A very enjoyable chat with French author Daniel Ortelli, an expert on all things F1 and French Football, who over a very pleasant half an hour told me how France are going to do in this years World Cup!
Check out Daniel’s stuff!
and his books on Amazon
The French-Revolution-1992-2002-
Circuit Paul Ricard : Les seigneurs du Castelet
Will be very interesting to see if Brazil have exercised the demons of the last World Cup and the debacle with Germany. They certainly seem to be making the right noises, topped the qualifying in record time, a settled squad, Neymar back to his best, a manager, Tite, who is prepared to let the players express themselves and coming into some decent form at the right time.
I’d expect them to canter in their group. Switzerland and Serbia are muck and Brazil will play some samba football putting them to the sword. Costa Rica might give them some game, but also wont have a chance of an upset. Nine points and lots of goals should see them ease into the second round where they might get to probably play Mexico. Belgium or even England in the last eight might be interesting but you would imagine that Brazil would edge them to make the semis. Might get France/Portugal/Spain in the semis to set up a possible final with Germany and a chance to really set the record straight. Now wouldn’t that be some final?
All eyes will be on Neymar, coming into the World Cup at 26 and in peak physical fitness, this really can his World Cup. I am also looking forward to seeing Liverpool ace, Roberto Firmino, and also Gabriel Jesus of Man City. Both players having great seasons in the EPL. Both the whole squad looks decent and although my heart skipped a beat when I saw the name Fred, rest assured it is a new younger Fred who plays in Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk, phew!
So I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this Brazilian team manage to win the thing, thanks to a Brazilian manager who seems to know what he is doing (unlike the previous few) and a team overloaded with skill and quality that are well determined to prove that 2016 was just a hiccup. A big chance.
Check out my chat with Seth Burkett, an ex professional footballer in Brazil and author of the well received book “The Boy in Brazil”, on Brazil’s chances in this World cup.
I think Group D in which Argentina share with Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria is pretty tough. When you consider that Argentina always start slow, a defeat in this group could really give a team a hard task of making it to the second round. Yes I know Messi is the star but we have seen before that this team is very brittle and if hit hard can crumble very easily.
I thought they were well lucky to get so far in the last World Cup, I feel they were a poor team and without 
Messi they wouldn’t have even made it out of their group. Getting hammered 6-1 recently by Spain and only just about getting qualification (once again thanks to Messi in the last game) doesn’t bode well for this years games. They already lost to group rivals Nigeria recently as well.
But you can never discount Messi. The 5 time World Player of the year will surely once again drag his team kicking and screaming over the line. I expect them to get out of the group, just about. With a tough second round game against either Denmark or France that might cause issues to them, and if they get trough that they have Spain or Portugal in the last eight. It wont be easy and it seems every game is a challenge. I don’t think they can do it as Sergio Aguero is carrying a niggly injury and Gonzalo Higuain is a crock of shit.
I always love watching Argentina, ever since the Maradona era they are one of the teams I always root for in the World Cup, always Argentina and never Brazil, so I hope they do well but alas I dont think it so!
Check out my chat of Argentina’s chances with blogger Sivan John, Malaysia’s number one Argentina (and Huddersfield) fan and from the excellent Mundo Albiceleste, the number one English language site on all things football related to do with Argentina.
I really expected France to win the Euros on home soil two years ago. Deschamps had assembled a fantastic squad, with home advantage and Griezmann banging in the goals they got to the final and then it went all a bit flat. Portugal sucker punched them and fair dues for their victory, but I cant help feeling that France let that one go. That’s the thing about the French, be it in rugby or in football, which team will turn up on the day, which team is actually bothered to win the match?
A pretty good Denmark team could seriously cause them problems in the group stage, but otherwise they should dispatch of a poor Australian team and a Peru team who are probably still in shock of actual qualifying. The Denmark game is last of the three, and it really could go either way. To early to call for me. The difference in winning is avoiding a possible Argentinian team in the second round. Or play Iceland/Nigeria/Croatia? A possible semi’s with Germany or Brazil lie in the long grass depending on results.
Overall the team has plenty of top quality players to do the business, and when they click they do put on the flair, and can move from back to front in lightning speed. But losing Dimitri Payet is a big loss, a player who can get the team clicking which Pogba cant do that, or N’Golo Kanté. Griezmann is on hot form though and enjoying his football, while Kylian Mbappe might be the one to fill the void that Payet has left in the team.
Didier Deschamps has surprised me in how well he has done with the French national team, he has got them far considering the mess he had taken over from Blanc and Domenech before him. They play generally good football under him and we dont tend to see any strife that has rocked previous French teams. But it is France and they are hard to predict. Could get to the last eight, but I dont think they have just enough to get past Germany or Brazil.
Was luckily enough to talk to not one but two experts on French football.
First was with Jeremy Smith from the excellent French Football Weekly online magazine and podcast show. Jeremy filled me in all I needed to know about this French football team, their manager, the players I should look out for, and the general chit chat about the state of the game in France.
Second chat was with French author Daniel Ortelli, an expert on all things F1 and French Football, who over a very pleasant half an hour told me how France are going to do in this years World Cup!
Nice talk with Sivan John, Malaysia’s number one Argentina (and Huddersfield) fan and from the excellent Mundo Albiceleste, the number one English language site on all things football related to do with Argentina.
We had a good long talk about Argentina’s upcoming participation in the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia. We discussed their chances, the philosophy of their manager, the football scene in the country, the passion of the fans, and an overview of the domestic league, amongst other things. We also discussed the footballing scene in Malaysia.
Check out John’s social media presence and musings on the beautiful game.
Huddersfield’s number one Malaysian fan!
