At least the summer break didn't seem so long this time around with the World Cup filling in for four and a bit weeks during June and July, although England only decided to take half in the competition. Having said that it wasn't the most entertaining World Cup I've ever seen, with the first one I recall being the 1982 version in Spain when Bryan Robson scored for England against France after 27 seconds, before presumably going off injured shortly afterwards. 1990 was quite a good one, as much as for New Order and World in Motion as anything else, as the country got behind England, but with fewer plastic flags attached to car windows obviously. Gazza's tears, Lineker saying to Bobby Robson "have a word with him", that free-kick pinging off Paul Parker and over Peter Shilton, Lineker equalising through someone's legs, Chris Waddle's mullet-powered penalty going into orbit. And that is just a little bit of the semi-final, never mind that game against Cameroon the round before. Talking about Cameroon, and Roger Milla and his silly dance around the corner flag, that was one thing that depressed me about this World Cup, there was something rather sad about seeing him flogging full fat Coca Cola on the television this summer. I prefer to remember Cameroonian footballers for the magnificent double hack on Claudio Caniggia in the opening game of the tournament, Benjamin Massing landing the killer blow on the Argentine that saw him sent off for one of the worst tackles in World Cup history. Scotland lost to Costa Rica as well, although at least the games in their group were slightly more interesting than England's group of misery, five draws, one win and seven goals in six games, I'd forgotten just how dull those matches were. And what a daft situation we got to at the end of it as well as the Republic of Ireland and Holland finished level on, well everything, with lots having to be drawn for second and third place, with both sides assured of getting to the knockout stages. Belgium then for England, that game wasn't up to much either was it? Michel Preud'homme had a bit of a silly name, and I don't remember him having much to do bar watch that funny hooked finish from David Platt go past him late on in extra-time. Then there was that primary school pile-on as the England players celebrated, with Lineker grinning inanely on the top of it while Bobby Robson did a little jig around the dugouts. The rollercoaster of the Cameroon and West Germany games came and went and once more England's World Cup campaign popped its clogs, although this time it was at least the furthest they had got in the competition since 1966. Can you remember any excitement like that this time around? Infact, let's be honest, can you remember any excitement at all as far as England were concerned? Or did you just feel an overwhelming feeling of disappointment, and boredom even, particularly against Algeria? Even the final turned out to be a waste of time as well, although that is often the case as far as the World Cup is concerned, Brazil winning in 1970 excepted of course. While Holland were obviously the bigger guilty party in trying to kick Spain off the pitch, the Spaniards were hardly whiter than white either, playacting, diving, constant whinging at the referee and then the old favourite - doing the imaginary card waving at the referee. I thought that had been outlawed as well but it seems to be getting worse again, infact look at this from as far back as September of 2006: UEFA have asked the match officials to take immediate action by cautioning players in the case of the following offences: - Waving of imaginary card to have an opponent booked. - Crowding around the referee - at least one player should be cautioned, and not only the initiator. - Dissent by gesture or running towards to referee. UEFA said in a statement: 'UEFA is determined to stop dissent and the harassment of referees and wishes to make players and team officials aware that referees in all UEFA competitions will punish such confrontations on the pitch appropriately.' Erm, so what happened to that then? I can't remember seeing anybody get booked for waving an imaginary yellow card in the four years since that press release, although no doubt someone will have been. Iniesta for example would have had about 20 bookings in the final if that were possible, my argument on the two sides being that both were responsible for bad sportsmanship, just because Holland were worse it doesn't mean that Spain shouldn't take any of the blame. That seemed to be the case with the media though, particularly Alan Hansen who seemed to think that Spain were Snow White and Holland were the Wicked Witch of the East. Hansen's attitude through the rest of the tournament being no less annoying as he constantly whinged about having to cover some of the lesser games. Yes, Alan, what a nightmare it must have been for you, getting extremely well paid to have a five week jolly in South Africa with your golfing buddies, my heart bleeds. Sadly that's the case with a lot of ex-footballers and footballers themselves at the top level these days, they have it all and still find something to moan about. Look at Ashley Cole for example, now I'm not that fussy really, but if I'm getting paid a reported £120,000 a week, I'm the first choice left-back for both England and the Premier League champions and I get to sleep with Cheryl Cole, then to be honest that would be enough. That's a different world to the one we all inhabit though, unless you're living, or more like dreaming a secret life. Just the return of League One football will be enough for most of us, the chance to go and watch Carlisle United again and get some of the summer boredom out of the system. Perhaps have a few pints with your mates, or just a chat at the game and a chew of the fat over players come and gone. Surely that's what it should all be about for fans, whatever level of the game you watch. |