them, and Cafu and Robert Carlos were given advanced wing-back roles. Yet the centre of midfield featured Gilberto Silva and Kleberson. In fact, Gilberto Silva was always a capable box-to-box player, a lack of pace masking workrate and good positional sense in the attack as well as the defence. For Arsenal, he chipped in with the occasional goal; but for Brazil he was asked to cover for other players, offering running and a limited passing game. Across the early 2000s until the unsuccessful World Cup campaign of 2006, he was joined by Emerson – perhaps Brazil’s most accomplished midfielder of the period, and the most successful for his clubs, but deep-lying for the international team, and often injured at key moments – and by Ze Roberto, Juninho Paulista, and Juninho Pernambucano.

Ze Roberto and Juninho Paulista offered genuine dribbling ability. Juninho Paulista, the most attacking of all these players, had started the World Cup in 2002 as part of the first eleven, but was dropped in favour of Kleberson at the quarter-final stage. Ze Roberto played alongside Emerson in 2006, but he was more of a wide player at heart, and played in a supporting role behind Kaka, Ronaldinho, Adriano, and Ronaldo. By 2010, Felipe Melo was occupying one of the midfield berths, a retrenchment that proved costly as he was sent off against the Netherlands in a quarter-final defeat.

So the cautious and overtly physical approach taken by Luiz Felipe Scolari this time round was far from new, but exacerbated by the lack of talent elsewhere on the pitch. Luiz Gustavo sat and made a nuisance of himself just in front of the Brazilian defenders; and Paulinho or Fernandinho were essentially asked to cover the expanse of ground that lay between defence and attack. It did not work. Yet while Brazil are short of players in other key positions, any return towards an ethos which would see them attempt to develop play through the centre of the pitch seems unlikely given their dearth of midfield options. Luiz Gustavo and Lucas Leiva may be more defensive, but they and Paulinho, Fernandinho, and Ramires offer much the same in their lack of flair and composure on the ball, being primarily runners, all prone to cynical challenges. Hernanes was once the bright hope for the Brazilian midfield, but he is now twenty-nine, has never established himself for Brazil, and lacks pace. There are no obvious prospects on the horizon, with Lucas Moura of Paris Saint-Germain in the mould of Brazil’s other young attacking players.

Mexico

After advancing from the group stage unbeaten and with seven points, Mexico were two minutes from progressing against the Netherlands in the round of sixteen – before succumbing to a late Wesley Sneijder strike and to Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s disputed penalty. Their standout player, the goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, remains without a club; but what marked Mexico above all was their cohesion, emboldened by Miguel Herrara from the sidelines, his 5-3-2 defensively solid and quick and incisive on the attack. While their defensive mainstays – Marquez, Rodriguez, and Salcido – will have played their last World Cup, they can continue to call on their mobile attackers, Andres Guardado, Hector Herrera, and Giovani dos Santos. Javier Hernandez’s goalscoring record remains impressive, but his all-round game is proving insufficient to entice both his international and his club managers.

Croatia

Possessing two of the best central midfield players in the competition in Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic – who will line up next year for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively – Croatia seemed to lose heart after their controversial defeat in the tournament’s opening game against Brazil. Despite thrashing Cameroon, they succumbed meekly to Mexico to finish third in their group. The likes of Modric, Mario Mandzukic, Nikica Jelavic and Vedran Corluka should be about for one more World Cup, but this squad will perhaps peak at the next European Championship in two years’ time – when they will hope to gain from the youth of Sime Vrsaljko, Ante Rebic, Mateo Kovacic, and Alen Halilovic.

Cameroon

Coming away from the group stages with the worst goal difference of all sides in the competition, Cameroon’s World Cup was disastrous. Their preparations marked by a row over bonuses, the squad was further blighted upon departure by allegations of match fixing. Cameroon should possess a strong spine with Nicolas N’Koulou, Aurelien Chedjou, Alex Song and Joel Matip, and they have some capable forwards. But they sorely lack direction and a figurehead on the pitch, as Samuel Eto’o’s international career winds down amid infighting and acrimony.

Netherlands

With the perspective in the country that their side would struggle to advance beyond the group stage, the Netherlands’ progress to the semi-finals – and to a third-place finish after beating Brazil – must be considered a success. It is a tribute to Louis van Gaal’s ability to mould and unite a team; while on the pitch, Arjen Robben proved himself one of the world’s best players. But the Dutch – such a force at international level since finishing World Cup runners-up in 1974 – may have to be thankful for what they’ve witnessed rather than looking forward with renewed hope.

There is the sense that they are not producing players like they used to. While Ajax come foremost in the world’s perceptions about the Dutch game, and continue to be viewed as providing a sort of finishing school for rounded young footballers, they and Feyenoord are equally responsible for providing today’s new Dutch talent. The young midfielders and defenders Memphis Depay, Georginio Wijnaldum, Kevin Strootman, Jordy Clasie, Daley Blind, Bruno Martins Indi, and Stefan de Vrij are all capable. But the Dutch appear to lack an outstanding prospect in the attack, with Robben and Robin van Persie to be thirty-four by 2018. This is after two decades which have seen Patrick Kluivert, Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars and Clarence Seedorf, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Robben and Van Persie alongside Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart, all establish themselves early on the world stage. Along with Depay, Jean-Paul Boetius, Tonny Vilhena, Marco van Ginkel, and Adam Maher are attacking-minded midfielders with some promise. Up front, the prospects are rawer still: Luc Castaignos, with Twente after an unsuccessful stint at Inter Milan; Jurgen Locadia at PSV; and the seventeen-year-old Richairo Zivkovic, who has recently moved to Ajax. The Netherlands will need some of these players to secure big moves and start prospering before the next World Cup.

Van Gaal, of course, is away to Manchester United. Guus Hiddink is his immediate replacement. However, in a move slightly bemusing for its apparent logic, Hiddink will remain the manager of the Netherlands only until the end of Euro 2016. After that tournament, Daley Blind – currently an assistant to Hiddink – will take over, provisionally until the end of the 2018 World Cup.

Chile

Edged by Brazil on penalties in the round of sixteen, Chile were – like Mexico and Colombia – one of the tournament’s most engaging teams. Perhaps the most flexible side in the tournament tactically, they were capable of adapting their formation at will. Through the energetic wing-backs Mauricio Isla and Eugenio Mena, a resolute 5-3-2 when defending readily became a lively 3-5-2 on the attack. Remarkably, of their seven most defensive players – once Isla and Mena dropped, and with Marcelo Diaz and Charles Aranguiz ahead of the back three – not one stands taller than 5 feet and 10 inches, or 1.78 metres.

Mobile throughout the midfield, the 3-5-2 even turned into a 3-4-3 as Jorge Valdivia, Arturo Vidal, or Felix Gutierrez advanced through the centre to play just behind the two forwards. Alexis Sanchez ran off Eduardo Vargas, and Chile pressed relentlessly up the pitch. Chile sometimes struggle to score the goals their football would seem to deserve, but with many of their players only in their mid-twenties, and a committed coach in Jorge Sampaoli, they will remain an enticing side to watch.

Spain

As the reigning world and consecutive European champions fell appallingly from grace – losing their first two games, against the Netherlands and Chile, 1-5 and 0-2 – manager Vicente del Bosque was heavily criticised in some quarters, with it even suggested that he had failed to add a scrap to the successful side he inherited after 2008. While a side can hardly remain at the pinnacle of the sport over such a period without astute management, still Del Bosque erred significantly this time round. The move to a more direct style, with Diego Costa up front, proved ineffective and did not play to the strengths of the rest of the squad. The strained reluctance to field Cesc Fabregas and David Villa was bizarre.

Though the demise of tiki-taka has been widely bemoaned and – more commonly – celebrated, Spain’s failure in Brazil reflects less the obsolescence of the style of play, more how other teams have adapted to combat it and how difficult it is to pull off with ageing players, who are less able to press. Spain have enough emerging talent to rebuild however they see fit. They may stick with Costa as a target man, and utilise the flanks with players including Pedro, Gerard Deulofeu, and Iker Muniain; or with Isco, Thiago, Koke, and Javi Martinez, they have a new generation capable of revitalising a possession-based approach.

