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).
Typical. Sunderland’s one man at Brazil 2014 – we can no longer count Ki – sees his first game and presumably his World Cup end after 20 minutes. Poor Jozy Altidore. After a rotten season, his goals in the warm-up had given hope. He had one chance before his hamstring injury and, though not clearcut (the ball ran behind him), ought have done better with it.
In the end, the USA, ahead in the first minute but pegged back by a late equaliser created by Asamoah Gyan, whose performance deepened the disbelief that he should have chosen lower-league level football and desert gold over the Premier, snatched a dramatic win. It was fitting that a country chosen by Salut! Sunderland as their honorary second team in Brazil should make a winning start. Our Californian Dreaming columnist Grant Tunkel, a Sunderland supporter out west, was over on the Eastern seaboard to share the delirium of fellow Americans in a NYC bar. Yep, bar …
I’m not a fan of the World Cup. I suppose it’s necessary, given that football (not soccer, Mr. Beckham, get it right) needs to sell itself around the world. I can also appreciate that any footballer worth his salt will want to test himself against the best.
We are very quick to condemn crass refereeing howlers, even though we all make mistakes at work.
This was a noble defeat in a excellent match from which England ought to have taken at least a point. Maintain this level of performance and Roy Hodgson can realistically hope for wins against Costa Rica and Uruguay. My report may be unnecessary; most will have seen it, too. But I offer it in case there is appetite and in the hope that readers will have their own say, too.
The fantasy was that I’d sit back in France, feet up at what for me is midnight and watch the game in the knowledge one of Salut! Sunderland‘s vast team of editors, writers, analysts and illustrators would do all the work. Well no one volunteered though they may pop up later, of course, so here goes …
At the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa, Spain were dirty, the Netherlands thuggish and Howard Webb struggled to cope with it all though I thought he did as well as any ref could given two sets of players intent on ending the game with as few on the field as laws permit.
Tonight we had niggles rather than the brutality of 2010, a crushing defeat for the cup holders Spain and display of refereeing incompetence to rival that of Yuichi Nishimura in Brazil vs Croatia – yes, I know Jeremy Robson suggested worse – but ultimately, on this occasion, of no assistance to the beneficiaries.
Now let us be honest. If Dejan Lovren had gone feet-high into Fred’s throat, leaving stud marks and threatening life itself, we can safely assume a devoted wife might have protested when the referee had the audacity to give a penalty. And a yellow card.
But it wasn’t quite like that, as we know. Fred, untouched by Lovren except when falling dramatically into him, simply cheated to gain his penalty. Since I am not prepared to suggest anything criminal, let me just repeat that this was a wretched decision, as bad as any to be imagined for the opening game of the world’s grandest sporting tournament.
When Campo Retro offered free World Cup T-shirts to Salut! Sunderland readers and invited their verdicts, Paul Dobson – aka Sobs – was the first to throw up his hand. He opted for Belgium. Here’s the shirt, above, but worn by another member of the Dobson clan, and now comes the verdict …
With just a few days left before the kickoff in Rio, Jozy Altidore’s USA continue to lead – by a substantial margin – our poll to find an honorary second country to support in the World Cup.
Of 237 votes cast last time I looked, 26 per cent had gone to the USA, with Gus Poyet’s Uruguay closest behind on 14 per cent and Belgium on 10.
The average age of our readers has probably been reduced to below 100, thanks to Hayley and Keir, and our brilliantly successful season will no doubt have brought in new readers. Or maybe not, I don’t actually have a clue except for M Salut’s recent post that the site’s had 2.4 million visitors since it opened in 2007. Whatever, it’s likely that some of those 2.4 million hits will be from the parents of football-mad kids who, struck down by World cup fever, will shortly be negotiating bedtimes and giving plaintive cries of “just a bit longer…”