Day 10: Munich
It’s early Saturday morning and off to Stansted Airport for the flight to Munich. The airport is a 45 minute train journey from the city, through lush countryside liberally dotted with rabbits. South East England needs a decent dose of mixo.
The public focus on the World Cup in England is complete, in newspapers, television, signs on the streets, clothes, transport, everything. Every second television commercial features the England players, and five of them – Joe Cole, Terry, Lampard, Beckham and Rooney – are the pin-up boys. The country will go into introspective mourning if England loses.
The quality of English football journalism is high, especially Henry Winter in the Telegraph. (see www.telegraph.co.uk/winter). Consider these gems, all in one article:
*Fittingly, against Caribbean foe, this was a rum do.
*Goals came from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerard. A Mersey Killing indeed. (Explanation: These guys play for Liverpool, which is on the River Mersey).
*The first half was particularly dire and “Calypso Collapso” headlines were being prepared.
*Those long skinny legs suddenly resembled spaghetti junction.
Although we are still in the qualifying rounds, it’s been a great World Cup, with many spectacular goals. One of the benefits of being at the game, rather than watching on television, is that you can see the structure of the entire team off the ball, not only what the camera follows. It shows more clearly the dilemmas faced by the coaching staff in setting team tactics. Sometimes, I need the game to freeze for a few minutes to absorb everything that’s happening.
For anyone not interested in football or my opinion, stop reading now. Here’s my assessment of the England team at the moment. England has a group of excellent players, and for the first time in a generation, a few are genuinely world-class. The problem the manager is having is how to bring them together coherently. Both Gerrard and Lampard in midfield are best positioned just behind the forwards, surging to the edge of the box rather than coming from deep in defense. But they cannot both play there, which forces one of them, usually Gerard, to play more defensively than he does for Liverpool. This is stifling one of England’s great attacking weapons.
The coaches also demand that one of the forwards, either Crouch or Owen, must get behind the ball defensively whenever the other team is in possession. This is generally a laudable tactic, but Owen is a goal poacher, someone who should hover at the shoulder of the last defender, sniping and darting between big centre-backs and their goalkeeper. Forcing him to defend is losing his potency, especially when he has been injured most of the year and is already less than razor sharp. Not only is Wayne Rooney an important player in his own right, but he improves the balance of the team. He can play behind Owen, leaving Owen to stay up front in his natural role.
Compared with the team that has started the last two games, I’d prefer to see a role for both Lennon and Rooney. I’d give Owen another game and leave Crouch out. It will be fascinating to see the lineup Sven decides for the next game.
OK, back to the log. The plane to Germany was chockers, especially with English and Australians going over for the WC. Chatting to a few, it seems most people do not have tickets, but are just going over to be part of it.
Picked up a car at Munich Airport, and then the fun began. It took me an hour to work out how to make the SatNav speak English, without which I would be stuffed for a week. The car is a six-speed manual, and I’ve been driving automatics for years. So I’m driving along on the wrong side of the road, trying to make the SatNav work, shifting gears with my right hand, and cars are screaming past me at 200kph. I venture into the middle lane to overtake a truck, and I’m doing 140kph and holding up the traffic. The little lady in the SatNav tells me to turn right, and suddenly all the traffic is coming towards me. I pull over and hold my hands up, and judging by the smiles, I think they’ve seen it all before from zee mad Engleesh. It’s quite a relief when I arrive at the house of the family I’m staying with for a couple of days.
I head straight into Munich to meet a few CFS folk, including JP, Sarah, Amber and a bunch of their mates. After lunch, where JP eats the standard German lunch of half a large pig, we catch a train to the Munich Fan Fest site to watch a couple of games in the glorious sunshine. JP offers odds of $7, the market price, on Ghana beating the Czechs, and then reduces it to $3 the moment Ghana score. A few people place a bet and have the pleasure of a payout as Ghana win 2-0. Then it’s more bets on the next game. JP needs money on the table to enjoy a game fully. The Fan Fest is so packed that they stop people entering. See pictures following.