Australia

The lowest-ranked team going into the tournament, at first glance Australia were typically plucky in defeat. Yet – aside from the game against the Netherlands, in which they briefly led 2-1, and which saw Tim Cahill’s magnificent left-footed volley – they were well beaten by Chile and Spain. As Tim Cahill and Mark Bresciano – both thirty-four – depart the international arena, Australia’s squad shows some promising young players, but a severe lack of experience at the top level of club football.

Colombia

Managed by Jose Pekerman, Colombia were one of the standout sides of the World Cup. Full of goals in the group stages and comfortably dispatching Uruguay in the round of sixteen, they overcame the absence of their star striker, Radamel Falcao, and in James Rodriguez had arguably the tournament’s best player, and one who drew neutrals to the side. In front of a solid back six, with two holding midfielders sitting in front of the four in defence, Cuadrado impressed while Rodriguez – playing out wide and as a support striker, but mostly as a number ten – scored goal after goal, finishing the tournament with six goals and the Golden Boot. Alas, like Chile, Colombia fell to a marginal defeat at the hands of Brazil after a scrappy physical contest.

A €45 million signing for Monaco from Porto just one year ago, the twenty-three-year-old James is now in the process of completing a move to Real Madrid for double that amount. He will presumably play as a number ten behind a forward line which could comprise Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale. Still owning Angel di Maria, Isco, and Jese, and having signed Toni Kroos for a midfield which already contains Luka Modric, Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, and Asier Illarramendi, Madrid possess a moderately sized squad but with a baffling hoard of talent in midfield and attack. Angel di Maria will presumably follow Alvaro Morata out the door; but it still seems absurd the way in which a tiny handful of clubs have consolidated so many – in fact, now essentially all – of the world’s top players. This is not good for the game as a whole, and it results in inevitable wastage as great players are misused or struggle for adequate playing time.

Greece

Synonymous with negative, obstructionist football ever since their European Championship success in 2004, Greece lived up to their reputation. They ground their way through the group stage, snatching their only victory in the final seconds of their final group game against Ivory Coast; before succumbing on penalties to Costa Rica in the round of sixteen. This was the last stand for the two remaining heroes of 2004, Giorgos Karagounis and Kostas Katsouranis; but also for longstanding forward Theofanis Gekas, Greece’s third top-scorer of all time, who alas missed the decisive penalty against Costa Rica.

Ivory Coast

Moments from progressing from the group stages against Greece, Ivory Coast will see the fading of a generation of players over the next four years. Didier Drogba, Didier Zokora, and Kolo Toure all have over a hundred caps for the nation, and all are well into their thirties. With Yaya Toure looking tired, Drogba remained the talisman of this side, called upon for their decisive match despite Wilfried Bony’s two goals in the previous two games. Bony and Gervinho will continue to provide Ivory Coast with a dangerous attack; they have Seydou Doumbia and Lacina Traore, both on standby this time round, to come into the squad; while a youthful group of defenders and midfielders have begun gaining international experience.

Japan

A disappointing tournament for Japan, who may have expected more enjoyment from a talented group of players, many of whom ought to be playing at the peak of their careers. Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki, and captain Makoto Hasebe are all good footballers, and Japan boasted a vastly experienced defence. But they managed only two goals, failing to score against Greece, and being roundly beaten by Colombia.

Costa Rica

One of the surprise packages of the tournament, Costa Rica reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time. Built around a conservative five man defence, with Celso Borges and Yeltsin Tejeda ahead of the centre-backs, and with Bryan Ruiz and Christian Bolanos running from wide to support Joel Campbell, Costa Rica proved hard to break down and sharp on the break. They deservedly beat Uruguay and Italy to progress from what appeared a difficult group, before beating Greece on penalties, and falling to the Netherlands after more of the same.

The absence of centre-back Oscar Duarte against the Netherlands – owing to a red card accrued against Greece – ought to have been a blow, yet Costa Rica’s defence remained relatively untroubled. However, after playing for an hour with ten men in the previous match, their forwards were evidently worn out. With a good mixture of youth and experience throughout the squad, Costa Rica can look towards building on their overall performance.

Uruguay

Uruguay’s is an ageing and an experienced squad: it was the third oldest and the second most-capped going into the World Cup. Persisting with experience – restricting Gaston Ramirez and Abel Hernandez, who could have added some dribbling ability and pace, to brief cameos from the bench – Uruguay were set up to be defensively solid and to rely on Luis Suarez in the attack. Without him, as they were against Costa Rica in their opening game, and against Colombia – after Suarez’s bite – in the round of sixteen, both Edinson Cavani and the Uruguay attack appeared equally flat. Suarez’s behaviour, while harder to understand and provoking a more visceral response, was ultimately no more grievous than many other things which occur and are perpetrated on the football pitch. Uruguay’s bigger concern will be the extent of the rebuilding they face when the current generation of players retire. Many of this squad – which already looks a little tired – may hang on for one last World Cup.

Italy

Cesare Prandelli, upon taking the Italy job in 2010, had to oversee a process of renewal. Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, and Gennaro Gattuso all retired after the 2010 World Cup; and the spectres of Alessandro del Piero and Francesco Totti continued to dwell, with recalls for both players never dismissed as Italy struggled for creativity in the attacking third. Though they reached the final of Euro 2012, Italy came into this World Cup lacking identity. In every match of the group stage, their formation changed. Against England, they played with something approaching a diamond 4-4-2, with Antonio Candreva playing off Mario Balotelli. Despite that side’s 2-1 success, in the next game against Costa Rica, they moved towards a purer 4-3-3, with Candreva wide on the right and Claudio Marchisio wide on the left, between the midfield and Balotelli at the head of the attack. Then in their decisive match against Uruguay, they switched to a back three, with wing-backs and Ciro Immobile playing off Balotelli.

The only constants were Andrea Barzagli as one of the centre-backs, Balotelli as the focal point of the attack, and Andrea Pirlo in the centre of midfield. Even Pirlo’s position changed subtly, as he was pushed slightly wide or forward from his usual deep-lying role, playing alongside two or three from Daniele De Rossi, Marco Verratti, Marchisio, and Thiago Motta. As much as his off-the-field antics amuse or antagonise, Balotelli is often brighter away from the pitch than he is on it: always capable of a match-winning performance, when he isn’t switched on, he offers his side nothing. Not only his goalscoring touch, but the basics of movement and the strength to hold the ball disappear.

After the surprise loss versus Costa Rica, Italy needed something against Uruguay, but fell to a contentious late defeat – having been reduced to ten men, and conceding moments after Luis Suarez’s bite on Giorgio Chiellini went unpunished. Thus Italy were eliminated at the group stage for the second World Cup in a row. Prandelli immediately tendered his resignation, and Italy are now looking for a new manager. Pirlo, at least, has said that he will remain available for selection.

England

England managed to fall short of diminished expectations, failing to win a game in Brazil despite some promising moments in the attack against Italy. They look slight in the centre of defence with no outstanding talents emerging to improve the situation; Joe Hart should feel challenged as England’s number one; Wayne Rooney’s precise function in the side remains unclear; but most pressing of all is the need to reconfigure the midfield, a weakness for over a decade. Steven Gerrard ought to be eased out of the international picture, but England lack options with only Jack Wilshere and Jordan Henderson naturals for a central midfield role.

For more on England at the World Cup, see ‘A Recapitulation of England’s Failings at the World Cup’.

Germany 1 – 0 Argentina: An Analysis of the 2014 World Cup Final

So the 2014 World Cup final took place in Rio’s Estádio Maracanã, Sunday 13 July, kicking off at 4 pm local time. Germany lined up in a 4-3-3 formation. With Manuel Neuer in goal, the back four comprised Benedikt Howedes at left-back, Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng in the centre of defence, and Philipp Lahm at right-back, expected to fulfil a wider and more adventurous full-back role. Bastian Schweinsteiger sat in the centre of the midfield behind Toni Kroos and Christoph Kramer – making only his fifth appearance for the national side, and his first competitive start, a last-minute replacement for Sami Khedira, so impressive against Brazil, but succumbing to a calf injury in the warm-up. In the attack, Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller played on the left and the right respectively behind Miroslav Klose.

