First of all, props to Fabio Cannavaro for not acting upon the philosophy from his playing days and kicking Adrian Chiles in the face. I wish he would. Chiles is a complete abhorration of a sports presenter and this was illuminated quite clearly when he revealed live on air that former Northern Ireland footballer Neil Lennon was in fact Scottish. You learn new things every day.
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| In all fairness, he looks a bit Scottish. Ginger, check. Always angry, check. |
I personally find the BBC much more entertaining, if only for watching Rio Ferdinand trying to sound intelligent in the company of legends Clarence Seedorf and Thierry Henry. He still looks like an anthropomorphic lizard that has painstakingly attempted but badly failed to learn and succesfully speak the English language for its entire life. I also hear that Phil Neville was a poor choice of pundit for the England Italy game? I can't pass comment as for some reason I fell asleep in the 1st minute and woke up when it finished. What a rotten bit of luck eh?
Anyway, I should probably talk about football.
So far as I quietly predicted to myself, the following things have come to fruition: Brazil look lost, Germany look frighteningly good, Chile are bloody quick, Netherlands don't look too shabby, Italy are a one man team (albeit in the shape of a hairy man in his mid 30's), Portugal aren't even a one man team with Ronaldo there, Algeria and Iran both have eleven men stood in their goalmouths, Spain are a team of old men looking for a taste of the glory days and England are probably going to go out early. There, done. Next World Cup, please.
I think England have had two very good chances to win the world cup in recent years. In 2002 they boasted a potential starting lineup of:
Seaman, Neville, Campbell, Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Gerrard, Scholes, Beckham, Lampard, Joe Cole, Owen.
This lineup would have won that world cup. However Neville, Gerrard and Beckham got injured and for some reason Frank Lampard was left out of the squad. They also had Sven Goran Eriksson as their manager.
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| 'She looks married... That is so hot.' |
In 2006, their best lineup was:
Robinson, Neville, Terry, Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, Joe Cole, Owen and Rooney.
This lineup should have had a chance at winning the world cup but Wayne Rooney (at his absolute best) got injured. Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard also decided that they were not too fond of playing well together on the same pitch. They too, regrettably, had Sven Goran Eriksson as their manager.
They were two squandered opportunites to win football's biggest tournament and on both occasions this mostly came down to injuries and managerial ineptitude by everybody's favourite ladies man, Sven. If those two teams had current boss Roy Hodgson in charge, they may have had a shot as he seems to vaguely know what he is doing. Even if it does start raining as England are playing poorly, he will have the sense not to grab a cup of coffee and an umbrella while a football match is going on.
Assuming that Luis Suarez has been well fed and doesn't bite into a medium rare Phil Jagielka during the game, England should win as Uruguay do not have a good team barring Suarez and Edison Cavani and they unequivocally proved this against a bunch of central American part timers in their first game. Let's hope Diego Forlan doesn't forget his zimmer frame or the Uruguay strikers, famed for their particularly unique sense of balance, might win a penalty or two.
Anyway this World Cup has been a thousand times better than the arse-numblingly dull 2010 World Cup, so long may it continue...
