With three national languages and a Spanish coach who speaks none of them, their World Cup camp might be a feuding Tower of Babel, but Roberto Martinez has forged a harmony he is proud to say makes Belgium “boring.”
A common language of English unites a star-studded squad in which only one man still plays in the domestic Belgian league, China-based midfielder Axel Witsel told reporters on Friday ahead of yesterday’s Group G match against Tunisia.
“There’s no problem,” Witsel said. “We are Belgium. We are all together and that’s the most important thing.”
Photo: AFP
Disappointments at past major tournaments have been marked by recriminations that reflect both a super-abundance of talent — with egos to match — and longstanding divisions between Belgium’s French and Dutch-speaking halves.
It was Martinez’s record of forging disciplined team units in the English Premier League that helped get him hired after Marc Wilmots, Belgium’s top World Cup goalscorer, failed to lead them beyond the quarter-finals in Brazil and at Euro 2016.
And it was a mark of the Spaniard’s determination to put internal peace above personality that he withstood a storm of abuse from Belgian fans to leave behind Radja Nainggolan, saying the vocal Roma maestro would simply not fit in to a squad where he would play second fiddle to Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard.
When reporters probed for a story on the controversy, asking Witsel if Nainggolan had been in touch with the squad in Russia, Witsel refused to answer.
Prodded about the comparative lack of controversy coming out of the camp, Martinez made no excuses: “We do want to be boring. We are a football team.”
“We’re not here to bring stories or try to fill pages for the wrong reasons. We want to be a group that cares about each other and find a way to feed all the exceptional individual talent we have,” said Martinez, who has spoken of his admiration for how Belgium’s cultural and linguistic diversity also creates adaptable players.
Often described as the institution that unites Dutch-speaking Flemings, French-speaking Walloons and the small German community, a team where most of the players are multilingual is growing in confidence.
Having beaten Panama 3-0, victory over Tunisia would see Belgium qualified for the last 16 before meeting England on Thursday.
“The World Cup doesn’t respect generations. The World Cup doesn’t respect big individual names. The World Cup only respects winning teams,” he said. “The only thing that matters is how we can become a team and work extremely hard for each other, and then the individual talent could show.”
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS