PENS GET HOSTS OUT OF THE WEBB

What a great World Cup so far. It can get better of course but this first knock out tie has kept us glued to the set. Casualty viewers will be down. So the hosts are still in, just, and Howard Webb's correct but controversial decision over Hulk's goal may well be forgotten. With the memory of Howard's performance in South Africa still fresh in our minds, he really did not need another issue. But all credit to our man from South Yorkshire (see previous blog!!) and his team; he kept 22 men on the pitch and the game did not end up in a brawl. Great opener and will Brazil go much further without a proper goal scorer?

FREE SCORE IN KNOCKOUT DRAW

As the World Cup gets to the interesting, knock out bit, England is not involved. Its group D, contributed fewest goals (only 10) to what is a free scoring competition. 22 goals were accumulated in Group B with Spain suffering a 5-1 defeat. 5 is the highest individual country's score (Netherlands v Spain) and 7 the highest total in a match (France 5 v Switzerland 2). 

Here are some other highest scores and margins of victory from past World Cups:-

Biggest score by a country in the main competition:

Hungary (9) vs South Korea (0), 1954;  Yugoslavia (9) vs Zaire (0), 1974;  

Hungary (10) vs El Salvador (1), 1982.

Biggest margin of victory, qualifying match:

Australia (31) vs American Samoa (0), 11 April 2001, 2002.

Most goals scored in a match by one team:

10 by Hungary, vs El Salvador, 1982.

Most goals scored in a match, both teams:

12,  Austria (7) vs Switzerland (5), 1954.

Highest scoring draw:

4–4,  England vs Belgium (AET), 1954, and  Soviet Union vs Colombia, 1962.

Largest deficit overcome in a win:

3 goals,  Austria, 1954 (coming from 0–3 down to win 7–5 vs Switzerland) and Portugal, 1966 (coming from 0–3 down to win 5–3 vs North Korea).

Largest deficit overcome in a draw 3 goals:

Colombia, 1962 (coming from 0–3 down to draw 4–4 vs Soviet Union) and Uruguay, 2002 (coming from 0–3 down to draw 3–3 vs  Senegal).

England managed 2 goals in Brazil.

THIS WAS THE RETURN OF DRACULA-La Gazetta Dello Sport

A kid from the streets, it is part of his life that he has to defend himself when he is threatened. Luis Suarez has certainly stirred up the world of football.

Earlier this year, an American sportswriter, Wright Thompson, went to Uruguay, to find more about Luis Suárez. Thompson had heard of one story from Suárez’s childhood, of him being sent off in a youth match and then head-butting the referee. He wanted to know if it was true.  Thompson went to Montevideo and spent weeks searching but everywhere he went people defended Suárez. He tracked down Enrique Moller, a local who reviewed all youth league disciplinary problems. Moller remembered an incident involving the 15-year-old Suárez, but said he had no details. At Nacional, where Suárez played his youth football, they told Thompson all the records were lost. Thompson felt that people did not really appreciate him, a foreign journalist, asking questions about a guy they felt was persecuted outside their country. A couple of English journalists found out recently when they travelled to one of the team’s press conferences where Suárez was due to talk, three security bouncers made it clear they were required to leave.

He met Martinez Chenlo, one of the sports editors of a Montevideo paper. Chenlo told him the same as everyone else; it was garbage. He rang Ricardo Perdomo, who had coached Suarez, who explained what had happened. Suárez was 16, not 15. Nacional were playing Danubio, another local team, and it was not a head-butt. He was simply protesting about a referee’s mistake, and who doesn’t do that? Sure, his head hit the referee’s face, but not on purpose. He fell and one thing you learn about Suárez, he does a lot of falling. 

“Note in the film footage from his game against Italy, how Suárez stumbles after jumping for the ball and how his face hits the shoulder of the Italian player,” one report from Uruguay described. Another report said "the only people who cared about the biting were English". “There was no single picture to prove there was a bite,” according to El Observador, questioning whether the photographs from foreign news agencies had been altered. El País reminded its readers that the English press “harassed the Uruguayan after the bite on Branislav Ivanovic”. Últimas Noticias noted: “Nobody talks about how Suárez was injured in the jaw and the eye”.

Cathal Kelly, a sports columnist for the Toronto Star, wrote about Suárez in December 2013. “He will do something insane at this summer’s World Cup – mark it down. Afterwards, he will prompt an ugly transfer saga for a world-record fee.”  It is certainly true that a less talented player would have been kicked out of the sport or push to the edge. 

The bite is one thing, but it is actually the pretence that it never occurred that tells us more. He did the same after the Ivanovic incident, wanting punishment for the Chelsea defender. More likely, it is deeper than that. 

Suarez is so heavily indulged he has started to believe what he says about it all being the imagination of others. If there is one person around him telling him he needs time with Dr Steve Peters, the psychiatrist at Anfield, we can be sure there are another 100 or so (mainly Uruguayan) will be saying that it is the rest of the world with the problem.

