Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 91

Harry Kane left looking out of place as system built around him fails to click | Jonathan Liew

Kane tried to play his usual dual role but ended up tripping over himself as his attacking colleagues ran in circles

Perhaps it really was the end times. Perhaps it really was the nadir. Perhaps it really was the worst England performance we had seen in a generation. Certainly it will feel that way to Gareth Southgate and his team as they awaken this morning to the scalding verdict of a scornful nation, still seething at being forced to give up a perfectly good Friday night for that.

It wasn’t an awful game, as such. But given the froth and bubble of the buildup, it felt just a little hollow, a little oversold: like the slap-up meal that ends up being served to you in a Styrofoam box. Above all it was a messy and disjointed match, hardly helped by an officious Spanish referee under the apparent impression that the point of football is to win as many free-kicks as possible.

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Published on June 19, 2021 00:00

England and Scotland share spoils at Wembley – Euro 2020 Football Daily

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jim Burke and John Brewin, with reaction from both Ewan Murray and Jonathan Liew at Wembley

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud , Audioboom , Mixcloud , Acast and Stitcher , and join the conversation on Facebook , Twitter and email .

On the podcast today: England and Scotland play out a 0-0 draw at Wembley. The panel discuss Scotland’s strengths, including that solid left flank, and what’s happened to Harry Kane.

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Published on June 18, 2021 17:16

England v Scotland will reflect how both have changed, on and off field | Jonathan Liew

Old rivalry is now more visceral in politics than football and this match may be memorable only if Scotland cause a shock

It’s hard to convey now, in our splintered multi-platform age, just how inescapably, grotesquely enormous an event England v Scotland was in 1996. A quick browse through the daily newspapers on the morning of that game offers just a taste of the hope, fear, giddy expectation and casual jingoism that greeted the first tournament meeting between international football’s oldest rivals.

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Published on June 17, 2021 12:45

How to support our sports coverage (without asking a billionaire) | Jonathan Liew

The Guardian’s team will be covering all the action throughout this exciting season of international sport. If you like what we do, here’s how you can help keep us live and kicking

Support our journalism for as little as £1

Sportswriting is, among many other things, a terrific ego trip. Perhaps all forms of journalism are in their own way. But there’s something about the purity and the passion that sport generates: that vast reservoir of emotion and yearning you’re tapping into, the buzz of a full arena when you enter it for the first time, plastic lanyard clacking around your neck, complimentary programme (retail price: £8) tucked underneath your arm. Put it this way: to be a sportswriter you don’t have to be a narcissistic, thrill-seeking freeloader hooked on the dopamine of likes and retweets and the kick of seeing your name in print. But, um, it doesn’t necessarily hurt.

Then again, when you work somewhere as renowned as the Guardian, you are frequently reminded that your fragile self-esteem is built on the labours and love of others. The page designer who fits your words perfectly into a pre-assigned slot and surrounds it with pictures and fancy graphics. The subeditor who gets in touch shortly before deadline to politely point out it is generally customary for sentences to contain a verb. The web publishers and social media bods who make sure your article will actually be seen. The in-house lawyers who make sure you haven’t accidentally libelled Roman Abramovich.

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Published on June 17, 2021 00:00

Locatelli fires Italy past Switzerland and through to Euro 2020 knockout stage

This is not a drill. Six days into Euro 2020, Italy became the first team to qualify for the knockout stages courtesy of two brilliant goals from Manuel Locatelli and another from Ciro Immobile, and a display of collective strength that should put the rest of the field on notice. Spirited and united, quick on the ball and ravenous without it, efficient and entertaining, this Italy team has been the revelation of the tournament so far, and here Switzerland had no answers.

There is something of Liverpool’s 2019-20 title winners in Roberto Mancini’s Italy side, a thoroughly modern 4-3-3 formation with daringly high full-backs, brilliant pressing wingers and an ability to control possession without ever fetishising it. Amid a carnival atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico, Italy put the game to bed within an hour, stretching their unbeaten run to 29 games, of which the last 10 have been clean-sheet wins.

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Published on June 16, 2021 13:52

World Test Championship is hard to love but final deserves more than a washout

In spite of everything, final will feature the two best teams – New Zealand and India – and some of the modern game’s greats

The forecast is for rain. Of course the forecast is for rain. It’s the final of the World Test Championship on Friday: a concept first seriously mooted by Wisden a quarter of a century ago, first endorsed by the International Cricket Council in 2010, first organised for 2013 and then cancelled, then organised for 2017 and then cancelled again, whose first edition then ran into a global pandemic that detonated the entire qualification process and forced the showpiece final to be moved to a business hotel just off the B3035.

