The Fußball Chatter

The Netherlands are back in the World Cup. Following their failure to qualify for Euro 2016, they also failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Finishing third in their group, behind France who qualified as group winners and Sweden, who finished in the playoff spot with a superior goal difference. They have had a clear road to recovery firstly under Ronald Koeman and now under Louis van Gaal. For van Gaal, this will be his second World Cup with a good crop of players like Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt and Cody Gakpo. They have big shoes to fill as Oranje  reached the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup losing to Argentina on penalties. Let's take a look at their last starting team from the 2014 World Cup. Which was a 3-0 win over Brazil in the third-place playoff. GOALKEEPER: JASPER CILLESSEN The Netherlands' starting goalkeeper over the tournament, Jasper Cillessen conceded four goals, with only one goal coming in the knockout stages. Despite being

The UEFA Champions League makes its return as the first round of group games taking place on the 6th and 7th of September. This season's Champions League is going to be very different. Due to the World Cup taking place in November, all group games will be held from the 6th-7th of September to the 1st-2nd of November. Within the space of just two months, congesting the fixture list. Here is a preview of all eight groups and where they will likely finish by November. GROUP A: AJAX, LIVERPOOL, NAPOLI & RANGERS Group A would be interesting given all four teams' changes during the off-season. Ajax retained their Eredivisie title but many of their key players and manager Erik ten Hag have all left the Johan Cruyff Arena. Now, they have Alfred Schreuder as their new manager and had their biggest transfer spree ever . Despite experiencing these situations occasionally, the heavy turnover plus the change of manager could hamper their chances of making out of the group but Ajax wil