A World Cup Miscellany compiled by Mary Hannigan
Luis talk: Aragones changes tune
SPANISH SPORTS paper
Marca
billed its interview with Euro 2008-winning coach Luis Aragones as an exclusive yesterday, but the truth is Vicente del Bosque’s predecessor hasn’t exactly been shy about airing his views during the World Cup.
After Spain’s defeat to Switzerland in their opening game Aragones criticised Del Bosque’s decision to play both Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets in midfield, both too deep-lying for his liking, and said of Switzerland’s victory: “The better team didn’t win, just the better organised one.”
That, it was taken, was a “tribute” to Del Bosque’s tactical wizardry. He was no happier after the 2-0 win over Honduras, insisting “playing like this, Spain cannot go very far”.
And before their last 16 game he told a Portuguese television station he was “not very optimistic”. “Portugal has a superb team,” he said, “and it is going to be very tough for Spain. I believe that the Portuguese will win, not easily but with a certain comfort zone.”
So, what had he to say to
Marca
yesterday? “My morale has never been higher and I believe sincerely Spain will reach the final. I see a Spain side that is playing better and better, imposing its style of play in almost all the matches.”
Is that a smile we see on Vicente del Bosque’s face?
Bild
, meanwhile, focused on rumours of Michael Ballack walking out of the German camp in a huff after Phillpp Lahm said he’d like to keep the captaincy, even when the injured Ballack returns, a story that also made the front page of
Berlin Zeitung
, its headline referring to Lahm’s reluctance to return the captain’s armband (Freiwillig being free-will, and not Free Willy the whale, as we first assumed).
Cap That
SPANISH DEFENDER Joan Capdevila’s QA with newspaper
El Pais
suggests he’s not intimately familiar with the history of the country in which he’s spending his summer.
Q
: How many years was Mandela imprisoned?
A
: Many.
Q
: Do you know what an Afrikaner is?
A
: An African.
Q
: What year did apartheid end?
A
: What is that?
As for his mother: what was the last gift he gave her?
A visit from himself.
Hippy couple: Mr and Mrs desperate to snap up prize
SOUTH AFRICAN radio station Jacaranda probably thought it was a fun idea to offer two World Cup final VIP tickets to listeners who did “something special”, but they clearly never gave any thought to just how eager some folk would be to clinch the prize.
“All the suggestions the DJ got sounded half-baked,” said fully-baked Nelspruit resident Maurice Meyer, “so I thought, why not swim in a river known for crocodiles and hippos?”
Why not indeed? And, fair play to the fella, he posted the video of himself doing just that on the station’s website, swimming across the crocodile-infested raging river “with his brother standing guard with a gun on the shore”, reported the South African Times. Impressive. But wait. Who’s that following him? His wife, Nicole. She seemed to “take some time to pluck up the courage to join her husband on the other side”, said the Times, the ever-so-slight implication being Nicole was a wuss. “After thrashing her way across the water, the two reunite in a hug.” The winner of the competition has yet to be announced, but if Maurice is chosen Nicole should feed one of the tickets to the crocodiles and keep the other for herself.
Das Krapital: Post man Marc gives soccer top Marx
WHY ISN’T football more loved in the United States? “It’s simple, really: soccer is a socialist sport,” explained Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, a theory we hadn’t, to be honest, given much thought to before.
“Think about it,” he wrote. “Soccer is the only sport in the world where you cannot use the one tool that distinguishes man from beast: opposable thumbs. ‘No hands’ is a rule only a European statist could love. In fact, with the web of high taxes and regulations that tie the hands of European entrepreneurs, ‘no hands’ kind of describes their economic theories as well.”
Thiessen also cited soccer hooligans – “proletarian mobs that trash private property whenever their team loses” – to back up his theory, insisting “capitalist sports”, like American football, are more exciting because teams “sometimes even score”.
C Edmund Wright, on americanthinker.com, also sees soccer as socialism with a ball. His loathing of the World Cup knows no bounds, largely because “that’s when the arrogance of soccer folks meets up with the one-world feeling and the can’t-we-all-just-get-along crowd and all sorts of international bodies that want to treat the US like just another country like Cuba or Iran. It’s nauseating.” An opposable thumbs down, we take it?
1.3
- In Millions, The Number Of Visitors To South Africa During June – But That’s Only Up From 1.01 Million During The Same Period Last Year
"Luis Suarez's hand was the Hand of God...and the Virgin Mary."
- Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez on that bit of divine intervention against Ghana
Beach Tum
AFTER BRAZIL’S World Cup exit one of the more common criticisms of the now-sacked Dunga was his failure to include Ronaldinho in his squad. Former international Juninho insisted “even at 70 per cent he is better than most”. Judging by his, well, shape on a Rio de Janeiro beach the other day, though, we could be talking more 25 per cent.
Ya, ya, he’s coining it: City newboy’s deal worth €67m
YOU’D HAVE to imagine Yaya Toure’s mood picked up a bit after the Ivory Coast’s early exit from the World Cup when he signed his contract with Manchester City. The midfielder joined the club, captained by his brother Kolo, in a €29 million deal from Barcelona and, if the figures are to be believed, he’s quids in. He is, say reports, now the highest earning Premier League player in history, his five-year deal worth €67 million. His wages start at €224,000 a week, but that will rise to €267,000 once tax changes come in to force in Britain. He’ll get an annual image rights payment of €2 million and lots of other juicy bonuses if City actually win something. He will, for example, pick up €500,000 if they win the Champions League. Now, now, behave.
