Amadou Onana’s English accent is perfect, while a reporter’s ability to tell people apart is not
Belgium has a soccer player named Amadou Onana, while André Onana (no relation) plays for Cameroon.
These two simple facts are important to keep in mind, particularly if you’re seeking a quote at Euro 2024.
Amadou Onana had to endure a reporter’s inability to keep those concepts in mind as the midfielder took questions following Belgium’s 1-0 loss to Slovakia on Monday.
After concluding an answer in French for one reporter, Onana’s attention was requested by another journalist in English. In the world of international soccer — particularly in a country like Belgium, which has three official languages — that sort of flexibility is the norm.
Sadly for the reporter, he couldn’t show the same ability to adapt to the information that, as was discussed earlier, this was Amadou Onana, the Belgium midfielder.
“André, just one question,” began the journalist, apparently mistaking a player at Euro 2024 for the Manchester United goalkeeper, who again does not play for a European country.
Onana, displaying some linguistic nimbleness, pivoted to a perfect English accent to cut him off.
“André is not even my name, mate,” said the 22-year-old. “Do you know what I mean?”
Before the reporter could correct himself, Onana gestured to a different member of the press corps and said “go on,” taking that journalist’s question.
It’s not hard to sort why Onana would be irritated. The stereotype that Black people all look alike is persistent, and in fact the Everton man doesn’t bear any particular resemblance to Cameroon’s No. 1.
On top of that, it implies that one Onana merits remembering while the other does not, which is especially strange when you’re reporting on Euro 2024, a competition André Onana literally cannot play in.
The Red Devils entered this matchup ranked No. 3 in the world by FIFA. We can dispute the merits of such a questionable ranking at a different time — because it is dubious — but the fact remains that the world’s most powerful governing soccer body still thought that highly of Belgium.
Slovakia, meanwhile, was ranked No. 48 by FIFA. Again, Slovakia’s overall team quality was probably better at face value, but that’s not what some important soccer minds thought.
Yet, for most of the 90 minutes, Slovakia appeared to be the better team.
It took a 1-0 lead seven minutes into the proceedings from an Ivan Schranz goal and never relinquished it. Even with spirited Slovakian defending, it probably helped that VAR detected not one but two Belgian missteps on massive goal opportunities.
The first came early in the second half. Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku — one of the greatest pure goal-scorers ever — had an easy tap-in on the doorstep. The only issue? He was clearly offside upon the immediate VAR review.
Later, with Belgium desperately holding onto any whiff of hope, Lois Openda appeared to set Lukaku up with another perfect goal. However, after the fact, VAR determined that Openda touched the ball with his hand before getting control, thanks to a contact sensor.
Sure, it probably didn’t meaningfully change the trajectory of the ball. Still, Openda did technically break the main rule of soccer, and as such, this goal was also disallowed:
After a review, Romelu Lukaku has a second goal of the day disallowed, this time due to a hand ball pic.twitter.com/g7xzxIyfGR
By no means is Belgium done. It still has two very winnable games with Romania and Ukraine. With that said, taking one on the chin against a considerable underdog like Slovakia is the worst possible way for this top contender to begin Euro 2024.
Another potentially major blow for Man City and England
Manchester City has suffered another injury blow during the international break, with England defender John Stones exiting Tuesday’s friendly against Belgium after just nine minutes.
Stones appeared to feel something as he played a pass and after attempting to play on for a few minutes, he was forced to come off the pitch.
The defender’s injury comes just days after Kyle Walker, his teammate for club and country, was injured in England’s friendly defeat to Brazil.
The timing for the injuries to Stones and Walker could hardly be worse, as Man City has a crucial Premier League match against Arsenal on Sunday.
🚨🔵 Southgate: “John Stones had to leave the pitch due to a problem with his adductor, more tests will follow”. pic.twitter.com/3ZHVxeJZMZ
Pep Guardiola’s men go into the game at Etihad Stadium in third place, but just one point behind both Liverpool and Arsenal in the table.
