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ASSOCIATED PRESS
France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris catches the ball during an official training session today.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne walks behind coach Roberto Martinez during Belgium’s official press conference today.
MOSCOW >> A look at what’s coming up at the World Cup:
FOREIGN OBJECTIVE
Roberto Martinez is determined to end a streak of one kind for World Cup coaches. All 20 previous World Cup-winning coaches were born in the nation they led to the title. Martinez, a Spaniard, is two wins away from guiding Belgium to its first title. First, his team needs to get past France on Tuesday to earn a spot in the final for the first time.
English coach George Raynor took Sweden to the 1958 final, but lost to Brazil. Ernst Happel of Austria led the Netherlands to the 1978 final, where it lost in extra time to Argentina. Martinez hopes to succeed where they failed by employing a two-year process to ensure “this is a team, this is not a group of individuals.”
GOALS AGAINST
France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is facing a Belgian team that has scored a tournament-leading 14 goals in five matches when they meet in the semifinals in St. Petersburg.
The 31-year-old Lloris describes the Belgium lineup as “quite simply, the most complete side in the tournament, in all aspects of the game.”
Apart from the experience of 103 international appearances, Lloris has a few other things going his way when he’s trying to stop them — including the fact he’s faced many of the Belgians already while playing for Tottenham in the Premier League.
“We know them well. For my part I have three Tottenham teammates,” Lloris said. “There will be a lot of great players on the pitch.
“To beat them, we’ll have to make our own luck … we’ll have to be ready to suffer. But we will be, because there’s a great spirit in this side.”
SET PIECE
Set pieces have been the main source of goals at the tournament in Russia — 42 percent, no less — and England has been the master of that department on its run to Wedneday’s semifinal match against Croatia.
Eight of England’s 11 goals so far have come via free kicks, corners or penalties, which is four more than any other team and the most since Portugal also scored eight set-piece goals at the World Cup in 1966.
This hasn’t come about by fluke. Meticulous preparation — including a trip to the United States to take in an NBA game — the selection of specific players with strong dead-ball delivery, and the defensive nature of high-pressure tournament soccer has led to a point where set pieces could yet lead England to a second World Cup title.
“Obviously we work on them in attack and defense, and they are vitally important for us,” said Ashley Young, one of England’s set-piece specialists. “They have worked in our favor and we’ll carry on working on them.”
A decade ago, England had one of the best set-piece takers in soccer in David Beckham, whose precision and ability to curl the ball in from the wing was an important weapon at major tournaments.
Forget bending them like Beckham. In England’s class of 2018, free kicks, corners and wide crosses are mostly provided by England’s wing backs, Young and Kieran Trippier, and they are proving tough to defend.
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