Because we live in Italy I’d better be careful how I phrase this but I can’t help but believe the FIA has pulled yet another stroke in their determination to assist Ferrari to win the F1 World Championship at the expense of McClaren and Lewis Hamilton. Did you watch the event yesterday? – probably one of the best races I’ve seen in years with Hamilton finally winning after a thrilling tussle with Raikonnen’s Ferrari. Continue reading
Well I haven’t written a posting about the Euro 2008 tournament so far (well I did one early on and two spoof interviews, but apart from that not one). To compensate for not having a side to follow at the event I’ve been running a sweepstake type of bet with a bunch of old mates. So I have been writing about events though my daily updates have been via email to the guys (and my sis) in the betting competition. Last night my side, Sweden, went out of the tournament (taking my £10 stake with them) so I thought it was a handy time to return to the blog with some thoughts on the tournament which has of course completed its first stage now. Continue reading
As Sir Alex Ferguson once said. Except that he was saying it after Man U had just won the Champions league Trophy after a topsy turvy match. Tonight we witnessed a nightmare result for England losing 2-3 to Croatia and thus failing to qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament. All we had to do was draw for gawd’s sake and having fought back from 2-0 down we still managed to snatch defeat from a successful position. What a disastrous qualifying competition this has been. England have been largely dreadful throughout as they’ve been led by the £10m man with no managerial skill whatsoever, sad McClaren, surely the worst England manager of all time.
Well that was a desperately disappointing set of results tonight. England played well for 70 minutes, really well, but 5 minutes of poor defending cost them the match. It was a game that should have been safe after Rooney scored a belting first goal. Those misses by Gerrard and Richards looked more horrible each time they were replayed. I think everyone agrees it was a clumsy tackle by Rooney that led to the penalty but it was clearly outside the area. What was the point in sticking Lescott in there as a third central defender and expecting Joe Cole/Rooney to cover at left back given how well the Russians played against regular full backs in the second half at Wembley? And is that now the end of Robinson’s time in goal? Is there any hope of Russia dropping points against a disinterested Israel? I wouldn’t bet the house on it. The only saving grace in all this is that McQuiff Moscow now.
Well this is a very quick posting as I’ve been away doing my grandad stuff with my fabulous g’lads and have had no opportunity to catch up since last Friday. We listened to Eng v Australia on the car radio driving down to Brighton. What a game and result. That late Aussie (failed) kick for the win was worse on the radio I can assure you. What a time to pull a result and a performance out. Who played below par for England? Nobody; simply superb. NZ v France was equally enthralling, it has to be admitted and aren’t we glad it’s two N hemis teams in this semi? Well I am.
Well that’s a been a pretty breathtaking weekend sports-wise. Let’s start with the RWC. That match between Wales and Fiji was the key talking point I guess. For me it was the best match in RWC rugby I’ve seen since France beat NZ back in ’99. It was simply riveting. I know there’s a lot of heart-wrenching in Wales over the result and the coach has been dismissed for failing to take the team into the final stages but I believe it’ll be one of the sports’ great matches of all time and the Welsh team should be proud of the part they played. Continue reading
Great performance last night I thought from England and a superb win for Scotland in France. Sacre bleu that’s two demoralising losses for les bleus in a week. Now the French know what it’s like to be an England supporter. Not that I’m crowing because as we all know it could all go horribly wrong for both the England footie and rugby sides yet. Sad reverses for the lads in green and didn’t Bellamy’s Wales do brilliantly (I still think he’s a prick) but it’s all a bit late I guess.
I was at friends yesterday watching England’s disappointing opening match in the rugby WC against the USA and so missed the vitally important Group qualifier football match between England and Israel which the heads of programming at ITV and BBC had scheduled at precisely the same time. What is the point of that? I cannot be the only person in the world interested in both events. Pricks.
Pasta Paulie 