Sky Sports has reported that Walker’s injury doesn’t appear to be too serious, with City hopeful he can pass a late fitness test to start against Arsenal.
Stones will have to be considered a bigger doubt, with his injury coming just five days before the match against Mikel Arteta’s side. The 29-year-old defender has been a regular for City this season, starting the club’s past four Premier League games.
Guardiola does have some serious depth at his disposal, with Rúben Dias, Nathan Aké, Manuel Akanji and Joško Gvardiol all options at center back.
The striker believes a move to the Red Bulls can set him on a path to the 2026 World Cup
HANOVER, N.J. — Dante Vanzeir knows his challenge with the New York Red Bulls is heightened, given the investment his new club made in him.
At $5 million, Vanzeir is the second-largest purchase in the club’s history. His move from Belgian club Royal Union Saint-Gilloise to New York also helped silenced criticism that Red Bull was not investing enough in its MLS outfit.
Since Bradley Wright-Phillips left New York following the 2019 season, the Red Bulls have lacked a true threat in front of goal. Patryk Klimala, bought for over $4 million from Celtic, was supposed to be that threat, but he was jettisoned to Hapoel Be’er Sheva this offseason following two lackluster years in MLS.
Vanzeir, at 24 and with one cap for Belgium on his resume, certainly comes with some big expectations. His MLS debut off the bench two weeks ago was greeted with a standing ovation from the fans at Red Bull Arena.
In the last two seasons in Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League, Vanzeir has been among the best forwards in the competition. Across 39 league matches, he tallied 23 goals and 12 assists.
Despite having suitors in Europe, Vanzeir felt a move to MLS was perfect for his career. The striker even believes it could be the spark that leads him to the World Cup in three years.
“Everything fit well,” Vanzeir told Pro Soccer Wire of his move to New York. “I will never make a decision based on money or the name of the team — all these things.
“I will make my decision based on where I think I can improve and where my qualities and my playing style fit. I think [the] New York Red Bulls had it all. And also, in general, MLS was a competition that’s still growing a lot. I also like the type of play … I like a lot of open play and where we try to win and attack.
“And I think in Europe, especially with relegation rules, you have a lot of teams that are not willing to lose instead of [trying to] win. So, I think that was a huge difference with European competition and the challenge that I want to take. I think I can even grow as a person besides the soccer and even as a player in this country and in this club and league.”
Credit: Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports
Since 2015, the Red Bulls have eschewed the idea of star players and splashy transfers, opting for a yeoman-like approach where the team concept supersedes the importance of big names. But Vanzeir has been brought into the New York squad not just to press and counter-press, but to elevate the team offensively.
“I think expectations are always there. If it’s not from other people, it’s from myself but I don’t see it as pressure. I see it as a compliment because I did well [with] other teams so they expect me to do it now here in this team. It’s not really pressure, I think it’s a healthy thing to keep growing,” Vanzeir said.
In the fall of 2021, Vanzeir made his international debut with Belgium in a World Cup qualifier against Wales. Conventional wisdom would hold that staying in the Belgian league or making a move in Europe could open the door for more national team call-ups.
Vanzeir, however, is forging his own path. With the World Cup coming to North America in three years, a move to the U.S. had even more appeal.
“I think the most logical path in Europe is go to a bigger team in Europe and try to impress the [national team] coach and everything like this. But yeah, I wanted to do it a little bit different way and I think even with the World Cup that’s coming to the United States, I can have maybe an advantage,” Vanzeir said.
“I would know already some things here and maybe it will help me. I hope the coach of Belgium will also see that the level in MLS is not that low like 10 years ago.
“And even a stupid example, Argentina, the guy that plays in MLS and Atlanta (Thiago Almada) … he won the World Cup and he was involved in the squad, so I think that the point is that the level is for sure good in MLS.”
The Belgian’s time in Madrid is an ongoing disaster
Eden Hazard has just about reached rock bottom at Real Madrid.
