New Introductions: Goal-Line Technology and Vanishing Spray

This year's tournament has seen the introduction of two new ideas into the International game; goal-line technology and a favourite of mine, vanishing spray. the idea behind them is to obviously assist the match referees deal with debatable issues and to prevent players from encroaching when defending free-kicks or moving the ball after the referee measures out 10 yards.

Vanishing spray, bring it to English football?

Goal-line technology has been a topic that has been discussed for years now as something that needs to be brought into the game somehow. In fact had it been in use during the last World Cup in South Africa, England would have rightfully been helped by it with Frank Lampard's 'goal', and who knows how the defeat to Germany would have panned out as a result. It has actually been used in England briefly in recent times, but not in a major tournament before now.
The system that is being used in Brazil is called GoalControl, a collection of 7 high-speed cameras per goal. These cameras track the flight of the ball and ultimately detect whether or not the the ball has crossed the line, before sending a message to the referee's watch, almost like a notification on your phone. It is a simple enough process in my eyes and has shown in this World Cup to be effective. In the group match between France and Honduras, a goal was given correctly to France via the use of GoalControl. The on screen video showed that the ball hadn't originally crossed the line after the shot hit the post, but after hitting the Honduras goalkeeper it did in fact go over the line.
in terms of being the future of football, I'm all for it personally. It doesn't take any time to make the decision (it takes less than a second to notify the referee) and helps to get the correct result. Other sports have successfully introduced technology; rugby, tennis and cricket for example, so why not gradually introduce it into professional standards of football on a greater scale than just major competitions?

The vanishing spray is a brilliant idea in my opinion. As someone who takes free-kicks for my teams when I play, I personally get frustrated when you can see opposition players coming closer than they should be and ultimately making it harder for you. So for me the idea is fantastic as it enables the free-kick to be as advantageous to you as it is meant to be.
The spray itself is made up mainly of water and butane gas in an aerosol can, with the butane gas expanding when the pressure is changed during the spraying action. The substance we see on the pitch is butane 'droplets' that are covered in water, with the butane eventually evaporating.
Future of football? Definitely. The idea is so simple that it is surprising that it hasn't been used in major tournaments before. It also is easy enough for the referee to have a can strapped to their waist for the game, and shouldn't be an expensive process. Reportedly the vanishing spray is going to be used in the Champions League next season, and is being considered by the Premier League, which just shows the impact that it has had.

I have been very impressed by these new introductions, they are certainly beneficial to matches and I think that many seem to have the same opinion. The next step that is needed is to integrate them into more competitions, not just the World Cup.

Tactics: Out With The Old, In With The New?

As time has moved on, so has the footballing world, and tactics that teams employ change with it. Gone are the days where near on every team will play a bog-standard 4-4-2 formation, with the likes of Gary Neville and David Beckham playing down one side. Instead there is now the growing use of formations such as a 4-2-3-1, almost as if they are the fashion.

As things stand, the teams remaining in the World Cup are Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Holland, Costa Rica, Belgium and Argentina. Of what I have seen, none of these teams use a standard 4-4-2, instead favouring approaches that allow for more fluid attacking moves or the ability to be strong defensively. The 4-2-3-1 for example, is based on the idea that it is harder for defences to mark an attacking midfielder who operates in the gap between defenders and midfielders, and therefore they should be able to find more space to be a playmaker for their team. It is a formation that has been used fantastically by the likes of Real Madrid and Chelsea in recent times at club level, and is one that looks to be working well Internationally too. Brazil and Argentina, two of the pre-tournament favourites, are big advocates of it, and maybe they are right to be?

A simple image of the popular 4-2-3-1 formation

Another tactic that is being adopted by some teams in this tournament is the use of 3-5-2, with the emphasis on counter attacking football. Holland produced a shock result when they won 5-1 against holders Spain in their first game using this system, and have had more success since. Mexico are another who enjoyed some success with it, progressing out of their group ahead of a strong Croatia, and then the surprise package of Costa Rica have used an adaptation of it extremely well. Be honest, who thought they would get this far?!

What about England? Like I mentioned, back in the David Beckham era it was always a given that we would play 4-4-2, with the famous question of 'who will play in our problem position of left midfield?' In recent times though we have tried to make use of this 4-2-3-1 but just haven't been able to gain much success with it, as our performances in the World Cup showed (although we looked fairly good in qualifying). I feel that this is the right way for England to go, and would personally love to see a front four include Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Raheem Sterling regularly in upcoming England games.

So although you obviously want your team to play an attractive brand of football, maybe going with a solid back line and playing a more reserved style of football is the way to go? Move the ball quickly when you have the chance and be hard to break down sounds easy enough but the ability to actually succeed with this approach is admirable. I guess we will have to wait and see what approach managers will take in the later stages if the tournament and the new domestic seasons.

International Support: A Student Experience

As you would expect at University, particularly in countries such as England, you meet students from many different nations. I have made friends who are Portuguese, Italian, Ghanaian and Nigerian for example, who naturally support their respective nation, not England like me. Of course there are more International Students, or those who live in England but come from elsewhere, than that at UOB. These are just people whose paths have crossed mine. What is apparent from big competitions such as the World Cup, is that you learn that every nation has their own way of supporting.

