Less than the sum of the parts

Half of me wants to avoid any further World Cup comment, but the other half needs to get it out my system, so apologies to the uninterested. Please feel free to ignore.

All of the English football following public are now trying to understand why it is that England fall short of expectations every time one of these major tournaments come around. Somehow when it comes to the crunch, we rarely witness a competent and confident performance. Qualification is frequently a trauma, and when we do eventually get through, there's usually a bit of craziness - whether the 'Hand of God' in '86, sendings off or the nightmare of a penalty shoot-out. Even in 1990, England's best result since 1966, the team started slowly, struggled to win, and had 3 games in a row go into extra time.

To put it simply, the England team is usually less than the sum of the parts, and many of our fellow competitors are the reverse - this year think Switzerland, Serbia and even North Korea to name a few.

Quite apart from my personal (but not very serious) theory that England play better in red than white (think '66) there does seem to be a long shadow over English football. Maybe some of that comes from the win in '66 - there is always something in the air that says we ought to be able to do it again, whereas if England had never won, a quarter-final would seem a pretty decent outcome. Whatever the cause, good and occasionally brilliant players become ordinary and passionate players go flat. Mind you, England did badly in 1950...

So is it the manager? In Capello, we've got an expensive manager with a very good club track record. As a technician he has been very capable through qualification, but I do wonder whether it gets harder for a foreign manager to motivate a team when that seems to be the relevant issue. His reputation is as someone distant, yet England looked like a team that needed a good talking to from someone who's been there. Of course Pearce is available...

He also has seemed to be quite inflexible. One issue that seems to blight a lot of managers is having the nerve to leave out big names if they're not performing well. Sven and McLaren had their favourites, and so does Capello. Even if the team sheet is a secret until 2hrs beforehand, we know some of the names that will be there, which presumably makes it all the harder for those in the dark.

Lots of people are commenting on the formation. England have been devoted to 4-4-2 for a long time (although they won the World Cup playing 4-3-3 and Robson changed things during Italia 90.) Perhaps the obvious thing to say is that a formation should be chosen which brings the best out in the players - didn't seem to be the case for the last 2 matches. Also worth noting that although 4-4-2 used to be standard British tactics, the "big 4" don't tend to use it. Interesting to think what a 4-2-3-1 (Liverpool's shape) England would look like.

And that 2hr notice thing. David James certainly seemed less than impressed with how the goalkeeper situation had been dealt with, and how can a defence prepare as a coherent unit and team if they don't even know who's playing.

Ah well, it's easy to criticise from an armchair. History would suggest that England will revive, win the next game, and go through to the knock-out stage, thus raising all kinds of ridiculous hope. They will then crash out with a sending off or losing on penalties in a subsequent round.

Tangerine Dream

Image via Wikipedia

was perhaps the most predictable headline I spotted in reference to Blackpool's promotion to the Premier League. Celebrations dominated the town yesterday. Even as a Forest supporter, I have to acknowledge their achievement. Next season will be a huge challenge, but the experience of promotion has obviously been fantastic for the town, and will hopefully bring some much-needed new money into the economy. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, neighbouring Fleetwood Town FC also registered a more modest success by gaining promotion from the Blue Square North to the Blue Square Premier League. Only 4 more promotions to go, lads.

As the league seasons draw to a close, it's been interesting to see that the England World Cup preparations have been much more low key this time round. Capello's regime is obviously geared to less hype and more focus. I saw the last 20 minutes of the friendly game against Mexico, and it showed England in typically unconvincing mode, although the result was a positive to take away. Whether it helped the manager to decide on the 7 players to leave at home, I wouldn't like to guess, but Gareth Barry's fitness will probably make one decision for him.

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The World Cup cometh

Image via Wikipedia

Taking a look at a little booklet about the FIFA World Cup (not other lesser sports), I thought I'd check if there was any chance of following England's progress. In fact it's looking quite good. (please check with other guides before finalising your arrangements!)