Argentina utilised something between a 4-2-2-2 and a 4-3-3. With Sergio Romero in goal, and a back four of Marcos Rojo, Ezequiel Garay, Martin Demichelis, and Pablo Zabaleta, Lucas Biglia and Javier Mascherano occupied the two central midfield positions, sitting relatively deep to protect the defence. Ahead of them were Ezequiel Lavezzi and Enzo Perez; with Lionel Messi roaming behind Gonzalo Higuain in the attack. Provisionally, Lavezzi and Perez played as wide attacking midfielders, with Lavezzi starting on the left and Perez on the right, but intending to interchange through the course of the game.

As the first half progressed, both teams found the most joy down the flanks, but especially down their respective right sides. The Argentinians had a strong opening twenty minutes: after four minutes, a pass by Lavezzi down the right found Higuain, whose shot from the right of the six-yard box went across the goalmouth ; and at eight minutes, Lionel Messi burst into the right of the penalty area past Hummels, but couldn’t find anybody with his attempted pull-back. In the twentieth minute, one of the chances of the game was gifted as Kroos carelessly headed the ball beyond his own centre-backs, into the path of Higuain, who found himself through on goal. Higuan snatched at the shot, however, and struck wide from the edge of the area when he should have scored. At the same time, Lahm and Muller were connecting down Germany’s right to build attacks, and to provide crosses into the box. While the tempo of the game remained high throughout the half, with both sides pressing and harrying effectively, the pattern of the game emerged, which saw Germany retaining possession in the midfield and Argentina hoping to break incisively.

Argentina’s 4-2-2-2 was frequently becoming a 4-3-3 on the attack, as Lavezzi moved over to the right and made good use of his pace against Howedes and Hummels, with Messi drifting over to accompany him, and Perez filling in to bolster the left of the Argentine midfield. After just seventeen minutes, Kramer had suffered a nasty blow when, running for the ball, he found himself suddenly sandwiched between two defenders, and his head rebounded violently off Garay’s shoulder. After a pause in play, he continued on, but was forced to retire fifteen minutes later, still visibly dazed and being helped from the pitch. His substitution came as Argentina had a goal disallowed for offside, Higuain several yards ahead of the last German defender when Lavezzi crossed the ball for him to finish. With Khedira and now Kramer injured, and Lahm playing at full-back, Germany found themselves without an obvious midfield replacement, and brought on Andre Schurrle, an attacker. Schurrle moved to the left of the attack, with Ozil moving into the centre of the pitch.

The 4-2-3-1 which has characterised Joachim Low’s long tenure as Germany manager was replaced at the start of this World Cup with a 4-3-3. Muller played as the formation’s nominal front-man, with Ozil and Mario Gotze behind, and with Schweinsteiger and Kroos in the midfield ahead of Lahm, converted from his accustomed full-back position as he was last season under Pep Guardiola for Bayern Munich. With Lahm in the midfield, Per Mertesacker came in at centre-back, and Germany played with four natural centre-backs across the defence. This was the template until the quarter-final against France.

After the tense victory in extra time against Algeria in the previous round, against France Klose was restored to the team at Gotze’s expense, and Lahm was reestablished at right-back. Khedira took his place in the midfield. Schweinsteiger again proved himself adept at midfield defensive work, covering ground and intercepting effectively; Lahm as a natural full-back offered more to Germany there than he could muster in the centre of the field, providing much needed pace, width, and attacking intent down the right flank; and despite his lack of ability outside the box, Klose proved Germany’s best option leading the line, his prowess in the penalty area encouraging the opposition to defend deep, allowing Germany’s attacking midfielders the space in which to play.

Yet the formation against France and for the triumph over Brazil had remained a 4-3-3, with Kroos and Khedira just ahead of Schweinsteiger, and Ozil and Muller either side of Klose: despite his goalscoring ability and his frequent forward runs, Kroos would never linger behind the striker, always retreating to make a compact midfield. Now against Argentina, with Schurrle on and Ozil central, Germany’s formation moved back towards a 4-2-3-1. A unique sort of number ten in that he favours short runs and passes and intelligent movement off the ball rather than prolonged possession and attempted through-passes and shots on goal, Ozil is still a natural for the position, and Low allowed him to play there rather than asking him – or another attacker – to drop deeper to retain the shape of the 4-3-3. Kroos was inevitably required to drop a little as part of the midfield two, playing more resolutely alongside Schweinsteiger.

The interchange between Ozil and Muller has been a key facet of Germany’s game, and a highlight of international football, over the last four years. With Schurrle hugging the left touchline, Ozil frequently moved between the centre and the right of the pitch, receiving passes from Lahm and becoming one of the game’s key players. Nobody on the German side was moving with as much fluidity between the narrow lines of the Argentinian’s tight defence. This encouraged Muller also to wander on occasion, and the first of a flurry of chances before half-time came when he cut the ball back to Schurrle down Germany’s left, only for Schurrle to fire the ball straight at Romero in goal. A moment later, Messi again found space down Argentina’s right, and managed to flick the ball over Neuer, only for Boateng to scramble it clear. Then Ozil beat a couple of defenders and laid the ball off to Kroos on the edge of the Argentine area – but Kroos’s shot was tame, and trickled towards Romero’s outstretched gloves. The final chance of the half – and the closest either side had come to scoring so far – came as Howedes headed against the woodwork from a corner taken by Kroos. While Howedes’ leap was impressive, winning a free header just yards from goal meant that he should have scored.

Within seconds of the second-half commencing, Messi struck from the left of the penalty area agonisingly wide of Neuer’s far post. Argentina looked bright, but the half soon settled into a slower, slightly scrappier affair. The Argentine forwards – now playing solely on the counter, and with Sergio Aguero replacing Lavezzi after the break, entrenching a 4-3-3 but a narrower version, with Messi just behind Aguero and Higuain – began to make more runs across and at the heart of the German defence. Germany were dominating possession and probing, but still going wide in an attempt to carve chances. Since coming on, Schurrle had provided much workrate down the left, but he was rarely venturing to go past Zabaleta and reach the byline. Mascherano and Biglia provided Argentina with a strong spine ahead of Demichelis and Garay, and Boateng routinely cleaned up at the back for Germany, while Schweinsteiger tracked back to make several timely interceptions.

A ball played over the top towards the right of the German penalty area in the fifty-fifth minute encouraged Neuer to race from his goal and to punch the ball clear; but in jumping to do so, he clattered into Higuain, with the foul absurdly given against the attacker. After a foul by Schweinsteiger and a high challenge by Howedes in the first half had brought the game’s first bookings, now two fouls in quick succession saw yellow cards for Aguero and Mascherano.

Messi, who to this point had been the game’s most dangerous player, began dropping deeper to search for the ball. Rodrigo Palacio replaced Higuain in the Argentine attack. Two pieces of clever play by Germany brought abject conclusions, with Howedes fumbling from an advanced position in the Argentine area, and with Kroos again spurning an excellent shooting opportunity after a good ball from Ozil. With five minutes of normal time left, Argentina made their final change of the match, as Fernando Gago replaced Perez. Germany responded by substituting Klose – presumably drawing to an end his World-Cup defining international career – for Gotze.

With no clear opportunities presenting themselves in the final minutes, the game moved on into extra time, and immediately became more open. Schurrle forced another save from Romero. After several forays down the left, a lofted diagonal ball from that side evaded Hummels and put Palacios in on goal, but as Neuer raced out, Palacios lifted wide. Mascherano was fortunate to escape a second yellow card for fouls on Schweinsteiger either side of the half-time break; then Aguero should certainly have gone for catching Schweinsteiger – whose command on the game was only growing – with a fist to the cheekbone, which caused a cut and plenty of blood.

As he returned to the pitch and the players entered the final ten minutes of extra time – as penalties looked increasingly likely – Germany scored. Whether Muller or Gotze, the false-nine experiment has thus far brought meagre returns for Germany, failing to extend their play; but it was unsurprising that Gotze’s fresh legs ultimately proved the difference. Crosses having been delivered from the right for so much of the game, the goal came thanks to a delivery from the left, as Schurrle crossed to Gotze who, to the left of the six-yard box, showed exceptional ability and composure, controlling with his chest before volleying with his left foot over Romero and into the back of the net. Argentina fought to find a way back into the game. Messi headed onto the roof of the net from the edge of the area; and after Mertesacker replaced Ozil, Messi struck a final free-kick from too far out decidedly over the bar. The referee played on beyond the allocated injury time, but Germany held firm, and thus became World Champions.