So naturally, as India and New Zealand prepare to meet at the Ageas Bowl, it is entirely appropriate the Met Office should offer a yellow warning for the Southampton area, predicting thunderstorms and “a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded quickly”. In many ways, a washout in front of a sodden Covid-restricted crowd of 4,000 would be a fitting climax to the inaugural edition of the WTC: a competition that for all its best intentions and impressive logistical gymnastics has felt coldly cursed for pretty much its entire existence.

On current form, these two teams would probably supply seven or eight players in a World XI

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Published on June 15, 2021 00:00

Kalvin Phillips’ quiet excellence offers England something new and hopeful | Jonathan Liew

The Leeds player is that rarest of things, a midfielder who appears to prefer it when the midfield is packed to suffocation

Something strange happens as you approach Wembley Stadium. It vanishes. The sweeping white arch you’ve been fixing your gaze on for the last three miles of your journey suddenly disappears behind a forest of fancy new high-rise apartments. The vast edifice that looks like an entrance is actually a business hotel. Somehow, the closer you get to one of the world’s most famous stadiums, the less you can see of it.

For what feels like for ever, Gareth Southgate and his team have had the satnav pointed at this stadium, this game, this date. Every friendly, every training camp, every hopeful trek to the Amex and Turf Moor, has been aimed at this point.

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Published on June 13, 2021 11:20

My cross to bear: what it means to support England in these divided times | Jonathan Liew

I feel utterly disconnected from England as a nation, but supporting their football team has brought me happiness

It’s the morning after my wedding. I’m sitting down to brunch with some friends of the family. While we’re waiting for the food to arrive, I pull out my phone and browse the latest sport headlines. “Oh look,” I announce to nobody in particular. “We won the Under-20 World Cup last night.” At this, my sister-in-law’s boyfriend narrows his eyes accusingly. “Who’s we?” “England,” I respond. He looks at me like I’ve just sprinkled salt on my cornflakes. “Huh,” he says eventually. “‘We’. That’s interesting.”

I support England. England is by many objective measures a terrible country ruled by terrible people with a terrible past and a terrifying future, and I support England. None of my forebears were born in England, and I support England. When I watch the news or follow England games abroad or read about politics I often feel utterly disconnected from this country, and I support England. It was an Englishman who snarled at me on the street last month while I was taking my daughter to nursery: “Fuck off Chinaman, and take your Covid patient with you.” Nevertheless, I support England.

Supporting England is a more loaded and political choice than at any other time in history

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Published on June 12, 2021 00:00

Italy kick off in style and Bale leads Wales in Baku – Euro 2020 Football Daily

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini, Jonathan Liew and Ed Aarons to discuss the opening game of Euro 2020.

The Euros are finally here and Italy began with a statement of intent, sweeping Turkey aside in the tournament’s opening game.

We also take a look ahead to Saturday’s games, as Wales begin their Group A campaign against Switzerland in Baku. Elsewhere, dark horses Denmark face Finland, and Belgium begin in St Petersburg against Russia.

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Published on June 11, 2021 16:54

Italy make flying start to Euro 2020 with dominant opening win over Turkey

Euro 2020 is finally under way, and Italy are back, and nature is healing. On a taut and muggy night in Rome, a crowd of 16,000 were treated to a vivid display of smart, patient attacking football: a statement performance that instantly marks Roberto Mancini’s side out as one of the favourites for the tournament. And yet perhaps the symbolism of the occasion was greater still. Three decades after Italy last hosted a major tournament, five years after they last competed in one, 15 months after this fixture was postponed in the most disorienting and dreadful of circumstances, this felt like a sort of rebirth: a celebration of sport and congregation and the importance of savouring every last moment.

From the first whistle Italy set about the much-fancied Turks with a restless, percussive impatience. Their press was smart and well-organised, their movement on and off the ball exquisite. And yet after a frustrating goalless first half you wondered if the weight of expectation might just get to them. Instead, with an emotional maturity that has not always been the hallmark of Italian teams past, they plundered three unanswered goals, building an irresistible momentum that Turkey were powerless to arrest. “The crowd helped us,” Mancini admitted afterwards. “It was crucial for us to move the ball quickly.”

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Published on June 11, 2021 13:51