Meh

1. There was something particularly disappointing about the brawl at 
the end of the Germany v Argentina game. I’m not talking about the 
girly flailing that passed for a fight—a classic example of the 
‘handbags at ten paces’ style of on-pitch confrontation. No, the 
problem was the way the tv played it down so unforgivably. Where were 
the slow-motion replays, the we-name-the-guilty men close ups and 
freeze-frames? When a fight breaks out in a rugby match they show it 
about a dozen times; it’s tacitly accepted that though these things 
are regrettable, they do happen, and if they’re going to happen, we 
might as well enjoy them when they do. (Basically, it’s the argument 
advanced by Thomas DeQuincey in ‘Murder Considered as One of the Fine 
Arts’.) Football used to take a similar approach. When Frank RIkaard 
spat at Rodi Voller in 1990, we were showed the flying lump of gob in 
slow motion from about ten different angles. But this time, we get a 
lot of shouting and pushing and at least one man down, and the whole 
thing is briskly glossed over and wrapped up as if were the murder of 
Lavrenti Beria.

I smell Fifa at work. The idiots think this kind of thing is bad for 
the brand. They think what people want to see is every single player 
coming on the pitch hand-in-hand with a five-year-old. We fans can 
just about stomach that, but we’re much happier with a mass brawl 
that we can all cluck and shake our heads over.

2. The bookies are offering 11-4 or better for Portugal to win by the 
end of normal time. That seems like good odds to me. But it’s bad 
karma to bet on the team you don’t want to win...

Actually, I find, to my surprise, I’m not that bothered who wins. The 
mass hysteria around England’s participation in the World Cup is so 
whipped-up, so coercive, that it will in lots of ways be a relief if 
we don’t go any further. For years I’ve suspected this moment would 
come, and now it has. I’m not quite ready to go over and actively 
support our opponents, but as of this moment, my anticipated reaction 
to England’s going out would be as follows: meh.

Comments

[tania Spooner]

great blogs. thanks John. I want France to win. can you fiddle the entrails?

[Tony Franco]

I couldn't agree more. Althought not a "soccer" fan I have enjoyed the violence in the games I have watched but thought it could have been covered much better. I particularly enjoyed the Rooney Weenie Bash today but they only showed a replay once. Fortunately, I have DVR but I know a lot of people watch these games from poor countries where there is no DVR or Tivo and only VCR's and it is not as easy to rewind and watch stuff. Why should they have to find a tape and then spend all this time rewinding just to watch a grown man kicking another grown man in the balls? They shouldn't. This is the 21st century.