World Cup Observations - Part 2: June 17-21

1. We all love Brazil. Ask any football fan throughout the world to talk about the best teams, players, goals or matches they've ever seen, you can bet your left kidney that that Brazil will feature in some context. The South Americans pretty much represent what 'good football' should be and are recognised the world over for their approach to the game. Basically, you can't be a real football fan if you don't hold Brazil or Brazilians in such high regard.

The problem with this sycophancy however means that one may be inclined to turn a blind eye when they do wrong. Forget the World Cup, Luis Fabiano showed such brilliant hand control for his second goal against the Ivory Coast that he would walk into the LA Lakers team that won the NBA title last week!



I'm still waiting for the 'experts' to come out and condemn Fabiano as a cheat who should be banned, claim that he has tarnished his reputation forever, suggest the game be replayed or that Brazil should be thrown out of the tournament. No? It seems they get a pass.

Those pretty gold shirts have clearly blinded us all into hypocrisy.

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2. Of course, that goal wasn't the only bad decision by referee Stephane Lannoy. Kaka's second yellow card and subsequent sending off had half the world spitting blood to rightly condemn the disgraceful play-acting by Abdel-Kader Keïta that resulted in the red.

However, what seems to be ignored is how often the Brazilians themselves would roll around clutching their ankles, knees and whatever else after almost every Ivorian challenge before leaping up and sprinting away once they got the decision.

If Karma existed (which it doesn't!) then some people would claim that Kaka taking an early bath was a perfect example of it.

Others would suggest it has been eight years coming following this against Turkey...



Coincidentally, Keïta himself plays for Galatasaray meaning he's probably going to go back to his club a hero for extracting some measure of revenge on the behalf of his adopted country.

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3. So the Kiwis have gone and picked up a SECOND point in the tournament. This time, remarkably, against the current World Champions. Football in New Zealand may have no kind of future but certainly a less patronising congratulations is in order.

Especially as it turns out that they are now just as good as England.

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4. Speaking of the Three Lions...



I don't think this warrants any comment from me otherwise I'll end up writing my rantings until the NEXT World Cup! For the record, I'm obviously disappointed but 100% confident England will get the result they need on Wednesday – despite the best efforts of 'Jay-Tee' – and go through. More learned people than myself can break down exactly why.

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5. The fall-out from the England game has seen a fan looking like he's facing conviction for trying to get into the team changing room.

I sympathise with him as it would be easy to confuse the England dressing room for the toilet given how 'piss-poor' we played.

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6. There have been rumours of player unrest in the England camp. Not to be outdone, the French took our rumours chewed them up, spat them out and defecated on them before kicking them into touch with a full on civil war! With their strikes, statements and public fallings out, France are doing things in style. Although Nic Anelka going home just means he has a two day head start on his mates who will surely be on the plane come Wednesday morning. I think the French Football Federation ought to add another couple of F's for F****** Farcical.

As much as it looks like France are amusingly about to crash out, I just hope there's no Austria-Germany style Jiggery-pokery and skulduggery in the Uruguay/Mexico match (where a 'convenient' draw will take both of sides through).

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7. Last week I mentioned a Dutch-German switcheroo and it continued in the second round of group games as the Germans, after previously adopting their great football style, decided to adopt the Dutch trait of self-destruction with a pointless sending off, a missed penalty (No, I still can't believe it either) and ultimately a defeat.

Meanwhile, the traditionally entertaining Dutch earned a 'functional' 1-0 win over Japan. Wesley Sneijder scored an ugly goal to win a match in which the football was about as attractive as Kerry Katona pleasuring herself with a toilet brush.

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8. I'm really happy with the BBC's commitment to making sure their TV coverage of the tournament is as much about South Africa as a country as it is about football. That country has been through a hell of a lot to get where they are today and it's bloody important that people know it.

And what's the alternative on the other side? Oh yes, James Fecking Cordon.

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9. Who thought that Slovenia v USA would be the Game of the tournament so far? Also will be interesting to see how the Yanks react to being 'robbed' if that disallowed goal ultimately costs them qualification from the group stage. It's no secret that 'Soccerball' is not the most popular sport across the pond so maybe a bit of injustice and righteous indignation will be what it takes to spark more of an interest over there.

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10. Those bloody Iberians, eh? While some people dared to muse about the number of upsets so far and shifts in power, they just had to go and ruin the whole 'surprise' nature of the tournament by going out and being so frighteningly dominant in their respective games.

Although a wasteful Spain must be wondering how they didn't eclipse the sphincter-splitting pounding their neighbours inflicted on Korea DPR just a few hours earlier.

