Sunday, June 11, 2006
Don't believe the hype
Like any major event, the World Cup attracts huge sponsorship which takes tickets away from the real fans and as a result, too many people in the stadium know nothing about the game. Most of them are faceless and for some strange reason need to have trees near their seats to watch the game but I was in Frankfurt on Saturday to witness England v Paraguay in the opening match in Group B and I can name 2 of these people.
The first person was Mexican Marco Rodriguez and unfortunately he was the referee. Now we have been lead to believe that all referees have taken part in fitness tests and exams covering laws of the game into order to be selected. Clearly there are 2 Marc Rodriguez and the one we saw was a donkey. I can't remember the last time I saw a ref who was so fussy and made some very basic mistakes in the laws of the game. I can't remember the last time I saw a goal keeper pulled up for taking more than 6 seconds to release the ball out of his hands, or when so many throw ins were given to the opposition for being taken in the wrong place. However the best decision (and by best I mean bewildering) was when a clearance by Paul Robinson hit to stupid corporate football for retards TV hanging over the centre of the pitch from the roof (more on this later). The whistle goes straight away and Rodriguez gives a drop ball. I must say, I didn't realise that FIFA had introduced a drop ball when their advert screens interfered with play. I thought (and so did many others), that the game should just continue. But this was only the start of it. The diving and cheating by the South Americas went unpunished yet Crouch gets booked for being persistently fouled. The one good thing is that we won't have him taking control of another of our games.
So onto the second person to be named who was in the stadium and knew nothing about football. Step forward Sven-Goran Eriksson, highly paid manager of the England team. Several years ago, the powers that be in England created football academies which would help develop our young players into the cream of world football. Players like Owen, Rooney, Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard etc would suggest that the academies have done their job. We have the finest crop of players anyone can ever remember. So why on earth have we picked a timid, tactical dinosaur who isn't even English to oversee all this talent. Things started well with us scoring a a goal from a set piece after just 3 minutes. So there we are. Paraguay are in disarray losing their keeper with injury, we are a goal up so the nerves have been settled in front of 30,000 England fans. This should end up as a comfortable victory. The rest of the first half was OK but going in at half-time, the players needed a bit of rocket to force the pace and kill the game off. Instead, it just got worse and worse and in typical fashion we end up defending a 1-0 lead showing little interest to score a 2nd. Thankfully Paraguay weren't very good and we held on for the win. Now don't get me wrong, the 3 points are fantastic but this negative attitude is a huge cause for concern. WC 2002 in Japan, 1-0 up against Brazil and eventually lost 2-1. In the 2nd half when Brazil were down to 10 men, we didn't even manage a shot at goal. Euro 2004, 1-0 up against Portugal, Rooney gets clogged and we shut up shop again. On the other bench, Scolari takes off Figo and puts on Postiga who scores and we go on to lose on pens.
It's embarrassing considering the attacking talent we have. At the time he named the squad, I hammered the Swede for not taking 5 strikers. We've played just 1 game and it's already been shown why this is a mistake. As soon as his love-child Hargreaves came on, we were legging it out of the stadium. We'd seen enough. I'm just glad my ticket was only 35 Euros instead of the 850 Euros which was the going rate on the black market the previous night. The press conferences showed players and the manager giving excuses about 3 points being important and it the heat was a problem. Well excuse me, the heat didn't seem to be a problem in Manchester 7 days earlier when we beat Jamaica 6-0.
The game itself wasn't the most disappointment thing. The whole corporate crap is a joke. You can see from the photo I took that parts of the corporate entertainment areas had to have trees inside the stadium. Apart from the lake of atmosphere was the huge TV screen suspended from the roof over the centre of the pitch. Apart from interferring with the game (you remember Paul Robinson kicked the ball against it), it was just a brainwashing ad machine before the game. The annoying jingles only part of it but the worst thing came at half time. The first half highlights start running and Voiceover Man in his best German/US accent combined with incorrect terminology was the most pathetic thing I have ever had the misfortune to witness at a football match. What kind of moron goes to a World Cup match and needs to have commentary telling you what has just happened. You can just hear the conversation "I say, I'm sure I recognise the chap in the white shirt wearing number 7. Wasn't he in those Brylcream adverts?" Bastards !!!
Meanwhile, a number of my friends who have travelled to various friendly and qualifying matches either have to fork out Â850+ on a ticket or watch the game on a giant TV down by the river. Don't suppose we'll be seeing any of the prawn sandwich brigade in Macedonia on that Wednesday night next September for the Euro 2008 qualifier.
Roll on Nuremburg
// posted by Big Blue Marble @ 11:19 pm 
