You win some you lose some

OK OK OK. OK!!! LOL. Aiii! A few weeks ago I made some pretty big calls in my world cup predictions.

My main prediction, that England would win, went out the window when Sven couldn’t make up his mind and when Rooney lost his mind. (Trust a Man Utd player to deliberately sabotage my predictions). The main reason I think England lost was they were too pampered – more on this later – if I can be bothered that is!

I lost that one.

However I did predict a few things that have come to pass

1. A team from Europe would win the World Cup in Europe – looks obvious now doesn’t it?
2. Brazil would get knocked out in the quarter finals by a European team – looks obvious now doesn’t it. (NIKE does not choose the World Champions Milo, MsK,stpdblessd, Mama Mia et al!)
3. The Netherlands and Spain would choke – looks obvious now doesn’t it?
4. Argentina had as much chance of winning this world as I do in making a rap music video swimming with dolphins.
5. The “old men” of France would rise again – although even I didn’t think they would go this far.

Observations from England:

In football terms England is two countries. The south and the north. If you offered football fans who support teams in the north a choice of either:

a.) England win the World Cup or
b.) Your team wins the League + FA cup double next season

99% of football fans in the north would choose the second option, club over country, every time. (This also explains the completely negative attitude many football fans have over the African Cup of Nations – not because they are neo colonialists etc but because in their eyes there is nothing above their football club, not even the English national team, and thus can not even begin to understand why anyone would want to go and play in a tournament in the middle of their club season.) Football fans in the north do not expect any respect from the FA for their team and their players. (Liverpool and ManUtd are such giants there is no way the FA could ignore them. But in a country where cricket players are given OBEs and MBEs for winning ONE series not a single Liverpool player was honoured for the remarkable run to the European Cup!)
Case in point:Bolton FC fans were livid that not a single battle harden Bolton player made Sven’s final 23, yet untried youngsters who play for London teams were chosen.

This also explains the whole reaction to Rooney v Ronaldo. While national tabloid newspapers are busy slaughtering Ronaldo saying how he will never be allowed to set foot in England again, ManUtd fans have been here again and again and can not be bothered. when Cantona went nuts, he was public enemy number 1 but came back with a break through season and ManUtd fans loved him, when Beckham was public enemy number 1 (after France ’98) he came back with a break through season and ManUtd fans loved him, same with Keane and the same will happen with Ronaldo (well expect for the fact that some ManUtd fans have been carrying some serious hate for Ronaldo for the past 1.5 seasons.)

Aii I have mentioned Man Utd many times in this post. Let me look for some Harpic to disinfect my blog.