Saturday, June 19, 2010

World Cup 2010 stuff


I meant to put up a post about the world cup earlier than this, but I was away down south for work experience so couldn't really get online. Anyways, no worries..the competition is still going on and there is much to talk about. 

Of course, I'm starting to get a bit sick of the controversy surrounding the both the Jabulani ball used and the vuvuzelas (the horn thing sold for the equivalent of 2 or 3 quid around S.Africa for the tournament.) Tonnes of the teams and press are complaining about these things and everything else. I'd prefer it if they just got on with it, accepted they played sub-par and didn't try to scapegoat people or things like the ball (which they should be used to as they've been practicing with it for a while now.)

I mentioned teams playing sub-par, which has been the main reason I've been dissapointed with the tournament so far. A lot of the big teams expected to do well based on previous form have been really inconsistent. France have drawn and lost T_T, Portugal drew, Spain lost to Switzerland, Germany lost to Serbia and (perhaps best of all for me) England have played 2 and drawn both games against USA and Algeria. Brazil, Holland and Argentina all had slow starts as well so far, even if they did go on to win their games. International football is quite often going to be of lower quality than some club football, because the players don't get many opportunities to play in the international teams throughout the year, and as a result a strong team chemistry probably won't build up as it does in club football. But nonetheless, for big tournaments that only come along every couple years like this I always look forward to them and I don't like being dissapointed. Hopefully things improve as it goes on.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/groups_and_teams

As for England, they can't blame the ball, they can't blame the fans, they can't blame the other teams, they can't blame the pressure, they can't blame the goddamn Vuvuzelas, it is the players fault that they have underachieved so far. And I'm loving it, being from Scotland. They can still progress to the next round if they get a grip and play some football. I'll be supporting Slovenia in the next England game. ;D

No comments: