1) I was drunk and had eaten a lot of meat by the time that this game kicked off. Therefore my memories may not be entirely reliable. I think this was a game that ended up being totally ruined by a wrongly allowed goal; credit to Mexico for still making a game of it, it looked for a while in the first half as if it was going to kick off big time.
2) Tevez scored an outrageous goal to make up for his cheating ways: the best I've seen in the tournament. A rare occasion for Hansen to be justified with his "great hit" bollox.
3) I'm not a big Lionel Messi fan, truth be told. I don't really like the fact that although he's so rich, he still has such rubbish hair. You wouldn't want Tevez' hair (black, greasy and lank held back by a hairband), but at least it's distinctively rubbish. Messi's is neither short nor long, has no wave or curl to it, it's just there. Poor. I appreciate he's quite good at the whole "kicking the ball"; they should can the fucking Maradona comparison though. The overall level of the Argentina 1986 side was basically a quarter final team, and he made them champions. If you took out Samuel, Mascherano, Di Maria and Tevez and Argentina won the World Cup this year, that would be different. But now? Nowhere close. Great player though, hair and media bullshit aside.
4) Javi Hernandez will score at least four winners for Manchester United next season. He looks like a serious little player.
Showing posts with label Drunk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drunk. Show all posts
Monday, 28 June 2010
England vs Germany
1) I have decided, after 20 years, that I am no longer supporting the England national football team, or at least not in its current guise. I have put in 20 years of effort, and in that time the team has got progressively worse. I think the main problem I had with this particular result came afterwards, watching the players being interviewed. How John Terry can have the nerve to blame a goal that wasn't giving for a defeat in which he presided over the worst international defending display I have seen from England in years. When I was 9, the England team had men who I think would have been pretty good fathers, in Butcher and Shilton. When I was 16, the team had proper men who I could be proud of, in Ince and Adams. When I was 21, we had players whose skills compared with the top players (Campbell, Scholes, Owen). Now I'm nearly 30. I am more of a man than half this team (I have a stable relationship and have never once attempted to sleep with my friend's wives, when I make a mistake at work, I admit it and don't swear at my boss, I didn't leave my missus to look after the baby while I shagged a 16 year old girl, I never offered to pay for anyone's abortion after I was sick on them during intercourse). So fuck them; I'm done.
2) With regards to the game, I think the disallowed goal may well have made for a very different second half, and that Blatter should take his head out of his arse and allow technology to be used to try to allow officials to make more accurate decisions. Had England drawn level at half-time, they would never have been chasing the game as they were in the second half, and would not have conceeded the two Muller goals that they did.
3) However, England's naivety in getting 8 men ahead of the ball at a freekick for the third goal was embarrasing. We'd hit the bar twice, and Rooney was beginning to look more threatening. There was no need to throw everyone forward in such a fashion. And note that I am not saying that England would have forced a result even if the goal was given: you cannot have just watched the same game I did and come to the conclusion that had they needed to have scored, Germany would not have been able to. Because in the first half hour, they went through England four or five times.
4) The first two goals were embarrassing. John Terry has his qualities (leadership, determination) but also several flaws (lack of pace, and judging by this match, poor decision making and positioning). Whilst his qualities are a credit to the side, as soon as someone appears who can both lead, try hard and chest beat AND defend properly, Terry should be dropped.
5) Upson is not a top level international defender, and should therefore probably not be selected again. Likewise, right backs need to be able to defend. Wes Brown should be cemented back into the number 2 shirt as soon as possible.
6) James actually kept well at times, but could have done better with the second and third goals. I suppose Hart will now be selected, but it seems a rather "arse about face" way to go about it.
7) Lampard actually gave a performance of some vigour, using the ball better, getting forward, and for the first time in his nine World Cup matches, striking ball cleanly. It is unfortunate that he will finish his career never having scored a World Cup goal, but then neither did George Best, or even Alan Ball, so get over it.
8) I hope Gareth Barry was not match-fit, otherwise he is simply shit.
