FIFA WC Tipping comp

[Sephiroth]

I'm in the opposite boat to you two [Til and Ursa] (you know, the one with the small hole in the bottom?). I'm edging toward Spain (although not fast enough, because I'm only going to be a little more than halfway through France on Thursday ).


But will they win it outright, or on penalties?

And am I right in going with my gut (and the octopus), rather than plumping for the form team, who have looked unstoppable in their last two games?

Meh. Time will tell, I suppose. I just hope I can make my mind up in time to make a prediction. It's still not inconveivable that I could bottle it, and tip Germany, instead.



Ace -- it depends who they're playing. I'd like to see them beat Germany (not because I have anything against Germany; I like Germany, I just want to see a new winner). But if they're playing Spain, I'll be torn, and will probably just back whomever my prediction tells me to.

And if Germany continue to play as well as they have, I'll be pleased to see them win, regardless.

[Tillane]

(Did anyone else think the commentator's remark about their squad being short on depth came across as unnecessarily patronising, given that the best a UK team could do was reach the last sixteen?)

Actually, the thing that annoyed me - aside from the fact that I was having to watch the game on ITV in the first place - was Tyldesley's comment early on that Uruguay were "already seen as unwelcome guests in the latter stages before Suarez's handball". By whom, exactly, other than the teams they'd put out?

[Sephiroth]

The BBC commentators annoyed me with their attitude to Uruguay during the Ghana match, too.


Apparently 'everyone who wasn't Uruguayan was supporting Ghana'.

[Tillane]

I think the commentating and analysis (if it can be called that, which is doubtful) has been pretty poor on both channels. Whoever it was who decided Lawrenson would be a good co-commentator needs a good kicking, that's for sure.

[Ursa major]

I didn't hear that Suarez comment, Til. It would have annoyed me if I had.


Why do commentators think they speak for anyone but themselves? They can't and don't. We are always supposed to support Brazil and the Netherlands soccer teams, mainly based on the way they played decades ago. And we must support Cuban boxers, and US athletes, and Commonwealth whatevers, and on and on.


I'll support who I want to, whatever their nationality, if they deserve my support (by bringing something amazing and/or delightful to their sport).

[Sephiroth]

It can be called analysis, but only if you assign a different meaning to that word, based on any constituent words that can be found therein.


I agree. The coverage has been dreadful on both channels. I don't think I've heard a single insightful comment from anyone on either. I would add Mick McCarthy to Lawrenson on the list of folk who should never be put near a microphone. In fact, I'd find it harder to choose someone who didn't deserve to be on that list.

[Tillane]

Originally Posted by Ursa major

I didn't hear that Suarez comment, Til. It would have annoyed me if I had.

It was in the first couple of minutes, and it took me a second to realise what he'd said. And then another ten to keep from putting my fist through the screen.

One of the things that has bugged me all through the tournament is the seemingly gleeful ignorance displayed by the various pundits. I swear, I've lost count of the number of times I've heard Shearer or Hanson or whomever talking about the smaller nations and happily admitting that they only know one of their players - and then the rest grinning and nodding as if that's okay. Do some sodding research! It's what you're being paid for!

[Sephiroth]

Til, I have made that comment (about 'gleeful ignorance', although not in exactly the same terms -- usually even less complimentary) several times during the competition.


I object to these grinning idiots getting paid exorbitant sums to parade their ignorance and condescension on national television.

It's not just the smaller nations they don't know. They didn't even know who Antonio Di Natale was. He's only the leading scorer in the Italian Serie A for the season just played!

[Ursa major]

You have to remember that both the Channel and the Alps are in the way of any information flow coming to the UK regarding events in Serie A, Seph.


And aren't Italians ... you know ... foreign...?

[Tillane]

And we're certainly not the only ones who've spotted it. From the brilliant Anton Vowl (minus a bit of his rather sweary swearing):

The statement, issued on behalf of all of those chirpy but clueless former professional footballers and their TV presenter friends who have shed not a bit of light on this year's World Cup for British TV viewers, begins:

"We, the undersigned, may have tried to give the impression that we knew anything about football, and international football in particular, ahead of this year's World Cup.

