Look out over the next few days !!!!!
Some interesting ideas !!!!
World Cup Companion
World Cup Book
Thursday 23 December 2010
Monday 9 August 2010
Time Heals, Holland Fans, and All That
They say that time heals most things. By the end of Saturday 14 August 2010 England will have played in a friendly, and the Premier League will be up and running for the 2010/2011 season. A disastrous summer for England fans, although never to be entirely forgotten, will be comfortably far enough away in the past.
German fans will also want to throw themselves into the domestic season following yet another failure despite a never tiring German optimism. Twenty-eight other sets of fans are beginning to heal now too. There can only be one winner of the World Title of course!!
But you say, "That's only 31 teams. There were 32 in South Africa!"
Yes, and the one team we omit is Holland. Holland showed so much promise. The team rather let themselves down in the Final. And the Dutch still feel that their team was robbed!? They lost of course in the Final and their healing process will take a little longer yet. Perhaps after three, yes 3!, World Cup Final defeats, the healing will never come. No team has come so close so often and still not become World Champions.
Some teams were never expected to win the World Cup. For many, it was a good tournament. But South Africa, United States, Chile, Mexico, and Ghana all could have gone further.
Congratulations though go to Spain. Its team went all the way. Interestingly the team only scored 8 goals, conceding only 2, but no one in Spain is worrying about that. For Spain, the World Cup under-achievers, time has finally healed, and Spain are the World Champions.
German fans will also want to throw themselves into the domestic season following yet another failure despite a never tiring German optimism. Twenty-eight other sets of fans are beginning to heal now too. There can only be one winner of the World Title of course!!
But you say, "That's only 31 teams. There were 32 in South Africa!"
Yes, and the one team we omit is Holland. Holland showed so much promise. The team rather let themselves down in the Final. And the Dutch still feel that their team was robbed!? They lost of course in the Final and their healing process will take a little longer yet. Perhaps after three, yes 3!, World Cup Final defeats, the healing will never come. No team has come so close so often and still not become World Champions.
Some teams were never expected to win the World Cup. For many, it was a good tournament. But South Africa, United States, Chile, Mexico, and Ghana all could have gone further.
Congratulations though go to Spain. Its team went all the way. Interestingly the team only scored 8 goals, conceding only 2, but no one in Spain is worrying about that. For Spain, the World Cup under-achievers, time has finally healed, and Spain are the World Champions.
Tuesday 13 July 2010
Spain Win
The right team won the World Cup !
Spain WAS football this summer in South Africa.
The Netherlands, with an "anti football" approach to the final was justly relegated to the team that has now been in three finals and has never won the World Cup. Only Germany has lost in more finals, but has also won three times.
Spain becomes only the eighth country to lift the World Cup. Interestingly this year's final was the first final not to involve any of the big four....Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Argentina. It was also the first time a European team has won the World Cup outside of Europe.
The 2014 World Cup will be in Brazil. We'll be there !!!
Spain WAS football this summer in South Africa.
The Netherlands, with an "anti football" approach to the final was justly relegated to the team that has now been in three finals and has never won the World Cup. Only Germany has lost in more finals, but has also won three times.
Spain becomes only the eighth country to lift the World Cup. Interestingly this year's final was the first final not to involve any of the big four....Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Argentina. It was also the first time a European team has won the World Cup outside of Europe.
The 2014 World Cup will be in Brazil. We'll be there !!!
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Nothing has changed in 110 years !!
Pundits and commentators can talk forever about what went wrong with the England World Cup effort, or lack of effort. But whether people point to manager, players, the FA, goalmouth technology, team format, golden generations, or whatever else, the fact is that for 110 years nothing much has changed and is not likely to change for another 110 years.
England's World Cup win in 1966 was a blip. England should just hope for another blip. The fact is that when it comes to international football, there is quite a great deal of talking done in England, but nothing ever happens by way of real action.
This goes right back to the early 1900's. The English FA had the chance to organise a world football tournament and to lead the international game. But the FA did not even enter a team in the World Cup until 1950, twenty years after Uruguay became the first World Champions. The FA even refused to send a team to Uruguay in 1980 to compete in Mudialito. This was a tournament organised to celebrate fifty years of the World Cup and was for past World Cup winners. Holland who had not won the World Cup had to substitute for England.
In recent years, England has failed to prepare properly for penalty shoot out competitions, losing all three World Cup penalty shoot out competions it has been involved in. The Germans on the other hand have won all four of theirs. And just as England thought it was catching up with the Germans, it has been revealed that while everyone was complaining about the new World Cup ball, the Germans had been practising with it for six months. But of course, it wasn't really the Germans who knocked England out of the World Cup, it was England's poor performance in the group stage. Or was it the lack of goalmouth technology?
Why do we, or anyone else including Chris Waddle, spend so much time talking and writing about this. Things will not change, and in 2050 it will still be Germany reaching the semi-finals and possibly the final. And England will still be sloping off early.
England's World Cup win in 1966 was a blip. England should just hope for another blip. The fact is that when it comes to international football, there is quite a great deal of talking done in England, but nothing ever happens by way of real action.
This goes right back to the early 1900's. The English FA had the chance to organise a world football tournament and to lead the international game. But the FA did not even enter a team in the World Cup until 1950, twenty years after Uruguay became the first World Champions. The FA even refused to send a team to Uruguay in 1980 to compete in Mudialito. This was a tournament organised to celebrate fifty years of the World Cup and was for past World Cup winners. Holland who had not won the World Cup had to substitute for England.
In recent years, England has failed to prepare properly for penalty shoot out competitions, losing all three World Cup penalty shoot out competions it has been involved in. The Germans on the other hand have won all four of theirs. And just as England thought it was catching up with the Germans, it has been revealed that while everyone was complaining about the new World Cup ball, the Germans had been practising with it for six months. But of course, it wasn't really the Germans who knocked England out of the World Cup, it was England's poor performance in the group stage. Or was it the lack of goalmouth technology?
Why do we, or anyone else including Chris Waddle, spend so much time talking and writing about this. Things will not change, and in 2050 it will still be Germany reaching the semi-finals and possibly the final. And England will still be sloping off early.
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