Lamenting Messi’s role in Argentina’s defeat is sensationalist, if perhaps reflecting the extent to which individualism rules in today’s game. Argentina’s top scorer and the joint-third top scorer in the tournament with four goals, scoring decisively in every match of the group stage and creating the winning goals in the knockouts versus Belgium and Switzerland, even on the night Messi was one of Argentina’s best players. Undeniably fading towards the end of ninety minutes, and offering little aside from his late, desperate attempts in extra time, still Messi came closest to scoring with his run towards the end of the first half and his shot in the opening moments of the second. In the first half in particular, with Hummels bizarrely challenging him for pace rather than attempting to hold him up, Messi ran past Hummels time and time again without receiving adequate support. Built effectively around a compact defence, Argentina lacked fluency in the attack throughout the World Cup, and in the final it was Higuain and Palacios’s squandered chances which proved costly.

Germany’s standout players across the course of competition have been numerous. Hummels had appeared the tournament’s preeminent ball-playing centre-back, and scored two goals from headers against Portugal and France, before struggling defensively in the final. Kroos too had been regarded one of the World Cup’s standout players, especially after scoring twice against Brazil, before a tentative showing yesterday. In their stead, Boateng made crucial use of his strength and athleticism in the German defence, and Schweinsteiger dictated the game in the middle of the pitch while remaining so astute and committed defensively. He and Ozil were the standouts for Germany in the final.

Meanwhile Muller comes away from the tournament with another five World Cup goals, and Klose scored his sixteenth in total to break Ronaldo’s World Cup goalscoring record. Neuer has brought new acclaim to and a new perspective on the role of goalkeeper with his aggressive and modern sweeping behind the defence. Philipp Lahm scarcely put a foot out of place. Yet Gotze’s magnificent goal encapsulates as well as anything Germany’s World Cup, which has been brilliant at least as much as it has been, at times, workmanlike. After coming so close but falling short at each tournament since 2006, their triumph vindicates Low’s management; and with a winning mentality, the youth of their attackers, and players including Marco Reus and Julian Draxler to come into the side, this may be seen as the beginning rather than the end of an exciting process.

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The Premier League Now: Newcastle’s Plight, the Advantage Rule, and the Apotheosis of Ryan Giggs

Newcastle’s Plight? Pardew’s Shite!

Newcastle were roundly defeated at the Emirates Stadium on Monday night, 3-0 by an Arsenal side who roamed about the pitch without much impetus, but scrapped decisively in the opposition penalty area, and could ultimately have scored twice as many goals with only a little extra effort. Two points behind Everton with five games of the season remaining, and with Champions League qualification out of their hands, Arsenal are now four points ahead of their rivals and would guarantee fourth place with a win in one of their final two games. That and a victory in the FA Cup final against Hull would mark a pretty good season for the proverbial ‘Gunners’, who are only if habitually two or three players away from an exciting squad able to challenge on all fronts.

Meanwhile Newcastle can look back to 29 December, when they last played Arsenal, and will see that across 18 league games since then – precisely half of their season – they have won 4 games, drawn 1, and lost 13. They have failed to score in 13 of those games, and they have conceded 34 goals. 7 of those defeats have come at St James’ Park, including 0-3 defeats against their local rivals Sunderland and against Everton, and 0-4 defeats versus Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. After six defeats in a row, the club is on its worst run for 27 years; over those six games, the statistics read 1 goal scored, with 17 goals conceded.

Many of the players have given up, and some have looked tired for several months now, but it has long since been time to recognise Alan Pardew’s absolute failure as a football manager. The statistics alone do not reflect quite how badly Newcastle play: they do not quite manage to convey the utter lack of defensive shape, composure and application, and the total absence of attacking intent. To the press, Pardew often proclaims himself an advocate of proactive, passing football. In his moments of private honesty, he probably thinks of himself as tactically astute, capable of setting up teams to be defensively solid, retaining their shape, and effective on the counter-attack. His coaching staff have previously admitted that, under his guidance, they spend 80% of their week on defensive coaching.

The notion that Pardew possesses any attacking instinct is an absurdity thoroughly disproved across his three-and-a-half years as Newcastle’s manager. He has singularly failed to impose anything resembling an attacking philosophy upon the team. His side play too many long balls; but they aren’t consistently directed, the club does not possess a target-man, and there appears no endeavour towards the midfielders breaking forward to seize on half-won chances. Newcastle have too few wide players; but Pardew prefers anyway to shunt central players out wide and to utilise them, essentially, as defenders, covering a lot of ground and supporting in the central areas and at full-back. The possibility of passing football is negated at the outset because – to the extent that they are coached at all as a unit – the attacking players do not appear to be coached to pass and move, or to move with any pace and ingenuity off the ball.

Pardew’s attacking modus has been to simply rely on his forwards conjuring enough goals, hoping that his side will thereby scrape enough points for barely respectable league finishes. He has been fortunate in that Demba Ba, briefly Papiss Cisse, and now Loic Rémy have provided precisely this – but Ba, an effective yet cheap solution in the summer after Andy Carroll had been sold for £35 million, left for Chelsea a year and a half  later for just £7 million, one of many instances whereby the club’s penny-pinching has in fact cost it considerable income; Cisse has been abysmal for two seasons now; and Rémy is on loan, and unlikely to sign for a club who will match neither his ambition, nor his transfer fee, nor his wages.

What limited success Pardew has achieved at Newcastle has been built on defensive solidity. That success amounts to the 2011-12 season, where Newcastle finished fifth, but only dominated teams and played good football during a spell towards the season’s close, progressing into a 4-3-3 system which was uncomfortably tossed aside at the start of the following campaign; and to the first half of this season, where Newcastle hit upon a strong run of form, impelled by the goalscoring of Rémy and the drive and creativity of Yohan Cabaye, then sold to Paris Saint-Germain. Yet this defensive solidity has always proven frail, incapable of being maintained and susceptible to minor shocks. Pardew is frequently shocked by that which everyone else sees coming, and he is incapable of adapting to meet changing requirements. Newcastle have lost 20 games by three goals or more under his stewardship (twice losing by three goals to Sunderland); and have let in three goals or more on 31 occasions in total.

Impotent when it comes to the attack, managing only a defence which stutters at best, but is now conceding goals at an alarming rate, what is it that Pardew does do? The answer is that he does, in effect, nothing; which is to say he does the same worthless things over and over again, without any care, sensibility or intelligence. His substitutions are throwaway gestures, by rote rather than responding to what is happening on the pitch. Recent absurdities have seen Shola Ameobi brought on with mere seconds to play against Everton and Manchester United, with the side already losing 0-3. The Newcastle fans do not regard Shola’s appearance as a treat which makes the previous ninety minutes of failure worthwhile. Hatem Ben Arfa, rarely allowed to start a game, has made frequent appearances from the bench after sixty minutes of games which are already lost; but his deteriorating relationship with Pardew has now robbed the team and the support entirely of the club’s most talented, most exciting, and only creative attacking player.

Off the pitch the fans are treated with the same contempt. Pardew – always quick to aggrandise himself when things are going well – resorts to platitudes about effort, about luck, about things ‘just not going for us’, while seeking to blame others for his own evils. The national media are typically compliant. The club admits to being disinterested in cup success; while this summer may see the culmination of years of mismanagement of the playing staff. With Loic Rémy to return to Queens Park Rangers before moving on to a bigger club, and with Newcastle’s other loan forward, Luuk de Jong, flat-footed and lacking in vigour, Newcastle will be without a strikeforce; and already require a replacement for Yohan Cabaye and reinforcements out wide. But more, it is difficult to see some of Newcastle’s better talents – Tim Krul, Mathieu Debuchy, Fabricio Coloccini, and Ben Arfa – remaining with the club. The squad will require, but is unlikely to receive, profound and astute investment. A club with Newcastle’s long and short term history, but more a support which continues to provide over 50,000 people at home games – the third best attendance in the country and one of the best in the world – has plenty of reason to expect better.

