june 3rd
20.25 – So we got our first sendings off of the World Cup today.
Two Turkish players were sent off in their 2-1 defeat by Brazil. Alpay of Aston Villa for hauling down a Brazilian as he was clean through on goal, and then Hakan Unsal got a red card for booting the ball at Rivaldo as he was waiting to take a corner.
Thing is though, the ball hit Rivaldo on the leg, but he went down clutching his face. Shameless and totally unecessary as Unsal would have received a second yellow anyway.
It will be interesting to see if FIFA’s disciplinary committee will do anything about this. They said they were going to stamp out cheating – but most of the focus seemed to be on players diving and to be fair there hasn’t been much of that so far. If they are going to use video evidence as they say, Rivaldo might find himself being made an example of.
Brazil played today without their captain, Emerson, who dislocated his shoulder in a practice match…. while playing in goal. Not even Mick McCarthy would have put his captain in goal the day before a big game……..he’d have just sent him home ;o)
Apparently there’s a spoof Carlsberg ad doing the rounds with Mick McCarthy and a punchline along the lines of ‘I wouldn’t send a player home from the World Cup, but if I did, he’d probably be the best player in the world.’ If anyone has it, please send it this way.
All you MP3 lovers and bootleggers and CD rippers, bad news. The music industry has launched it’s brand new piracy-proof format.