The 3 games we can be sure of are:

• England v USA. Sat June 12 @ 7-30pm
• England v Algeria. Fri June 18 @ 7-30pm
• England v Slovenia. Wed June 23 @ 3pm

If England win group C, the next game is Sat June 26 @ 7-30pm
If England are 2nd, the next game is Sun June 27 @ 3pm

Ok then it gets complicated if you're optimistic enough to think we might get this far. I think the following is correct, but please correct me if it's not.

If they play on Saturday and win, the 1/4 final would be on Friday July 2 @ 7-30pm.
If they play on Sunday and win, the 1/4 final would be on Saturday July 3 @ 3pm.

The July 2 match leads to a semi-final on July 6 at 7-30pm
The July 3 match leads to a semi-final on July 7 at 7-30pm

The World Cup Final is Sunday July 11 at 7-30pm. Should be back from Evening Prayer. Dream on...

An Eventful Saturday

It was quite a day. The morning was filled with the Run 4 the World fun run. R4TW is organised by Martin Bateman, and runs took place on the same day all around the world. 3/4 of the money raised goes to 3 projects around the world, with 25% going to a local concern. Morecambe Promenade saw 240 runners (the biggest single group worldwide) and so far nearly £4,000 raised. I foolishly ran most of the 5km and the legs are suffering now. Maybe next year I'll actually prepare for it. Respect to the front guys who did it in 18 minutes or so, especially with the wind against us in the 2nd half.

Then in the afternoon, off to Christie Park to witness Morecambe beating Aldershot 1-0 to get into the play-offs. Gary Hunter nicely tapping in a Paul Mullin cross sealed the deal. Morecambe actually finished 4th, so get the second leg of the semi-final at home. Didn't expect that earlier in the season. It was originally to be the final game at the old ground, but now there will be one more. Biggest crowd since the 1940s gave it a fantastic atmosphere. League 1 for the new ground? It's still possible.

It isn't decided yet

And that's only the football. I'm looking forward to the last home league match at Christie Park on Saturday. Morecambe play promotion rivals Aldershot and one point would be enough to guarantee the Shrimps make the League 1 play-offs, which is quite an achievement for a club still fairly new to the League. It's great that the final match will have a cup-final feel. Morecambe are one of three Lancashire seaside towns with serious promotion hopes. Blackpool play Forest for a chance of Premiership football next season, and a bit further down the football hierarchy, Fleetwood are in the Blue Square North play-off final. Sadly Lancaster City FC lost their final to Colwyn Bay, having finished over 20 points ahead of them in the League.

Given the season has been full of surprises (who's have guessed Spurs 4th and Fulham in a European final?) I wouldn't want to make any firm predictions, but wouldn't it be great for the Shrimps to start their first season at the new stadium in League 1? I hope they make it.

This morning I also heard an item on the potential for the great British seaside to have a good season with the recession (not to mention volcanic ash) limiting people's ambitions to travel abroad. The reporter was in Skegness, which was the nearest seaside to where I grew up in Nottingham. When I was a kid, I remember Skeggy and Mablethorpe were full of Nottingham people, the shops sold the Nottingham Evening Post and the pubs sold Nottingham beer. In the same way, I gather that Morecambe was the resort of choice for some northern cities and towns, especially Bradford. Hopefully this trend for domestic holidays might bring new money, jobs and prosperity here this year.

Another quick footie roundup

Condolences to Arsenal; their comeback last week against Barca was brilliant, but the mounting casualties must have taken too much out of them.

Congrats to Newcastle United. Promoted straight back to Premiership, courtesy of a Forest v Cardiff draw. Probably a fair result for the 3 & 4 team. Forest's away form has meant their automatic promotion hopes have gone, but they wouldn't have expected a play-off place at the start of the season, and that looks in the bag. A Forest-Cardiff final is still on the cards.