The Advantage Rule: Phil Dowd Makes a Pertinent Suggestion

One of the most controversial decisions affecting last weekend’s fixtures concerned the match between Sunderland and Cardiff.  On the stroke of half-time, Phil Dowd chose to award Connor Wickham a penalty, and sent off Juan Cala for pulling him back – only after first allowing Wickham to play on, rounding the keeper and playing the ball across goal, where it was cleared by Cardiff’s defenders. Sunderland’s manager Gus Poyet called the decision to then bring play back the ‘best decision I have seen in my life’; a sentiment broadly echoed by Match of the Day pundits Alan Shearer and Mark Lawrenson. Elsewhere the decision provoked some consternation, both among those who felt that Cala’s foul had taken place outside of the penalty area, and from those who were unused to or disagreed with such a lengthy interpretation of the advantage rule.

The raw essence of the advantage rule in football is easy to grasp, because its nature is explicated by virtue of its name. According to FIFA, the rule ‘allows play to continue when the team against which an offence has been committed will benefit from such an advantage’. That is, according to the rule, upon an infringement, play will be allowed to continue where it may conceivably advantage the non-offending team. Practically, this will usually refer to a team on the attack; but it is possible that an advantage may be played in a transitional moment, where an attacking player commits an offence amid the process of losing the ball, allowing the defending team to seize possession and launch a counter, turning defence into attack. Where there is no possibility for attack there can be no reasonable advantage from play continuing.

In practise, the rule is often ignored or misused. The most flagrant misuse of the rule seems to stem from an ill-conceived, incoherent notion of the very word ‘advantage’. Often when referees indicate that they are playing an advantage – negating their whistle, thrusting both arms in front of them, and continuing to run, often exaggeratedly and with renewed haste, as if to emphasise there will be no pause to proceedings – they are not actually offering an advantage to the non-offending team. Rather, they are simply allowing the game to flow; or worse, they are avoiding having to make a decision. A flowing game may be for the broad benefit of the general viewer, but the rule does not call for a flowing game. If an attacking player is fouled in the process of making a pass, and his teammate still receives the ball, advantage should only be played if that teammate finds himself in an opportune attacking position. If instead he finds himself isolated, without another teammate to pass to, his attacking partner on the floor instead of on the run and available for a return ball, then play should stop and a free-kick ought to be given. In the same vein, if an attacking player is pulled back or has to hurdle a wild challenge, and he remains in possession, but has lost his attacking impetus – slowed, and closed down by other defenders – then he is gaining no sensible advantage by the referee waving play forward.

Again, sometimes the rule is misused by referees who would abdicate their responsibilities. As FIFA’s ruling states, the referee ‘penalises the original offence if the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time’, and he ‘takes disciplinary action against players guilty of cautionable and sending-off offences. He is not obliged to take this action immediately but must do so when the ball next goes out of play’. Often, however, referees will indicate an advantage as a means of ignoring an incident: where they are unsure if a foul has been committed, or where calling a foul would be problematic – perhaps owing to its practitioner already being on a booking – they will often indicate an advantage without calling play back where necessary, and without taking any action at the next stoppage. The rule is thus used to gloss over incidents with which referees would rather not trouble.

Aside from misuses and misinterpretations, there are other uncertainties regarding rule’s application. FIFA’s guidelines are not unambiguous: they call for referees to take into account, when applying the rule, ‘the atmosphere of the match’, as though a hostile crowd or an agitated set of players should imbue a certain degree of caution; and they seem to imply that it may be preferable to deal with serious fouls immediately, punishing cautionable offences without first affording the non-offending team an advantage. FIFA’s rules consider ‘the severity of the offence. If the infringement warrants an expulsion, the referee shall stop play and send the player off unless there is a subsequent opportunity to score a goal’. It is not clear why – cases of injury aside – the criteria for advantage should be stricter the more severe the offence.

Beyond these concerns, it seems that the rule can be applied, properly and with the right motivations, in two subtly distinct ways. The first is reactive, and the second proactive; the first merely utilises the rule in immediate response to events on the pitch, whereas the second would impress the rule in such a way so as to encourage future behaviour. The demarcator between these approaches is the length of time a referee is willing to allow before calling play back. If a referee is willing to allow only a couple of seconds, then his decision making has to be quick and, to an extent, speculative: he has to determine almost instantly whether the non-offending team is in a position to gain an advantage, accepting that he will not always get this decision right. Phil Dowd on Sunday demonstrated a different approach, allowing play to run on for longer, and being willing to call it back once it had broken down.

The great benefit of the second approach is that it is proactive in encouraging players to stay on their feet, and to make the best of their own abilities. If players understand they can make the effort to stay upright, can attempt a dribble, a pass, or a shot, while knowing that they will still receive a free-kick should they be tackled or their pass or shot immediately blocked, then this will surely reduce the numbers who go to ground easily or effectively dive anticipating contact. If players understand instead that the decision to play advantage is more or less final, and that play won’t be called back after more than a second or two, they will remain inclined to go to ground for the relative surety of a free-kick.

The issue becomes one of delineating advantage so that it properly allows for and encourages good attacking play; without offering attackers too much of an advantage, to the point where they effectively receive two bites at an overly-ripened cherry. It becomes inappropriate, for instance, for an attacker to force an excellent save from a goalkeeper, only for that goalkeeper to then have to face a free-kick from a dangerous position once play has been called back for a foul much earlier in the build-up. Phil Dowd got the decision on Sunday right, and used the advantage rule in a way which should suggest its future application – though it is worth noting that his decision was made easier precisely because a penalty kick was at stake. If Wickham had been pulled back ten yards further out, and had still rounded the keeper but failed to score, should the play then have been brought back for a free-kick?

The Apotheosis of Ryan Giggs

After the jubilation that met his appointment as Manchester United’s interim manager, Ryan Giggs vindicated utterly, once and for all and remarkably, the impassioned belief all in football have in him as he led Manchester United to a groundbreaking, new-era-defining 4-0 home victory over Norwich City – who are, incidentally, a club in the relegation zone and with six defeats in their last seven games.

David Moyes was a ridiculous figure at Manchester United, blundering from the very start of his reign: fumbling in the transfer market before overpaying for Marouane Fellaini; making uneasy remarks about fixture list corruption in an ill-considered attempt to ape Alex Ferguson; then acceding to Wayne Rooney’s every demand in tying him to a new contract. Still, the media’s response to him and to his departure has been in every way unpalatable: from their early forwarding of him as a reasonable candidate for the post of Manchester United manager; to their perseverance in his favour when foreign managers, such as André Villas-Boas, have been hounded out of clubs for doing much better work; to their bizarre and unwarranted sense of vindication and self-congratulation upon his sacking; to their celebration of Ryan Giggs as the rightful heir to Ferguson’s clammy throne. In the aftermath to Saturday’s game, the BBC’s UK website pushed United’s 4-0 win over Norwich as the third biggest story in world news; and for a couple of days ran as the second headline of their sports page with a vacuous article relating how Anders Lindegaard – the brazenly meaningless Manchester United reserve goalkeeper – has decided within a week that Ryan Giggs resembles, as a manager, Pep Guardiola, under whom Lindegaard has never played.

It ought to be remembered that, aside from being an adulterer, a bully and an abuser of the courts, Ryan Giggs has been one of the worst cheats the game of football has seen over the last twenty years. He had it all, in so far as he would dive, make cynical challenges, but most of all routinely lead the charge of Manchester United players as they surrounded, harangued and abused referees. Now not only he, but his partners in crime, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, have all been embraced as great coaches – regardless of the fact that they have never coached.

I recall Scholes and Butt as dullards: Scholes a thug who would lunge recklessly at opponents game after game without censure; Butt one of the worst players I have seen in a Newcastle shirt, always shirking responsibility on the ball, whether aimlessly chipping it forward or hammering it into his teammates’ shins. It would be remarkable that the players appear to be embracing Giggs and company; but Ferguson’s twenty years of success at United showed the virtue of an eminently stupid playing staff, who will buy into your siege mentality in spite of all the material odds, and invariably the referees too, being in your favour. For those of us who despise and would like to go on despising Manchester United, the prospect of the likeable Louis van Gaal’s appointment is eminently less enticing than Ryan Giggs continuing, and hopefully failing miserably, in the role.