It seems like a decade ago now, but it really was just in 2019 when Madrid paid Chelsea €100 million to sign the Belgian — then one of the world’s foremost attacking players.
But Hazard’s time in Madrid has been, to put it nicely, a disaster.
First it was injuries that limited his minutes but at this point, Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti simply isn’t picking Hazard. Like, at all.
The Belgian has made just one La Liga start and two substitute appearances this season, and has seen the field exactly once since the World Cup break.
Once one of the world’s most feared players, Hazard now just wants to play.
“I miss it, I want to play, I want to have fun on the field. Training is good, but what keeps us alive are the matches,” Hazard told Belgian broadcaster RTBF.
“I hope deep inside me that I can bring something and that the coach is still counting on me, I hope. We’ll see if I’m still going to play by the end of the season. I doubt a little. It’s up to me to show him in training that he can call on me.”
Hazard: I don’t talk to Ancelotti
The 32-year-old made another frank admission in his interview: he doesn’t talk to his coach anymore.
“There is respect between us. But I’m not going to say that [Ancelotti and I] talk to each other, because we don’t,” Hazard said. “But there will always be respect. Even if tomorrow he doesn’t pick me anymore.
“I must have respect for a guy like Carlo Ancelotti. In terms of what he represents for football, what he has done in his career. There is no problem.”
In a press conference on Tuesday, Ancelotti did not dispute his player’s characterization of their relationship — or the lack thereof.
“The relationship isn’t cold. Look. We have to assess two things. Hazard has been very honest. We don’t talk much, I don’t speak much with him but speaking is also about character, if you get on better with one person or another,” the Italian said.
“It’s the same with your children, you can speak more with one child than another. That isn’t the most important thing, what’s important to me is that even though he doesn’t play much, he respects me, and I value that a lot, and I respect him in exactly the same way, that’s the most important thing for me.
“He isn’t playing because there’s a lot of competition, he has a player in that position who’s doing a lot right now, which is Vinícius.”
The 2022 FIFA World Cup just had its first shocking exit in the group stage, and it came down to a match that will haunt Romelu Lukaku for a long time.
Belgium — needing a win against Croatia to move on to the knockout round — saw its World Cup end on Thursday in a scoreless draw. But really, it should have been a match that Belgium won with no issue.
Lukaku, who has had a tumultuous couple years with Chelsea and now Inter Milan, was brought on in the second half to do what he’s done best for Belgium his entire international career: score goals. And to Lukaku’s credit, he got himself in excellent positions to do just that.
Just for whatever reason, he simply could not get the ball in the net. His first golden opportunity came 15 minutes into the second half where his open look at goal hit off the post.
For the past eight years, Belgium had enjoyed an unprecedented golden generation of talent, and Lukaku was a huge part of that group. But Thursday’s match — in what could be Lukaku’s final World Cup appearance — will be impossible to get over for the Belgian striker.
The moment may have passed for the Golden Generation
Kevin De Bruyne gave an eye-opening interview to The Guardian this week, in which he suggested that his Belgium side — currently ranked second in FIFA’s world rankings — has “no chance” of wining the World Cup.
“No chance, we’re too old,” De Bruyne said. “I think our chance was 2018. We have a good team, but it is aging. We lost some key players. We have some good new players coming, but they are not at the level other players were in 2018. I see us more as outsiders.”
Was De Bruyne simply trying to take the pressure off his team? Put some of the attention onto himself and away from his teammates?
After Belgium’s first two World Cup games, another possibility emerges: He was just being honest.
Abdelhamid Sabiri gave Morocco the lead in the second half with a whipped-in free kick that bypassed everyone, including a screened Thibaut Courtois. Zakaria Aboukhlal added a second in stoppage time to put the gloss on Morocco’s third ever win at a World Cup.
This current crop of Belgium players has been referred to as a “Golden Generation” for years now and they have accomplished some big things for a country that has a population in the region of just 12 million.
Notably, the Red Devils finished third at the 2018 World Cup. The problem for Roberto Martinez’s side, though, is that most of those players form the core of this current team as well.