Nice talk with Seth Burkett, an ex professional footballer in Brazil and author of the well received book “The Boy in Brazil”
We had a good long talk about Brazil’s upcoming participation in the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia. We discussed their chances, the philosophy of their manager, the football scene in the country, the passion of the fans, and an overview of the domestic league, amongst other things. We also looked at Seth’s time as a one time professional footballer in the land of sun and samba.
Check out Seth’s story, book links and social media reach
Book of the week in The Independent
Great long chat with the very passionate and excited Souhail Khmira, who, amongst other things, is convinced that Tunisia will make the second rd…………lets see
We had a good long talk about Tunisia’s upcoming participation in the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia. We discussed their chances, the philosophy of their manager, the football scene in the country, the passion of the fans, and an overview of the domestic league, amongst other things.
Check out Souhail’s stuff on football in Tunisia
Great long chat with Marc Boal from the excellent Icelandic Football Magazine
We had a good long chat about Iceland’s upcoming participation in the Fifa 2018 World Cup in Russia. We discussed their chances, the reasons behind their recent successes, the football scene in the country, the scramble for tickets or not, and an overview of the domestic league, amongst other things.
Check out Marc’s stuff on football in Iceland
Brewed by Stuttgarter Hofbräu Brau AG & Co. (Oetker Group)
Style: Radler/Shandy
Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
http://www.stuttgarter-hofbraeu.de
Established in 1872, Stuttgarter Hofbräu is a brewery located in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany not too far from neighbours France and Switzerland.
As of January 1, 2010, the Radeberger Group, a division of the Oetker Group, those of the cheap beer variety, took complete control of the company, but with Stuttgarter Hofbräu Brau still retaining its sense of clear city and regional identity, albeit as the small wheel in the cog of a large brewing conglomerate. It is still viewed as the traditional beer kings of the city of Stuttgart.
The new takeover has definitely produced results as production is up, market share has increased and the brewery is expanding.
Stuttgarter Hofbräu brew Pilsners, Exports, Radlers, non-alcoholic beers, wheat beers and the occasional seasonal and festive beer.
Review: 0,5l, a nice colourful can of Stuttgarter Hofbräu Naturtrübes Radler: ABV. 2% vol
The logo looks well funny to me, as the “Stuttgarter” looks like “Gtuttgarter” to me, with a big fat “g”, but I have no idea why it looks like that.
Anyway, I thought I would try something new, a little bit of a light tasting beer for a change. Apparently this is made up of 40% beer and 60% natural lemonade, according to the label.
The aroma is as you’d expect, full on lemony, very nice though, very nice. I do love the smell of lemons and citrus. Pleasant on the nose, tops marks here.
As for appearance not so good. Looks shite, light yellowish colour, looks like piss to be perfectly frank with no head but to be fair is there ever for a radler? Looks shit, but there u go, par for the course for a radler.
Found the taste to be very, very nice, a very nice sweet taste. Of course it was all lemon, a very nice lemon taste. But not so sweet as it was very manageable, and very smooth and easy to drink. Exactly what I was after during the hot weather we were having.
Got a LOT in the can.
A thumbs up for the taste, albeit I am not so sure there is even alcohol present. Is it possible to taste 2% alcohol anyway?
Citrus/lemon flavoured, lovely to drink. On their site they say it is free from artificial sweeteners and preservatives, I’d well believe it. Didn’t feel metallic or chemically influenced.
Tastes like a lemon n lime but it is a radler that did the trick. Free from artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Liked it, and if i have to drink a radler again then hopefully I can pick this one up. A big thumbs up.
Brewed by Warsteiner Brauerei
Style: German Pilsener
Warstein, Germany.
http://www.warsteiner.com/our-beer/premium-beer/
The Warsteiner Brewery was founded in 1753, and today is one of the largest privately held breweries in Germany and in the top five of the country’s best selling breweries. Its most popular beer is Warsteiner Premium Verum or also known as Warsteiner Premium German Pilsener, which is one of Germany’s leading premium pilsener brands.
Warsteiner beer is brewed in the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park outside of the town of Warstein, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany. Warsteiner has been privately owned by the Cramer family since 1753, and is now in its 9th generation of family ownership under the guidance of Catharina Cramer.
The company also sells Premium Cola, Premium Lemon and Premium Orange drinks, to appeal to the kids, you know! For beer, apart from its flagship Pilsener, it also sells the usual Dunkels, Hefeweizen’s, a special seasonal beer for the Oktoberfest, and non alcoholic drinks. All beers are brewed in strict accordance with the Germany Purity Law of 1516, naturally! The non alcoholic beer is interesting as they brew it as a Pilsener and then proceed to extract the alcohol content. There has to be better ways of doing that?
Warsteiner is the official beer of Lufthansa and served on all flights, which is great so long as the pilots are not on it.
Review: 0,5l, a nice can of Warsteiner Premium German Pilsener: ABV. 4.8% vol
Can also be known as Warsteiner Premium Verum, it is Warsteiner’s most popular beer, and exported to over 60 countries.
In a nice light brownish coloured can with the famous and striking Warsteiner logo of the crown with the slogan “Eine Königin unter den Bieren” (“A Queen amongst Beers”).
On pour got a nice decent frothy white head of beer with a light golden colour, a nice looking beer. Not a bad looking beer.
A very beery lagery smell, malty but light enough on the nose.
Good initial soft taste. Very smooth, very easy to drink. Slight grainy taste.
Bit of an aftertaste that is apparent in the back end. Light enough though.
Very smooth, nice and clean, easy to drink.
Would be nice to have a kick or a stronger taste though as it is a little too mild for me.
2nd can.
Slight grassy taste. Creamy and malty. Frothy mouthful. Very smooth.
No real kick, little alcohol to be tasted. Very watery too.
After an initial flurry of excitement it all got a little bit boring and generic in the end. Ok beer, could be better.