Meanwhile, Notts County could yet win League 2, and look promotion certs. 5-0 against Bury helped the goal difference and their latest win at Shrewsbury leaves them only 5 points away from Rochdale with a game in hand. A different team to the (Sol Campbell featuring) team that got beaten at Morecambe earlier in the season. The Shrimps still have to go to Meadow Lane.

Speaking of the Shrimps, they are getting close to the play-offs for League 1. If they make it, I presume this will mean one more game at Christie Park, which they leave for the new Globe Arena at the end of this season. The last 2 home games are ticket-only and should be busy and lively affairs. A play-off would be a fantastic end for the old place.

Just down the road, Lancaster City head the Unibond Division One North. It may not be quite so exotic as other leagues, but after the trauma of a double relegation and financial difficulties, it's a good sign that they are on the way back. I hope they make it.

Meanwhile I'm off to Anfield on Thursday with Jono to see whether Liverpool can still get some European silverware this season. There's always hope if Torres stays on the field.

Football (soccer) roundup

Nottingham Forest seem to be having a good stretch at this part of the season. Their latest victory over promotion and East Midlands rivals Leicester City leave them in 3rd position. Plenty of season to go, but it looks like the squad is coming together. The prospect of Premiership football again at the City Ground awakes memories of former glory, but should they go up this season, survival woud be a miracle next!

Meanwhile, Morecambe FC continue to move up the League 2 table. 6 wins in a row, thanks to the goalscoring of Phil Jevons and 4 recent clean sheets, has seen them move out of the danger zone and towards the play-offs. League 1 football would make a nice opening for their new Westgate ground which they move to next year, but still a long way to go.

Nearby local rivals Lancaster City are finally enjoying some modest success after a period of turmoil and slipping down 2 leagues. Currently 3rd in the Unibond League First Division North, they have 5 games in hand over the team at the top. Should be enough to see them climb further!

Random football roundup

My old home town team of Nottm Forest managed a point away at Sheffield Wednesday. Hopefully this season will see Forest compete more credibly in the Championship, having narrowly escaped relegation last.

Over the way at newly financed Meadow Lane, Notts County thrashed Northampton 5-2 in their ongoing goal-fest in League 2. A couple of surprise defeats prevent them being top, but the goal difference will be handy. Is Sven starting to make a difference, and will Sol Campbell debut against Morecambe next week at Christie Park (in my new parish). Think I may go along and see. That reminds me, Eastwood Town FC, whose ground was in the first parish I served in (I think!) are enjoying success after their promotion, lying second after a 3-3 draw today.

This week the Shrimps managed a draw at Rotherham, which I think they would be happy with, following a couple of results where they conceded in the final few minutes. Down the road, Lancaster City went out 3-0 at home to Ashton FC from the league above in the FA Cup.

Oh, and England qualified early for the World Cup. Don't get too excited, but Capello looks like he knows what he is doing...

Weekend footie

Just catching up on blogging, so this is a bit late.

Morecambe's season ended with a bit of a bump with a 0-4 home defeat to Bournemouth, which was a pity, as the crowd was (for Morecambe) a decent 2600. The Shrimps were just outside the League One play-off stakes, after a very good run in the second half of the season (2 defeats in 20 games). Probably a bit soon for them to go up, so a good solid mid-table finish in their second League season is just about where they wanted to be.

Meanwhile, Bournemouth overcame a 17 point deduction at the start of the season, and safe from relegation still looked they had a point to prove. One goal came from a (rare) goalie fumble at a corner, but the other 3 were well taken. If Bournemouth hadn't had points deducted they would have been level with Morecambe on points with a better goal difference. Overall a good season for the Shrimps, but they probably wanted a better ending than this.

My home team, Forest, escaped relegation back to League 1 (there were too many ex-Premier League clubs going down!), which was confirmed when Norwich lost to Reading. Good results from the last 2 games made the safety margin 7 points in the end. They nearly caught Derby!

