I met Bobby Robson once. It was a Tuesday night in the late 80s. I noticed him in the carpark at Anfield. He was fiddling with stuff in his boot. He was England’s manager at the time. England were awful as usual.
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Tag: England
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Fruity Finals
[Charged with breaking down the European qualifiers, David Patrick Lane takes a moment to tell us what he really thinks. Next Group 7. Serbia, France, and yes, our Austrian friends will soon make an appearance.]
The 1970 World Cup was a watershed moment for the modern game, if for no other reason than it was broadcast in color. Color TV sets were a newfangled invention then, though many folks have continued to watch World Cups as if they were taking place in snowstorms.
There have been 10 World Cups since 1970. That’s 40 different semi finalists. Yet only four have come from outside Europe.
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The end of an era at Manchester United
The transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid is not the only end of an era at Manchester United. An Educated Right Foot blogs on the passing of another era at the club:
It has for years been the axis around which Man United have flourished, but it looks like the end is nigh for the stars of [the] 1992 FA Youth Cup. David Beckham left for Real Madrid in 2003, while Nicky Butt went the other way, to Newcastle in 2004. Meanwhile, with lesser clubs interested in their aged legs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville look set to follow this summer. That leaves Ryan Giggs, who somehow won Player of the Year this season, but whose performance in the Champions League final, more or less, made him look better suited to the Welsh team than ever, and essentially epitomised his form over the last few years: slow and wasteful. I wouldn’t expect him to play much of a role in next season’s campaign. Goodbye, then, lads. We hardly knew ye.
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Goal of the Week
English fans want to quickly forget the 4-0 loss to Germany in Monday’s UEFA European Under 21 Championship Final in Sweden. And Sandro Wagner, a 21-year old former Bayern Munich midfielder now at another German Bundesliga club, MSV Duisburg, played a big part in the unraveling of the England team. Wagner scored twice for Germany in that game. (It’s not clear whether the Bundestrainer, Joachim Löw, has plans to take him to South Africa next year). This was his second goal. The German commentator loses it.
[By the way, this is a new weekly Friday feature on this site. Send us your votes for Goal of the Week]
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David Beckham’s American misadventure
In two weeks time the ageing David Beckham has to return to the United States and play for the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS (against the New York Red Bulls at Giant Stadium outside New York City). In January this year, Beckham left the MLS mid-season to go play for AC Milan in Italy’s Serie A. Blasphemous to the MLS. Not surprisingly, Beckham has not been very enthusiastic about returning to the US. In 2007 Beckham had arrived, with much fanfare, at the Galaxy. His salary about 10 times that of the average MLS player. Sports Illustrated’s football writer, Grant Wahl, has been following Beckham for the last two years and his book on Beckham’s time at the Galaxy is coming out this month in the US (on July 14). As part of the hype, SL today published a lengthy excerpt from the book on its website. (It’s also in the latest issue of the magazine.) Among other things, Wahl writes about the cold war between Beckham and the Galaxy’s Landon Donovan (over who was the bigger star, as there is any comparison here), describes Beckham’s time at the Galaxy as “an epic disaster” and a “soccer fiasco,” that Beckham was a “cheapskate” (he did not pick up the tab after a night out with his much poorer teammates), reveals the process behind who appointed disastrous coach Ruud Gullit, and Beckham’s deficient captaincy skills. This should be fun.
Read here.
With his top-flight football career coming to a slow end, most football pundits writing him off and most of the big clubs not interested in his wage demands (the only English Premier League clubs interested in his services at this point, are also-rans Hull and Stoke), Michael Owen must have wondered about life after football.
He could always sell real estate in Dubai. But he may have to improve his presentation (and acting) skills if this 9-minute video for Dubai-based British real estate conglomerate, The First Group, is anything to go by. (Note: The Dubai real estate market is currently down).
BTW, The First Group also use Andre Shevchenko (for their Russian clients) and rugby player, Bryan Habana, to sell their wares.