Now, at the Uruguayan camp, they are trying to make a case that Chiellini made it up, that the photographs were doctored and that the controversy is the work of the embittered English. 

So he has a ban and a fine but his colleagues still refuse to admit that this incident happened, despite the appearance of another film footage, showing his attempt to munch Chiellini in the last Confederations Cup.

Brendon Rodgers has to work a miracle again with his failing striker, as he did last season, but not until October. I have not mentioned the abuse!

TEN POINTS TO SUCCESS

It would be tempting fate to say that Roy's young boys are dealing very well with the mighty Costa Rica, but it is only half time and there is time for us to make one error and get punished, despite all our encouraging efforts going forward. It is good to see that Roy is trusting in one feature of Henry Winters's 10-point plan to save the face of English Football. Winter's Point Four is "Trust in Flair". The other nine parts he suggested to improve our standing include;

Point One-Build Burton-the nation now has St George's Park. 

Point Two-Invest in Youth Coaches to work with 5-11 year olds-yes this happens but it is still expensive to join a course and also time consuming for busy dads and mums, our grass roots coaches. You tried to do a Level 2?

Point Three-have a winter break.

Point Five was to appoint more football people to the FA-well?

Point Six-have the incentive of performance related pay. Players need to take more responsibility for their career. They should not be regarded as overpaid prima donnas.

Point Seven-the Government must invest more in school PE and build more 3G pitches.

Point Eight-get more Englishmen playing in the Premier League using a quota system; six plus five adds up.

Point Nine-sell Wembley which is a drain on resources and invest the FA's money in Grass Roots.

Point Ten-embrace tournaments and don't hide away on the periphery. Will the England squad and coaches fly home soon or will they stay to observe the best teams in the world?

TAKE YOUR MIND OFF ENGLISH FLOPS

With England out of the World Cup and likely to be embarrassed by Costa Rica tomorrow, the cricket team at 5 down and 300 needed and despite Andy Murray sailing through his first round at Wimbledon, we know what is likely to happen soon, don't we? We need cheering up. Our government is offering advice by suggesting having sex. You can, if you would prefer, exercise, do something different or sing. Strikes me sex covers all the bases then! Mark Renton famed for the film Trainspotting exclaimed that after sex, he had not felt so good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in the 1978 finals. If only England would score more goals.
Sex as a distraction, might also prevent football fans from over drinking or eating badly. But don't blame everything on poor food, the Department of Health reports an increase of heart attacks by 50% when England lost to Germany on penalties in the 1996 Euros. Sporting failure or even success causes our medical facilities to be over stretched .
Sadly, reported today is another social issue, that is the increase in domestic violence after England's disappointing performances in Brazil this summer. Let's hope that on Tuesday night when our boys are finally heading from Brazil or Headingly, pulses rise in the bedroom and not in the kebab shop.
Come Andy, you can do it for Scotland.

A VITAL CHORD OR TOAD IN THE HOLE

The famous English amateurs, the Corinthians, could lay claim to bringing football to Brazil. Exeter City will celebrate this year, their close link with the World Cup hosts (see previous blog) and in neighbouring countries,  Uruguay and Argentina, European influences are obvious.  In the faces and names of players. Jonathan Liew, the excellent sports's writer from the Daily Telegraph, writes about the first German's to arrive in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's most southerly region from the early 1800s. Shop names and businesses reveal a German foundation in the region's towns, in one case Novo Hamburgo, a town of 250,000 population. More Germans immigrated after the 1914-18 war and now, some 12 million people have German ancestry. Dunga and Scolari both herald from this region. Maicon, one of Brazil's best ever full backs, was a twin and both his and his brother's umbilical chords were buried under the turf of their father's local club in the hope that this would give the children the power to become a proper footballer. It worked, certainly in one case. On other occasions, it has been known that toads are buried under the pitch of a neighbouring rival to bring them bad luck when the local derby is due.

LIGHTNING DOES STRIKE BLOG SPOT

After England's issues with lightning, it did for me last week when a thunderbolt took out our local transformer and did for my broadband, supplied by SKY. Apparently SKY only has a certain "capacity" at the exchange and whilst BT subscribers either side of me continued to have broadband and I have to wait until July 7th to get back on line. BT has more capacity at the excahnge and since they own the thing I'm not surprised their customers get preferential treatment. So I made it to a local library and am dealing with a comptuer whose cursor has a mind of its own. I know there are some errors in this but the only way I can get to them is by using the back button.....
Uruguay, Fray Bentos, Suarez-past masters at World Cup football-see 1930s, but England has Steven Gerrard, at 113 caps, two away from Beckham's record. It could rain in Sao (San) Paulo, so Roy Hodgson remarks that it could be just right for the lads from Manchester. Spain are out, England could still qualify if they lose tonight, but we don't need another few days of nail biting. PS The referee is Spanish; he may be smarting from his country's exit or the delight of knowing that back home there is a new monarch.