Colombia have talent all over the pitch. Their back line is led by two young and already studly central defenders, their midfield options offer a good mix of defensive solidity and experience with attacking verve and youth, their striker is great and so is their right winger. So it’s not like James Rodríguez, the…

For most teams in the competition, the World Cup is an opportunity. Once a team has qualified for the big tournament, they then set their sights on what success at the World Cup would look like, and then they endeavor to go realize that success. What counts as success of course varies from country to country. For some…

National identities in soccer are real. Mostly they emerge from the styles of play and the youth coaching methods that predominate in any given country’s soccer setup, and the values those styles and methods reflect. There is a reason why Brazil are almost always led by graceful and expressive attackers, and why…

The 2018 World Cup has now commenced. Just because the USMNT blows and didn’t make the tournament, that’s no reason for you not to pay attention to the best sporting event on the planet. Here’s everything you absolutely must know about Group G, all in one neat little video.

The 2018 World Cup has now commenced. Just because the USMNT blows and didn’t make the tournament, that’s no reason for you not to pay attention to the best sporting event on the planet. Here’s everything you absolutely must know about Group F, all in one neat little video.

The 2018 World Cup has now commenced. Just because the USMNT blows and didn’t make the tournament, that’s no reason for you not to pay attention to the best sporting event on the planet. Here’s everything you absolutely must know about Group E, all in one neat little video.

The 2018 World Cup has now commenced. Just because the USMNT blows and didn’t make the tournament, that’s no reason for you not to pay attention to the best sporting event on the planet. Here’s everything you absolutely must know about Group D, all in one neat little video.

It’s probably too strong to say Poland are enjoying their own Golden Generation, on par with the likes of France and Belgium, but the current iteration of the squad is looking better than it has since the mid-80s.

The 2018 World Cup has now commenced. Just because the USMNT blows and didn’t make the tournament, that’s no reason for you not to pay attention to the best sporting event on the planet. Here’s everything you absolutely must know about Group C, all in one neat little video.

The Japanese national team is built around an extremely solid core group of 30-somethings who have all proven themselves at the highest levels of European soccer. This is probably their last shot at World Cup glory, though they have a steep road ahead of them if they want to qualify past Colombia, Poland, and Senegal.…

Despite regularly producing players who are good enough to play in top European leagues, Senegal will be making just its second-ever World Cup appearance this year. This is good news for fans who want to see extremely cool players do extremely cool things, because there are some fun guys on this squad. The only…

The World Cup: truly a tradition unlike any other, except I guess for the Olympics which it is kind of like in the sense that a bunch of people who only care about a thing every four years suddenly care about it so much. Most of the world, of course, cares about soccer a great deal all the time, but the two people…

Serbia’s proud history of cultivating the talents of exceptional soccer players is only surpassed by their inglorious history of choking in embarrassing fashion once those exceptional Serbs all get together with the national team. This Serbian team is even more stacked than usual. Hopefully that talent will finally…

The 2018 World Cup kicks off tomorrow. Just because the USMNT blows and didn’t make the tournament, that’s no reason for you not to pay attention to the best sporting event on the planet. Here’s everything you absolutely must know about Group B, all in one neat little video.

The word “underachievers” will haunt this Belgium group for the rest of their lives unless they seriously impress at this World Cup. Even just a glance at their roster should strike fear into most opponents’ hearts, but in practice, this dream team has yet to really gel, playing much more like a loose collection of…

The 2018 World Cup kicks off tomorrow. Just because the USMNT blows and didn’t make the tournament, that’s no reason for you not to pay attention to the best sporting event on the planet. Here’s everything you absolutely must know about Group A, all in one neat little video.

Everyone welcome Tunisia back to the World Cup! They haven’t been here since 2006, and they will go to Russia seeking to win their first Wold Cup match in 40 years. They, uh, probably won’t get it.

Four years after a disappointing showing in Brazil, South Korea had the great misfortune of being drawn into a very tough group in Russia. The Taegeuk Warriors have enviable top-end talent in Son Heung-min and Ki Sung-yueng, and if they had been drawn into the groups that their fellow Asian qualifiers like Australia,…

For years now, there hasn’t been much to do but laugh at England’s performances on the world stage. The so-called Golden Generation won nothing, and the 2014 World Cup team didn’t even make it out of their group. England did manage to make it to the Round of 16 in the 2016 Euros, but ended up getting knocked out of…

Swiss fans don’t have much room for optimism at this World Cup. While the squad Switzerland will take to Russia is perfectly adequate, and though the team had the good fortune of being drawn into a pretty manageable group, the presence of a couple superteams surrounding them greatly limits their likely outcomes.…