By Marvin Williams.
We’re exactly half way through this year’s World Cup finals so I thought I would compile a list of the Top 10 things that frankly tick us all off. See if you agree?
10. Fixture schedules
We’re all accustomed to our football on a Saturday afternoon and Super Sunday double headers but the world cup has its own time frame 12.30, 3.00, 7.30. For unemployed football fans we now find ourselves on the right side of the recession, sitting home all day with our only responsibility remembering to fill in the scores on the wall chart. However for those of you who do have a job or a life it must be frustrating when the best game’s in the middle of the day and the evening fixture is a poor one. In at number 10 as although it’s been plain sailing so far this week the remaining two group games are to be shown at the same time every day. But it still beats working I guess, hi five to redundancy.
9. Discovering Nationality
My second aunt’s 1st cousin’s was taught Portuguese in Brazil a few years ago so I guess that makes me a 1/8th Brazilian? Is it coincidental how a lot of people discover there Spanish side but not many do their Slovenian one? It’s pathetic. But what’s even worse is when players do it. How many times do you hear, “He played for them at U16, U17 and U18’s level but switched alliances when he didn’t make their senior squad.” Yes it’s in the rules but players’ moving national sides like its club football doesn’t sit right with me. 8.Wayne 8. Rooney
A metatarsal injury, a sending’s off, a poor goal scoring record and now an outburst against the fans, maybe Rooney just isn’t meant to play for England. We’ve anticipated for so long going into a tournament having him simply available and now we do it hasn’t so far worked out how we thought it would. Wayne has been built as the average working class man who we can all identify with and that’s why we were bemused with his comments. His actions were simply an act of frustration and although they were wrong they do not need to be sensationalised. Many of our reactions if our team plays poorly is different directly after the game to how it would be later when we’ve calmed down. However Wayne fills the number eight slot as I believe his unauthentic apology weren’t his own words. He made a mistake and should have issued an apology from his own mouth. But get us to the final and I’ll forgive you Wayne!
7. Fickle pundits
The Germans hammered a bunch of surfers and were branded the team to beat they missed a penalty a week later and were no longer those typical Germans. If you’re a paid professional pundit and you only watch the Premier League you may have a problem analysing teams and players outside England. Make educated, justifiable predictions and maintain them throughout the tournament instead of having your opinion turned after a single game.
6. Maicon’s goal
“Did he mean it? Of course he did. He’s Brazilian and he cried after scoring.” Give me a break! Ever find yourself in court get yourself a Brazil shirt and shed a tear that will get you off.
5. Vuvuzela
The now infamous Vuvuzela’s fills the number 5 slot but a week ago would have likely been in the top two. Even if you’re deaf or have the ears of Van Gough you could still hear how loud they are. But the one sound that was even more annoying than the plastic horns was that of every commentator reminding of it deafening sound like we hadn’t surmised that, talk about patronising. Inevitably a few will slip through customs and find themselves at a ground near you and knowing the English public it won’t be a move looked upon favourable. It will ruin the unique atmosphere at grounds across the country I hear you say. How dare they out-sound Spurs fans’ singing about Sol’s Sexuality or the verbal attacks on players taking corners?
4. TheJabulani
Loughborough University get the chance to cement themselves in the world of design and they choose to manufacture the only thing that gets more critics every four years than the current prime minister at a general election, the WC ball. The Jabulani is the worst ball since Germany06 which only had a worst ball in South K/ Japan 02 and so on. Have you seen the pattern which has emerged? It’s just a ball. How long does it take to get used to? Two kicks maximum. (Robert Green’s error was due to poor technique not the football and it doesn’t help being crap as well)
3. Moaning commentators
Surprisingly a game between Japan and Cameron lacked the quality of a premier league fixture, who would have thought so? I watched the entire game with Mark Lawrenson (BBC’s co commentator) complaining about how much quality the game lacked, how defence-minded the two teams were and how much of a boring spectacle it was for the neutral. Well I’m sure they were sincerely sorry they disappointed Mr Lawrenson and other commentators (Who you would have heard making similar comments throughout the group stages) but they thought maybe playing the only way they know how to in attempt to win the game might be a sensible approach, ludicrous idea!
2. ITV’s and BBC’s coverage
An English man, A Scots man, A Togolese man and A German man sat in the studio…. Punch-line? There isn’t one. The joke? BBC’s coverage. The panel once had Jurgen Klinsmann, Adebayor, Alan Shearer and Alan Hansen discussing England’s prospects prior a New Zealand game. Now football is a game of opinions and wide range of them may be welcomed but the BBC pulling names out of a hat to compile a WC team surely is acceptable. It’s the only explanation for the odd candidates who fill the post. The thing about hiring professional is that you respect their views more if they have the credentials which merit the place on the panel. No matter how well Steve McClaren does abroad you wouldn’t hire him for anything concerning England except a film parody. So Arsenal and City fans will be wondering why a player who doesn’t have a clue about football in Adebayor justifies the license fee. It’s all a bit forced as well, one minute it’s an analysis of the game and next minute it’s a brief look into the apartheid years.
At the risk of sounding like an ITV spokesman I better just balance it out. Paddy Power actually offered odds on ITV cutting to a commercial break some time during the finals whilst a game was on. Surely the geniuses couldn’t make the same mistake twice, they did. After Adrian Chiles’ transfer from the BBC it seems as if he left his sense of humour behind because Edgar Davids hasn’t been amused with a word of what he has to say. In fact you would have watched on quite uncomfortably at times hoping he didn’t say anything that may have offended Davids.
1. John terry
Why didn’t anyone let me know? Apparently JT’s been given the captaincy back. That farce of a press conference was a publicity stunt and I DO’NT want to see him in an England shirt again! Perhaps undermining managers is a trait of Chelsea players after Anelka’s outburst a few days ago his Chelsea colleague decided to go one better. He’s bitter and arrogant and hasn’t won the popularity vote with me. England’s demise can be contributed to his scandal a few months ago and whilst we all put that behind us he surely hasn’t. To the naked eye it may have seemed as if he had said all the right things but the England camp is now in turmoil. His words were divisive. He spoke on behalf of the squad when he didn’t even have the backing of all the senior players or more importantly the manager. Regardless of whether you agree or not with Capello’s decisions whilst he’s manager players have to respect that. Lampard spoke eloquently in his press conference and as vice captain he was in every right to do so but alot of it was damage limitation. He knew exactly what he was doing. It was probably one of the most pointless and detrimental press conferences in England’s history. The issue is not what he said because alot of us agree with the content but it’s the way he went about it. What did he possible believe would be achieved by unveiling something that should have remained in-house to the Press? Oh yeah the press make everything better don’t they.
There are still plenty of games left in the World Cup 2010 before the winner can be announced! Check out Partybets worldcup and place your bet today!
