No footie

How will I cope? TWO WHOLE DAYS without any World Cup games on TV. Unless you count the full re-run on BBC One tonight of the last Brazil v. England World Cup match, from 1970. Which I don't. It's not a reason to get up in the morning, which has been one positive aspect of the World Cup timings.

Here are a few of today's World Cup snippets:

Bad losers: It's amazing how quickly you can lose respect for an entire nation, but I'm feeling that way towards Italy right now. The Italian newspapers and people connected with the team are having a collective "You looking at me?" De Niro moment. They're blaming the referee for yesterday's loss. They're blaming a FIFA conspiracy, along the lines of "one of the host nations had to be kept in the competition for advertising and sponsorship reasons". They're blaming Ahn Jung-Hwan, who scored the golden goal. He has been rewarded for his efforts by getting the sack. Unfortunately, he plays for Perugia, an Italian club. Club President, Luciano Gaucci has done himself and Italy no favours whatsoever, by saying "I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian soccer." He means Ahn Jung-Hwan, just in case you thought he meant the Italian team, who lost two matches out of four, to Croatia and South Korea. But of course, it couldn't possibly be their fault, could it? True, they had quite a few goals disallowed over four games for offside, but it's just possible that Italian players kept getting into offside positions, rather than any vendetta by referees. Accept it Italy - you were beaten by the better team, and it hurts, but grow up and get on with it. And I don’t imagine Ahn Jung-Kwan will be short of offers

Adios los azules? England have won the first battle against Brazil today. We have won the toss (or however they decide these things) which gives us the right to be 'Team A'. The important consequence of this is that Brazil won't be wearing their famous yellow shirts on Friday, but their BLUE change strips. Excitable people have pointed out that all the fancied teams who play in blue (France, Italy, Paraguay and - stretching a point slightly - Argentina) have already gone home. We can only hope. Presumably though, this also means that England will be in the normal white strips, and not the 'lucky' red change strips. Also, Brazil have done well in previous tournaments while wearing the blue strips in many of their matches. Hmmm, perhaps this wasn't much of a story after all?

Brazilian winner tips England Well, someone has faith. Jauzinho, who scored the only goal in the aforementioned 1970 meeting of Brazil and England, has said today that he thinks England will win on Friday. That should go down well at home.

Hooray, hooray, it's a holi-holiday (possibly)
Tony Banks and a few other MPs (including some Scots, rather surprisingly), have signed an Early Day Motion calling for a national holiday on Monday 1st July, if England make the World Cup fibal the day before. I thought maybe he was getting a little carrried away, but he asked the question to Blair directly at PMQs this afternoon, and Blair said he will consider it if we beat Brazil. I'm sure he's mindful of 1970, when Harold Wilson blamed England's WOrld Cup exit (to Brazil, in THAT game again), for the lack of feelgood factor which led to him losing the General Election. Tony Banks, the former Minister for Sport, said "the Prime Minister MUST GO to Japan", and he had the support of another MP at PMQs, who said that "when we win the World Cup", Blair should be there, "to hold the cup aloft with David Beckham". Blair said he will "consider carefully" the proposition, but I believe he is due to be in Canada at the time, so it could be difficult. (Fact: We have fewer public holidays in the UK (8) than France and Spain, with around 12 and 13 each).
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