Saturday 1 Germany 1 England 5, and a hat-trick for Michael Owen after the home team had taken any early lead. “For a non-German it must have been a brilliant spectacle,” sighs Franz Beckenbauer. “I would have been happy with 2-1,” says Sven, containing his excitement. “When we scored the third, fourth and fifth goals we just looked at each other, trying to figure out what the hell was going on,” says a shocked David Beckham. Ireland’s 1-0 win over Holland means they will make the play-offs at least, while their opponents are out, tactical maestro and all. “The pitch was too dry, which made it more difficult for us to pass the ball,” Louis van Gaal explains. Wales and Scotland are held to goalless draws by Armenia and Croatia. Northern Ireland get a 1-1 draw in Denmark. An Englishman also makes the decisive contribution to events in Group 1 as a dubious last-minute penalty gives Slovenia a 2-1 win over Russia – referee Graham Poll is denounced as “a snivelling creep” by Russia’s Alexander Mostovoi. Former ITV commentator Brian Moore dies.
Jan Lotze takes issue with the webs leading purveyor of exclusive nonsense about top players, which it is keen to keep a firm grip on
First came the internet, with unlimited free access to all the information that was on it. Then came people who thought that the internet would be a good way to make themselves some money, which was inevitable. Then came people who wanted to have their cake and eat it, like icons.com.
Paul Giess believes that success on the field would help transform the club's profile and in the process atttract a larger fansbase across the Midlands as they struggle to compete with the other leading clubs in the region
Walsall isn’t a small town but the club has nearly always been in the lower divisions. Do some locals support other clubs?
Almost all. Saturday afternoon at the Bescot can be depressing but on a non-match Saturday the town centre is even worse. A seemingly non-stop procession of Villa, West Brom and Wolves shirts mingle with the Man Utd brigade. Maybe if the club had had more success in its early days it might have built up the fan base now lost to our neighbours. It may take ten years’ success to get us noticed again.
The rest of Europe seems to be enjoying the fact that orange will not be the colour at the World Cup. Some Dutch people even agree, says Derek Brookman
In the wake of their team’s defeat at Lansdowne Road and subsequent elimination from next year’s World Cup finals, the Dutch were left to unravel the great mystery: how could such a talented team possibly fail to qualify without even taking the issue to the last round of group matches? Who or what was responsible for killing off their chances? A nation- wide game of Cluedo had begun.
Continuing our occasional series on defunct competitions, Lionel Birnie dons his plimsolls and recalls the glory days of the televised indoor tournaments
Despite increasingly sophisticated coaching methods, the humble five-a-side has endured. It is still the traditional way for teams to round off the last training session of the week. But despite its far-reaching popularity, no one would think of organising an indoor tournament for Premiership clubs. Can you imagine Sir Alex’s face if he was asked by the FA to send David, Roy and Juan Sebastian to the G-Mex the night before a Champions League match?