Le Sulk

Spent a few days in the wild doing a little hill walking. Croagh Patrick sure is a big one. Needless to say I was missing football matches and the second golfing major of the year but what the heck. The sun was blazing, I'm red raw and it was good to trek the great outdoors for a few days.


Despite the lack of visuals it's been an 'interesting' few days in South Africa. First the Germans fell to the Serbs and threw a shadow over their hopes of claiming a forth world title. Then the mighty Algerians held England to a scoreless draw. There's whispers of discontent within the camp though Wayne Rooney did forget to whisper as he vented steam into a camera as he left the pitch. Could be one of the photo's of the tourney.
There's a showdown happening as we speak between team and management. It's hard to call with England. Can I see them getting out of the group. Truth is I can. After that? If they continue in this sort of form they'll have an extra few weeks added to their down time. They were rubbish on Friday night despite the talent at their disposal. Perhaps the Premiership just has a high opinion of itself ?

The Dutch cruised to victory over Japan and Denmark got themselves back into the competition with a gutsy 2-1 win over Cameroon. Ghana top their group after a battle with the Aussies gave them a 1-1 draw. Ghana have been the most impressive African side to date.

As Paraguay mounted their group at the expense of Slovakia, the Italians found themselves being held by New Zealand. Rugby it ain't and perhaps the Italians are just a tad to feminine this time around to challenge.
Which leaves the Brazilians, who cruised to a 3-1 victory against the Ivory Coast are the team doing it for me right now. Sven seems to be losing his charm. It's a safe bet and really doesn't stand on any great fence. But you got to call it as you see and they'll produced so far and as always in these tournaments the team that usually wins it is the one that get progressively better as the games play down to a date in Soccer City three weeks tonight.

France went into meltdown over the weekend with Nicolas Anelka sent home for allegedly abusing his manager with expletives. The French squad then turned on management and in a series of heated exchanges today on the training ground the split was evident when the players said they were all against Anelka's expulsion.
They issued a collective statement blaming the French Footballing Federation for all that had gone before and then climbed aboard the training bus and refused to do laps. Grown men were crying on the management side and some resigned not having the stomach for the fight.
We had our own sending home debacle in 2002 but this is way deeper. It's an awful demise for the team that did us out of our place there this Summer. Laugh now Blatter and Platini you pair of corporate whores. Nice images for your game.
If we were there we'd drown out them Vuvuzela's but no sense in crying .....

Final round of the US open tonight. Go G-Mac. I'd love to wake up tomorrow and write about an Irish win at the US Open. I'd side with my Irishness and also my cynical side that it won't happen but in truth it's a half-arsed attempt at mind-f**ging the cosmos. I nearly always fail.
McDowell gets whispers from destiny. That's a big thing to admit. They say you got to visualise it before you can achieve it. Whoever the fuck 'they' are but maybe they are right.
Tiger's on the prowl again and i don't mean women. Pebble Beach wizard, Dustin Johnson, has a three shot lead and Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson are within distance. It's going to be a late night.