Bo’s World Cup Fun – Bo’s Joy of Six - World Cup wishlist
It’s been a super week of football so far in the 20th edition of the FIFA World Cup and with well over 45 matches left to be played, the story of this tournament has yet to be written. A good opening week is all well and good but ultimately, as with any tournament, it will be remembered for what is still to come and not so much for what we have seen so far (the Spanish smashing aside) and so with that, here are my wishes for the remainder of the tournament 1) Brazil to find their form and lift the trophy on July 13th Of course having backed Brazil this is an obvious call and if I were to write the script today I would have the Brazilians winning the final 4.3 against Argentina with Neymar blasting a hat-trick to seal the cup and the Golden Boot. Messi will also score a hat-trick and it will go down as the single greatest football match in history. Pele will finally get an erection and big Phil will knock out Robbie Savage for no apparent reason. Yes it is a lot to ask for but what are wishes for? 2) Bosnia to qualify from Group F The Bosnians came to Brazil for the first ever major tournament on the back of a fabulous qualification campaign which saw them rattle 30 goals in 10 games and in their opening fixture they showed they are certainly not to be dismissed in this tournament. Of course Bosnia is a country with a history more chequered than the strip of their Croatian neighbours and for a nation besot with tragedy in its formative years, it would be quite wonderful if this small, but beautiful country could emerge from their group ahead of a frankly awful Nigeria and achieve something tangible and long lasting to serve as a reminder that any country, no matter how small, how bereft of hope can actually emerge from the doldrums and propel their name into the common consciousness as a theme for hope and recovery. Or maybe it’s because I bet big on them to qualify...either way, come on Bosnia! 3) Rooney to silence critics Now it is fair to say that Wayne Rooney is not the most popular figure these days and to suggest he was divisive would perhaps be excessive flattery for a man who has done himself no favours in the past with his transfer demands at Man Utd and his onscreen outburst against the English support in the last World Cup to name but two such incidents, but despite all this, he remains one of England’s most creative and important forwards even if the press would have you believe that he is some kind of fag smoking imposter stealing the place of all their super talented strikers (Lambert, Defoe, Crouch) I have always been a fan of Rooney’s and quite why he generates so much negative attention is beyond me. He seems to me at least to be an excellent professional, who always puts in a hard shift and can when the moment is right produce a moment of serious quality as demonstrated in that fantastic assist against Italy. Over 250 goals for club and country is also no mean feat but despite all this, he continues to be the source of scorn and doubt in a country where bringing your top sportsman back down to earth is seen as some kind of ritualistic joust that the English media can not get enough of. Rooney’s record at World Cup’s has been the source of much of the criticism with media and fans alike seemingly willing to overlook the fact that he entered each of the last 2 tournaments carrying a serious injury and was unable to recover his match fitness in time and despite the fact he would have worked bloody hard just to get there in the first place, it seems like a terribly unfair stick with which to beat him Personally speaking I would love to see him bag a couple of goals tonight and leave the press feeling rather sheepish and put in their place. Or it could just be that I have money riding on England qualification...either way, let em have it Roon dog! 4) Refereeing Controversies limited only to England There is nothing quite like a refereeing error to ruin a good game of football and over the years we have seen plenty of potentially great games ruined by some poor decisions, especially when it comes to red cards and penalties and it would be truly wonderful if this year’s tournament could be remembered for great goals and fabulous footballing spectacles rather than all of our pundits whining and bitching about decisions that referees got wrong. Yes it is a real shame when a mistake or poor call can ruin a potentially special match but the bottom line is that our ref’s are human and have been denied the opportunity to work with video technology and as such, it would be far better for the game itself if our media and pundits could focus a little less on 1 or 2 decisions a referee got wrong in a game. Of course this will never happen so the best we can hope for is some solid performances from our men in black and pray that any mistakes will be largely limited to knocking out England (hopefully on penalties) 5) An African team to actually play well It would seem that ever since Pele declared that we would soon have an African champion of the World Cup that every nation who enters from that continent has the inability to actually reach the heights their country and their support deserves. Of course Pele talks a lot of shite at the best of times but it would seem we are no closer to such an eventand indeed have gone backwards in the race to find a first African champion in sport’s greatest prize. In this tournament, Nigeria and Cameroon have been pretty awful while Ghana were also completely devoid of shape and creativity against a limited US side and Algeria also managed to throw away a lead against the hotly fancied Belgians and only the Ivory Coast have actually managed to pick up 3 points so far but even in doing so they look a fairly ordinary outfit. For too long these countries have come here talking tall about winning the competition and not since Cameroon in 1990 has such talk ever looked even remotely possible. Ghana put up a decent fight last time in losing in the quarter finals but it remains a great source of frustration of mine having to watch these fabulous countries arrive at the world cup with all their culture and magnificent support and then turn in the kind of displays that Ghana and Nigeria have done in recent days. I have seldom been more frustrated in a player than I was with Ghana’s Sulley Muntari the other evening as he blazed cross after cross and shot after shot high over the bar. This is a man who has played at the top level in Italy and England (and for Portsmouth) and his inability to display any kind of composure really boiled my blood. At the end of the match I saw him attempting to console some of his team-mates who might well have been considering just how poorly their supposed star man in midfield had actually performed and were probably thinking about telling him to f*** off. If the African teams actually bothered to work a little harder on their shape, organisation and attacking skills and spent a little less time dancing into the arena singing their tribal songs (I do love this feature of African teams) then they might actually do some damage at a major event rather than facing an early flight home as would appear to be the case with all 5 representatives this year. 6) Bo to win every single bet placed Yes we can but dream but it would be nice if Brazil got the trophy, Neymar walks the Golden Boot and Chile can join England and Bosnia in the second round and Robbie Savage contracts some kind of horrible (temporary) stomach bug that rules him out of the BBC’s coverage for the remainder of the tournament and oh yes, Mark Lawrenson actually raises a smile and realises what a bloody lucky bastard he is...now that really would be the stuff dreams are made of. Comments are closed.
|
Categories |