Well, out from behind a rock I come. Like Batman responding to the spotlight over Gotham, the sight of Alexi Lalas relaxing on ESPN's swanky new World Cup set spouting 'knowledge' of the beautiful game immediately triggered me into action.
A personal excitement for me is the returning punditry on this side of the pond of one Roberto Martinez. 4 years ago, I listened to this polite young man with light enthusiasm....now I find myself hanging onto every word from Bobby Brown Shoes. A supremely classy guy, just hoping for the "and Neymar is close to signing, which is phenonemal (Bobby's most used word - quite impressive for a Spanish native) "
Sooo, what have I missed so far (Brazil own goal aside)....
- Roy Hodgson in old man sunglasses
- An amazing lack of planning from team England organizing a friendly in Florida at 5pm in June and being surprised as a thunderstorm
- Scapegoating of a key England player (Rooney) before a ball is kicked in anger
- Overplayed bellowing for potential young player to start (Barkley)
Oh my, Neymar just scuffed a shot into the corner - 2 goals inside the first 30 minutes. That's my big hope for this summer's tournament.... attacking threat and lots of goals. That, and lots of goals for Mr Messi. There's a decent amount of pressure on him already, and I was happy to add to that with the weight of my own financial investment. Don't let me down Lionel.
Ok, let's relax and see if Big Phil's head explodes if Brazil score a second......
The England match left me numbed. Unimpressive, uninspired, lacklustre – however the bottle of champagne I enjoyed with the game certainly took the edge off things. It seems that we, along with France and Italy are suffering some horrendous ‘anti-football’ affliction. If the game was less global then we could put it down to ‘a long hard season in the Premier league’ or ‘the difficulty of being motivated for national team games when the premier league pays so well’; but neither is valid. Neither is this jibulabulani ball business. The teams who pass to each other seem not to suffer. Poor selections and poor play has blighted us, and whilst lots of vitriol heads in the direction of Heskey, we’d do well to remember that the main culprits on Friday were Gerrard and Rooney for having zero patience on the ball and terrible control. Lampard wasn’t much better. At least Barry gave us some sort of stable platform to build from. I expect the introductions of Joe Cole and Jermain Defoe or Peter...
Welcome back Stevey C!
ReplyDeleteStevie, sack the work and life admin. This is the World Cup and the next 4 weeks are your first priority. Everything else takes back seat. Good to have you two back opining. Cheers Ed
ReplyDelete