2 of the best
Kante – France’s tireless workhorse Masterful Modric oils the Croatia machine
IT IS easy to ignore diminutive N’Golo Kante amid all of France’s star-studded World Cup squad that includes $100-million-plus players such as Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann.
But when the French take on Croatia tomorrow in the World Cup final, Kante will have contributed as much to that success if not more than the big name teammates, as every one of France’s opponents in Russia can testify.
The 27-year-old does not have the stature of fellow midfielder Pogba, nor does he have the lightning speed of Mbappe or the goal-scoring ability of Griezmann.
He has, however, “15 lungs”, according to Pogba, an incomparable work ethic and a unique ability to read the game like few others, a fact that makes him a one-man wall as beaten semi-finalists Belgium can attest to after he helped neutralise their famed attacking threat.
Playing in front of defenders, for much of his career Kante’s abilities had gone unnoticed given that as recently as 2013 he was playing in France’s second division.
Only when he came to Leicester City in 2015 did the world start to take notice of the player who patrols the area in front of his defence in such a way that allows both midfielders and defenders to play up.
Leicester’s shocking run to the Premier League title in 2016 was as much down to Kante’s interceptions and tackles as it was to James Vardy’s goals.
At the end of that season he had more tackles and interceptions than any other Premier League player.
But the 1.68m-tall Frenchman was just warming up. His move to Chelsea may have surprised some at the time but by the end of the 2016/17 season there was no doubt who one of the best defensive midfielders in the world was.
“NG is always very reserved, very calm and very timid,” Pogba said on Thursday. “Except when he is playing cards.
“We understand each other very well, we talk, we give each other advice. It is a very special relationship. He is just a great guy.”
France could win their second World Cup title tomorrow and while everyone could be hailing their big-name players, Pogba, Griezmann and Mbappe know well any title would not have been possible without Kante’s tireless work in midfield. – Reuters
IN WEDNESDAY’S World Cup semi-final against England Luka Modric showed, for the umpteenth time in his career, that you can’t keep a good man down as he orchestrated a third successive comeback that sent Croatia into the dreamland of the final.
For almost an hour of Wednesday’s game Modric just could not get a foothold, as England’s relentless pressing harried him into mistakes and cut down his supply line.
England deservedly led and should have had more goals as Modric and his misfiring teammates were perhaps perceived as suffering the effects of backto-back extra time and penalty shootout wins over Denmark and Russia.
However, as the second half unfolded, if England thought the job was done and they had run the legs off the 32-year-old, they had clearly not been paying attention.
As befits a man playing his 111th international and 11th in the World Cup, Modric did not panic and did not waver, instead he gradually found a way to shoehorn himself and his team back into the game.
There were no extravagant 50-yard passes or wavy runs leaving multiple defenders in his wake, just a steady cranking up of the momentum. The movement got sharper, passes were more quickly released and there was the trademark body swerve and check to suddenly create a yard of space from nothing.
Galvanised by their leader, his team-mates, far from flagging, looked the fitter of the two teams and started giving him and the equally re-energised Ivan Rakitic targets – and the passes started to stick.
Ivan Perisic duly equalised and Mario Mandzukic won it in extra time, where it was Modric still skipping around the turf like a spring lamb who had emerged as the dominant force on the pitch while an exhausted Jordan Henderson had to be substituted after chasing him all night.
“Luka has never conformed to the norm when it comes to the usual positions a central midfielder would take up to receive the ball,” Jermaine Jenas wrote this week as he contemplated the challenge England faced in nullifying his former Tottenham Hotspur team-mate.
“In training he would get the ball from anywhere and all of a sudden he would be at you – and past you. He is quicker than most think, and stronger too. I just don’t see a better player in that area of the pitch anywhere on the planet right now.” – Reuters