For ten marks, translate the above. Its supposedly what Anelka said to Raymond Domenech, which does seem very cruel. Not a world away from what our Roy said either!
As the world cup draws to a close, I’d have to say its been lots of fun, and its a depressing thought that there’s only three games left (the rest of July will feel very long).
Only one player sent home (Anelka) was a little disappointing, but Sulley Muntari did his best to follow him, only for the team captain to intervene on his behalf. Also, Argentina and more especially Maradonna failed to live up to pre-tournament hype of a crazy man and seemed a pretty decent manager by the end of it, even if they did lose heavily to Germany in their last match.
Another strange aspect was traditionally stylish teams like Brazil and Holland instead being dull and workman like. Why is this? Its a little disappointing to be honest, but at least Dunga is gone from Brazil, so a new era of back heels and step overs can begin once more. Germany, a team with a long standing traditional of being functional at best, are probably playing the best football of the tournament, and there’s a bunch of new names in their team that are suddenly looking like new stars, Ozil especially.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. Eamon Dunphy says its been a poor world cup, ruined by the ball, the altitude, poor refereeing decisions and bad pitches. Agree or disagree?
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No More Workhorse 
I claim my ten points, Leaving Cert French having covered the base side of the language.
I disagree with the assertion that its been a poor world cup, quite the opposite. The ‘weaker’ sides gave the ‘stronger’ sides a very tough time, and some very significant names fell at the first hurdle. Only Holland have managed to escape without some sort of scrape or bump so far really.
That said, the ball is clearly rubbish, and (going back to a previous blog), the only reason you’d stick a new ball into the fray at this stage is to squeeze more money out of football fans. If they want a new ball for a tournament, make teams use it for qualifying. There have been remarkably few goals from any distance this year, and te ball must be a factor in that.
The pitches have been variable alright, but you see that in any new stadium, sadly. I certainyl wouldn’t say that this had ruined the tournament though – last night’s game was pretty good, and it was on a crap pitch.
Dunphy is a great moaner though, and I’m always happy to listen to him whine about something, I just hope he latches on to a player frm the tournament and gives out about them for the coming season. I guess van Bommel is a pretty good candidate for that – he must have a special diplomatic immunity from getting booked, based on the tournament so far!
I guess you always look back on old tournaments with a certain rose tinted glass effect. i certainly don’t think its been a bad event, but not sure its been as good as the last few. Maybe he’s right about the ball, if that’s what has caused there to be less goals in this tournament than in other ones.
2002 – 164
2006 – 147
2010 – 132 (ish, there was 122 on the 29th of June)
I guess its going down, as the likes of the african teams get better organised at the back. i’m not sure you can blame it all on the ball, but there is a school of thought that its the reason there’s been less goals from free kicks.
Germany had the right idea, they introduced the ball into the Bundasliga as soon as it was available, so they’ve all been playing with it for six months!
I think i may already have my rose tinted glasses on for this one, as i remember lots of really good games, and even ones the likes of Dunphy gave out about afterwards, i really enjoyed!
I think it may have to do with the smaller teams just getting better alright, and stopping the high scoring in the early rounds. The later rounds were always tight affairs, which has proved the case again this time.
F*** you dirty son of a bitch