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All James Horncastle posts on WhoScored.com Articles RSS

Player Focus: Maturing Cassano Ready For World Cup Challenge

by James Horncastle at Tuesday, Jun 3 2014 15:42
Player Focus: Maturing Cassano Ready For World Cup Challenge Until recently, Antonio Cassano didn’t believe he had any realistic hope of making Italy’s squad for the World Cup. Back in the spring he gave himself a “zero percent” chance of participating. “I think about Brazil,” he joked. “It’s a beautiful country...
Categories: Player Focus

Player Focus: Rômulo's Remarkable Rise to Azzurri Call-Up

by James Horncastle at Friday, May 16 2014 13:48
Player Focus: Rômulo's Remarkable Rise to Azzurri Call-Up Chapecó isn’t too far from the Paraguayan border. And so when Rômulo wasn’t playing for the town’s club, he would make the crossing. “I bought perfumes, creams and other things,” he revealed to La Gazzetta dello Sport, “then I sold them again in Brazi...
Categories: Player Focus

Player Focus: Mario Balotelli and Italy's Striker Situation

by James Horncastle at Tuesday, Apr 29 2014 16:42
Player Focus: Mario Balotelli and Italy's Striker Situation “Pure nihilism,” huffed Zvoni Boban. The Milan great had become exasperated with Mario Balotelli. His opinion was that the striker had played like he didn’t care on Friday night. Against Roma, he had walked around the pitch indolently. Existential questions were posed. Didn’t...

Player Focus: Handanovic's Penalty Saving Heroics Continue

by James Horncastle at Wednesday, Apr 23 2014 12:21
Player Focus: Handanovic's Penalty Saving Heroics Continue “Son of a…!” cursed Antonio Cassano as the players went back to the dressing room at half-time. He couldn’t believe it. Moments before the interval, the Parma No.99 had been stood at the penalty spot facing his former teammate, the Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic. It was 0...
Categories: Player Focus

Player Focus: Paloschi Giving Himself a Chance of Going to Brazil

by James Horncastle at Thursday, Apr 17 2014 09:48
Player Focus: Paloschi Giving Himself a Chance of Going to Brazil Seven years ago, La Gazzetta dello Sport’s weekend supplement Sportweek predicted what Italy’s first team would look like at the 2014 World Cup. Features like this almost always leave the publication in question open to ridicule and this was no different. Hindsight after all is a wonderf...
Categories: Player Focus

Player Focus: Can Pirlo and Verratti Play Together?

by James Horncastle at Wednesday, Apr 9 2014 12:08
Player Focus: Can Pirlo and Verratti Play Together? On Saturday afternoon, Andrea Pirlo appeared on Radio Deejay Football Club. The presenters, Ivan Zazzaroni, Guerin Sportivo’s former editor, and Fabio Caressa, Italy’s foremost commentator, touched upon many subjects in their interview. They covered his free-kick taking technique, why he...
Categories: Player Focus

Team Focus: Relentless Juventus Building From the Back

by James Horncastle at Friday, Apr 4 2014 13:16
Team Focus: Relentless Juventus Building From the Back It wasn’t the most original idea. Many had thought of it and tried it before him. But Lyon coach Remi Garde still focused much of his preparation for the first leg of Thursday night’s Europa League quarter final against Juventus around it. The gist of his game plan seemed to be: stop And...
Categories: Team Focus

Team Focus: Record Breaking Parma Dream of a Return to Europe

by James Horncastle at Wednesday, Mar 26 2014 11:41
Team Focus: Record Breaking Parma Dream of a Return to Europe Parma were undone by a ‘Quagliarellata’. A wonder strike that came out of nowhere. Juventus hadn’t scored from open play at the Ennio Tardini in six years. Something special was required. Who else but Fabio Quagliarella duly provided it. Thirty-five yards out with his back to goal ...
Categories: Team Focus

Player Focus: Mazzarri Showing a Lack of Faith in Kovacic

by James Horncastle at Friday, Mar 14 2014 12:14
Player Focus: Mazzarri Showing a Lack of Faith in Kovacic Before Croatia’s friendly with Switzerland in St. Gallen last week, Mateo Kovacic faced the local media. Just over a year had passed since his coach at Dinamo Zagreb, Krunoslav Jurcic had pulled the teenager to one side during a training camp in Bosnia and told him to pack a bag. He was moving...
Categories: Player Focus

Player Focus: Mustafi No Longer Germany's Mr Unknown

by James Horncastle at Wednesday, Mar 5 2014 10:20
Player Focus: Mustafi No Longer Germany's Mr Unknown When Joachim Löw announced his Germany squad to play Chile in Stuttgart on Wednesday, many of the journalists ran their fingers down the list, got to the name of Sampdoria’s Shkodran Mustafi and asked: “Who?” Theirs was a common reaction across Germany. When Kicker ran a piece...
Categories: Player Focus