WORLD CUP FEVER - June 11

Group B

	Italy		Chile
	Austria		Cameroon

Nipped out to the King of Corsica to watch the superb World Cup action that was Italy 2 Chile 2 (both goals by Marcelo Salas, right). After England, various tenuous reasons have resulted in my World Cup 'other teams to support' being Holland, Spain and Chile, so I was really pleased when they went ahead. Italy didn't deserve their late penalty but I couldn't begrudge Roberto Baggio scoring. I wish someone else had taken it and missed, though.

Pub less crowded than yesterday and we got a table to watch Cameroon v Austria. Not too impressed by either team. Got into a mildly heated debate over the merits of supporting European teams against Africans, South Americans... One of our party cheered loudly when Austria equalised in the last minute of normal time, as an implied reaction against what he sees as a patronising habit we have of adopting nations like Cameroon as exotic foreigners. (He also refused to accept that the Republic of Ireland deserved the support of English fans in the last World Cup.) A mildly heated debate ensued. It's an interesting question and one might reflect that by reacting against the political correctness he sees in the decision to support Cameroon over Austria, he is placing himself in a post-PC position, rather than an anti-PC one because his stance is several stages advanced from that of a merely reactionary Eurocentrism and unthinking xenophobia. Don't you think?

I drank lots of ridiculously expensive Guinness and ate lots of Walker's crisps.

Results:

Italy (1) 2	Chile (1) 2
Vieri 9	Salas 45, 50
R Baggio 85 (pen)

Cameroon (0) 1	Austria (0) 1
Njanka 77	Polster 90

Shots off target:

Forgot to mention the delay to the second half in yesterday's opening game due to officials fussing over a loose peg at the back of one of the goalnets.

I finally found a Soccer Shield (no. 5 in the series, Kevin Gallacher) in a pack of Wotsits, so I won't have to eat them anymore.

An article in the Mirror reported that some research company checked the population of the UK for names in the England squad and discovered there are:
654 Michael Owens
160 David Battys
125 David Seamans
71 Tony Adamses
50 Alan Shearers
32 Paul Inces
23 Gary Nevilles
23 Paul Gascoignes
14 Darren Andertons
8 David Beckhams
7 Phillip Nevilles
6 Martin Keowns
5 Gareth Southgates
4 Les Ferdinands
3 Sol Campbells
2 Teddy Sheringhams
but only one Glenn Hoddle...

World Cup name of the day: Quinton Fortune (South Africa).

The World Cup Wanker category has been exclusively reserved for Stan Collymore. The recipient of the first World Cup Fever Yellow Card goes to:
Kevin Keegan for various gormless comments made during Italy v Chile.

World Cup quote:
'To be really happy,we must throw our hearts over the bar and hope that our bodies will follow.' Graham Taylor