Additional Thoughts: Brendan Rodgers, the Relegation Battle, José Mourinho and Champions League Defeat

• Many are too quick to dismiss the notion that success in football may be ‘deserved’ independent of actual outcomes. While there is much to dislike about the club, its supporters, and its overwhelming presence in the media via a horde of inane former-players-turned-banalysts, still Brendan Rodgers has done a magnificent job across two years as Liverpool’s manager, and his team do deserve the Premier League title based upon their achievements to this point and their enticing, entertaining style of play.

Though not all of his acquisitions have proven successful, the signings of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho in January 2013 turned Liverpool around, and represented significant vision and risk-taking: it was far from clear that Liverpool required two physically slight, quick, and versatile forwards to partner Luis Suárez, at a time when many thought they needed instead a central striker off whom Suárez could play. This season, Rodgers has also drawn a lot out of Jordan Henderson, while encouraging Stephen Gerrard to (mostly) thrive playing a deeper role. Manchester City may still beat Liverpool to the title, and they have also shown themselves capable of superb attacking football – and in Manuel Pellegrini have one of the most engaging and dignified managers about – but they have also been exceedingly fortunate with some refereeing decisions in several close games.

• There is little between those teams from 20th up to Swansea and Hull in 12th and 13th; and arguably, in quality if not in points, all the way up to Newcastle who lie currently in 9th. Pepe Mel deserves a lot of credit for West Brom’s recent run of form; while an awful couple of months at West Ham have put Sam Allardyce increasingly under pressure. Both sides should be safe; with Aston Villa thereabouts. Norwich would seem destined for relegation given their two final games are against Chelsea and Arsenal; Sunderland have some momentum, but both they and Fulham may fancy their chances with two winnable fixtures remaining apiece.

• José Mourinho, obliged by the English media, has sought to identify a solid but unspectacular save by Thibaut Courtois – Atlético Madrid’s goalkeeper, on loan from Chelsea – as the decisive moment in Chelsea’s 1-3 Champions League semi-final defeat. So Mourinho and the English media continue a mutually beneficial but vapid and self-absorbed relationship: one which here seeks to assert English football as the centre of the known world, after a night during which Sky’s commentators repeatedly linked Diego Simeone and other successful Champions League managers to a relatively unappealing, unfulfilling, and irrelevant post which would restore Manchester United to the top of the sport.

Chelsea’s defeat was not, in sum, the product of one player who they happen to own anyway. It was the result of them being thoroughly outclassed by a much better side, stronger in defence, more courageous and clinical in attack, and superior at keeping hold of the football. José Mourinho’s manner on and off the pitch demands constant success in terms of trophies, and as Chelsea appear to have attained none this season, his first year back at the club can be considered nothing but a failure.

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FIFA’s guidelines governing the advantage rule: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/refereeing/law_5_the_referee_en_47411.pdf

The 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow: Faces, Facets, and Points of Contention

The finale of the Diamond League last Friday in Brussels brought a close to the 2013 season of athletics. Brussels saw some athletes – most notably Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Mohammed Aman – extend their excellent form across the duration of the season; allowed others to gain a measure of revenge for prior losses; and secured overall Diamond Race victors in eighteen events. This was an athletics season which culminated less than a month ago in Moscow, with the 2013 World Athletics Championships. What follows here amounts to a discussion of some of this championships’ most interesting facets.

Accusations of poor attendance ought to be put into context:

A recurring complaint throughout the World Championships referred to the number of empty seats on display in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. This was a theme taken up particularly within the British press, with the BBC reflecting on the nine-day championships with pieces entitled ‘Moscow memories: Empty seats and a muted atmosphere’ and ‘World Athletics 2013 review: Bolt, Farah, Isinbayeva and empty seats’; the Daily Mail running with ‘Triple champion Bolt criticises empty seats, boring food and organisation at ‘not the best’ World Championships’ (Bolt did profess to being used to seeing stadiums ‘rammed and absolutely packed’); and UK Eurosport headlining an article ‘World Championships marred by thousands of empty seats’.

To an extent, such complaints simply reflect the observations of those in attendance, for there were prominent areas of empty seating particularly throughout the morning sessions of the championships. Yet that the BBC – among others – have argued that the championships ‘will be largely remembered for empty seats and a muted atmosphere’, stating that the Luzhniki Stadium was ‘sparsely populated’, amounts to overemphasis: impelled by a desire to evoke and glorify last summer’s London Olympics; unfair when Moscow’s attendance figures are viewed and put into perspective; and unfair too, and potentially damaging, where it concerns Russia, those athletes who excelled there, and the sport of athletics taken as a whole.

Moscow 2013 was attended by a total of 340,405 paying spectators. This represents a significant fall from the number of fans who attended the World Championships in Daegu in 2011, which totalled just under 445,000. Further back, Berlin 2009 sold 397,000 tickets, and Osaka 2007 sold 254,000. The number of tickets sold for these two championships does not equate to their actual attendances: Daegu and Moscow both utilised ticket scanning systems to determine how many spectators actually turned up for each session of competition, and with the number of tickets sold in Daegu amounting to nearly 500,000, attendance in this instance was almost 11% behind tickets sold. A similar drop applied to the number of tickets sold for Berlin would give an attendance figure of around 354,000; regardless, in the wider context of recent World Championships, the attendance for Moscow 2013 appears respectable.

Further analysis helps explain the perception of an abundance of empty seats. Where Daegu saw 261,792 paying spectators attend its eight evening sessions, Moscow’s eight evening sessions were attended by 268,548 (that number rises to 396,548 when all VIPs, guests, media, and athletes’ friends and family are taken into the account). This is a significant figure, offset by the relatively poor showing for the morning sessions, which saw only 71,857 attend. The dearth of people within the Luzhniki Stadium on a morning time – when heats and qualifiers were taking place – served to establish concerns about a deserted stadium.

Crucially – despite refurbishment in 1996 covering the stands and reducing the capacity from 103,000, where it stood during the 1980 Summer Olympics – the Luzhniki Stadium still has a large capacity of 78,360. It is practise for large stadiums to be configured in such a way for World Athletics Championships that their capacities for paying spectators are significantly reduced. Berlin’s Olympiastadion possesses a capacity of 74,064, which was reduced by more than half for paying spectators during the World Championships held there in 2009. Daegu Stadium boasts a capacity of 66,422; aside from the 2011 championships’ opening night, for which 46,379 seats were available, 34,030 seats were given over to fans each session for the duration of competition. In Moscow, 43,000 seats were available to paying spectators during the championships’ six weekend sessions, with 34,000 seats allocated for each of the five weekdays, and an additional 16,000 seats reserved for accredited visitors at all times. The relative size of the Luzhniki Stadium, and the increased seating given over to spectators, meant that while attendance figures through Moscow were in fact fairly strong, there was nevertheless a greater impression of spare seats.

The shape and flow of the 400 metres:

Watching Christine Ohuruogu gain ground on defending champion Amantle Montsho in the final of the women’s 400 metres, it is easy to presume that Ohuruogu gained speed towards the latter part of the race. Despite being in fifth position – behind Montsho, the Americans Francena McCorory and Natasha Hastings, and the Russian Antonina Krivoshapka – and well back on Montsho coming into the final bend, Ohuruogu’s dip on the line saw her beat Montsho by four-thousands of a second to take the gold medal in the event.

In fact, Ohuruogo ran faster over the first 200 metres of the race than she ran over the second 200 metres. This is standard for 400 metre runners. The site ‘Brian Mac: Sports Coach’ suggests – alongside a wealth of other estimations and evaluations, many based on 100 metre split times – that elite 400 metre athletes typically run their second 200 metres 1.2 seconds slower than they run their first. Ohuruogu often seems to be increasing in speed towards the end of her races because she runs a more even 400 metres than most; and therefore, without running any faster, closes down upon and often passes in the home straight other athletes who set off more quickly. In her own words, ‘I never panic. I knew in the last 50 metres that the others would start dying. In the last 50 metres I will work. I still die – but I die less than they do’.