There seem to be more Brazilians than Australians in town today, so let’s hope the invasion is on for tomorrow when the party really comes to Munich.
The public focus on the World Cup in England is complete, in newspapers, television, signs on the streets, clothes, transport, everything. Every second television commercial features the England players, and five of them – Joe Cole, Terry, Lampard, Beckham and Rooney – are the pin-up boys. The country will go into introspective mourning if England loses.
The quality of English football journalism is high, especially Henry Winter in the Telegraph. (see www.telegraph.co.uk/winter). Consider these gems, all in one article:
*Fittingly, against Caribbean foe, this was a rum do.
*Goals came from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerard. A Mersey Killing indeed. (Explanation: These guys play for Liverpool, which is on the River Mersey).
*The first half was particularly dire and “Calypso Collapso” headlines were being prepared.
*Those long skinny legs suddenly resembled spaghetti junction.
Although we are still in the qualifying rounds, it’s been a great World Cup, with many spectacular goals. One of the benefits of being at the game, rather than watching on television, is that you can see the structure of the entire team off the ball, not only what the camera follows. It shows more clearly the dilemmas faced by the coaching staff in setting team tactics. Sometimes, I need the game to freeze for a few minutes to absorb everything that’s happening.
For anyone not interested in football or my opinion, stop reading now. Here’s my assessment of the England team at the moment. England has a group of excellent players, and for the first time in a generation, a few are genuinely world-class. The problem the manager is having is how to bring them together coherently. Both Gerrard and Lampard in midfield are best positioned just behind the forwards, surging to the edge of the box rather than coming from deep in defense. But they cannot both play there, which forces one of them, usually Gerard, to play more defensively than he does for Liverpool. This is stifling one of England’s great attacking weapons.
The coaches also demand that one of the forwards, either Crouch or Owen, must get behind the ball defensively whenever the other team is in possession. This is generally a laudable tactic, but Owen is a goal poacher, someone who should hover at the shoulder of the last defender, sniping and darting between big centre-backs and their goalkeeper. Forcing him to defend is losing his potency, especially when he has been injured most of the year and is already less than razor sharp. Not only is Wayne Rooney an important player in his own right, but he improves the balance of the team. He can play behind Owen, leaving Owen to stay up front in his natural role.
Compared with the team that has started the last two games, I’d prefer to see a role for both Lennon and Rooney. I’d give Owen another game and leave Crouch out. It will be fascinating to see the lineup Sven decides for the next game.
OK, back to the log. The plane to Germany was chockers, especially with English and Australians going over for the WC. Chatting to a few, it seems most people do not have tickets, but are just going over to be part of it.
Picked up a car at Munich Airport, and then the fun began. It took me an hour to work out how to make the SatNav speak English, without which I would be stuffed for a week. The car is a six-speed manual, and I’ve been driving automatics for years. So I’m driving along on the wrong side of the road, trying to make the SatNav work, shifting gears with my right hand, and cars are screaming past me at 200kph. I venture into the middle lane to overtake a truck, and I’m doing 140kph and holding up the traffic. The little lady in the SatNav tells me to turn right, and suddenly all the traffic is coming towards me. I pull over and hold my hands up, and judging by the smiles, I think they’ve seen it all before from zee mad Engleesh. It’s quite a relief when I arrive at the house of the family I’m staying with for a couple of days.
I head straight into Munich to meet a few CFS folk, including JP, Sarah, Amber and a bunch of their mates. After lunch, where JP eats the standard German lunch of half a large pig, we catch a train to the Munich Fan Fest site to watch a couple of games in the glorious sunshine. JP offers odds of $7, the market price, on Ghana beating the Czechs, and then reduces it to $3 the moment Ghana score. A few people place a bet and have the pleasure of a payout as Ghana win 2-0. Then it’s more bets on the next game. JP needs money on the table to enjoy a game fully. The Fan Fest is so packed that they stop people entering. See pictures following.
There seem to be more Brazilians than Australians in town today, so let’s hope the invasion is on for tomorrow when the party really comes to Munich.
posted by Graham Hand | 11:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home