So, we are seven games in to the greatest sporting tournament on the universe – The 2010 World Cup.
My main disappointment is the lack of classic world cup haircuts so far, the entire Romanian team bleaching their hair in 1998 was a classic. The Ronaldo (fat Brazilian one not the winker) 2002 “Tuft” , the Alexi Lalas beard and long locks in 1994 and the Carlos Valderrama, Colombia “king of perms” are legendary,
Carlos Valderama - King of Perms
The best effort so far has to be from the Bela Lugosi lookalike referee (Carlos Simon) of the England vs. USA game last night who looked like he had mopped up the majority of the BP oil slick with his hair.
Best name in the tournament so far has to be South Afica’s goal scorer Tshabalala which when pronounced properly sounds like the commentator is singing. Talking of commentary the one game I wouldn’t envious of having to commentate on is the South Korea vs Greece game. Some true tongue twisters in that game including the Greeks Patsatzoglou (Pat sat zoo glue?), Papastathopoulos (Papa stat tho po lus?) and the South Koreans having 7 Kims, 6 Lees and a Ho.
Some candidates for Villain of the week are:-
Robert Green – No explanation required!!
James Corden’s World Cup show was awful despite having the world’s greatest ever goalkeeper on it.
Katie Perry and Simon Cowell as guests with our world cup legend Banks of England parked on a sofa miles away was truly ridiculous. Corden should have ripped into Perry who apparently was wearing an “England/ USA dress” – No it wasn’t, it was the Union Flag and the Stars and Stripes- England’s flag is the Cross of St. George.
Cowell’s smugness was exposed when he mentioned exactly the same fact that Corden had some two minutes earlier “England’s opening game in 1966 was a draw and look how we did then”, a near embarrassed Gordon Banks politely responded to him as if to say, I’ve only just been asked this by that other clown!
The Only Safe Banks of England
It was that bad that I had to switch it off after 15 minutes. The TFI Friday format has been done very well by Chris Evans and this poor repeat should be quickly consigned to history. Bring back Fantasy Football with Skinner and Baddiel.
My villain of the week is the joke that is ITV HD who ruined my viewing last night a few minutes in. They actually showed an advertisement for a cheap crappy car as England went on the attack. I grabbed the remote to switch the coverage to ITV (non HD) to see Stevie G wheeling away in celebration. I was gobsmacked. We wait 4 years for this great moment, an England goal in the World Cup and ITV HD totally screw it up. They should have their coverage switched to the bbc for one game, they do have previous on this when covering a Liverpool European game earlier in the season. The BBC are the real thing when it comes to coverage of football, like china produced in Stoke – on – Trent, home of the Potteries. Everything else is a poor second best.
I have just seen this viral of how ITV would have covered the 1966 World Cup Final
ITV does the 1966 World Cup? – thanks to @hinge832 via @jasonmanford on twitter
Let us know who your heroes and villians of the World Cup 2010 are by leaving a comment.
PS Happy 12th. Birthday to the BBC’s Match of the Day Pundit Alan Hansen. It’s 12 years since Scotland have been involved in a World Cup, that’s surely worth a celebration for all England fans.
