Sporting Life: Mark One or Mark Two?
Well we have a great weekend coming up. Two sporting lives for the heavy price of one. The opium of the people really gets working this weekend and we can experience all manner of dream teams in the mind. This weekend will be full of domestic wars. Is it the football or is it the Swedish Royal wedding? Mind boggling stuff is it not.
Queen Beatrix from the Netherlands and her Prince Willem-Alexander will attend the Swedish Royal wedding but they have, it is rumoured, demanded a TV set because Holland is playing their football at the same time. Remember you heard it here first. Actually Holland are looking quite good this far.
The World Cup football has, it must be admitted, begun in a very pitiful way in terms of dreamy football but there have been many other intoxicating side-effects that have tickled our fancy. The now famous vuvuzela horn blasts out all over the world as if it were a royal trumpet marking some royal event. It has united many and alienated a few. Very royal. The vuvuzela horn has another very royal attribute. It defies all reason. It is pure emotion and mind boggling in its power to unite the masses. Oh yes the World Cup football equals well royalty in being the opium of the people.
But there was some good football played. The German team mixed their traditional machine-like build ups with a very fast and direct attacking flair. Few teams want to play Germany soon. Another team that springs to mind here, for some hope for the future of the beautiful game, is Ghana. Open play and some skillful individuals beating systems. Ghana gave us football fans the best entertainment. They won their game too. That is hope mixed with reality.
Switzerland showed us what they are all about. They beat Spain. This game surprised many but not those that read the financial news every day. Switzerland played with a solid and stong defence mixed with a strong and solid tactic of closing down all playful dreams. Spain played against tanks and they lost because they played only with fancy flowers. As Switzerland well knows the financial world today will show its strength against any weak economy from Europe.
As for France they seem intent upon turning the clock back a few hundred years. Revolution is the name of their game today. The peasants are revolting all over the place. Royalty is under threat.
England? The UK media says it all. When they are not blaming the silly Adiddas ball they are praising the 1966 team that actually won a few games. Oh yes and they also miss their WAGS. Rumour also circulates that manager, Fabio Capello,has a voice which is far worse than any vuvuzela. What nobody talks about is the actual (and pitiful) football that is being played.
Japan and their ”Honda Power” seem happy enough right now. So they should. They are happy that their Crown Prince Naruhito is going to attend the Royal game in Stockholm on Saturday. Prince Albert, from Monaco, is also set to join the Swedish dream weekend but Monaco does not have a football team in the World Cup so I am cheating a bit here. But just to avoid complaints let me tell you that Prince Albert will be escorted by his girlfriend. The one who is a swimmer from South Africa and called Charlene Wittstock. So I did not cheat too much did I?
This World Cup has been famous, this far, for attacking professionals to miss goals or to fire the funny ball straight at the goalkeeper. It has been famous for long balls to be over hit. Famous for goalkeeping mistakes and famous for an almost total lack of individual talent. But we are also allowed to see some of the worst displays of theatre play acting in order to get a foul awared and a free kick. Some of these cheats should go into politics. However the standard of refereeing has been, I believe, rather high. It needed to be! Fair Play? What a joke. Pass the vuvuzela please.
These cheats and play actors have no self-respect and no respect at all for other players. Fact.
Anyway until next week I will leave you to your own sporting lives and ask that you do not make too much domestic war this Saturday. If you cannot find the compassion and the cooperation then just buy another TV set. Or there is another less subtle way. If your family refuses your football basic-needs then just tell them that you will go down to the pub all day and watch it all from there. That should give them food for thought.
Steve Bowles
