Despite rarely featuring for Liverpool during the second half of the season, veteran defender Kolo Toure has found his way into the Ivory Coast’s squad for the World Cup this summer and the 33-year old has urged his teammates to not leave Brazil with any regrets.
After failing to progress past the group stages in the last World Cup in South Africa, the Elephants are facing an easier road to the knock-out round with a group that makes for much easier reading than their last draw. “Our Group C is balanced unlike in previous editions when we had difficult situations,” said the Reds defender. “We played against Brazil, Portugal and Argentina and those times were our first and second appearances in the World Cup finals. This time, we feel the group is quite balanced and we’ll be able to have our say.”
The Ivory Coast will square off with Colombia, Japan and Greece in the opening round of the tournament, and though there’s no easy matches on the world’s biggest stage, the African country stands a much better chance of progression this time out — that is, if they can get their act together.
Toure’s future at Liverpool looks to be in question as Reds boss Brendan Rodgers plans to clear out some of the dead weight over the summer, but the veteran defender has kept his focus squarely on the World Cup and avoiding the kind of upset — and mistakes — they suffered last time out. “But beside our initial objective of progressing from the group stage, we don’t want to return home with regrets, that is being unable to do the things we were capable of doing” he said. “That’s what I have been telling my mates.”
Better he tells them that and avoids telling them about some of the blunders he made this season…
