Category: Uncategorized

Good to have Terry Venables back in the game, especially when he can come up with quotes like this just one day into his new job at Leeds: “Footballers should not drink to excess and now he’s [Leeds midfielder Lee Bowyer] in the last-chance saloon.”

A pretty accurate summary today in the NY Times of the televisual dross served up by Disney’s three channels during the World Cup: ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, which, as the article pointed out did not actually pay for the rights, that was paid for by Major League Soccer, which then sold the ads to offset the cost – an admirably bold gamble on its part.

The one thing I would add that increased the annoyance level and drove many English speakers to watch in Spanish on Univision was the commentator’s obsession withy “yardage,” as in “Beckham hits a 60-yard pass,” or “the ball goes 50 feet in the air,” or “he hit that shot from fully 38 yards,” which I heard on Sunday and made me wonder how he’d measured it.

Still, at least we’ve lost the “Red Zone” that was had forced down our throats by ESPN four years ago, indicating, NFL-style the final 20 or so yards of the field.

How else could people be expected to understand football unless it was compared with, er, football, as it were?

How can that compare with “Il Capitan – Spicy Beckham!” that was heard on Univision. It can’t, that’s how.

Well it was the right result in the end, at least as far as my bookie account is concerned. Yahoo has a fine collection of photos depicting various people’s reaction to the Brazilian victory over Germany.

From this young German chap, who appears to be being commiserated by German police officers under a table, to these two, who demonstrate that second only to football in its power to unite the world, is a shared interest in exposing your navel.

Yahoo for some reason chose to depict on the front of their World Cup coverage as typical of those who watch football. I would wager that somewhere in between is more typical – a bit like these blokes.

On and Ahn it goes, but it appears that the Perugia chairman is pulling his chair up to the table to eat a large portion of humble pie. Yeah, believe that when I see it.

In other news, Fulham are back in training minus their two World Cup stars, both of which we’ll be lucky to hang on to, but for opposite reasons. Less than two weeks until Fulham’s first ever match in an official European competition, albeit the Intertoto Cup.

So it turns out that Perugia had told Ahn that his contract – up at the end of this month – would not be renewed before the World Cup even started. Which makes the chairman’s proto-fascists rants even more bizarre.

And now RAI is thinking of suing FIFA for loss of advertising revenues from non-existent Italian games later in the tournament. Everybody’s got it in for them.

And as for today’s events, I’m off to the beach….

Well, well, you might be mistaken into thinking that the Italians are a little bitter at their defeat by South Korea. Witness the firing of Korean goal scorer Ahn Jung-Hwan by his Italian club, Perugia.

It includes a great neo-fascist quote from the Perugia chairman Luciano Gaucci: “I am a nationalist and I regard such behavior not only as an affront to Italian pride but also an offence to a country which two years ago opened its doors to him.”

So, no bitterness there then. Assume it’s now in the hands of Ahn’s lawyers

And FIFA aren’t too happy with the Italians either. I guess being the only country to be beaten in the World Cup by both North and South Korea must be a real pisser.

It wasn’t quite Paris following France 98, but the way I discovered that the US had won today was by being woken at 4.30am by people on the street outside whooping & hollering and honking horns.

Those plucky few who stuck it out in the pubs until 4.30 on a Monday morning deserve some recognition, modest though this may be.

A priceless example of Wacko Jacko lunacy, as described here. It’s got Wacko himself, spoon bending, British trains, Exeter, British pomp and circumstance, the list goes on.

Wacko once turned up at a Fulham game against Wigan in the Second Division a few years back, but that’s another story.

In terms of important World Cup issues, the shirts, as ever deserve some attention. You hear a lot of talk about the balls every four years, but the shirts are what really count to the supporters. There are at least six brands battling it out, as far as I can tell from the vantage point of my 21″ TV screen.

Adidas, as worn by Argentina, France, Germany, Spain etc; Nike, worn by Brazil USA etc; Kappa, worn by Italy; Puma as worn by Cameroon; Umbro, donned by England and Ireland; and plucky little Hummel, as worn by the plucky Danes.

Here’s my verdict on the relative performances:

Adidas – classic design & solid as ever. Nothing too flash, although experimented with much needed under-arm ventilation it seems.

Nike – big own goal when Olic of Croatia ripped his off to celebrate the first goal against Italy, only to find himself unable to get it back on until one of the blokes on the sidelines cut a large piece out from the inside undershirt type thing. They look ridiculous when not tucked in, as they have a see-through over shirt that resembles chiffon. Coupled with that and the bloody awful font and material used for the numbers, which look like iron-on transfers from the 1970s and that makes them the big losers of the World Cup for me, apparel-wise.

Puma can rightly claim to have been a real innovator with their shirts/vests/tanks (depending on where you come from) that Cameroon wear. Sometimes they are with sleeves, sometimes without. Who makes the decision to wear sleeves, I wonder. It’s not as if they provide any additional protection as they’re so short and anyway, they have large holes underneath the arms – underarm ventilation has been one of the central themes of this World Cup.

And where would the Italians be without Kappa’s skin-tight numbers, which hugs the bodies of Totti et al so well. Only the Italian boys could get away with it. Can you imagine Paul Scholes in one of them?

Talking of which, England and Ireland doing their bit to support Umbro, but while the England kit isn’t bad – nice use of the asymmetrical stripe thingy, the Irish one is bland.

Winner: Kappa
Beaten finalist: Adidas
Third place respectability: Puma
Fourth place humiliation: Umbro
Quarter Finalists: Hummel
France: Nike

Take 3/1 on Brazil to win, if you can get it. Get on!