There are rare exceptions to the rule. The French male 400 metre runner Marc Raquil became well known for a storming finish after an unusually slow start; epitomised in his bronze-medal finish at the 2003 World Championships in Saint-Denis, Paris. In the final, Raquil was comfortably last going into the home straight, but flung his body forward over the last 100 metres to finish in third.

In winning the gold medal, Ohuruogu broke her personal best and set a new British record in the event. Her time of 49.41 surpassed Kathy Cook’s twenty-nine-year-old record of 49.43, which Cook recorded in achieving bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Amantle Montsho’s personal best is slightly better than Ohuruogu’s, standing at 49.33, set at the Diamond League event in Monaco earlier this year. Interestingly – and without it making her a favourite among commentators going into the final – the personal best of Antonina Krivoshapka, who finished in third, was easily the strongest amongst the field. She is recorded as having run a time of 49.16 in Cheboksary, Russia, in July of last year.

Contentious rulings in the 4×100 metres relay:

The men’s 4×100 metre relay final saw the Jamaican team victorious. The success of the Jamaicans in the event in major competition extends back to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where they took Olympic gold in a world record time of 37.10 – breaking by 0.3 seconds a record held by the United States for sixteen years, set in Barcelona in 1992 and equalled a year later in Stuttgart. A gold medal and a championship record followed for the Jamaicans at the 2009 World Championships; two years later, they took another world gold, and set a new world record of 37.04; and at last summer’s London Olympics, they achieved gold with the current world record time of 36.84.

In Moscow, the United States finished in second place, with Canada promoted to third after the Great British team were rightly disqualified for failing to pass the baton within the changeover box during their second changeover. Canada’s upgrade to the bronze-medal position alleviated some of the pain which they suffered at last year’s Olympics. Then – after finishing in third and celebrating what they thought was an Olympic medal – they were ultimately disqualified for having stepped on the inner-lane line during their third and final changeover. Trinidad and Tobago were awarded third in their place.

During this year’s final, the United States team were also guilty of stepping beyond the confines of their lane during their final changeover – yet they were not disqualified for it. As Justin Gatlin sought to receive the baton from Mookie Salaam, he clearly stepped into the outside lane, occupied by the Jamaican team. The rationale behind the acceptance of this, and the failure to disqualify the Americans, appears to be that the Americans didn’t impede the Jamaicans by transgressing into their lane; and that while stepping into the inside lane reduces the amount of track you have to run, and can thereby improve your time, stepping into the outside lane only adds to your race distance.

Yet when it comes to a changeover in the 4×100 metres relay, sometimes more track is precisely what a team requires. In moving to the outside lane whilst in the process of a changeover, you can essentially give yourself more time and more space in which to complete your changeover within the allocated box. It is arguable whether Gatlin impeded Usain Bolt, who took the baton for the Jamaicans’ last leg: the Americans were actually just ahead of the Jamaicans as both teams came into the changeover, but Bolt held a wide line and didn’t seem affected by Gatlin’s presence. Certainly the American changeover was poor, and saw them lose ground to their rivals – though with Bolt pulling away over the last 100 metres, it seems unlikely that a smoother changeover would have altered the result. However, the point is that – with Salaam struggling to get the baton to his runner – Gatlin’s running wide extended the space of the changeover box, and helped to ensure that the Americans passed the baton and finished the race without the sort of egregious and incontestable error which saw Great Britain disqualified.

The relay win made Bolt the most successful athlete in the history of the World Championships. He moved onto ten medals alongside Carl Lewis and Allyson Felix – but his eight golds and two silvers eclipse their collections of eight golds, one silver and one bronze. Michael Johnson possesses an outstanding record in the World Championships of eight medals, all gold; LaShawn Merritt has six golds and two silvers; while for the women, Merlene Ottey’s total haul of fourteen medals surpasses Felix’s, but is comprised of just three gold medals, with four in silver and seven in bronze.

Farah, Aman, Dibaba, Kiplagat, and more:

Moving away from analysis, towards cold and hard, yet still supple and engaging facts, the nineteen-year-old Mohammed Aman became the first Ethiopian to take World Championships gold in an event shorter than 5,000 metres. With David Rudisha absent owing to a knee injury sustained earlier in the year while running in Central Park, Aman grabbed the 800 metre title, beating Nick Symmonds and Ayanleh Souleiman into silver and bronze in a quick and competitive finish to the race. Aman’s impressive season carried through to Friday in Brussels, as he won the 800 metres in a personal best – and world leading and national record – time of 1:42.37. This puts Aman ninth on the all-time list for 800 metre running.

Aman’s compatriot, Tirunesh Dibaba, graced the championships with victory in the women’s 10,000 metres. Dibaba has never lost a 10,000 metre race, in a career which has seen her take three World Championships golds and two Olympic golds in the event. Adding her one Olympic gold, two Olympic bronzes, and two World Championships golds over 5,000 metres, plus a variety of World Cross Country Championships medals, Dibaba – still only twenty-seven – is a strong contender for the title of greatest ever female long-distance runner. Going longer still in Moscow, Edna Kiplagat’s triumph in the women’s marathon marked the first time that a women has retained the world title in the event.

Mo Farah’s remarkable realisation of a double-double – for he won gold in both the 10,000 and 5,000 metres, after managing the same feat at the Olympics last year – is an achievement matched only once before, by Kenenisa Bekele across 2008 and 2009. Indeed, while six other men have ran an Olympic double in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres – Hannes Kolehmainen in 1912, Emile Zátopek in 1952, Vladimir Kuts in 1956, Lasse Virén in 1972 and again in 1976, Miruts Yifter in 1980, and Bekele in 2008 – Farah and Bekele stand as the only two athletes to have achieved this double in the thirty-year history of the World Championships (Bernard Lagat ran a shorter distance double in Osaka in 2007, winning the 1500 and 5,000 metres). Farah took gold in the 10,000 metres on the first day of competition in Moscow, holding off the challenge of Ibrahim Jeilan, who pipped him to the title in 2011; before securing the 5,000 metres with a consummate performance the following Friday.

Joe Kinnear, Derek Llambias, and Tragicomedy at Newcastle

After he announced it solo on Sunday, and proclaimed it loudly and proudly to the incredulity and horror of the support, it was not until yesterday that – just before lunchtime – Newcastle United Football Club deigned to confirm Joe Kinnear as their new Director of Football. The responsibility was belatedly taken up by Managing Director Derek Llambias – the morning after Kinnear repeatedly got his name wrong during a remarkable and ridiculous interview with Talksport. Calling Llambias ‘Lambazey’, Kinnear also mispronounced many of Newcastle’s first-team: Hatem Ben Arfa became Ben Afra then Ben Afry; Yohan Cabaye was referred to as Cabard; Jonás Gutíerrez was called Goaltierrez – sharply ironic given his lack of goals, and Kinnear’s later lament over the midfield’s general insufficiency in this department; Shola Ameobi was dubbed Amamobi; and Papiss Cissé given the unflattering ‘Sissy’.

This was amidst a profusion of blatant lies regarding Kinnear’s own history: taking in everything from the number of times he has been awarded Manager of the Year (he claims thrice, but the truth raises a single finger); his purchases and player sales while at Wimbledon; the procurement of goalkeeper Tim Krul (who Kinnear claims he signed, but who actually arrived at the club a whole three years previously); and his record when manager of Newcastle, which he argues was stellar, but which amounted to five victories across twenty-six games, one of the worst managerial tenures the club has ever witnessed.

Adding complexity to a situation already difficult to comprehend, this morning saw the announcement of the resignation of the same ‘Lambazey’ who so recently heralded Kinnear’s arrival. Thus Newcastle find themselves without a Managing Director. Llambias has been responsible for the financial side of the club, working on their accounts, transfer dealings, player contracts, and sponsorship arrangements. Moving to Newcastle during his time in the job, he has been the central boardroom figure on a day-to-day basis, with Mike Ashley based in London and preoccupied with his other concerns; and it has been Llambias’s role to release statements to the press, whenever the board have felt themselves so inclined.

Through the murk cast by Llambias’s resignation, Mike Ashley’s appointment of Kinnear still seems brazenly and typically contemptuous. If it is taken at face value, do Newcastle need a Director of Football, and is Kinnear in any fathomable way an appropriate man for the job?

