11/06/06 Sticks and Stones

ITV Pundits Andy Townsend, Terry Venables and Ally McCoist share a joke before the match...


Well they certainly can break my bones, but to venture that "names can never hurt me" is a sadly misguided belief.
I was in attendance at a barbecue on Saturday and was informed that my smart casual jeans and short-sleeved shirt look reminded people of Alan Titchmarsh. Ouch!
My life has come to a sorry pass.
I watched the English match in a pub down Leith.
A very dull encounter.
England seem to have become the Wimbledon of International Football.
It's baffling. They have great individual players, but as a team they seem turgid and inflexible compared to others.
On the blackboard the pub proclaimed it was serving "Frankfurters".
Helpfully written in brackets below was "Big Hot Dogs!".
They possibly could have added ;
"Cocktails" (different drinks mixed together)
So England started quite poorly but got a win.
There does seem to be a definite script at work with England in the finals of tournaments.
There's the big pre-tournament hype. (We're Gonna Win The World Cup!")
Then there's the press backlash after an unimpressive opening performance.
("We're Not Going To Win The World Cup!")
Then England come out blazing, put in a great performance and lambast the media for their negativity.
("We're Going To Win The World Cup")
Then England put in another mediocre performance.
("We're Confused But We Still Might Win The World Cup!")
Then England play well but get knocked out.
("End of The World!")
It's fair to say that they looked the least impressive so far of the teams who could be said to have a genuine hope of lifting the trophy.
Argentina have stood out so far as the most complete team.
I really liked Mexico as well. They played some beautiful football.
However, I was irritated at the patronising attitude shown to them by the BBC pundits.
They're not taken seriously as they're not in the traditional group of heavyweight football nations. (Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, Spain, England)
In a similar attitude, Greece have never really been given the respect they deserved for winning Euro 2004. It's just seen as a fluke, an aberration.
I'd love to see Mexico knock out a couple of the big boys.
It's interesting that the World Cup, unlike the Euro championships, has never really produced a shock winner.
This has to change sometime.
What people overlook is that the tournament is a "cup", not a league, and that the team who wins is not necessarily the best team in the tournament.
A problem Mexico do have is a vulnerability to the aerial threat.
As a fellow short-arse, I hope they can overcome this problem somehow.
A Mexican World Cup victory would be a great fillip to the global midget community.
The World Cup betting is going pretty well...
I've had 3 bets so far and they've all come in.
Mexico to beat Iran, Portugal to be ahead at HT and FT against Angola and Australia to beat Japan.
I also put a bet at the weekend on Grace to be the next person evicted from the Big Brother house (before she was officially nominated)...
She looks like a cert now...