9) Wayne Rooney. Wayne Rooney suffered an injury in late March that should have kept him out of action for four to six weeks. He instead returned eight days later. He has not scored a goal in a competitive match since then, neither has he recaptured anything like the form he showed prior to his injury. Wayne Rooney made the decision to return to action quicker than expected at the behest of Manchester United Football Club. Wayne Rooney clearly prioritised playing for Manchester United ahead of playing for England; it is they who give him his vast salary and merchandising money. It's quite irritating that club football is more important to Wayne Rooney than playing in the World Cup, especially for those of us who dislike Manchester United, and like England, but it is a fact. Wayne Rooney will be back scoring lots of goals for Manchester United come August. He may look like one of the best players in Europe again. But he will never reach the place of fondness and reverence that Englishman have for Bobby Charlton, or Geoff Hurst, or Paul Gascoigne, because he has never given the best performances of his life on the biggest stage of all, the World Cup. So doubtless, excuses will be made. But Rooney isn't fit to lace the boots of Lineker, if you want my opinion. And unless he turns up in Rio in 4 years time (England in that heat!), he never will be.
10) As for the Germans, Schweinsteiger, Ozil and Muller were superb. Klose, Lahm and Poldolski were very good. Boateng rarely looked troubled. The Germans are not a perfect side, but the way they exploited England's lack of pace and organisation at the back was wonderfully clinical. Ozil is a serious player, and one of the best we've seen so far.
11) I imagine that we will not see Capello lead an England team again; I don't think he should bother myself. He has made mistakes, terrible substitutions, and his commitment to 4-4-2 seems a little (or indeed, a lot) old-fashioned these days. But for this country to witness the decline in our performances from 2002, through Euro 2004, 2006 and now this year, and to blame the manager who has won trophies everywhere for this malaise seems a bit ridiculous. Capello was not as good as he thought, but scapegoating him, or a Uruguayan linesman, for this is absurd: the only players out of this team who have ever played at their potential at an international tournament are Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney. For the latter two, that was six years ago at the European Championship. These are not world class players, and many of them are not even great. Retire the Golden Generation, repeat the sentence "we have never beaten another team that has won the World Cup in a knockout match apart from when we were playing at home" until you have memorised it, and start just enjoy being in these tournaments.
2) With regards to the game, I think the disallowed goal may well have made for a very different second half, and that Blatter should take his head out of his arse and allow technology to be used to try to allow officials to make more accurate decisions. Had England drawn level at half-time, they would never have been chasing the game as they were in the second half, and would not have conceeded the two Muller goals that they did.
3) However, England's naivety in getting 8 men ahead of the ball at a freekick for the third goal was embarrasing. We'd hit the bar twice, and Rooney was beginning to look more threatening. There was no need to throw everyone forward in such a fashion. And note that I am not saying that England would have forced a result even if the goal was given: you cannot have just watched the same game I did and come to the conclusion that had they needed to have scored, Germany would not have been able to. Because in the first half hour, they went through England four or five times.
4) The first two goals were embarrassing. John Terry has his qualities (leadership, determination) but also several flaws (lack of pace, and judging by this match, poor decision making and positioning). Whilst his qualities are a credit to the side, as soon as someone appears who can both lead, try hard and chest beat AND defend properly, Terry should be dropped.
5) Upson is not a top level international defender, and should therefore probably not be selected again. Likewise, right backs need to be able to defend. Wes Brown should be cemented back into the number 2 shirt as soon as possible.
6) James actually kept well at times, but could have done better with the second and third goals. I suppose Hart will now be selected, but it seems a rather "arse about face" way to go about it.
7) Lampard actually gave a performance of some vigour, using the ball better, getting forward, and for the first time in his nine World Cup matches, striking ball cleanly. It is unfortunate that he will finish his career never having scored a World Cup goal, but then neither did George Best, or even Alan Ball, so get over it.
8) I hope Gareth Barry was not match-fit, otherwise he is simply shit.
