England 1 v 2
Italy
The World Cup, what
I've seen of it so far, and that's nowhere near as much as I'd like
to have seen, has been a very good one.
There's some
recurring themes:
- The referees, usually sent out under some sort of absurd directive that takes them to centre-stage and makes the opening games difficult or impossible, have let the matches flow. There's been some bad decisions, but few have blown heir whistles every couple of seconds and disrupted the games.
- The referees have disappearing spray paint cans. Not much use to Banksy. The free kicks are being taken from where the referee marks the ball and the walls are having to remain the set distance away. Good stuff.
- The referees have not yet needed the goal line technology. That hasn't stopped it being used every time, even when the ball's nesting firmly in the back of the net.
- There's a touchline goal celebration thing going. Score, run over to the bench, involve the manager, physio, and however many of the cast of thousands available in the mass celebrations. Gary Lewin isn't a great fan, otherwise it seems universally popular.
England played okay.
Better than they have for a while.
Unfortunately, that
wasn't good enough, and Italy won a close game, 2-1.
There'll be the
usual anti-foreign player rubbish any time soon.
Two things, I think,
stand out:
- Gerard had a great season, but Pirlo showed just what a veteran midfielder can do. Pirlo is thirty-something, but looks like he's double that and has been sleeping rough for the latter half. Looks is deceiving.
- If you have the two best left backs in the world, you can only play one in their natural position at any one time. England crowbar players into the team on reputation and media pressure and whatever other bad reasons there can be for doing so. If Rooney deserves a place, play him where he's most effective. Otherwise give someone else their chance.
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