Morning all. Slight *boilk*, short blog.
Wales have qualified for the European Championships despite losing 2-0 last night. That now makes Aaron Ramsey better than Ryan Giggs and he spoke to the press in Welsh afterwards to express his joy. He said:
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLL
Sentiments I think we can all get behind. It’s all about tone after all. I kid, Welsh chums. He actually said:
It’s not going to sink in for a while but I’m just so proud personally, for all my teammates and for everyone associated with this country. We’re finally going.
So that’s England, Wales and Northern Ireland all qualified. The rest of Ireland has a chance to do the same today against Poland, a tricky task, but in their own hands. Wasn’t there a ‘home nations’ international tournament in the 70s or 80s? I have vague recollections of very short shorts, overly shiny shirts, and the Wembley pitch. And probably a trophy made from that stuff you used to be able to melt and mould into soldiers and that.
Anyway, it’ll make for a fun tournament with those three there already, and hopefully Ireland can do it later on. Petr Cech didn’t play for the Czech Republic as they lost 2-0 to Turkey, putting the qualification of the Netherlands in real doubt. I’ve always had a soft spot for them at international tournaments and my first football trauma was them losing the 1978 World Cup final to Argentina. Oh Rensenbrink.
It’s out of their hands now, they have to beat the Czech Republic and I think Turkey have to lose to Iceland at home. If not, the Turkish get a play-off place. It’s hard to think of a European Championships without Holland, but on the other hand this will make Robin van Persie even more sad.
He’s clearly loving life at Fenerbache, the club that the little boy inside him always supported and wanted to join. I mean, what’s his problem? All he has to do is sit on a bench for 90 minutes a couple of times a week and rake in his cash. That’s a dream job right there.
After seeing so much in football, you might well ask if I shouldn’t I be old enough and wise enough not to take so much pleasure in the sadness of another man. You’re probably right, but sometimes I am Grudgey O’Toole, and today is one of those days. If I was a Jedi I would tell Luke Skywalker to ignore the force and use the grudge. That’s probably the very essence of the ‘dark side’, but on the other hand it’s fun to laugh at Robin van Persie.
Meanwhile, over in South America, the Chilean coach Jorge Sampaoli has been talking about Alexis and that pesky groin injury we’ve all been worried about:
Alexis arrived not at the top of his form, with pain in the adductor. He couldn’t play at 100% but we thought that him not playing would give too much advantage to our rivals, because his presence in our team makes things difficult for our opponents.
Woah, hang on their pal. ‘Not at the top of his form?’. He just – literally – tore Manchester United a new one and left the best goalkeeper in Europe floundering like the one armed bloke from the Simpsons he looks like. Before that he’d scored a hat-trick against Leicester. Sure, his start the season has been slower than we’d like, but that’s pretty much top form.
As for playing him despite knowing he’s injured, there’s nothing we can do about that unfortunately. An international manager knows he can take a risk with a player because it’s expedient for him to do so. They’ve got another game this week against Peru and my guess is that Alexis will play 90 minutes in that as Sampaoli trials a revolutionary 0-0-1 formation in order to give the rest of his squad a rest.
That will be fun. Right, I suspect I probably need some more coffee and some mountain air with the dog to clear my head. I’ll be back tomorrow with more Interlull japes and guff.
