Why I feel sorry for Rob Green - and why England needs Candy Piercy!

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.

Is there a football match on, or something?

Well, as Helen Duffett reminded me on Twitter yesterday, I'm in no position to complain about people tweeting at the World Cup, after what I put my loyal and wonderful followers through during the General Election with my constant stream of things I agreed with Nick about, or things I thought were his fault.

Also, so many of my friends who do like football are going to get some rest and relaxation watching the football, which they really deserve after knocking their pans in over the last year, that I can't really begrudge them.

I suspect I will have to watch the England game tonight. Stephen is coming for dinner and although I suspect I'll be distractable with the F1 quali and Doctor Who, he'll want to watch the footie afterwards.

Yesterday we had to suffer preachy tweets from a few Scottish Labour MPs like Tom Harris and Jim Murphy urging us all to get behind England. I suspect their motivation may well have been more about having a go at the SNP than the actual football. See this from Murphy's site:

Scotland is more confident. The nationalism that defines Scotland for what its not is in retreat. Last months(his missing apostrophe, not mine)general election result proved that once and for all.

.

Yawn!

I'm afraid I can't go much further than I don't wish them any harm. Not for some great ideological hatred of the English, but more that I really just don't care. It's football that doesn't involve Inverness Caley Thistle. Why would it interest me?

Having said that, I felt a bit shamefaced yesterday because I set myself the challenge of naming as many England players as I could - and I only got to five.They were the vile Ashley Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard (who I'd heard of more because of their antics off the field), Joe Cole and Stephen Gerrard. I should latterly add that I should have added Wayne Rooney to that list and also Rio Ferdinand and Theo Walcott, but I thought they didn't count I felt a bit mortified that I hadn't a clue who their goalie was - and he's important. Apparently, thanks to Twitter, I now know his name is David "Crazy Hair" James. Last England goalie I'd heard of was David Seaman.

I'm quite upset that the horrendous environmental disaster that is the oil spill in the Gulf has been trivialised by the press into a slanging match between Britain and the USA, just in time for the football match between them. This is too important to be treated in that way. And, to be honest, I'd rather see all those involved putting their energy into solving the problem rather than feeding the Media Beast.

As I expected, last night turned into a football fest on Twitter (although there were some parts of my feed where the much more important issues as, er, botox, and being ginger were being discussed. I did at one point turn over to France v Uruguay just to see what everyone was talking about. I barely lasted 30 seconds before I had to seek refuge in a comforting episode of Neighbours.

So, I bear England no ill will even if I can't muster up enthusiasm for their games. I guess my thoughts will be mostly with the women who have real reason to fear the World Cup

Will saltire fly from No 10 if Andy Murray makes Wimbledon Final?

Much as I'm pleased to see some of the stuffy protocols regarding flags on government buildings relaxed, I will go through at least 29 different kinds of fury if Andy Murray doesn't get the same treatment as the England team should he, or any other British player, make the Wimbledon Final, or in fact even the latter stages of the tournament.

Now that they've set the precedent, it had better happen for all world class sporting achievers these islands produce.