goalfood
All Shirts
shop: complete catalogue		 world cup
world cup tees		 peace love football
peace love
football		 slogans and specials
slogan tees
& specials		 teams and players
teams / players		 graphics
graphics		 features
features		 Interviews
interviews		 Blogs
blogs		 Archive
archive

bradley headstone - drawn to any world cup disgrace

Hup Holland Hup or Vamos Del Bosque

Posted: July 10th 2010
Click here to feedback

Not the fantasy final you wanted or maybe as a fervent follower of European football you are loving the continent’s domination of Africa? This has been a tournament filled with tactical polyfilling of potential weaknesses. The appearance of the sober Dutch, masking their defensive frailty and lack of real flair with a disciplined formation against a Spanish side that despite having a defence prone to panic at even a hint of the opposition’s encroachment and a Heskeyesque centre forward have chosen to just not let their rivals have the ball, seems appropriate.

For all the millions on offer on the pitch, this tournament has increasingly been about the men in suits, the tactical magicians or makeweights.

We had Maradona to enjoy right from the start and for all the disappointment of England’s campaign, the you tube clip of Capello bullying the hardest England footballer (are you listening JT) in South Africa was brilliant. I’m a little down that the fashionista fifth Beatle (expect to see the first pundits wearing jacket and v-neck sweaters as soon as the prem begins) has left our screens but consoling myself with the anonymous grey clad Dutchman and the bus driver chic Spaniard who will do tactical battle for the final.

As to what we should expect opinion appears to be divided. The division appears to be purely related to the Spanish and not about whether they’ll win or how they’ll win. The arguments run like this, the Spanish will pass the Dutch to death in a feast of football or the Spanish will pass the Dutch to death in a miserable one-sided bore fest. Two things occur to me straightaway, on a minor point, are the Dutch that bad and as to those who find Spain difficult to watch... ARE THEY MAD!

The reason why football has endured as a popular sport is the ability of both watcher and player to engage at varying levels, for every person who bangs on about Brazil 1970 there is a counter balancing person eulogising over a third division mud splattered cup run. When the latter comes out with something along the lines of ‘well, Pele was all well and good but those Bury Centre halves of the sixties would’ve given him short shrift’, we all chuckle and assume the padded overcoat has been ordered.

What I’m finding harder to ignore is this groundswell of opinion that the Spanish game plan of keeping the ball, passing to each other, probing the opposition defence and pouncing when the opportunity arises is in some way killing football. It’s grown since England’s demise, we may not be able to play football but we can express an opinion on everybody else’s game. My suspicion is that there is a growing realism that in England we can never hope to emulate this kind of football, we have neither the will nor the resources and therefore the best option is to attempt to belittle those that do. Within days of England’s demise the Premier League was starting to make the familiar tired noises about revenue streams and being the best league in the world.

Dave Whelan is most vocal in this. The self-aggrandising chairman of Wigan Athletic believes that the woes of the England team would be solved by bringing them under the umbrella of the Premier League. Well that’s going to work isn’t it; you can only surmise that by removing England from all competitions would allow some valuable respite for the poor tired boys. Assuming the Premier League doesn’t get control of all international football it would appear logical that English players would become a more attractive commodity. This in turn would see Young English players developing quicker but with no international outlet. It’s not easy is it Dave?

More laughable is that the Chairman of Wigan should be fronting this insidious campaign. Wigan are the very emblem of everything that is wrong with the Premier League. A chief importer of ordinary foreign players and a team that would regularly bend over for the Premier League elite, Wigan should be quoted to any pub bull shitter who can’t help but repeat Sky’s clarion cry.

I hope the Spanish pass and pass and pass and I hope the Dutch are not as one dimensional as everyone is suggesting. As much as I find it difficult to warm to Robben, he is a pretty effective winger and you’d like to think that he and the likes of Sneijder, Van Persie, Van der Vaart etc etc could rustle up some kind of game. If not you could always run a book on which minute Van Bommell gets sent off.