World Cup Week Two from Taiwan
The second week has
come to close and what a World Cup this has been so far. Goals are flying in left, right, and centre,
with goalless draws at a premium. This
week the movers and shakers have started to move and shake. Messi has begun to move through the gears,
Brazil have started to play samba, and France have played some fantastic
football (and showed depth to their squad).
Some big European super powers have fallen, following their Spanish
counterparts; and yes, I count England in that group. The week did not start well for me with
firstly England losing and then Italy compounding the result. The game of week has to be France knocking
five past Switzerland. France came into
the tournament and many peoples tip to flop, but they are beginning to turn me
into supporter. They have played with
some great flair and scored some cracking goals. Goal of the week was tough choice for goal of
the week, there have been some stunners, but I think I’ll pick Shaqiri vs
Honduras (Jones vs Portugal deserves a shout out though). I give it to Shaqiri because it came from
nowhere and the ‘keeper was completely befuddled ‘should I stay, should I go,
should I wave it past the post, oh it’s a goal’. It started so far outside the post and came
back to be nearly on the postage stamp in the top corner. Brazil started to play some good football,
but still look very suspect defensively.
They also don’t appear to have got going in this tournament. As an Englishman, I can tell them they need to
get going soon or they’ll be going (the short distance) home. It’s debatable when the last time England got
going in a tournament, I’d like to say 2002, but you could even argue 1998
(last 16, but played some good games), or even as far back as 1996; it would be
hard to argue it has not been longer than a decade. Is this going to be Messi’s World Cup?
Already with two late winning goals followed by performance against Nigeria
which has seen him described as ‘from Jupiter’.
So far he has not done it against the best and Argentina have looked far
from impressive despite three wins. The
Greeks have snuck through their group with a large assist from the
referee. I have watched a lot of that
group and although they are solid defensively they were the least impressive
going forward; Costa Rica will fancy their chances. Have I forgotten anything…
Oh, and Suarez bit
someone… again. The man is determined
not be loved during a World Cup. In
South Africa his stunning save against Ghana, who had an entire continent
behind them, and now this; he does not have love affair with the World Cup to
say the least. It is a shame that
someone of such calibre and undoubted talent has such a bizarre floor. I am not sure what to make of the Uruguayan
stance on the matter. Refusing to accept
it happened and blaming other media for bullying Suarez. After the England game I was particularly
disappointed by Suarez’s comments about the English press. I will accept for the majority of his early
time in the Premiership they crucified him, but has he forgotten he is the
current footballers writers player of the year; a prestigious award given by
the British press. I have just seen FIFA
have banned him for four months and nine international matches. I don’t have any big problem with the length
of time of the ban, but neither would I complain with a little longer. He is surviving nearly half of ban in preseason;
this is where I have a problem with the ban.
Suarez is only going to miss nine premiership games, this is not much
worse than his previous ban. He missed
10 games overall during his last ban, but that included a couple of cup ties,
so essentially eight league games. If it
was four months from the beginning of the season I would be much more
satisfied; making him miss sixteen premier league games and essentially the
first round of the Champion’s League.
You could argue FIFA have thrown a book at him, but it is more like a
short story than the bible. I also
subscribe to the opinion some form of help should handed to him, it shouldn’t
be seen as punishment, but as rehabilitation.
As this is his third offence of the exact same thing, I think we can say
he is a repeat offender. In some moments,
the pressure gets to him and he reacts in this manner. It is important that as a sport you help your
athletes. Uruguay don’t seem to see the
moral problem (Tim Vickery, BBC Sport), but he doesn’t play in Uruguay, so it
is the responsibility of FIFA, the FA, the PFA and Liverpool (or whoever his
next club may be) to help him.
Last week I mentioned
the poor refereeing in the tournament. I
think it has been better this week, but I have created a twisted logic to say
better refereeing in the England game would have prevented the biting. I am unsure whether or not this is a debate,
but I think it is clear cut that Godin should have been sent off for a second
yellow card against England. If this was
to pass, I’d like to think England would have completed the task, or I’d at
least like to believe England would not have lost. This would have completely changed the
dynamic of the game. Also, Marchisio was
very unlucky to be red carded for his challenge. All this continued to ramp up the pressure on
Uruguay and Suarez to score. They had
gone from underdogs to go through all the way to favourites; pressure does
funny things.
In Taiwan people still
don’t seem have noticed the World Cup too much.
Only have girl and boyfriends of the foreigners seem to want (or are
forced) to watch. I have only been out
once this week, to watch the Colombia vs Ivory Coast and the England vs Uruguay
game. I went to an all you drink place
in Dunhua called 85 Lounge. I went with
the aim of being responsible and not being too hung over the next day. Unfortunately, the Yorkshireman in me took
over and told me drink my monies worth.
After disappoint of the result and managed to walk the wrong way from
the bar. Fortunately, my logic of wandering
to Taipei 101 helped me find a bus stop I could recognise. I didn’t have to be at work till 4pm, but my
co-workers could instantly tell what had happened to be the night before,
thankfully half my class didn’t turn up so it was an easy lesson. Other than that I have watched most of the
games of Taiwanese TV and only streamed a couple. For the final games I steaming one and
watching on the TV, so I always know what is going on. Wasn’t so useful for group D, but at least I
got to see the Suarez incident.
Although my Nation has
fallen by the way side, I am still positive about this World Cup. I can watch all these fantastic football as
neutral without the hope of something benefiting my own team. I may well pick a team or two to route for in
the knock out stages, but well wait for tonight to see who completes the last
sixteen. Being English, this may be
tricky, who will be left in who I am allowed to support?
For now I’ll just wait
for the next tournament we play to hope again.
Afterall, everyone seems to know the score.
They've seen it all before. They just know.
They're so sure. That England's going
to throw it away, going to blow it away, but I know they can play.
I know this is football blog, but I think
it would be remiss not to mention the cricket which was happening
simultaneously to the football. England
and Sri Lanka played two great matches; both going down to the last over after
five days. Sri Lanka edged the series
1-0, but England showed a lot of heart in defeat and nearly pulled of the
greatest of escapes. Jimmy Anderson even
had his own Gazza/Brett Lee moment, after losing the Test Match with the penultimate
delivery; 2,699 balls out of 2,700, roughly.
A great advert for Test Cricket.
Also Wimbledon has just started. The summer sport just keeps on rolling. I am going to watch using a mix of streaming
off BBC Sport, watching Star Sports and text updates at work.
Now, I’m off to stream one and watch the
other. Enjoy the action.
Hot Tea
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