In a guest post, written before Italy crumbled to Costa Rica to put England out of their/our misery, Spencer Blohm explores the impact of social media on football and football on social media. M Salut has lightly edited to take account of today’s defeat of Italy …
John McCormick writes: Jeremy Robson has been busy lately but managed to catch up with the World Cup and pass on his thoughts. His considered appraisal of England’s performance and the reasons for it are well worth reading, be you fan, player, owner or member of the FA council. And, if you’re one of the latter, in the words of the one-year king, “something must be done”.
Few serious followers of the national team were under any illusions about our prospects at this year’s World Cup, Firstly, we rarely do well and secondly, this is possibly the weakest squad to go to a World Cup in living memory.
John McCormick writes: As the song almost goes: Louis Louis, oh, no, we gotta go. Or maybe not, but we’re hanging by the thinnest of threads. Here’s Pete Sixsmith’s take on events.
OK, not quite out mathematically. Two more Italian victories, England beating Costa Rica, with the right combination of scorelines, would see us through if my maths is right. But still not a great night to be English …
Until England went behind just before half-time, a draw seemed the least to expect from a mostly scrappy match. Uruguay occasionally ruffled feathers in the England defence but the best approach work and attacking moments had been at the other end.
A piece of Luis Suarez magic suddenly made even a draw appear optimistic. Previously quiet, he utterly lost Phil Jagielka to head in Cavani’s cross expertly.
Just a reminder that voting is still open for the Salut! Sunderland honorary second team at the World Cup.
Here’s a serious guest post. We all felt for Jozy Altidore when he pulled up with a hamstring injury in the USA’s first match, vs our old greedy’s Ghana team. The USA were voted Salut! Sunderland’s second team in the World Cup and Jozy’s ours, at least for now. Here Gemma Tomkinson, from the AposTherapy blog (@AposTherapy at Twitter), talks us through the injury and its implications. Brainboxes among our readers can look away; the rest of us may learn something …
Pete Sixsmith soaks up World Cup football and county cricket and offers a thought or two on the fixtures list for 2014-2015 …
I decided to forego the fixtures breakfast at the Stadium of Light yesterday morning and satisfied myself with a home-made brekkie of porridge, blueberries, tea and a bacon sandwich before firing up the trusty Toshiba to see them appear on the screen at exactly 9am (see it here).
Here we go. This is the provisional list of Sunderland fixtures for the 2014-2015 season, with the usual health warning about the havoc TV moguls and chief constables can and will play with dates and times.
We start with the pre-season friendlies so far arranged: Darlington 1883 on Sat July 19, Carlisle United on Tues July 22 and Hartlepool United on Wed July 23. They’re all away but do not, at first sight, constitute an overseas jolly of the sort to appeal to Messrs Sixsmith and Horan.
Night after night from Brazil we see it, this alarming threat to footballers’ lives and limbs.
It starts innocuously enough with the flimsiest of contact from an opponent, or perhaps even none at all. But first appearance is so often deceptive. Once this contact, little or non-existent as it may be, has been made, the threat to personal safety is real.
You, the readers of Salut! Sunderland, voted the USA by a sizeable margin to be our second team at Brazil 2014. Uruguay and Belgium vie for the runners-up slot but find themselves a long way behind.
So join in our US correspondent Grant Tunkel’s ecstasy as he and a lot of other Americans celebrate the John Brooks winner in USA 2 Ghana 1. USA, USA, USA indeed …