That won't go down well locally
World Cup 2006: it's happening without me!
Ah, the first day back at work since the World Cup started. That is, back at the sitcom-writing office on Oxford Street in London. A late start, but a 5.30 finish, which meant that I missed two out of today's three games. I feel detached, just like, hey, people with jobs feel throughout the tournament. We'll be clocking off early tomorrow to get back for England Trinidad. At least we have a football-loving boss. (And indeed, it was Lee's trip to Germany at the weekend that gave me Friday and Monday at home, so Gawd bless him for his impulsiveness last week, even though we have to deliver the last episode by this coming Monday. Which has just been extended to Wednesday.)
WEDNESDAY
Spain 4 Ukraine 0
Lee actually put Five Live on in a couple of breaks between coming up with sitcom gold in the office, and we actually heard the fourth Spanish goal. How I would have loved to have seen it. And the other ones.
Tunisia 2 Saudi Arabia 2
Are women allowed to attend football matches in Saudi Arabia? I'm instrested to know. Apparently this was a rare non-sell-out match.
Germany 1 Poland 0
The first of the second matches, if you see what I mean. This is where it gets interesting, as the intra-group and inter-group dynamic begins to appear. Germany only had to win this one to win Group A. At half time, it was by no means in the bag, as Poland held them well. It's a grudge match, but wasn't a very thrilling one at first. Supporting the underdogs, Poland, not through any residual ill-will towards Germany, I found the second half gripping, not least because Poland went down to ten men after a Sobolewski send-off, increasing their unterhunt status (that was improvised German, by the way, I didn't look it up), and a yellow card was flashed at German captain Ballock, which is when BBC commentator Steve Wilson observed, "That won't go down well locally." (Mick McCarthy was full of shit, droning on about players being "punished" and "taking the Michael", and calling one of them "brainless" during another interminable pep-talk. If only he was as charming as the poet Ian McMillan and musician John Shuttleworth, whom his voice is a direct cross between.) It looked as if Poland would keep victory out of Germany's reach, not least through sterling work from handsome-but-timewasting keeper Boruc - and a moment when it seemed as if God was a Pole and the Germans hit the crossbar twice in a matter of seconds (step forward Klose and Ballack), before the offside flag ended the scuffle. Then, in the 91st minute, when we thought it was all over, it was, for Poland. Neuville scored beautifully from a forensic Odonkor cross, finally showing the quality their team were capable of. This put Germany through.
Poor old Poles. Such good bone structure as well, despite all the cured meat.
Can anyone tell me why they play Go West at the end of matches? Am I missing something? (Oh, and I had Owen Hargreaves explained to me today. Now I know why people don't like him: he's not very good. And the other stuff. But booing him seems actually brainless. Let's hope they don't if he comes on tomorrow.)
posted by Andrew Collins @ 8:52 PM
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8 Comments:
Hargreaves is a perfectly decent player who happens to fulfil an unglamourous role in the team, speaks with a Canadian accent and plays for a Germa team. These factors combined mean that fans with a certain level of intelligence think that grunting at him when he plays is a reasonable thing to do.
I was relieved the Germans one tonight as it now means England will more than likely avoid them in the next round.
I watched the match with a German friend who, in between biting her nails, informed me that the midfielder Schweinsteiger translates into English as "pig-pusher"
Not sure of your breadth of knowledge here Andrew, but in case you weren't aware, just to add to the enigma of Mick McMick McArthy (as Football365.com refer to him - hilarious website and worth reading) he actually is the spitting image of Sam, the eagle character in the muppets.
Nice use of forensic there, Andrew.
Ooh! I work just off Oxford Street at the moment, then just in time for the nice weather will get moved down to lovely Elephant and Castle to look after our summer Language students. Why can't they hold the Language programme at Chelsea?
I heard (from a Saudi woman I work with) that Saudi women can go to football matches but are separated from the men. In Iran, women can't go at all, but sometimes disguise themselves in a sort of stoning-scene-from-Life-Of-Brian sort of way in order to get in.
A film about female football fans in Iran was Philip French's film of the week on Sunday!
http://tinyurl.com/z3rd4
That'll be "Offside" got a very favourable review from Mark Kermode on Simon Mayo's show last week. It will still be available on the Five Live Daily Mayo podcast until tommorrow. Sounds very interesting.
Andrew, the 'Go West' association with football started with the Arsenal fans back in '93. They used to sing "one nil to the Ars-en-al" (in 'Go West' melody) cause they had a bit of a reputation of been fairly boring (under George Graham's management). The single was high in the charts all over Europe (who can forget the yellow and blue suits and Pyrex bowl hats in the video!?) and I believe Arsenal got to a European final in Paris that year, possibly the now defunct Cup Winners Cup. It took off from there and spread like wild-fire after that night in France.
Chris Lowe, of the Pet Shop Boys, actually recorded a single with Ian Wright around this time and they also recorded Wright singing “one nil to the Ars-en-al” to PSB’s ‘Go West’ backing track. Yes, it was awful...
Iranian women are now allowed to attend football matches - it was on eof the "modernising" reforms introduced a few months ago.
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