English fans are often associated with being drinkers when it comes to football, and a rowdy bunch too. 'The Barmy Army'  as we apparently are. I think that comes from being a very passionate set of fans. I'm no different when I watch England, I like to go to the pub to watch and support, and those I have met at UOB have been the same. In other words we get to have 'one or two' and shout at a TV screen in Bedford High Street together, before letting everyone else know of our pride if we do well.

However, you do notice that other countries do things slightly differently. I have found out for instance that the Italians are very family orientated and so, although it's not strictly what all Italians do, will have gatherings that coincide with the game. Someone I know from UOB doesn't even like football yet still did this!  The African nations tend to be big into their music and dance when they support their team, something that was emphasised to me when I came to UOB and meeting new people. This is similar to those of countries like Brazil, who again are a very passionate group and like to make it into a party atmosphere, which seems to make them smile all game!

Obviously being English means I am more aware of England's team than others, but the biggest thing I have picked up on at university about other teams is the attitude that their fans have. Although English fans are very passionate, we are also a bit negative towards ourselves through the expectation that our players should perform better than they do. I personally don't get too excited about watching us play in some games because we aren't always as positive as we can be in our style of football. Other people can't get enough of seeing their team play, they just love it! It really means a lot to them and events like the World Cup really highlight this to us all. I think this comes from having lower expectations than those of English fans and it allows them to enjoy the experience more.

Is the heat in Brazil affecting the player's attitudes?

A lot of the pre-World Cup build up has been surrounding the issue of the heat and humidity and 'how are the England players going to deal with it'? In the rainforest surrounded area of Manaus in particular, where England played their opening game against Italy, it was around 33 degrees and 76% humidity, which seems crazy when you're used to English weather! Obviously these conditions make it harder for all of the teams, not just England, but how does it affect them and their attitudes during games?

The Arena Amazonia, Manaus

We have learnt in lectures at UOB that, when exercising in the heat, increased sweating and therefore increased fluid and electrolyte loss will occur. As a result, maintaining high performance levels should be harder, but the stars playing at the World Cup should be in better physical condition than your average performer like me, so the expectation would be that the likes of Rooney, Sturridge and co will deal with these difficulties better than I would. The most obvious way of doing so would be to maintain hydration during the matches at every opportunity.


It has already been seen that players are looking to get fluids back into their system at every chance they can during the matches, to the extent that players are taking the attitude of feigning injuries almost every time they get fouled. This may seem pathetic to some but believe me, having experienced the conditions of Manaus personally, you really do need to keep hydrated and take a breather when you can! By taking this attitude, they allow a chance for everyone to re-hydrate and rest for a moment, a very wise move in my opinion to be successful.


It hasn't all been good though in Brazil. We've seen players waving the imaginary card to the referee to try and get opposition players booked or sent off, which although it isn't cheating, is poor sportsmanship. I for one am glad that English players don't tend to take this approach and wish it was punished more than it is - a guaranteed yellow card for the player who does it perhaps? However, as bad as it is, it is quite a clever way of increasing the chances of winning. The idea is that if a team goes down to 10 men, they will have to work harder and will therefore tire quicker, making it easier to win.


So to answer the original question, we have seen changes in attitudes, but to be honest nothing more than what was expected before the tournament started, and I imagine it was expected by most.


Anything to win. A simple idea, but to me, there are some things that you just don't do purely for the spirit of the game. Looking after your body, I'm all for it, but play the game like it should be played!

England's World Cup: An Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to this new feature, the University of Bedfordshire World Cup 2014 blog. My name is Alex Lyon, an extremely keen footballer who likes to think he knows a thing or two about the game. I personally enjoyed a great three years at UOB, studying on the Sport and PE BSc course, where I was taught/lectured by some fantastic lecturers and made some great friends along the way. Throughout the tournament I will be reporting on several themes of the World Cup on a regular basis, from the perspective of a student and bringing my thoughts to you.

Well, today is the day of reckoning for England! A massively important match against Uruguay, a team who before the tournament started were being tipped as a 'dark horse' by many to go on to lift the trophy in Rio on July 13th. After the opening game defeat against Italy, despite a very promising performance, England need a positive result tonight and I for one am very optimistic about our chances, especially if the fast-paced, attacking football that we saw at times on Saturday night is played again, and if Wayne Rooney, the man who seems to be the scapegoat for the media of late, can pull out a performance that we all know he is capable of! I'm sure many others will feel the same and agree with me that our young stars, such as Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling will play a huge part tonight as well.

I must say, despite my confidence, I am still very nervous about the game purely because of the players that Uruguay have in their stellar strike-force, Edinson Cavani and Liverpool's Luis Suarez. Keep these men quiet and we should have enough ability as an attacking outfit to get those vital three points, easy right? Well tonight we find out if Roy and the boys can find the way to do so, which I thoroughly believe they will do.

Hopefully this time tomorrow we'll all be feeling a lot better about England's chances of ending the '48 years of hurt' and lift the coveted Jules Rimet, but for now its time to sit back, enjoy a beer or two and let the drama unfold!