Volley

Twenty-three year old James Rodriguez became the most expensive Colombian footballer of all time yesterday when the former Monaco attacker was unveiled as Real Madrid’s latest Galactico. Rodriguez marked his coming out ceremony at the Estadio Bernabeu by kicking footballs into the crowd and saving one exuberant spectator from being …

Chapter 4: How Mobsters João and Ricardo got rich  Baur au Lac hotel,Zurich October 2010 ‘Mr Teixeira, Mr ‘Teixeira!’ Ricardo turns to look. It is a scruffy, grey-haired man in a Joe Colombo-style beige raincoat shouting at him from the hotel gateway. ‘Mr Teixeira, did you take your bribes through …

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) continues to operate at the edge of financial ruin as, despite general secretary Sheldon Phillips’ sunny disposition, the local football body seems clueless about how to pay its bills while it allegedly dodges debtors. In January 2014, TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee agreed …

Trinidad and Tobago national football team head coach Stephen Hart admitted that the “Soca Warriors” will struggle to keep up with its rivals if the present financial woes continue. Last month, Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president Raymond Tim Kee and general secretary Sheldon Phillips promised camps for the …

Earl Best discusses the new skipper’s support after the five-match New Zealand series And so, it is over. I refer, of course, both to the New Zealand versus the West Indies series which sought in vain to divert our attention from Brazil and to the 2014 World Cup that was …

Am I my World Cup brother’s (goal)keeper? Earl Best tackles a delicate subject with all the tact and finesse of an elephant in the Serengeti…or a police raid Behind the Bridge: There is a very real resemblance between Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi, the tall, handsome, articulate, intelligent, talented, black, francophone pair of …

So the ruthless Germans have won the Cup after all? It wasn’t the outcome Wired868 expert Lasana Liburd foresaw. But he has now decreed that tiki-kaiser shall henceforth succeed tiki-taka as football’s dominant style. Liburd’s opinion dovetails with the post-final view expressed by TV6’s Sweet Samba guru Keith Look Loy. …

Presumably, the German footballers passed the World Cup trophy around at a good tempo with no unnecessary showboating or fumbles. The 2014 World Cup belonged to the efficient, unrelenting Germans in the end. And the baby-faced assassin Mario Götze, who drew ire last year for ditching boyhood club, Borussia Dortmund, …

What players have left their individual stamp on the Brazil 2014 World Cup? Colombia’s James Rodriguez, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Brazil’s Neymar, Germany’s Manuel Neuer and Netherlands’ Arjen Robben comes to mind. But no player has been at the epicentre of his team’s tactics as well the opposition’s as much Messi. …

Hopefully, the Brazilian football federation will locate the black box one day. Never in the history of the World Cup has a host team faced the embarrassment suffered by Brazil, the five-time champions, over the past five days. This was more tiki-torture than tiki-taka. It is one thing to have …

If yesterday’s 2014 World Cup semi-final was a sumptuous feast—albeit a bit rich for Brazilian football fans—then today’s affair was rice and patchoi; unsavoury and forgettable but good enough to take you where you want to go. And, for Lionel Messi and his band of brothers, the next stop is …

Not since the horror trilogy, “Hostel”, has an unsuspecting tourist stumbled into such a mess. Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar left Piarco International Airport for Brazil yesterday evening to enjoy today’s 2014 World Cup semifinal match with her grandson. If her grandson happens to be younger than 18, …