9) Wayne Rooney. Wayne Rooney suffered an injury in late March that should have kept him out of action for four to six weeks. He instead returned eight days later. He has not scored a goal in a competitive match since then, neither has he recaptured anything like the form he showed prior to his injury. Wayne Rooney made the decision to return to action quicker than expected at the behest of Manchester United Football Club. Wayne Rooney clearly prioritised playing for Manchester United ahead of playing for England; it is they who give him his vast salary and merchandising money. It's quite irritating that club football is more important to Wayne Rooney than playing in the World Cup, especially for those of us who dislike Manchester United, and like England, but it is a fact. Wayne Rooney will be back scoring lots of goals for Manchester United come August. He may look like one of the best players in Europe again. But he will never reach the place of fondness and reverence that Englishman have for Bobby Charlton, or Geoff Hurst, or Paul Gascoigne, because he has never given the best performances of his life on the biggest stage of all, the World Cup. So doubtless, excuses will be made. But Rooney isn't fit to lace the boots of Lineker, if you want my opinion. And unless he turns up in Rio in 4 years time (England in that heat!), he never will be.
10) As for the Germans, Schweinsteiger, Ozil and Muller were superb. Klose, Lahm and Poldolski were very good. Boateng rarely looked troubled. The Germans are not a perfect side, but the way they exploited England's lack of pace and organisation at the back was wonderfully clinical. Ozil is a serious player, and one of the best we've seen so far.
11) I imagine that we will not see Capello lead an England team again; I don't think he should bother myself. He has made mistakes, terrible substitutions, and his commitment to 4-4-2 seems a little (or indeed, a lot) old-fashioned these days. But for this country to witness the decline in our performances from 2002, through Euro 2004, 2006 and now this year, and to blame the manager who has won trophies everywhere for this malaise seems a bit ridiculous. Capello was not as good as he thought, but scapegoating him, or a Uruguayan linesman, for this is absurd: the only players out of this team who have ever played at their potential at an international tournament are Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney. For the latter two, that was six years ago at the European Championship. These are not world class players, and many of them are not even great. Retire the Golden Generation, repeat the sentence "we have never beaten another team that has won the World Cup in a knockout match apart from when we were playing at home" until you have memorised it, and start just enjoy being in these tournaments.
Monday, 21 June 2010
Ghana vs Australia
My memories are becoming more and more hazy now: the Ockers scored from some terrible goalkeeping from Kingson, Ghana buried a penalty, Harry Kewell thought he might be able to complain himself out of a red card. Don't remember much else, although I think the game was decent. I liked Ghana's Annan again: hard as nails, economic passer. Exactly the sort of midfielder England needed in Barry's absence really.
I hope Ghana have done enough to get through, obviously a point with Germany seals it. They don't really have enough going forward though, despite Ayew's dribbling. Asamoah Gyan takes a good penalty, and works hard, but does little else.
I hope Ghana have done enough to get through, obviously a point with Germany seals it. They don't really have enough going forward though, despite Ayew's dribbling. Asamoah Gyan takes a good penalty, and works hard, but does little else.
Holland vs Japan
Another shitty game. We had a shitload of folks round at our gaff on Saturday, with disgusting cheap lager for each match, and badly barbecued food in the evening. Several cans of Heineken failed to enliven this dull affair: Sneijder looked to have scored a cracker until you realised it was more terrible goalkeeping, Holland should have scored a couple of late goals, Japan came close to snatching a point. Japan looked orderly, but I hope Denmark overcome them in the decider; they had more about them.
Holland don't look like a quarter final team at this stage, and might yet have a tricky game in the second round. They have a lot of attacking talent which isn't really firing yet. I was very disappointed by Van de Vaart and Van Persie, and while they have Robben to come back in, that would be a fairly fragile basket to put your eggs into.
Holland don't look like a quarter final team at this stage, and might yet have a tricky game in the second round. They have a lot of attacking talent which isn't really firing yet. I was very disappointed by Van de Vaart and Van Persie, and while they have Robben to come back in, that would be a fairly fragile basket to put your eggs into.
England vs Algeria
Oh for fuck's sake.
I was fairly pissed so didn't quite appreciate the technicalities of system etc., yet could probably bang on and on about this fucking monstrosity until the cows come home, so I'll just summarise my thoughts here:
1) Rooney was shit. I know he wants to play up-front, and fair enough, but it is quite possible to cause damage with movement from deeper lying positions, as Ozil, Donovan, Elano, half the Chile team have shown in the tournament. If Rooney is sulking over his position, he needs to get over himself. Otherwise, I'd have to suggest that he is not fit; that was as poor as I have ever seen him play.