Thinking of Notts/Derby, congrats are also due to Notts team Eastwood Town. I remember seeing the floodlights at Coronation Park when I was a curate in the area. After their FA cup exploits, Eastwood gained automatic promotion from the Unibond Premier Division to the Blue Square North [7th tier to 6th tier, I think]. Derbyshire neighbours Ilkeston Town battled through the play-offs to do the same. That will keep the rivalry simmering nicely!

We just need Lancaster City to recover next season.

Football on the cheap

Nice one from our local team, Lancaster City FC. If you are locally based and have a season ticket for a league team - Premiership, Championship or Leagues 1 & 2, then you can get concession admission to any Lancaster City home game - that's £5.

Mind you, it's Unibond North, so it will be a sticky pitch.

Football round-up

Congratulations to all those who have made progress in cups this week. Among the giant-killers are Curzon Ashton beating Exeter, but the big result has to be Burnley's defeat of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. OK, it wasn't a full-strength Chelsea team, but Drogba, Kalou, Malouda, Alex and Deco are hardly push-overs. And the received wisdom is that teams from lower leagues get tired by the pace of the Preiership game. Sadly for Chelsea, Burnley held out and kept their nerve - even in a penalty shoot out. Apparently Drogba's goal was the first they have conceded in this competition. Not a bad record, then.

Was also pleased to see Eastwood Town go through to Round 2 of the FA cup on Saturday, beating Brackley. Eastwood are in the Unibond Premier Division - only 3 more promotions needed for League 2 football, then! I was a curate near Eastwood (DH Lawrence country), and I remember the ground, although I never went along to see them in action. It must be the greatest football achievement the team has seen, and their reward is a home tie with Wycombe. They must fancy their chances of a Third round game with a premiership side.

Apparently Jeff Astle and Tony Woodcock, both England internationals came from Eastwood, so there is some football pedigree in the area.

Recap the weekend

It was a busy weekend. Set off Saturday morning to get to Nottingham for Keith & Carol's silver wedding celebrations. (I was best man - see left!) The party was held jointly with Paul & Penny, and by some coincidence both couple have a child (grown-up) at Lancaster University, so I was able to help with transport.

Got to Nottm for lunch with Mum and Dad and also got to watch the England - Kazakhstan game. Key thing about that match: formations? 4-3-3 vs 4-4-2 (or was is 4-2-4?) The left-side problem reappearing? No. What struck me was that the manager knew what to do when things weren't going so well.

After all, 3 wins with 11 goals is hardly a bad start to a campaign. It'll be tougher on Wednesday, though.

Great party, with lots of blasts from the past around the room. Good company and a great time. What's more, the band who formed for the night put on a remarkably good sounding and tight set of great songs. A splendid time was guaranteed for all.

After a slowish start and Sunday lunch, got back in time to set up PA for Inspire, our evening worship, which was led by Martin Walmsley from St Thomas' on music and worship. Martin shared his vision for what he does as music director and led us in songs familiar and new.

Finally got home to flop and watched Peter Kay's very well-observed X-factor spoof. Haven't seen the 'results show' section yet (so don't spoil it!) Will Simon Cowell ever get over it?

And now - it's back to Monday morning.

A Fairtrade Olympics?

I have just done my bit, (using the Tear Fund Superbadger facility on facebook) to add my voice to the call for a Fairtrade Olympics in 2012. It's a fantastic opportunity for the UK Olympics to have a distinctive identity. We can't do bigger and better than Beijing, but it would be very easy to build in aspects of the celebrations that have a real benefit for the poorest communities of the world, as well as being a huge global advert for Fairtrade.

So, if you would like to see Fairtrade coffee, cotton, footballs and more in use at 2012, why not join in?

Olympic Trivia PS

Put this in a comment and decided to make it a post. The New York Times has a brilliant graphic which interactively shows the medal tallies for nations from 1896 to the present.

