There was another night when England had an important match, and I found myself enjoying a non-football night out in France instead.
It was only a week or two before September 11. England away to Germany in a World Cup qualifier. I was tucking into a great meal in the pretty Normandy town of Honfleur, not far from the distinctly unpretty city of Le Havre. Such was the depth, then, of my eternal club-before-country feeling that I’d briefly forgotten about the game in Munich.
Were you disappointed with last night’s performance? Did you expect better? Pete Sixsmith invokes the spirit of Ambridge to try to get our gallant lads back on track
As older readers would know this was Walter Gabriel’s response whenever anything went wrong in Ambridge in the 50s and 60s. Walter was not a football fan, being more interested in ploughing matches and pig breeding, but I have a feeling that:
a) he could have picked a better side than Don Capello
b) he could have played better than Wayne Rooney
c) he could have offered more insights than the lamentable Andy Townsend on ITV
What a shocking performance from a bunch of players who showed exactly why Franz Beckenbauer’s criticism was absolutely spot on. In fact, they could not even play kick and rush effectively as crosses and long balls were just ballooned into the sky.
Where are Kenneth Wolstenholme and George Taylor when you most need them? Luke Harvey spent months looking forward to the World Cup only to find it marred (so far) by indifferent football and (probably for the duration) poor punditry.Of course, Ken and Goerge did the commentary and the punditry without help …
Imagine the scene: George Osborne – Chancellor of the Exchequer and a man whose stiff upper lip is matched by his even stiffer looking hair – is on Question Time about to face a fierce interrogation from the fearsome Jeremy Paxman.
Paxman strikes first, quickly questioning Osborne on the proposed budget cuts and if they truly are feasible. Osborne reclines in his seat, clasps his hands together and with a smirk and a chuckle pronounces: “I don’t really know much about the numbers side of things, to be honest.”
Everyone has guilty secrets.
From our own correspondent in a corner of London that is forever Paraguay. A little later than expected, Rob Hutchison …
It’s not that the Premier League fixture list, as published in June, is utterly useless. It just doesn’t have a strong enough relationship with the truth. With scant regard for travelling fans, in some case long-distance travellers needing plenty of notice to obtain the best deals, matchdays are switched at the TV moguls’ whim.Jeremy Robson has a tongue-in-cheek idea for injecting fun into the uncertainty …
Every summer there is mild excitement when next season’s fixtures are announced.
When will we play the Mags, whether it is home or away first? Opening fixture, final fixture and whether we are at home on Boxing Day.
Marcos Angeleri is one of the players who we’ve been led to believe should be interested in the forthcoming Premier League timetable, published today …
The fixture list is out, giving fans the chance to start making the plans they know Murdoch may ruin and sending those earnest football data people out on patrol.
So, seconds away, round two … anything – even boxing metaphors – to make the World Cup seem exciting. An event to remember? Certainly not so far, except for the plucky displays put up by unfancied sides against the more favoured.
Pete Sixsmith looks back on a subdued (translation: dull as dishwater) first round …
Well, that’s it, the first round is over and I have seen every team – and so far I have not seen an exciting, end to end game with lots of goals and action and things like that.
Well, a competition I feared would be ignored attracted some cracking responses.
How, I asked, do you caption the following photograph? It was taken by Rob, all round good man and inspiration for this little contest (he suggested it, having snapped the hapless, lifeless magpie in his office car park) …
The trouble we go to in bringing you World Cup “Who Are You?”s. The USA edition went down well and …