2) Lampard was shit. I have defended Frank many times, and it is coming back to bite me on the arse with every misplaced pass or ten minutes that passes with him doing sod all. I would drop him and pick either Milner (may be outclassed, but won't hide) or Carrick (lightweight, poor form, but can PASS the ball). If he played like he does for Chelsea or in qualifying, he would be a world beater. He doesn't, and isn't, so fuck it.
3) Are they fit? I know Souness is a fucking idiot, but might he have a point with regard to altitude conditioning?
4) I fully understood the reasoning and backed the decision to select Heskey. However, since it's not working, he needs to be dropped. I guess that will be it for him; I hope people are able to remember that while he only scored eight goals for England (or whatever), one of them was the fifth in Munich, and one of them was in a World Cup knockout stage win. It may be sometime until any England player achieves that again.
5) Capello had every right to try his assymetric 4-4-2 with Gerrard coming into field and Rooney dropping off when he had his first choice players available, as I asserted last week. Given the fact that this formation was unable to cope with the fairly predictable Algerian packing of the midfield means we probably should switch the system and move to play three central midfielders. Barry and Gerrard (probably be default) stay, I would bring in Carrick and put either Milner or Joe Cole on the left wing (I'd recommend a bit more perspective on the Joe Cole issue though; he was hardly pivotal for Chelsea this year, and has disappeared in an England shirt many times. He's not fucking Messi). I might give Lennon one more chance on the right, with strict orders to stay wide. Otherwise the other of Cole and Milner would be there as well, although that would leave us pretty slow. That would leave Rooney upfront by himself, as I'm sure he would love. It's not a great team, but probably better suited to the match than the one we just finished the game with.
6) When the presiding topic of conversation about the match is that if Beckham was playing at the age of 35, you would have won, you played really fucking badly.
I was fairly pissed so didn't quite appreciate the technicalities of system etc., yet could probably bang on and on about this fucking monstrosity until the cows come home, so I'll just summarise my thoughts here:
1) Rooney was shit. I know he wants to play up-front, and fair enough, but it is quite possible to cause damage with movement from deeper lying positions, as Ozil, Donovan, Elano, half the Chile team have shown in the tournament. If Rooney is sulking over his position, he needs to get over himself. Otherwise, I'd have to suggest that he is not fit; that was as poor as I have ever seen him play.
2) Lampard was shit. I have defended Frank many times, and it is coming back to bite me on the arse with every misplaced pass or ten minutes that passes with him doing sod all. I would drop him and pick either Milner (may be outclassed, but won't hide) or Carrick (lightweight, poor form, but can PASS the ball). If he played like he does for Chelsea or in qualifying, he would be a world beater. He doesn't, and isn't, so fuck it.
3) Are they fit? I know Souness is a fucking idiot, but might he have a point with regard to altitude conditioning?
4) I fully understood the reasoning and backed the decision to select Heskey. However, since it's not working, he needs to be dropped. I guess that will be it for him; I hope people are able to remember that while he only scored eight goals for England (or whatever), one of them was the fifth in Munich, and one of them was in a World Cup knockout stage win. It may be sometime until any England player achieves that again.
5) Capello had every right to try his assymetric 4-4-2 with Gerrard coming into field and Rooney dropping off when he had his first choice players available, as I asserted last week. Given the fact that this formation was unable to cope with the fairly predictable Algerian packing of the midfield means we probably should switch the system and move to play three central midfielders. Barry and Gerrard (probably be default) stay, I would bring in Carrick and put either Milner or Joe Cole on the left wing (I'd recommend a bit more perspective on the Joe Cole issue though; he was hardly pivotal for Chelsea this year, and has disappeared in an England shirt many times. He's not fucking Messi). I might give Lennon one more chance on the right, with strict orders to stay wide. Otherwise the other of Cole and Milner would be there as well, although that would leave us pretty slow. That would leave Rooney upfront by himself, as I'm sure he would love. It's not a great team, but probably better suited to the match than the one we just finished the game with.
6) When the presiding topic of conversation about the match is that if Beckham was playing at the age of 35, you would have won, you played really fucking badly.
Monday, 14 June 2010
Argentina vs Nigeria
Perhaps the match most affected by me drinking thus far.
