Ooh, I wish I'd thought of that:
"Wayne Bridge has just texted John Terry, "That's how you play away from home you ****""
That wee gem of wit comes courtesy of 'Smackhead' and the comments section of the Guardian's report of today's game.
Does that qualify as 'esprit du tunnel'?
10 comments:
"In goal, Hilario." I suspect that if you followed Brechin City or whoever is bottom of the Scottish Fourth Division this week, and you heard the announcer say those dread words you'd shudder. Unless he was playing for the opposition. In which case you'd rub your hands in glee. I mean - did you see those goals? Are they the worst two goals conceded in the Prem ever?
I thought the first goal was a comedy of errors all round from Chelsea. The way the ball trickled into the net after Tevez both scuffed it and mishit it. (A rare skill that can only be achieved by a chosen few.)
I think we're only talking about the second (comedy) goal because of the first. Sure it was a mistake by Hilario but I didn't think it was that bad.
Off the top of my sleep deprived head, surely Enckleman airkicking that back pass in the Birmingham derby a few years back was the bigger mishap? Or was that a cup game.
It has to be said that seeing yesterday's scoreline on the BBC's website cheered me up like no other result I've seen this season . . . and I don't even like Man City.
It all comes down to AbC.
Watch it again. Its a worse goalkeeping error than the first - if only because he has no one else to blame. With that angle at the very least the ball should have been pinged away from the line by the keeper.(Shearer's comments on MOTD were interesting - and scathing.) I saw Jaaskaleinen and Hahnemann at the Reebok yesterday and neither of them would have ever let in either. Chelsea may loose the title because they've not bothered to get a decent No 2 custodian. Our man Ali el Habsi from the footballing superpower that is Oman is so much better than Hilario it isn't true.
I'm afraid I've inherited the opinionatedness of my late father on goalies. I remeber his comments on the 1966 Hungarian team at the World Cup. "The best footballing side in the competition by a mile. But they haven't got a goalie who would get into a side on Walkden park." And he was right. I was the only lad in my class at school whose 1966 hero was Ferenc Bene. (I saw 2 games in 66. Hungary-Bulgaria and Portugal-N.Korea. I missed Brazil-Hungary - the finest game of football ever played in the british isles according to my father - because of chicken pox.) My father was actually a decent goalie and played with a guy from either Rangers or Celtic when he was in the Army in the war.
Never knew that about Hungary in 66. I'd heard of Bene, though. Wasn't he known for the power of his shot?
I always thought one of the what ifs of football was the '58 World Cup, and what if Hungary had gone there full strength?
Chelsea did have a decent number 2. They should never have sold Cudicini. That bloke's a class act. Glad that they did.
AbC.
Wasn't the shot power that of Florian Albert?
I think that part of the appeal of Hungarian sport to lads like me in the 60s was the names of their sportsmen. Ferenc Bene, Florian Albert. I also recall a great Speedway rider for - I think - New port called Sandor Levai. Those were the sort of names you wanted to have when you grew up. But of course in those days you were stuck. You couldn't reinvent yourself as Lord Gaga then. Hmm. Might give that a try.
Cudicini was good, btw. And on your Mowbray thing - I'm not a Skinner fan, but he could be right - the interesting thing about Owen Coyle since he's been at Bolton is that he's got us keeping clean sheets. Unlike Gary Megson, whose strategy was - get a 1-0 lead and then defend it on the edge of your penalty area. Then scratch your head and wonder when the 40 minute pounding produces the inevitable goal.
And now you've got me reading retro-speedway websites! With pix of the Flying Magyar himself.
I sometimes wonder how my musical credibility would be if people knew that I was frequently at Greengates in Manchester (Salford actually) when Northern Soulies were getting t'late bus to Wigan for the Casino, but that I was getting the bus home, ready for a cup of cocoa and bed after an evening at Belle Vue Aces. Interesting the various ways that you can misspend your youth. Peter Collins coming from fourth to win off the last corner was a good one, though. Apparently Sandor Levai skippered the Aces at some time around then, but I can't remember that.
He left Hungary in '56. Has now retired there.
And died in Hungary last Autumn according to the Aces' fans' forum.
RIP. I remember him racing at a meeting at Exeter when I was down there on holiday, for the old Newport Wasps. Evidently I wasn't the only one to remember him, which is nice.
I think you're right about Albert. I'll have to go youtubing for the definitive answer. I never knew that Hungary still had a classy team in the sixties. I thought their best times had long gone.
Funny you should mention Speedway, because I was into Speedway in a big way for a few months when I was a kid. (Through an older friend who's probably still obsessed with it to this day.)
But you mentioning the names that you do shows the generation gap between us.
When I think of Speedway, I think of the likes of Bruce Penhall, Dennis Sigalos, Ole Olsen, Erik Gunderson, Michael Lee, Jiri Stancl and Kenny Carter (I thought it was that Kenny Carter when I first saw the sleeve notes to the Manics' Everything Must Go album.) I even knew who Ivan Mauger was.
For my first few months at secondary school I wore a Glasgow Tigers enamel badge on the lapel of my blazer. (Only to be replaced by Heaven 17 badges a few months later.)
In fact, one of the two only major sporting finals I've ever attended was the 1982 Speedway World Team Cup at White City. (The other final was this one.)
Happy days.
Ole Olsen was around in my time as a speedway fan. (About the same length of time as yours. No, longer actually.) He must have raced Peter Collins and Chris Morton many times at Belle Vue.
Funnily enough its been announced this week in the Manchester Evening News - even worse than it used to be if that is possible - that the Aces, currently ensconced at Belle Vue Dog Track - are going to get a bespoke, if modest, speedway stadium near to their old home. Progress of a sort I suppose.
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