Also, where should the Olympics have been held in 1908, 1912, 1940 and 1944?

See the comment for the answer

Olympics

Have been picking and choosing my Olympic viewing, but it's been great stuff. Usually lots of heroic failures and a few unexpected valiant victories make up our medals tally. This year the confidence of the team has been fantastic.

What's been odd is that people have written about it as if it's surprising that the Olympics make good TV. Obviously it's better when we're winning, but where have you been? I think my earliest Olympic memory is watching with my mum when David Hemery won the 400m hurdles in Mexico (that's 1968). Also saw Montreal Olympics coverage whilst in the US in 1976 - the ad breaks were dominated by Chevrolet and Kodak. I can still remember the Chevy jingle, but wish I could forget it.

Winning

Just rubbed my eyes in disbelief as I saw Great Britain were 3rd in the Olympics medals table. This winning is becoming a bit of a habit. There are still some medal hopes to go, so it could get even better. Also noticed Australia were a little bit behind us, which must be causing large amounts of irritation down under.

Will success rub off on the England football team for their friendly tomorrow? I'm not that hopeful, but you never know. We certainly need a GB football team for 2012 - wouldn't seem right without one.

By the way, who would you pick as regular goalkeeper? I'd pick Robert Green (when fit)

Recovery

Don't engage much with Wimbledon much anymore. I did when I was a kid - I can even remember Ann Jones winning the women's title in 1969 (she was British by the way if you can't go back that far). There's a rumour the Beatles paused recording Golden Slumbers to hear it on the radio.

Anyway, last night's extraordinary recovery from a match point down in the third set to win by Andy Murray has to go down as one of the great comebacks in British sport. I felt it needed saluting here.

Surely we daren't believe he could go all the way to the final?

Dilemma

Looking at the new footie season fixtures, I noticed a conflict of interest. Since living in Lancaster, Jono & I have been along to Morecambe a few times, but from a distance I have been hoping Forest would escape the indignity of League One and get a bit further up the football tree. So, who do I support in the first round of the Carling Cup (Forest v. Morecambe at the City Ground)? Forest had better watch out, as Morecambe finished off Preston and Wolves away last year.

Quite tempting to get a ticket, but for which end?

6 plus 5 equals what?

Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA has won a vote on a proposal to introduce quotas of home players to all football teams. Only 5 overseas players would be allowed in a starting 11. It could fall foul of European discrimination law, so it may never be introduced here, but I'm trying to work out what I think of it as a proposal.

It does seem a bit odd to refer to Arsenal as an English team in the Champions League when there are no English players on the pitch. In what sense can such a team authentically represent the nation where it is based? When Celtic and Man U won the European Cup in the '60s, it was to a large extent a result for their respective nations as well as the team (yes I know Best & Law weren't English). On the other hand if football is now primarily a business in a global market, why should they be limited in what they can buy in to achieve their goals? (sorry about the pun - just noticed it)

Another argument is that the limited number of opportunities for English players to break through into first XIs in the Premier League may be limiting the development of the pool of talent for the national team. (Although presumably it's theoretically the same in Germany and Italy...) It's worth noting that Man U & Chelsea regularly field 4-5 English players each, so success isn't just about filling your squad with expensive overseas talent.

I'm not sure what I would have voted at the FIFA meeting, although I think my instincts are for the proposal, on the grounds of making international club football a more authentic representation of the nations of origin.

A weekend of footie news

Still rubbing my eyes with disbelief that Forest managed automatic promotion on Saturday. Still, if you win 5 out your last 6 games and draw the other, I guess it gives you a chance. Sorry, Doncaster & Carlisle. Getting into the Championship is hardly comparable to winning the European Cup twice (1979 & 80), but it's progress.

I also seem to have lots of friends who support West Brom. Congrats to them on achieving promotion again. The correct Baggies greeting is boing, boing, boing...