Les Euros – How is it for You?
Posted on June 13th, 2012 | 118 Comments |
It’s a great warm up act before Maria Sharapova graces our screens once again when Wimbledon starts – and of course, there’s the women’s beach volleyball at London’s Olympics to look forward to – but I digress!
I always like to get “into” these big tournaments because it’s a change from domestic footy. It gives us an insight into how other national teams shape up, how other fans look and behave, and generally how things look on the wider European (on this occasion) stage. We get to see loads of players we wouldn’t normally see. In spite of what the UK media might lead us to believe, not all of “the best players in the world” play in the English Premier League. It’s a big world out there.
Some of the fans we’ve seen are amazing. Every time a big tournament comes along, fans seem to get crazier in the way they dress, and sometimes in the way they behave! The big downer so far were the Russian fans playing Poland, unfurling a flag claiming “This Is Russia” – red card for that one ladskis …and of course the pitched battles between the Poles and the Russians on the streets. Sad, but kinda understandable from a Polish point of view. From a positive Russian point of view, of course, there’s always Maria Sharapova…
Lets put all the down side into one paragraph, shall we? Adrian Chiles on ITV, total numpty, nuff said. The posh english commentators, who unfortunately have brought their posh english phrases with them…”he’s walking quite gingerly”, “that effort was laudable” etc etc When were you last at the match when your mate turned to you and said “I say, Jonas seems to be walking quite gingerly don’t you think, old man?”
Actually, lets make this two paragraphs of down side. The monotonous focus on “Ingerland” by both BBC and ITV (where the fook are Sky in all of this by the way?). Gerrard interviewed ad nauseum – I don’t know about you but whenever I hear him, I always feel a need to go outside and check that the wheels are still on my car. Carragher as a pundit on ITV? Can anyone outside of Liverpool actually understand a word he’s saying? All I hear is “Rimmer” from Red Dwarf, and I keep looking out for “Cat.”
Finally Mathieu Debuchy. As we all know by now, the mighty United seem to have a keen interest in the french right-back. It’s just a pity that Sagna got injured and Debuchy got called up as his replacement. As a result, his talents are there for all to see as he stars for France in the Euros. This can only lead to one of two things – other clubs get interested in him or the price goes up! In the meantime, the Newcastle Journal are saying he wants to join United and keeps telling his mate Yohan Cabaye he does! We can only assume the £8M asking price is a bit rich for our favourite slim cockney. We need France to get out of this competition as soon as possible!
Some people don’t like the group stage – knockout stage approach, but honestly I reckon it keeps the excitement in every game. We’re currently in the second wave of games and so many groups can still go in any direction! Great stuff!
Hope you’re enjoying this footy-fest as much as I am. Come on Ireland!
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NUFCBlog Author: UTD111
UTD111 has written 59 articles on this blog.
Funny mate!
You do realize that if the game is on bbc you can go red button & have 5live commentary or better yet choose ‘no commentary’ & just sit back, turn it up & listen to the roar of the crowd, like you were there!
Nice!
:)