As I predicted on Saturday, I did indeed end up watching the England game on Saturday night. In a way, I'm kind of glad, because it means that I can comment on the villification in the press of England goalie Robert Green with just a little bit of knowledge. I know that can be a dangerous thing, but I'm going to feel the fear and do it anyway.
Now, it came as something of a shock to me that some guy called Green was the goalie, seeing as Twitter had told me on Friday that the England goalie was one David "Crazy Hair" James. Now, on doing a bit more searching, I find out that there's yet another one, called Joe Hart.
So, we turned on the match and within minutes, that moment now being replayed round the world, when the Americans scored happened. Rob Green got to the ball, but he couldn't stop it going in. Yes, for a professional goalie, that was a mistake, but the villification he's getting in the British press for it is way, way over the top.
You would think, from the coverage he's getting that he was the love child of the Grim Reaper and the Big Bad Wolf. I saw on Andrew Marr yesterday that the News of the Screws had 7 pages devoted to slating him and today another tabloid has been digging into his personal life.
For heavens' sake! I may not know much about football, but I know that the team has 11 player, not just one. What got me about the England game is that bar a couple of exceptions (Gerrard and Heskey), the rest of them just seemed to stand around casually passing the ball to each other. There didn't seem to be a whole load of passion for what they were doing. It's not like the US had scored in the dying momnets - they had about 2/3 of the match to try and score again and to my mind they just didn't seem to be putting a whole load of effort into it.
I wasn't alone in that assesssment - as a few of my friends on Twitter who do know about football agreed with me. In fact, at one point, Spiderplant and I decided that we could happily go out there and motivate the England team. However, having thought about it, we should go as glamorous assistants to one of the best Lib Dem trainers and motivators of all time - Candy Piercy. Let's give her half an hour with the England team. That would get them back on form!
Anyway, I suspect my football commentating career will be rather short lived. England next play on Friday but I am out with the girls so, unfortunately, will not be able to watch it.
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