We gathered to watch the latter two matches at my parents' house on Saturday: such affairs normally turn into a day at the nursery with my 2 year old nephew and 5 month old dj junior the centre of attention, but despite dj junior managing to dribble so much on his new England kit that he looked like he had a Vieira style amount of decongestent smeared on his chest, beer, grilled meat and football remained the centre of attention.
I watched the whole game, but don't really remember much about it. I wanted to see more of Di Maria, who was a bit peripheral. Messi did well, but should have scored a couple of his easier chances. Presumably once they reach the knockout stage, Gutierrez will be replaced with Burdisso, given his ability to play at right back. Argentina should have won by several more, but Martins looked pretty good, and Nigeria shouldn't lose heart with regard to getting through; their key match will be with South Korea.
Higuain's miss from Messi's run was a bit of a shocker obviously, but some of Messi's silky running was a joy to watch, and I got the impression that Mascherano had a fine game.
We gathered to watch the latter two matches at my parents' house on Saturday: such affairs normally turn into a day at the nursery with my 2 year old nephew and 5 month old dj junior the centre of attention, but despite dj junior managing to dribble so much on his new England kit that he looked like he had a Vieira style amount of decongestent smeared on his chest, beer, grilled meat and football remained the centre of attention.
I watched the whole game, but don't really remember much about it. I wanted to see more of Di Maria, who was a bit peripheral. Messi did well, but should have scored a couple of his easier chances. Presumably once they reach the knockout stage, Gutierrez will be replaced with Burdisso, given his ability to play at right back. Argentina should have won by several more, but Martins looked pretty good, and Nigeria shouldn't lose heart with regard to getting through; their key match will be with South Korea.
Higuain's miss from Messi's run was a bit of a shocker obviously, but some of Messi's silky running was a joy to watch, and I got the impression that Mascherano had a fine game.
Friday, 11 June 2010
Great World Cup Moments #11
Because I need to have XI really. Because there's, like, eleven players in a football team. But these are done after this one, because History is now being made, or something equally fucking poignant.
There follows a very boring story that interlinks very vaguely with today's Moment
This girl came to stay with one of my Uni friends in 2002, on the Saturday before the England - Sweden game. She was pale and ginger, about 17 although she looked older, and pretty fit. I would have fucked her, of course, but then I would have fucked virtually anyone in 2002 (I of course actually fucked no-one; although I made one fat girl very happy in late August, and then literally didn't say a word to her the following day; most undj-like). In the morning I had watched Ireland vs Cameroon with two beers (purchased at half-time at 8:15: my buddy had just finished a night shift, I had merely woken up), then enjoyed Denmark vs Uruguay (a genuine screamer from Dario Rodriguez, I won't link though, you can just look it up yourself, although no Recoba at all) and Germany vs Saudi Arabia (hilarious). I then went round to my other mates' house, and we went to the park for beers, then a pub. No-one had any weed. Some people, including this girl, went to a club, the rest of us bemoaned our lack of weed, until Dougie, a genial Scot, finally brought round about an eighth and everyone could stop clucking. This girl came back from the club about 4, and told everyone how much she liked football, and how she was looking forward to the game between England and Sweden the next day.
After two hours sleep (sometimes I wish I was still young), I woke up to watch Argentina vs Nigeria, to find everyone had for some reason gone out and stolen a canoe. I took the opportunity to further grill this girl about football. She went to Highbury with her brother she said, quite often, about ten times in this Double winning season. Her favourite player was Ljungberg, although she liked Henry obviously. So far so good. She then became insistent that Ljungberg had been passed fit for the match that day. Now you probably don't remember, but there was this big ongoing will he, won't he story about Ljungberg playing, but it was pretty well established that he wouldn't play (I might have this wrong, it might be that she was insistent he wouldn't play, and we knew he would. I don' t fucking remember, we used to pill to help us wake up).
Anyway, she was wrong, as we found out when we got to the pub. I then questioned her further about Arsenal. She was no true fan; she had no real understanding of the game, and you could tell that she fancied Ljungberg (Ha! Barking up the wrong tree there, love), rather than loved his ability to ghost on the wrong side of defenders like some sort of post-punk Martin Peters (Ljungberg was such a fantastic player between 2000 and 2004. He attained absolute mastery of timing runs from midfield to score, peaked in big games, had a technique that would have functioned on the continent and worked his bollocks off. I just wish he was English).
