So, reflections on yesterday's football - I did see some. Watched Switzerland beat Spain 1-0 and S African beaten 3-0 by Uruguay, both of which I quite enjoyed, although I wasn't fully attentive all the time (there's a surprise). And I was lucky that they were both on BBC - much more interesting in all aspects of the broadcasts.
Unless I'm muddling up the two games (which I might well be), the Spanish goalie didn't have the greatest of games, and there were comments around me about him going in with his feet, which apparently is not the way to defend a goal. I'm damned if I would defend with my head in the middle of everyone else's feet, whatever the consequences. If I'm remembering the right goal, it looked just as though everyone was throwing themselves at the ball in front of the goal in whichever way they could and eventualy the ball managed to break free and find itself in the net. A really messy goal and disaster for Spain - the favourites. The Swiss win seems to have surprised everyone, including the goal-scorer apparently. But Spain had 24 shots at goal and didn't score once. Doesn't that say something about whether they deserved to win? I saw some fantastic attempts which were perhaps unlucky to miss but there were loads of really wild shots (?because of the notorious ball, or is that a convenient excuse for everyone). The swiss dug in in defence (not the most exciting football but it worked for them) and then of only 8 attempts on goal managed to succeed. On paper, Spain commanded the game, but the idea is to score goals I understand, and they didn't. Ended up with only their 2nd defeat in 49 games. Upsets like that are what make the tournament more interesting for me.
I was sorry to see S Africa so comprehensively beaten by Uruguay. It was certainly the most entertaining football I've seen in the competition so far, and Uruguay's first World Cup match victory since 1990. They deserved it but it would still have been nice to see the hosts do better. Unlucky (but seemingly justified) for the S Africa goalie to be sent off and a pity to see so many of their supporters leaving before the end. That's not really sporting is it?
Enough football. On to the more interesting stuff. I mentioned in an earlier blog about the short item about the football league at Robben Island. Here's a link to the film, in case you didn't see it and want to: Footballers of Robben Island. It's a really interesting and moving insight into some aspects of the S Africa of the time and the determination and resilience of the people. It's horrifying as well to think that the rest of the world was either powerless or not interested enough to bring the regime to an end more quickly.
A couple of fun videos showing the other side of the World Cup - how they're participating and revelling in the occasion, outside the stadia. What a shame the fun and rhythm of their music and personalities doesn't come through the buzz of the vuvuzelas.
I've spared you a clip of a professional vuvuzela player explaining how to play the thing, and talking about the finer nuances of the instrument. Just saved his advice that you need a "watermelon pip-spitting shape for your lips to be successful". So now you know, and you should be able to get one from Sainsburys!
On the subject of vuvuzelas (Oh no, not more! I hear you cry - Oh yes! I'm afraid so) I have justifiably been rebuked by my sons for a basic error in understanding of the decibel scale. Actually, it's more a question of age and decaying knowledge (or perhaps decaying recall - there is the vaguest of recollections of school physics lessons on acoustics). I think both decibels and reduction in ability to recall knowledge must both be based on a logarithmic scale. Anyway, I suggested the 20 db reduction in sound from the quieter version would only represent 15%. Wrong. It's much more significant than that. The suggestion from those better informed (or more recently informed at least) was that it would be 75%, so much more significant. However, I think, having revised my knowledge on available websites, it actually represents a reduction to one hundredth (i.e. 99% less) (See commments to A swarm of feasting flies? for justification - didn't think I'd bore you with it here). Whichever, now I vote in favour of the new versions. What a difference that would make.
And my favourite quote for the day (apart from the pip-spitting one) comes from the poem Invictus, written by William Ernest Henley in 1875. It was broadcast in one of the breaks yesterday, read by Morgan Freeman (I think). I haven't seen the film but the recital of the poem I found very moving, and the last two lines have stuck with me:
"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul"
How was it not exciting? Spain, the favourites, lost. Literally everyone looks beatable. That means just about anyone can win. Exciting!
ReplyDeleteOK, I agree the result was a suprise and what it means makes the tournament more exciting, but I didn't find the game itself exciting, especially the first half, where Spain didn't seem to be able to get past the dogged Swiss defence and weren't adaptable enough really to grasp the game they were being forced to play. And the Swiss were concentrating much more on defending than on scoring.
ReplyDeleteNo that's probably fair, the first half dragged.
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