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11. Speaking of whom, it's a shame there won't be any football highlights in Pyongyang tonight....


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Sports Round-Up and Something different...

Friday Sports Round-up:

Andy Roddick has sensationally been knocked out the Australian open having beat beaten in a titanic third round match against 29th Seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 4-6 6-3 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (7-3) 6-8.

Staying in Melbourne, 2006 women’s champion Amelie Mauresmo lost her 3rd round match against Casey Dellacqua - ranked 78 in the world - 3-6 6-4 6-4.

F1 prodigy Lewis Hamilton is to stay with McLaren having signed a 5-year contract today.

The England Cricket Board have completely restructured their selection panel.

Staying with Cricket, South Africa beat the West Indies in a Twenty20 international.

And now for something completely different...





This can also be seen at www.thewordfromwestminster.blogspot.com

A Tale Of Two Englands

At the start of the week, the nation was buzzing. With the Rugby team in the World Cup final, the Football team on the brink of qualification for next summer’s European championships and Lewis Hamilton in pole position to win the Formula 1 championship in his debut season, there was certainly a feel-good factor around the country.

As of right now, Hamilton’s fate is as yet undecided so let take a look at the two team sports. Yes, ultimately both sides ended up losing and yes both sides can lament contentious decisions that didn’t go their way but that is where the similarities end.

On Wednesday, an insipid performance by the footballers resulted in a 2-1 reverse against Russia leaving chances of qualification hanging by a thread.

Last night, a battling performance from the Rugby lads was sadly not good enough to overcome a strong South African side.

Learning lessons

A draw would have been good enough for England on Wednesday but once again with English football, lessons have not been learnt from the mistakes of the past.

Under Svennis, the fans and media would frequently bemoan the fact that England would all too often sit back when ahead. Brazil and Portugal are occasions when this has proved costly.

On Wednesday, following Wayne Rooney’s wonder goal, England were content to invite wave after wave of Russian pressure. The defence got deeper and deeper and it was only a matter of time before Russia were back in the game. Yes, Gerrard’s miss was pretty awful (any chance of him being booed by fans? Unlikely) but it was one of very few opportunities England fashioned on the break and we should be at the stage where we aren’t saying ‘if only’ to just the one counter attack. If England had taken the game to Russia as they did at Wembley, Gerrard’s miss may have proved irrelevant.

This raises the issue of why Brain Barwick and his cohorts at the FA decided to hire a man who was part of the same set-up as Svennis if they indeed wanted a change.

By contrast, Brian Ashton realised that the 36-0 set-back in the group stages against the Springboks could not be repeated and changed tactics completely.

It was a different England last night. Strong in the tackle, England posed far more of a threat than five weeks ago. England played to their strengths and were almost rewarded. Unfortunately, they were up against a solid South Africa side who did enough to secure their first world title since 1995.

The World Cup final wasn’t a pretty spectacle that will live long in the memory (the ball spent more time in the air than a fighter jet in the Middle East) but it was far from boring. South Africa were ultimately the better side but England did their best, despite a couple of errors, to make it sure that it wasn’t easy for them at any stage.

After the initial thrashing, Ashton wasn’t afraid to make changes. Compare this to McClaren’s refusal to drop Paul Robinson despite the fact he was an accident waiting to happen (and so it proved).

Even after the football team win, it’s difficult to have a sense of achievement because, as has been noted many, many times, there is an underlying belief that we have the players/squad to be so much better. Whether this view is right or wrong, it seems very rarely that we get the chance to see it.

Even in defeat last night, the English could be proud of what they witnessed. The team showed 100% commitment in Paris. Even if the result wasn’t what was required, spectators were safe in the knowledge that the lads did their best. This isn’t something we can often say about footballers. The so-called golden generation flattered to deceive at the last World Cup less to do with lack of talent, but more to with not putting in the same kind of effort they do week in, week out for their clubs. Rather than addressing these issues however, we instead get excuses about the pitch (yes, the same unfamiliar surface that BOTH teams played on) and reffereeing decisions. You'll hardly hear anyone complain about the fact that the officials got a BIG decison wrong last night in Paris.

...and it was only a matter of time before the catastrophic scenario of not qualifying for a major tournament would become reality.

I would like to think that Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand et al had an opportunity to watch their fellow countrymen last night. Sadly, I doubt it.

But alas, two defeats mean that England once again fail to impose themselves on the world game (in sports that we invented no less). Here’s hoping that Lewis Hamilton can help improve the mood later today.