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I watched the England game with a laughing Irishman and a Frenchman.
Anyway, we were tonking them 1-0, I was thinking, if they lose here it
doesn't end their tournament. Wenger and Santini were saying that
England will have difficulty recovering from this, tosh. We have
made mistakes, but we got away with it. BBC were showing Nicky Butt
training today — in short sleeves. For Man U and England he always
wears long sleeves. Rumour has it that he has Man City tattoos.
I taped it, so rewound and have a look four or five times, nothing, not
even an Everton crest.
Beautiful day yesterday. Blue skies. My dad' s birthday, we
have a nice Chinese meal. Our baby can say baba, veveveve, yuyuyuyu
and dadadada. One the way to my dad's house, I listen with horror to
the noise in the back of the car, my wife has taught it to say va va va
vroom. What am I supposed to do? Hey Bobby, what is ze French
for "go without them"?
Tomasz Radzinski has asked for a transfer. What do we do? I
don't know. We need to get the debt down, but losing good players
will send us down.
I got a result right. Linderoth 5 - 0 Bulgaria. Something
happens to the Swedes when they get that yellow shirt on, average players
seem to become world beaters. Toby had a good game; our English ref
didn't. Best cross and finish, Edman and Larsson. That was a
fantastic goal, best yet. Sporting (who play in green and white
hoops) have got a nice stadium. It is strange to see the moat around
the pitch. Ljungberg looked offside for the first goal, Ibrahamovic
was not. Ljungberg took a dive for the penalty, he ran across the
defender. It was a flattering result for the Swedes, but the Arsenal
antics leave a bad taste in the mouth. Bulgaria look like a decent
side to me, maybe this is the group of death. One thing that this
game showed, is that although you may have a good performance, you have
got to take your chances. Larsson was outstanding.
Italy v Denmark. First, Totti is a great player, but they must
ban him for that challenge, he could have finished the Dane's career.
Second, Trapandpony is a buffon. His 0-0 tactics are shocking,
football has changed mate, retire. Italy have the players, get them
playing football. Denmark survived this tricky fixture without their
best player — our very own Tommy Grav, his tournament starts on Friday at
5 in Braga. Sorensen looks the best keeper so far. Villa paid
nothing for him. I shared a taxi with some Sunderland fans to the
game a few seasons ago, we chatted. I asked them who they thought
their best players were, they said the whole squad was crap apart from
Phillips and Sorensen. They didn't mention Kilbane. He has
been pretty solid for us this year.
Tonight is Group D. The Czechs are good, they will win all three
games. What Holland, Germany or Latvia do is anyone's guess.
Holland seem to be in self destruct mode, Kluivert is teaching the squad
about lifestyle issues, van Hooijdonk is teaching them about motivation.
Germany don't like losing, but I think they are focussed on 2006.
The Latvians won their last qualifier in Sweden and then beat Turkey, but
a new team usually loses all three matches. Predictions (I shouldn't
do this): easy win for the Czechs and a draw for Germany v Holland in
Porto. I'd love to be at that game.
Last night, 11 arrested on the Algarve for allegedly throwing chairs
and bottles. Stupid, but you never know what really happened. If it
kicks off, I'll scarper. Why plastic chairs.
Faro five-day forecast: 32 C up until Friday. 24 C on Saturday.
Just takes some of the edge off my smugness.
Today is the day to do some essential holiday shopping. Two hours
round TK-maxx. I go back to the car, we'll meet up in Sports and
Soccer. I go to the car, then to SaS. Can't see them, I listen
carefully, can't hear a vuvuvoom. They are in shop next to TK-maxx,
can't she walk past a shop without going in. We go into Sports and
Soccer, they have the amber Kejian shirts for £10. Another result!
Can't think of anything else we might need.
Paul Watson
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