Actually, this won’t be quite the last word on Robert Green’s fumble. Indeed, Jeremy Robson argues, it will haunt the poor man forever – though he feels the blame actually lies elsewhere. Step forward, Mr Capello. …
Quite why English players and managers wait until they reach a World Cup finals to press the self destruct button, who knows?
Robert Green has committed himself to cameo clips for the next several decades.
Luke Harvey considers an opening weekend in Group C that left Robert Green and Faouzi Chaouchi thankful for each other’s existence, and England drawing consolation from today’s Algeria v Sloveia game producing a result, leaving us joint mid-table instead of joint bottom …
Group C is far from the Group of Death, Group of Goalkeeping Howlers perhaps.
First Rob Green, England’s apparent number one, managed to turn Clint Dempsey’s innocuous looking long range effort into his own net. The gaffe sent the media into a frenzied overdrive as tabloids searched for the wittiest headline to describe the incident.
Darren Bent’s exclusion meant we weren’t really supposed to be too bothered. But an early goal does wonders for everyone’s moral. Doesn’t it? Well, not if followed by 40 minutes of abysmal football and a comic cuts equaliser. Did it get better in the second half? Not a great deal. Best out of that lot, Darren! …
This is an updated version of the halftime posting …
It would not be quite right to say the French commentator could actually be heard salivating when Robert Green, for months linked with a move to a club with an infinitely better keeper (Sunderland), made his pathetic fumble to allow Clint Dempsey’s ordinary, somewhat hopeful long-range strike to spin away from him and over the line.
All the same, the man from TF1 did sound a little excited (though Arsène Wenger, by his side, was altogether more level-headed).
Well, fair play to the French. After a dismal warm-up, and an opening game they dominated without ever really looking like winning, they needed something to cheer them up. The USA’s equaliser served that purpose.
Darren Bent’s exclusion meant we weren’t really supposed to be too bothered. But an early goal does wonders for everyone’s moral. Doesn’t it? Well, not if followed by 40 minutes of abysmal football and a comic cuts equaliser. Best out of that lot, Darren! …
It would not be quite right to say the French commentator could actually be heard salivating when Robert Green, for months linked with a move to a club with an infinitely better keeper (Sunderland), made his pathetic fumble to allow Clint Dempsey’s ordinary, somewhat hopeful long-range strike to spin away from him and over the line. All the same, the man from TF1 did sound a little excited (though Arsene Wenger, by his side, was altogether more level-headed).
Well, fair play to the French. After a dismal warm-up, and an opening game they dominated without ever really looking like winning, they needed something to cheer them up. The USA’s equaliser served that purpose.
Salut! Sunderland readers rightly praised Mark Spacone’s view of England v USA from an American perspective. Mark turned the tables …
So, they kick off today: South Africa v Mexico with Nelson Mandela, sadly, absent following the death of his 13-year-old great granddaughter in an accident after last night’s concert, and France v Uruguay tonight. And tomorrow Fabio Capello’s finest, minus Darren Bent, open the Group C campaign against the United States of America, the country from which we gratefully accepted Claudio Reyna at Sunderland. From the US fans’ site Sam’s Army, the highly knowledgeable Mark Spacone* looks forward to the game through American eyes, with American spelling and terminology …
Salut! Sunderland: What are your feelings about the composition of Group C and how do you rate your chances of progressing?
When the first ball came out of the pot and it was England, I threw up and once I cleaned up and regained some composure, I thought the world was against us and the pots were stacked to ensure we Yanks would be in the group of death and eliminated in the first round just to show the world we don’t know the difference between a football and, well, a football! As the draw continued, it became clear the American dollar is still worth something in Sepp’s pocket because he drew us in with Algeria and Slovenia. Wait, I forgot, the draw is random! On this side of the pond, we think the US and England will advance into the second round (any order will do for us). Slovenia, however, may be the wedding crasher! Many are hoping the U.S. comes out of the England game without any injury regardless of the result, but the hopeful are looking for a draw, and the plain down right crazy who want to give others the ultimate “I told you so” are looking for a win. I wonder if Landon Donovan scores the winner if Everton supporters will chant “USA” again should he return there and perform as well as he did on loan this past season!
Thanks to people of the calibre of Niall Quinn and Darren Bent, and many more than we could hope to mention, Sunderland AFC have played a commendable role, through such campaigns as Show Racism the Red Card, in combating racial prejudice and discrimination in football. The opening of the World Cup in South Africa – sadly, after all, in Nelson Mandela’s absence following the death of his 13-year-old great granddaughter in an accident after last night’s concert – sends out a powerful message of its own today. But with thanks to Jeremy Robson, whose exchanges with me here a week ago inspired these thoughts in today’s edition of The National, Abu Dhabi, only so much progress has been made …
Image: from Frerieke‘s Flickr pages. The posting is repeated at my main Salut! site
After the French football team defeated the much-fancied Brazilians in the 1998 World Cup final, two snappy phrases became part of the legacy of a swashbuckling victory: un-deux-trois-zéro to describe the impressive scoreline and blanc-black-beur acclaiming the multiracial composition of the team.
That’s it, the end of a series Salut! Sunderland has been proud to present,
Pete Sixsmith ‘s magnificent memories of 11 World Cups. With more warning that Pete had such a great idea up his sleeve, it would been worth turning into a slim volume. He began with the 1966 tournament in which (West) Germany were beaten by England, and ends in (reunited) Germany where the final will forever be remembered for the final gesture of Zinedine Zidane’s career* (captured rather neatly in Mads Boedker’s photo). …
And so we reach the last of our reviews of past World Cups What I Can Remember, with a look at Germany four years ago. Another European tournament, another terrific set of stadiums and another one that pulled a nation together for four weeks through the magic of football.
And so to America. Land of the Free (as in free of football passion).
Pete Sixsmith speaks with genuine affection about a country where he has travelled a lot and even worked, but which hasn’t a clue when it comes to what everyone else in the world calls football and they call soccer, at least as played by males beyond the age of about 11. But hang on, Pete: didn’t Claudio Reyna’s goals once keep us up? …
After the glories of Italia 90 came the grind of USA 94. The football wasn’t a great deal better or worse, but I thought the tournament was a shocker. Let me explain.
The French ask earnest questions about the cost of their underperforming team’s luxury World Cup accommodation. Emile Heskey completes the double whammy: selected to compete at the highest level of a game he seldom plays, then crocks a key colleague in training. Paraguay carry Sunderland’s colours in Group F. And all the time Pete Sixsmith’s series of World Cup memories yields gems from the modern history of international football …
Photo courtesy of Elliott Brown
On a weekend free of competitive football, Salut! Sunderland had a quiet time, attracting a relatively short procession of readers.
Dash off a knockabout piece about Alan Hutton and Spurs and Tottenham supporters arrive in droves. Question an Arsenal player’s attachment to the Corinthian spirit and the hit count hits the roof.