World cup

Bof! bof! and thrice bof!

Bof! because they played it on Sunday. What's the matter with Saturday? Has there been some strange law banning sport on Saturday?

Bof! because the World Cup was decided on penalty shoot-outs. This ought not to be.

Bof! because France lost (and so ... embarrassingly.)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Yes, it seems to be a deliberate ploy, both here in the U.K., and in other 'Christian' countries to play all sorts of sports on a Sunday. Excuse me for being partisan, but I feel that there is a deliberate ploy on the part of many to try to rub a Divine nose in it. I expect that might raise howls of protest. People who may not have thought about it much above their own convenience level will protest that they have no such intention, and as a deliberate act, that may be so, but that is the effect. Maurice Kinnaird spoke last night on Genesis 3, amongst other portions, and it was reiterated quite clearly that, in essence, that was what Adam did in the garden. It may not have been his deliberate intention, but that was the end result. He was saying in effect, "God, you've got it wrong, the serpent has it right. This is for me." Of course, it wasn't until too late that he discovered that God did have it right with those first subtle little changes such as an awareness of their own shame.
Adam and Eve found out to their own cost that, "God is not mocked."
However, I can also see that there are people to whom it matters not and others who may have examined their consciences closely and decided that, for them, it's okay. I have to accept that, in the final analysis, it's between them and The Lord.

Now to the football itself. Alan, you know of course that it's not in my nature to be contentious, but.... I have to admit that while I didn't watch the match, the continual replays on t.v. showed me that the game does occasionally have entertainment value. What a header!
However, I agree with you, that is no way to sort out a football match, the penalty shootouts I mean. If it can be sorted out on penalties, why didn't they get all the teams together on a SATURDAY afternoon and let everyone have a couple of shots at the goal. It could all have been sorted out on a single afternoon and we would all have been spared the hoo-ha that seems to have gone on for several weeks now. As I said at the outset, far be it for me to be contentious!
I am sure that there will be those who see inconsistencies in my viewpoints, but hey, even I'm not perfect, there was only one.
9:35 pm
Alan said…
Yes! The two proper goals were fine goals.

Zizou's penalty was a classic. Just nudged in off the cross-bar. Brilliant.

Then the Italian header was a classic, too.

The embarrassment was over Zizou's inappropriate "header". There we are. It's a high-stress occasion, and when a chap apparently insults a chap's mother....
10:39 pm
Anonymous said…
I've got you 'sussed', you're moonlighting as a sports commentator.

I didn't realise that there were two 'proper' goals, let alone that one of THEM was a header. According to the B.B.C. News tonight, he had been told that day that his mother was seriously ill. Whether or not that's true I don't know, but it is a classical way of insulting an arab to cast nasturtiums at his mother or his sister. It might have been a deliberate ploy on the part of the Italians to wind him up and get him sent off, just as it might have been such in the case of Rooney. It's called gamesmanship but, what do I care..........
12:30 am
Alan said…
Well, Chirac has forgiven Zizou, the French still love him, he was man of the tournament and he has got me blogging about football.

You have to hand it to the man!
8:53 am
Anonymous said…
A penalty "just nudged in off the crossbar" could also be regarded as a lucky shot!
4:46 pm
Alan said…
Maybe.

Nah!

Skill! Skill!
5:05 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor
Read more

A brief sortie to North Wales

 Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful.  We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I
Read more