The bubble had burst with this girl anyway, and I will never forget the lesson. As the girl went home to recover, and everyone enjoyed Spain vs Slovenia with a big bag of weed, I reflected that Women Never Know As Much About Football As They Think They Do. Even when it looks like they do, they don't.
And so to sum up this absurd piece of misogyny, this is what happens when Women try to play football.
That's the end of the Moment barrel scraping, for which I'm sure we'll all say Huzzah.
There follows a very boring story that interlinks very vaguely with today's Moment
This girl came to stay with one of my Uni friends in 2002, on the Saturday before the England - Sweden game. She was pale and ginger, about 17 although she looked older, and pretty fit. I would have fucked her, of course, but then I would have fucked virtually anyone in 2002 (I of course actually fucked no-one; although I made one fat girl very happy in late August, and then literally didn't say a word to her the following day; most undj-like). In the morning I had watched Ireland vs Cameroon with two beers (purchased at half-time at 8:15: my buddy had just finished a night shift, I had merely woken up), then enjoyed Denmark vs Uruguay (a genuine screamer from Dario Rodriguez, I won't link though, you can just look it up yourself, although no Recoba at all) and Germany vs Saudi Arabia (hilarious). I then went round to my other mates' house, and we went to the park for beers, then a pub. No-one had any weed. Some people, including this girl, went to a club, the rest of us bemoaned our lack of weed, until Dougie, a genial Scot, finally brought round about an eighth and everyone could stop clucking. This girl came back from the club about 4, and told everyone how much she liked football, and how she was looking forward to the game between England and Sweden the next day.
After two hours sleep (sometimes I wish I was still young), I woke up to watch Argentina vs Nigeria, to find everyone had for some reason gone out and stolen a canoe. I took the opportunity to further grill this girl about football. She went to Highbury with her brother she said, quite often, about ten times in this Double winning season. Her favourite player was Ljungberg, although she liked Henry obviously. So far so good. She then became insistent that Ljungberg had been passed fit for the match that day. Now you probably don't remember, but there was this big ongoing will he, won't he story about Ljungberg playing, but it was pretty well established that he wouldn't play (I might have this wrong, it might be that she was insistent he wouldn't play, and we knew he would. I don' t fucking remember, we used to pill to help us wake up).
Anyway, she was wrong, as we found out when we got to the pub. I then questioned her further about Arsenal. She was no true fan; she had no real understanding of the game, and you could tell that she fancied Ljungberg (Ha! Barking up the wrong tree there, love), rather than loved his ability to ghost on the wrong side of defenders like some sort of post-punk Martin Peters (Ljungberg was such a fantastic player between 2000 and 2004. He attained absolute mastery of timing runs from midfield to score, peaked in big games, had a technique that would have functioned on the continent and worked his bollocks off. I just wish he was English).
The bubble had burst with this girl anyway, and I will never forget the lesson. As the girl went home to recover, and everyone enjoyed Spain vs Slovenia with a big bag of weed, I reflected that Women Never Know As Much About Football As They Think They Do. Even when it looks like they do, they don't.
And so to sum up this absurd piece of misogyny, this is what happens when Women try to play football.
That's the end of the Moment barrel scraping, for which I'm sure we'll all say Huzzah.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Great World Cup Moments #8
Since these memories seem to become mostly fouls and other acts of gamesmanship, I suppose it's time for some "proper" football.
This goal by Cambiasso ranks somewhere with Milan's second in the 1994 Champions League final as the best goals of this sort (long passing movements involving every outfield player) I have ever seen. Obviously, this goal required technique, vision and patience, and although it is taken as a 24 pass move, the end of the movement, which is where it actually becomes dangerous is more like a series of quick 1-2s involving Saviola and Riquelme and then Cambiasso and Crespo. This goal is like the encapsulation of the kind of football that Argentina, Spain and of course the neutral's darlings Barcelona seek to play: dominating possession, keeping the ball on the deck, switching play, diagonal dribbles. This kind of aesthetic seems very popular, Barcelona have become everyone's second team, and it's fairly hard to claim that you don't want to see football played by skilful players, passing the ball to one another in order to create space and score goals.