Seven of the 11 players Belgium started against Morocco were 30 or older, with two of them 29 years old. Searching for a late goal, Belgium brought on 35-year-old Dries Mertens and half-fit Romelu Lukaku, among others.
It’s not over for Belgium at this World Cup, and the Red Devils do count among their ranks up-and-coming talents like Charles De Ketelaere and Amadou Onana, both 21.
But it’s seems the Golden Generation’s moment to do something truly special may have passed.
Watch Morocco stun Belgium
A major moment for Morocco as they stun Belgium for its third win in FIFA World Cup history! 🇲🇦
In one stunning performance, Canada showed it belongs on the world stage
AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – The conventional wisdom gave Canada a snowball’s chance in the desert.
Les Rouges had to make their long-awaited, deliriously anticipated return to the men’s World Cup stage against vaunted Belgium, the No. 2-ranked side on the planet and a popular pick to make a very deep run at this strange tournament. It was an encounter with soccer royalty 36 years in the making, in an alien setting many thousands of miles away from home.
No matter. Pressing high and working ferociously, Les Rouges dominated the run of play, most of the match statistics and even the stadium itself on Wednesday night as thousands of loud, maple leaf-clad Canadians turned Ahmed bin Ali Stadium into a loud little patch of the Great White North on the Persian Gulf.
Alphonso Davies, Stephen Eustaquio and their teammates forced Kevin De Bruyne and the rest of the Red Devils to chase and scramble for most of the match, flashing both cleverness and bravery in a riveting affair.
“I thought they really tried to win the stadium tonight, they were brilliant,” said head coach John Herdman of his team and its fans postgame. “They walked away, I’m sure, proud and feeling like we are a football nation. We came into that game with a couple of goals. The first one was to play fearless, and the second goal was to entertain.”
Fearless was indeed the word of the night.
“It’s our first time here in 36 years,” said defender Alistair Johnston. “We wanted to come here and give joy to the Canadian fans. It’s been a long time, it’s been a long wait, let’s go out there and give them a team they can be proud of. And for us, sitting in, bunkering in, it’s not really our identity. It hasn’t been us through Concacaf, it doesn’t really resonate with any of the players. So we had a discussion as a group over the past couple months, how we wanted to play that one, and everyone was unanimous that we wanted to be on the front foot, put them under pressure.
Nov 23, 2022; Al Rayyan, Qatar; Canada defender Alistair Johnston (2) dribbles during the first half of a group stage match against Belgium during the 2022 FIFA World Cup at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium. Credit: Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports
“We’re trying to play Canadian football that we believe that Canadian fans, and us as fans of the game as well, would want to watch … We want to be exciting, we want to play fearless football and I think we did that.”
All they needed was an actual goal or two to translate their quality onto the scoreboard. Alas, that last part never materialized.
Despite an expected goals more than quadruple that of Belgium’s, Canada was undone by Thibaut Courtois’ save of an Alphonso Davies penalty kick and a hopeful Toby Alderweireld long ball that dropped to Michy Batshuayi to slam home just before halftime, eking out the tightest and most unimpressive of 1-0 wins for a title contender.
“At this level, this is how the game is: one chance, one goal. You can win a game like that,” said midfielder Jonathan Osorio. “We have 21 shots, dominate the game. They save a penalty. It’s the way the game goes. It’s football, right? You have to finish your chances. But we definitely can take so much positive from this.”
The entire stadium, even Canada’s fans, seemed shocked by the extent of the upstarts’ superiority right out of the gate, and while it took a VAR review to earn it, their 10th-minute penalty kick was a fair reward. Up stepped Davies, setting the stage for a storybook moment, a Liberian refugee kid turned soccer phenom scoring the nation’s first-ever men’s World Cup goal.
But Courtois spoiled the narrative with a firm stop of the Bayern Munich star’s pedestrian spot kick.
“When you have Courtois in net, anything’s possible,” said Johnston with a rueful grin.
