We had the ying and yang of the World Cup yesterday. Firstly 90 minutes of tedium from England and Ecuador. I should know better but every time England play it’s a little bit more exciting because of the familiarity with the player and every time it’s just horrible to watch.
A David Beckham free kick put England into the quarter finals and Ashley Cole saved their bacon before that with a great block on some Ecuadorian who was clean through after a mistake by John Terry. Apart from those two incidents nothing exciting happened.
The same can’t be said for last night’s game between Holland and Portugal though. It finished 1-0 to the Portuguese who will now play England on Saturday but it was a game packed full of incident. It finished 9 v 9 with the most card happy referee I’ve ever seen. Little Ronaldo got his thigh impaled on a Dutch bloke’s boot, Luis Figo ‘headbutted’ Marc van Bommell and the referee missed it (although who amongst us wouldn’t headbutt that cunt if we had half the chance?), Maniche scored a great goal, Holland hit the crossbar, there was timewasting, mayhem, and even though Holland desperately needed a goal Marco van Basten refused to bring on Ruud van Nistelrooy even though his replacement, Dirk Kuyt, could only be described as fucking shite and that’s being kind to him.
Going back to Figo’s ‘headbutt’ it was nothing much really. You can’t do what he did but in some reports this morning I’ve seen it described as appalling and savage. If it had really been that bad van Bommell wouldn’t have taken 3 or 4 seconds to decide to fall over theatrically.
So, rubbish refereeing, van Nistelrooy fuming on the bench, end to end action, bookings galore and 4 red cards. England need to bring a bit of that to this World Cup before they truly become the most boring team in history.
Portugal will be without Deco and Costinha for sure. Little Ronaldo might not recover from what was a really vicious tackle that actually deserved a straight red and Figo probably faces a video probe. Not up there, you sicko. From FIFA. Tremendous entertainment though.
Let’s hope we get equally entertaining football today. Australia take on Italy which could be another very physical game. Then later on we have Arsenal interest as Johan Djourou fills in for his buddy Senderos in the Swiss defence. Reports yesterday suggest Phil could be out for 6 weeks so hopefully he’ll be fit in time for the start of the season.
In other World Cup news it looks as if Cesc will start for Spain against France on Tuesday. I have to say I’m really looking forward to that one.
Kolo Toure on his brother Yaya joining Arsenal:
It would be nice, but I think he has a contract now in Greece. He has the talent, for sure. He is a better player than me. I tell him that, just as I tell everyone else.
I’m not convinced by Yaya. He’s obviously talented but he needs to impose himself on games more. Perhaps Kolo should tell him he’s not a better player than him and try and provoke a reaction.
And there you go. Hope you had a fun weekend.
