World Cup diary, part 8
Jun. 26th, 2006 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahx24 June: Becks to the rescue (again)
Who needs the Caribbean when it’s this hot in Germany? It’s great for sun-worshipping English girls on their summer holidays. It’s rather less good if you’re a pasty-faced English footballer condemned to run around a pitch for 90 minutes in the searing heat. The temperatures in Berlin had soared into the 30s again, and it can only have been hotter still further south in Stuttgart where England were playing their second-round game against Ecuador. Despite the 5pm kick-off time, the sun was still beating down making conditions for exertion rather less than pleasant.
Fortunately, all I had to do was drink beer and watch the match. We’d decided to investigate the Fan Mile by the Brandenburg Gate, where the road has been closed off for the duration of the tournament and big screens installed at intervals down the street. Hundreds of thousands of fans had turned out there to watch Germany’s last couple of games, and while there were never going to be that many England fans there (most of ticketless travelling fans, obviously, would be watching on the big screen in Stuttgart), a good atmosphere was pretty much guaranteed.
We rolled up there a couple of hours before kick-off, and managed to secure seats in one of the little temporary stands with a great view of the screen right by the Brandenburg Gate itself. Result. A wee spot of beer or three and we were set for the afternoon’s entertainment. This began with the inevitable pointless cheerleaders prancing around on stage below the screen. Equal opportunity cheerleaders, mind, as a couple of them were somewhat on the hefty side…
Of course, this being England, ‘entertainment’ was maybe a tad optimistic. And sure enough, after just 10 minutes our supposedly rock-solid defence (ha!) seemed to have developed sunstroke, with John Terry uncharacteristically slipping up, allowing Carlos Tenorio to blast a great strike at goal. Thank goodness for the crossbar.
England couldn’t make up their minds whether they were playing rather well or really badly. Sven’s latest formation, 4-1-4-1, didn’t really work. Rooney looked isolated on his own up front, and we just weren’t creating chances. But at least we somehow managed to hold the Ecuadoreans at bay, and it remained 0-0 at half time.
Steven Gerrard at least managed to get forward a little more after the break, but the good shots on goal still eluded us. Beckham had been chucking up on the pitch – presumably a combination of dehydration and too much water at half time. But he managed to overcome his nausea for long enough to line up a free-kick 30 yards out. He ran up, his right foot approached the ball… and the screen froze. After the longest two seconds imaginable, it flickered back on, to show the ball nestling in the back of the net. GOOOOOAAAALLLLL! That magic right foot of the boy Beckham had done it again. Thank goodness Sven remains deaf to the calls of the ‘experts’ to drop him.
The final half-hour of the match passed without England looking much like they were going to increase the lead, but no matter. In knock-out tournaments, it’s far better to play badly and win than play pretty football and lose. It may not have been attractive, but we’re through to the quarter-finals. Yes, we’re going to have to play better to progress further. But at least we’re still there.
Unlike the Dutch. The evening game between Holland and Portugal was a cracker for those who think footballers are overpaid namby-pambies who get away with murder. Russian ref Valentin Ivanov was showering the cards around like confetti – including four in pairs that left the teams playing nine against nine for the final few minutes. Most of them were perfectly justified and, if anything, he should have given out more, notably to Luis Figo who was lucky not to get a straight red for headbutting Mark van Bommel, and his play-acting was key in Khalid Boulahrouz’s second yellow.
Sepp Blatter had the cheek to complain that the ref spoiled the game. Well, I’m sorry, Sepp, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t order them to crack down on timewasting, diving, shirt-pulling and the like and then whinge when they do just what you asked. Maybe if you kept your nose out in the first place it would be better for all concerned.
Anyway, it’s Portugal up next for England. At least it will be a Portugal shorn of Deco and Costinha. But the way we’ve been playing, we’ll need more than that. It will take a miracle for us to win, or even to reach extra time, in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday – let alone conjure a repeat of our penalty shoot-out defeat to the Portuguese in Euro2004. I’ll take a miracle, thanks.