DOHA, QATAR – NOVEMBER 23: Thibaut Courtois of Belgium saves the penalty taken by Alphonso Davies of Canada during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group F match between Belgium and Canada at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on November 23, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
Coach and teammates alike refused to engage in anything resembling finger-pointing with their young talisman. Though somewhat surprisingly, they revealed that the team has no defined list of set penalty takers, instead deciding on an ad hoc basis: “The brotherhood sorted it out,” said Herdman.
“I’m proud of Fonzie, he’s picked the ball up. I mean that’s a big moment for any player to do that, you’re carrying the weight of a nation, 36 years of waiting – longer than 36 [for the] first goal,” the coach added. “And when you’ve got an $85 million player, a player with that sort of confidence and swagger, let him pick the ball up and take it.”
Clearly aggravated by their inability to find a breakthrough despite a relentless pursuit all second half, Les Rouges emphasized that they’re not in Qatar for moral victories. If they are to advance to the group stage, they must now find a way to pick up points versus the 2018 finalists — “we’ve got a big effin game coming up against Croatia,” said Herdman – and then Morocco, who held the Croatians to a 0-0 draw in Al Khor earlier in the day.
“There’s a lot that we can be proud of. But I want to be clear that we’re not satisfied with our performance,” said center back Steven Vitoria. “We need to be proud that this is what Canada’s about. But we want points, we want points.”
Still, for those who experienced the dark days of Canadian soccer’s not-so-distant past, when North America’s third-largest nation repeatedly failed to even reach the final round of Concacaf World Cup qualifying and struggled for relevance in their hockey-obsessed homeland, this was a deeply inspiring night.
“We definitely made a statement,” said Osorio. “I think we opened the world’s eyes to what Canada has and what we’re growing here, what we are now, and I think what the future is going to hold here — the mentality of this group and the ambition and bravery that we have and the belief that we have in ourselves.”
Many observers expected Canada to lose its World Cup opener to Belgium, but not like this.
Canada took the game to the Europe heavyweights, but could not find a decisive final touch when it was most needed. Alphonso Davies was the guiltiest party, as his early penalty was saved by Thibaut Courtois.
Belgium, meanwhile, scored against the run of play when an opportunistic long ball over the top near the end of the first half found Michy Batshuayi, who slammed a shot home for the game’s only goal.
Final score: 1-0, in a cruel return to the big time for the Reds.
Canada, playing its first men’s World Cup game since 1986, is left down but not out after Morocco and Croatia drew in the other Group F game on Wednesday. But John Herdman’s side will need to be more clinical in its next two games, or its World Cup return will be a short one.
Canada squandered a golden opportunity to take the lead just 10 minutes in. After a VAR review Belgium was penalized for a handball in the box, sending Davies to the spot.
But Courtois went down low to his right to deny Davies, who didn’t produce his best effort with the chance to score Canada’s first ever goal at a men’s World Cup.
Belgium took advantage against the run of play when Toby Alderweireld found Batshuayi, who took advantage of Canada’s high line to power a shot past Milan Borjan.
Canada had plenty of scoring chances, ending the game with 22 total shots. But only three were on target, including Davies’ penalty.
Herdman’s men did themselves proud on the night, but frustratingly came away empty-handed. Now they’ll need a similar performance, only with goals, on Sunday against Croatia.
“I’m afraid to say something. I wonder whether I will be allowed to play on the field tomorrow,” Vertonghen said in a press conference ahead of Belgium’s opener against Canada.
“That is something I’ve never experienced in football and I don’t want to experience again and it’s not good. We are being controlled.
“Is it too late [for the armband protest]? That is a tough question. I don’t know. If you make a statement now by wearing the armband that means you punish yourself. Now I’m afraid to say anything at all. I’m not comfortable talking about this, to be put on the spot. That is telling you enough.
“I don’t like making a political statement. We’re here to play football and if we can’t do that because of making a statement and saying normal things as no against racism and discrimination then what?”