"In truth, we now realise that other than watching some Premiership games and maybe the odd bit of La Liga on Sky Sports, we've got no better knowledge that anyone at home. Indeed, anyone with the most rudimentary researching skills probably knows a bit more about world football than we do.

"Sure, we're ex-professionals, but instead of actually doing our well-paid job and doing some proper research into world football, we just sat around joking about what a funny thing it was that nations like Japan and Paraguay dared to even play football in the first place, as well as patronising all the African teams as much as humanly possible, then expecting that a bunch of players from the English Premiership, the Best League In The World (tm), would find their way into the final, because we'd heard of them.

"We now realise this was not as professional as it could have been."

[Sephiroth]

Those are very good points, Ursa. I suppose I'm being dreadfully unfair. The presenters, commentators and 'co-commentators' do display a good working knowledge of the be-all-and-end-all that is the Premiership (pinnacle of world football, and all that), and seem only too quick to point out when they think one of these upstart Johnny Foreigners who dares to show flashes of skill would or would not make it in the 'big league'.

Which is all that matters, really, so I suppose I should cut them some slack.





[edit] What a coincidence that you should post that as I posted the above, Til.

Oh, and here is another article, from Tom English of the Scotsman: 'The level of punditry is patronising and insulting.'

The Beeb got carpeted by some viewers for their treatment of that Algeria game. So what happened before the kick-off in yesterday's lunch-time match between New Zealand and Slovakia? In a six-and-a-half minute introduction just one player out of the 22 on show was given a name-check, and here is how it happened.

Lee Dixon: "Slovakia have got some decent players, Hamsik, the pick of them. Young player, plays on the left side."

Gary Lineker: "He's at Napoli."

Lee Dixon: "That's right."

Alan Hansen (chuckling): "Somebody gave you him, by the way."

What Hansen meant, I think, was that his colleagues must have been fed the Hamsik reference by another party, that they couldn't have come up with his name all by themselves. It's not like Dixon or Lineker produced a dossier of facts about Hamsik, a file of information on who he is and where he has been. All they did was mention his name and the fact that he was rather good. That was it. Hansen seemed to think this was worthy of a gently-mocking put-down, as if the other two were some kind of class swots. As such, he was almost revelling in his own ignorance.

[Wybren]

Originally Posted by Tillane

Heh. I believe I hit the deadline dead-on (as it were). As for tardy bear...well, I'm sure Wy will be kind.

LOL I was asleep, so aslong as it was in before the match it doesnt bother me

Well everyone goes up 1 point today. I will post the scores again after the Germany v Spain match.

[Tillane]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

What a coincidence that you should post that as I posted the above, Til.

Oh, and here is another article, from Tom English of the Scotsman: 'The level of punditry is patronising and insulting.'

Heh. Great minds...

And funnily enough, Anton actually linked to that article in one of his rants...posts! Sorry. Posts. Yes.

It took me a moment to stop laughing at the irony of a reporter called English working for the Scotsman, but once I had I found myself agreeing with pretty much everything he said.

[Sephiroth]

I've had a chuckle at 'The Scotsman's Tom English' quite a few times, yeah. But I agree with most of it, too. Although the part about Radio Scotland's "award-winning" and "proper" coverage is, perhaps, slightly overstated.


This is the station that has Chick Young working for it, after all.

[Wybren]

cripes, after reading that Tom English article, If thats how they started for the American game, I'd hate to see what they did for the Australian games.

What got a bit irksome over here was how it came across through the media that all the other teams looked down their noses at teams like Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Ok fair enough we are only relatively new to the game, and sure we didnt make it past the round of 16 but we all earned our spots to get there.

For those of you who havent put your tips in yet for tonights game, as long as you get in before the game starts, I dont mind. It just has to be before kick off.