However, I can't help but compare it unfavourably to this sort of team goal, scored a year later by a player equally as annoying as Cambiasso himself. And the reason is this: you cannot watch this kind of football whilst slightly drunk.
I spent a lot of afternoons drinking during the 2006 World Cup (actually, scratch the words "the", "World" and "Cup" from that sentence); this was one of them. I recall this game, and I enjoyed it, principally because it's always great to see a proper battering in the World Cup (I even enjoyed Germany vs Saudi Arabia in 2002 at the time). But I do not remember realising how long the passage of play was until they showed it in full at half time, and told me that there were 24 passes involved. Sure, the last five passes to make a chance were great, and enthralling. But it is simply not possible to quickly drink three or four cans of premium lager and be expected to pay attention every time a team starts passing the ball methodically to each other around the team, just in case they end up, 20 passes later, with a man free in the penalty area.
Football watched by men drinking beer needs to be quick and to the point. Which, to be fair to them, Argentina understood, judging by this effort two games later. Much better: ball launched into the box, chest down clearance, kibosh. Not much chance of drifiting off during that one. A far superior goal.
This goal by Cambiasso ranks somewhere with Milan's second in the 1994 Champions League final as the best goals of this sort (long passing movements involving every outfield player) I have ever seen. Obviously, this goal required technique, vision and patience, and although it is taken as a 24 pass move, the end of the movement, which is where it actually becomes dangerous is more like a series of quick 1-2s involving Saviola and Riquelme and then Cambiasso and Crespo. This goal is like the encapsulation of the kind of football that Argentina, Spain and of course the neutral's darlings Barcelona seek to play: dominating possession, keeping the ball on the deck, switching play, diagonal dribbles. This kind of aesthetic seems very popular, Barcelona have become everyone's second team, and it's fairly hard to claim that you don't want to see football played by skilful players, passing the ball to one another in order to create space and score goals.
However, I can't help but compare it unfavourably to this sort of team goal, scored a year later by a player equally as annoying as Cambiasso himself. And the reason is this: you cannot watch this kind of football whilst slightly drunk.
I spent a lot of afternoons drinking during the 2006 World Cup (actually, scratch the words "the", "World" and "Cup" from that sentence); this was one of them. I recall this game, and I enjoyed it, principally because it's always great to see a proper battering in the World Cup (I even enjoyed Germany vs Saudi Arabia in 2002 at the time). But I do not remember realising how long the passage of play was until they showed it in full at half time, and told me that there were 24 passes involved. Sure, the last five passes to make a chance were great, and enthralling. But it is simply not possible to quickly drink three or four cans of premium lager and be expected to pay attention every time a team starts passing the ball methodically to each other around the team, just in case they end up, 20 passes later, with a man free in the penalty area.
Football watched by men drinking beer needs to be quick and to the point. Which, to be fair to them, Argentina understood, judging by this effort two games later. Much better: ball launched into the box, chest down clearance, kibosh. Not much chance of drifiting off during that one. A far superior goal.
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Great World Cup Moments #2
The taking of Nafplion.I was lucky enough to go on an "educational" trip to Greece during part of the 1998 World Cup. I say "educational"; 7 17 year old boys, each a less experience drinker than the last, one eccentric teacher, relaxed Mediterranean approach to teenage drinking, and a decent World Cup made for a memorable few days. The night England played Argentina saw us ejected from two bars, some of the least offensive hooliganism of the last forty years (witness us pulling up "do not walk on the grass signs"), a heady pub crawl and an unexpected fully clothed dip (read tumble) in the sea; little remains as memorable as the game though.
Being abroad only enhanced the match, I think, in that our obnoxious, drunken patriotism seemed to turn every Greek in the town into an Argie for the night. Maybe I'd remember the England Portugal '06 game in a similar light in these circumstances. But I think the reason this game is so memorable is the fact that it was fought by Men. Seaman, Adams, Ince, Batty, Shearer: these were Men of character and determination, Men with whom you would not wish to have a fight. I know it's an age thing, because I was younger than Owen in 1998, and I've been older than a good percentage of the team since 2002. But this was the last time that I was a kid watching men play for England, and coincidentally, or perhaps not, the last time I gave a shit about our prospects.
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