The role of Director of Football is one that can and does work successfully; but it is a role that has to be properly defined, and whose remit must reflect the stature and the aims of the employing club. Sporting Directors are the rule rather than the exception in Italy and much of Spain; but while the two job titles are often considered equivalent or at least analogous when the debate regarding Directors of Football is held in England, Sporting Directors tend to work more strictly on the financial side of the game, with regard to player purchases, contracts, sponsorship deals, and their club’s media image and media rights. Directors of Football in England are often positioned as more intermediary figures, ‘football people’ rather than possessing any particular financial acumen, who straddle some line between the manager and the board.

With Directors of Football in England having this foot in both camps, usually being ex-footballers, and often having had previous stints in management, the managers they work above regard them with suspicion and readily feel undermined, while the Directors of Football themselves are inclined to meddle. Without being delimited to financial dealings, the go-between role they are supposed to inhabit seems too broad and breeds confusion and uncertainty.

Where Sporting Directors have achieved particular acclaim for providing stability, it has frequently been for moderately-sized clubs where a high turnover of players and coaches is expected. Clubs like Sevilla and Getafe have achieved relative success with Sporting Directors who embrace a model of their clubs as stepping stones: scouting players and coaches who routinely move on for bigger fees, and are then replaced at low cost, Sporting Directors become the only fixtures at clubs in flux yet consistently achieving slightly beyond their means. If such a turnover isn’t expected or accepted, if Sporting Directors are prominent but don’t come with success on the pitch, then they can be held just as accountable for a club’s failings as managers are, and can become equally the recipients of supporters’ vitriol. The potential for this scenario is exacerbated given the typically higher profile, more wide-ranging but less well-defined nature of Directors of Football.

Newcastle under the ownership of Mike Ashley have suffered under a Director of Football before. Kevin Keegan was so thoroughly undermined by Dennis Wise’s occupancy of the position that he left the club after eight months in September 2008; Kinnear’s appointment in his place helping steer the club towards relegation. For many Newcastle fans, any semblance that the club was being run with dignity died upon Keegan’s resignation and in its aftermath. The club were forced to pay out £2 million after a tribunal ruled that Keegan had been misled by Wise, Llambias and Ashley; who were forced to admit they had lied to the club’s supporters regarding transfer targets and the structure they had forced into place.

I was born in 1986, and recall attending my first football matches before and during the 1992-93 promotion season (my first match was a pre-season friendly away versus York City). Kevin Keegan replaced Ossie Ardiles as Newcastle’s manager in February 1992; and seven victories in the final sixteen games of the season (with a team which had won only six times in their previous thirty league games) saw Newcastle beat relegation to the third tier, which would have been a first in the club’s history. Newcastle won the league the next season and were promoted to the Premiership. When Keegan had arrived, St James’ Park was open in the corners and the club shop was a portacabin in the stadium car-park; owing to him, the stadium’s corners were filled in, the capacity grew first to 36,000 then to 52,000, and after coming so close to the league title in 1995-96 the club were firmly established among the country’s elite. In 2012-13, the club still managed the tenth highest average attendance figure in European football. The facilities and the support are there for the club to be great, to achieve and to spend with the biggest in the world; Mike Ashley is an abject failure with regard to the club’s commercial performance, as well as regarding those performances which culminate on the pitch.

The job title given to Joe Kinnear, the brief description of his role contained within the club’s statement confirming his appointment, and Kinnear’s character and his own pronouncements, all suggest a Director of Football of the type who will be proactive on the footballing side, with regard to the club’s manager, Alan Pardew, and its first-team. Yet Kinnear’s last permanent position in football ended almost nine years ago, when he was sacked as manager of Nottingham Forest as they fell towards the third tier (a sacking which he tends to forget). His four months managing Newcastle on a temporary contract in 2008-09 marks his only subsequent involvement within the game. He would not appear to possess the knowledge or recent experience required of an effective Director of Football. While he has been full of praise for his own tactical nous, tactics should presumably remain the realm of the club’s manager; and the type of football Kinnear is known for is not one which would be appreciated by Newcastle fans. His ability to alienate and upset players, his proclivity towards self-aggrandizement, his diarrhetic dealings with the press, make him singularly ill-suited to a stabilising, advisory role. Any liaising through Kinnear between Pardew, Chief Scout Graham Carr, and the board, will amount, at best, to putting a phrase many times through Google translate with a filter set to ‘Swear’.

Llambias’s resignation raises the possibility that Kinnear is set to take on at least some of his previous responsibilities. Some – treating Kinnear’s re-appearance with a sincerity it barely deserves, and desperately groping for some positive reading – have suggested that, if far from ideal, Kinnear – as a footballing man – represents something of a step in the right direction, the emergence of a footballing perspective at boardroom level. Still, without any apparent financial expertise and given his impetuous personality, it is difficult to see and impossible to desire Kinnear working closely on the club’s finances. Does this mean that a new Managing Director will be appointed; or that Mike Ashley will become more active in the club’s affairs? Presuming someone is tasked with the financial side of the club, Kinnear will take on only those duties relating to the press for which he is angrily incompetent; adding a significant layer of outspoken ill-judgement before matters reach the advanced stage of financial negotiation.

All this carelessly assumes that Kinnear has genuinely been appointed to serve a real purpose, to fulfill sensibly and successfully a legitimate role. He may have been appointed solely out of spite, to aggravate a support which turned on Mike Ashley after the betrayal of Keegan. Indeed, since then, Ashley’s attitude to the club has been invariably insulting and dismissive: cycling through various nonsensical plans and several managers, the general policy has been not to develop the club, but to keep things ticking over at minimal cost, communicating as little as possible, upsetting the fans often, presumably waiting in the hope of recouping his costs. That this is a decision meant to upset is further indicated by the timing of yesterday’s announcement: it is as though Kinnear had to prove his incompetence to a nationwide audience before his appointment was confirmed.

On the other hand, perhaps Kinnear has returned as something of a stop-gap, with Llambias’s departure in mind. There were rumours last season of a falling out between Ashley and Llambias, and Kinnear’s appearance and Llambias’s disappearance are surely connected. With a different title and in a different position, perhaps Kinnear’s essential purpose will be to report directly to Ashley regarding club goings-on, strictly and devotedly however incompetently.

It has been speculated that the confirmation of Kinnear’s arrival was delayed because Pardew refused to provide a statement of support for his new superior. It is possible that Ashley hopes, by appointing Kinnear, to force Pardew from his role – hoping to essentially humiliate him into resigning. Neither Llambias nor Pardew seem to excel when it comes to moral character and self-respect; Pardew certainly recognises that the Newcastle job, which he negotiated behind the back of then-manager Chris Hughton, saved his managerial career from relative obscurity, and that he wouldn’t be offered such a prestigious role elsewhere. Still, for a self-conscious, proud if not vain man, Kinnear’s presence above him must be difficult to accept. Whatever the details relating to Pardew’s potential release from an eight-year contract, Ashley will be keen to avoid any sort of payout if he deems this possible to achieve. It is conceivable also that Kinnear will provide a ready replacement when Pardew does eventually depart. Then again, perhaps Kinnear is being used to take the flak from a manager who much of the support desire to see replaced after a dismal 2012-13.

Among other damaging short- and long-term repercussions, this week’s events and their fallout will serve to take the focus away from the vital issues of squad building and player recruitment. Newcastle desperately need attacking players; as well as replacements for any first-team members who leave for elsewhere, with last season’s vice-captain, Yohan Cabaye, strongly linked with Monaco. Tough decisions regarding, for instance, the future of Papiss Cisse – who despite some important goals had a poor last season, struggled temperamentally, and appears unlikely to thrive given the club’s set-up and in the face of hoped-for competition –  will be cast aside and transfer activity could easily become last-minute and typically destructive or insufficient. A significant number of fans have cancelled online subscriptions with the club and even their season tickets; the only respite being that, despite the tragedy of the situation, it is inarguably also very funny – absurd, but still more funny for those supporters who are intimately connected with it and follow it closely. Excelling in no facet of running a football club, Mike Ashley and his companions do excel in a comedy fallen especially low.

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Here is the audio of Kinnear’s interview with Talksport from Tuesday evening: