With Euro 2008 over we're having to make do with summer sports for the next six or seven weeks. While many of you will be experiencing withdrawal symptoms as a result, those who like their rugby league and cricket aswell as major tennis and golf tournaments might just find something of interest on these pages. If not, there is always the scurrullous transfer gossip to keep you occupied.
It's the last day of June. Spanish people are smashing up their beautiful land after their deserved Euro 2008 victory over Germany last night. Why is it that every other nation is referred to by football commentators by their full name except Germany? Watching the BBC's live coverage of the final I couldn't help but notice that John Motson and Mark Lawrenson persisted with calling Joachim Low's team 'The Germans' rather than Germany. It was as if they couldn't bring themselves to say the name. Have we really failed to get over our long-standing mistrust of all things German? Have the scars caused by Waddle, Pearce and Southgate's penalty blunders still to heal? Evidently. Not only did Motson insist on using the term 'The Germans', he delivered it with the kind of disdain normally reserved for Kate Silverton or Kirsty Young reporting on another convicted child killer.
It was Motty's last run out in international tournaments. Thank God for that. He's losing it, poor sod. Who can forget his bewildered response to Kanu's winning goal for Portsmouth in this year's FA Cup final? With the Nigerian performing his celebratory dance in the Cardiff City six-yard box, Motson fell completely silent, before informing us that the goal had been disallowed for offside. That Kanu was at leat three yards behind the last defender seemed not to matter to Motty. It just could not have been a goal in his mind, though the reasons why are unclear. Perhaps he just wasn't ready for it. What he is ready for is retirement. Sadly, we still have to put up with him for another couple of seasons on Match Of The Day.
Anyway, back to today and it is cricket and tennis dominating the sporting landscape. Sky Sports have really pushed the boat out in screening the whole of an LV County Championship match played over four days. Lancashire v Sussex is hardly compelling viewing, but the sight of Andrew Flintoff trudging off after another batting failure is a worrying one for England fans. Flintoff is fast becoming as over-rated an individual as Amy Winehouse. Apparently he is going to storm back to form, walk back into the England team and revive memories of England's stunning Ashes win of 2005. I just can't see it, personally. He's had a run of injuries to make Bryan Robson blush, and people forget that he is not getting any younger. I went to see him play for Lancs at Old Trafford in early May and would have been extremely disappointed had I paid for the privelege (those nice people at OT don't make you pay if you are a poor little disabled person). Flintoff was out for a first-ball duck that day, and fared little better at Sussex today. For the record, Lancs are doing ok because Stuart Law is a batting genius. Thirty-nine years old and still making mincemeat of the best bowling English county cricket has to offer, albeit on a pitch slow enough to hold snail races on. No wonder Team England are so nostalgic over Flintoff.
The main story in the tennis, and probably in the whole of British sport today is Andy Murray's five-set win over Richard Gasquet. The Frenchman served for the match at two sets and 5-4 up, but fluffed his lines to let Murray back in. From then on Murray played like Bjorn Borg on amphetimines, whipping the Pimm's drinkers on Henman Hill into a frenzy with a sensational comeback. Sealing the third set with a shot from another postcode, Murray blasted his way through the fourth before edging out a bewildered Gasquet in a fifth set played in almost complete darkness. He was seen eating his tea at the post-game press conference. Is this boy that rude, or is he just supremely cool? If he beats Rafa Nadal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday, his rudeness, coolness or otherwise will be irrelevant. He'll be elevated to national hero status overnight. Hell, he's even got me interested in tennis!
I promised you some football gossip and news so here we go. Deco has signed for Chelsea for two years for £8million. Is it just me or have Chelsea wasted their dough on this one? He's past 30, spends more time on the deck than an extra from a Johnny Depp pirate movie and in my humble opinion is hardly suited to the fast-paced Premier League style. Games might just pass him by, that is if he actually gets into a midfield which already contains Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard, Jon Obi Mikel, Michael Essien and Claude Makelele. The fact that his former boss at Portugal Luiz Felipe Scolari is now in charge at Chelsea might help him get some game time, but if I were a Chelsea fan I would be concerned that his arrival may spark the departure of Fat Frank. Lampard is not one of my favourites, to put it mildly, but you can't argue with his record while playing for Chelsea. He and Steven Gerrard have taken goalscoring from midfield to new levels in recent years, and if he rejoins Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan I think Chelsea will miss Lampard more than they realise. Certainly more than I will, at any rate.
Hands up who thought Mauricio Pellegrino (who?) resembled a fish up a tree during his short spell at Liverpool a couple of years back? My arm is almost out of its socket stretching for the sky at this point. Worrying then that Pellegrino has been brought in as a coach by Rafa Benitez, and more worrying still that Rafa has said that his new man will work closely with the defence in particular. I'm not really looking forward to that. As a Liverpool fan, I am not relishing the prospect of watching Jamie Carragher perfect the art of standing around idly with his arm in the air while the latest Premier League sprinter whistles by to shoot past Pepe Reina in goal. And doesn't all of this take some of the shine off Rafa's well received decision to appoint Sammy Lee to the coaching staff? Just when you think that Rafa is reviving the old boot room culture, he farts in your face by appointing a man who was apparently the first Argentine to play for Liverpool. He has started a trend of naff players from that part of the world arriving at Anfield too. Javier Mascherano is still enjoying Flintoff-like hype despite spending most of his time either giving the ball away or arguing pointlessly with officials on matters which don't concern him.
Tomorrow more on Freddie Flintoff, aswell as full details should anything interesting happen in the ladies quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Stephen Orford
July 1 2008
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