Photos are here
Who needs the Caribbean when it’s this hot in Germany? It’s great for sun-worshipping English girls on their summer holidays. It’s rather less good if you’re a pasty-faced English footballer condemned to run around a pitch for 90 minutes in the searing heat. The temperatures in Berlin had soared into the 30s again, and it can only have been hotter still further south in Stuttgart where England were playing their second-round game against Ecuador. Despite the 5pm kick-off time, the sun was still beating down making conditions for exertion rather less than pleasant.
Fortunately, all I had to do was drink beer and watch the match. We’d decided to investigate the Fan Mile by the Brandenburg Gate, where the road has been closed off for the duration of the tournament and big screens installed at intervals down the street. Hundreds of thousands of fans had turned out there to watch Germany’s last couple of games, and while there were never going to be that many England fans there (most of ticketless travelling fans, obviously, would be watching on the big screen in Stuttgart), a good atmosphere was pretty much guaranteed.
We rolled up there a couple of hours before kick-off, and managed to secure seats in one of the little temporary stands with a great view of the screen right by the Brandenburg Gate itself. Result. A wee spot of beer or three and we were set for the afternoon’s entertainment. This began with the inevitable pointless cheerleaders prancing around on stage below the screen. Equal opportunity cheerleaders, mind, as a couple of them were somewhat on the hefty side…
Of course, this being England, ‘entertainment’ was maybe a tad optimistic. And sure enough, after just 10 minutes our supposedly rock-solid defence (ha!) seemed to have developed sunstroke, with John Terry uncharacteristically slipping up, allowing Carlos Tenorio to blast a great strike at goal. Thank goodness for the crossbar.
England couldn’t make up their minds whether they were playing rather well or really badly. Sven’s latest formation, 4-1-4-1, didn’t really work. Rooney looked isolated on his own up front, and we just weren’t creating chances. But at least we somehow managed to hold the Ecuadoreans at bay, and it remained 0-0 at half time.
Steven Gerrard at least managed to get forward a little more after the break, but the good shots on goal still eluded us. Beckham had been chucking up on the pitch – presumably a combination of dehydration and too much water at half time. But he managed to overcome his nausea for long enough to line up a free-kick 30 yards out. He ran up, his right foot approached the ball… and the screen froze. After the longest two seconds imaginable, it flickered back on, to show the ball nestling in the back of the net. GOOOOOAAAALLLLL! That magic right foot of the boy Beckham had done it again. Thank goodness Sven remains deaf to the calls of the ‘experts’ to drop him.
The final half-hour of the match passed without England looking much like they were going to increase the lead, but no matter. In knock-out tournaments, it’s far better to play badly and win than play pretty football and lose. It may not have been attractive, but we’re through to the quarter-finals. Yes, we’re going to have to play better to progress further. But at least we’re still there.
Unlike the Dutch. The evening game between Holland and Portugal was a cracker for those who think footballers are overpaid namby-pambies who get away with murder. Russian ref Valentin Ivanov was showering the cards around like confetti – including four in pairs that left the teams playing nine against nine for the final few minutes. Most of them were perfectly justified and, if anything, he should have given out more, notably to Luis Figo who was lucky not to get a straight red for headbutting Mark van Bommel, and his play-acting was key in Khalid Boulahrouz’s second yellow.
Sepp Blatter had the cheek to complain that the ref spoiled the game. Well, I’m sorry, Sepp, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t order them to crack down on timewasting, diving, shirt-pulling and the like and then whinge when they do just what you asked. Maybe if you kept your nose out in the first place it would be better for all concerned.
Anyway, it’s Portugal up next for England. At least it will be a Portugal shorn of Deco and Costinha. But the way we’ve been playing, we’ll need more than that. It will take a miracle for us to win, or even to reach extra time, in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday – let alone conjure a repeat of our penalty shoot-out defeat to the Portuguese in Euro2004. I’ll take a miracle, thanks.
Photos are here
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-26 02:10 pm (UTC)Bet it changes for the next game, though.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-26 04:25 pm (UTC)