Friday June 9
Possibly because Barry Davies, the last man who could take these things seriously, is missing, the BBC only show highlights of the opening ceremony. It includes lots of men in lederhosen, some ringing large cowbells attached to the waistbands of their shorts in a vigorous and vaguely pornographic manner. There’s a parade of former World Cup-winning stars, including what Jonathan Pearce describes as “The legend that is Italy”. “Ricky Villa – still tall,” gurgles Pearce later. Pelé arrives with the trophy, but brandishes it like he’s just won it, followed by Claudia Schiffer with Sepp Blatter in tow, sporting luxuriant sideburns that give him the look of Ben Cartwright from Bonanza.
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
After the introduction of Wayne Rooney England fans became optimistic, but again the tournament ended in failure to convert in a shootout
The editorial in WSC 233, in which we suggested that England would grind their way through the group stage then go out to the first reasonable team they played, proved to be prophetic. But we can’t claim any credit for special insight. Anyone who has followed the various tribulations of the national team over the past couple of decades knew broadly what would happen at the 2006 World Cup. So, clearly, did the England players, even down to the sudden extra effort the ten men produced in the last hour against Portugal, bidding to set up at least another of the heroic defeats to which they seem mentally attuned and which, if you ignore some obvious truths about penalty shootouts, they achieved.
Saturday June 24
Germany 2 Sweden 0
“Even when they’re supposed to be rubbish, they’re good,” says Gary Lineker after a first half dominated by Germany, who lead by two early goals from Podolski. Sweden are failing to close down opponents, picking the wrong pass and exchanging shrugs. Worse still they’re offending Mark Bright: “Basics… absolute basics.” Lucic gets a second yellow for a shirt tug in the middle of the pitch; Mr Simon of Brazil, having been cajoled into taking action by German protests, produces a sickly smirk while holding up the red. Lehmann doesn’t look at all secure during rare attacks but he’s not made to work by Larsson’s poor penalty, skied into the stands. Germany look for more: Schneider’s deflected shot comes off the post, Isaksson beats out an effort from Neuville. A German supporter is waving a model of the World Cup. “A bit premature,” sniffs Stuart Pearce.
The team were still a letdown, but England had more winning ways off the pitch, to the relief of Philip Cornwall
Six years ago, at Euro 2000, I was on the point of giving up on England. I had the masochistic streak needed to cope with events on the pitch, but not what came with it for much longer: the sullen contempt for anything and anyone who wasn’t English that radiated from so many of the team’s followers even if they weren’t expressing it in word, song, action. Some of these people seethed in their sleep.
A campaign against 'dangerous play' is ruining the game, believes Mike Ticher
As usual, the refs took the blame. And, as usual, they were only obeying orders. Of course there were blunders, but most of the grumbling about overuse of cards and fussy interpretations should have been directed not at the officials, but at FIFA – especially when it came from Sepp Blatter.