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......
Well, this one has crept up on me hard! I've barely had time to recover from Villa's Europa League win a fortnight ago; distracted all the while with SkySports trying to sell off our squad to The Big Six and reading stories of the thunderstorms and the visa complexities facing fans, players and referees of countries that Trump doesn't like today - and yet now here we are, listening to Gary Neville self reflecting on his own career as a scene setter for the World Cup. This one is a weird one. The expanded format and cruel time-zone scheduling mean that I go into it with no ambitions to 'watch it all'. The group stages are, on paper, almost devoid of any real jeopardy. The bloating of the tournament means there are now more groups than realistic winners, and with that, of course, no groups of death. And to cater for the stupid total number of teams which has to be 8,16,32 or even 64 dammit - just no other actual number; we have the awful spectacle of most 3rd place ...
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
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