That’s the only way I can describe the English football teams performance this after. They may have won the match, but their performance didn’t justify the full three points. England looked lacklustre, no energy, or motivation, sitting back letting the Austrians come at them, given them too much space to pop the ball around at their own pace. I feel that if England is to win a major championship, they need to ditch Sven Goran Eriksson as he simply doesn’t have the passion for the English national side, which isn’t that surprising as he isn’t even remotely English! He tends to play things safe all the time, never takes risks to get the results, and the team has almost become like Eriksson’s personality. Infact England’s only goal came from the Penalty spot, after Michael Owen was held back in the box, and Frank Lampard duly slotted the ball past the Austrian keeper! England were later denied another penalty, when Owen was brought down in the area, but the referee waved play on, which was amazing as it was even more clear cut than the penalty that was given, it really seems to me that the FIFA referees are very inconsistent these days! Another low point in the match was David Beckham getting sent off for the second time in an England shirt, although this time he was harshly done by, the referee overreacted in my opinion, sending the Real Madrid player off for relatively minor fouls, but Beckham needs to calm down as three fouls on the same player within two minutes is excessive, and that’s the way that the referee saw it, and Beckham saw red, literally! I don’t think that Beckham is the player that he once was; he just doesn’t seem to have the spark and shouldn’t really be in the England squad, let alone wear the captain’s armband. Frank Lampard can do everything that Beckham can, just as well and is an all round better player in my opinion! This means that Beckham won’t play in the final game against Poland on Wednesday, neither will Sol Cambell who pulled a hamstring during the match. Overall England was lucky to come away with the win, and was let off big time when dodgy defending allowed Roland Linz to chip Paul Robinson, and England’s blushed were only saved by the crossbar. But despite the poor performance, England have qualified for the World Cup as Holland beat the Czech Republic 2 – 0, so the game against Poland is irrelevant now, but England need to improve drastically if they want to get anywhere in the World Cup finals!
In Formula One, the grid for the Japanese grand prix is certainly unusual, with Ralf Schumacher grabbing pole position in a rain hit qualifying session, followed by the BAR of Jenson Button, and the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella. Both Red Bull Racing cars made it into the top six positions, with the young Austrian out qualifying the more experienced Scot; David Couthard by four tenths and two places on the grid! At that point, the rain came down, ruining any chance of the six times already set, which left both McLaren’s and the Renault of new world champion Fernando Alonso near the back of the grid. I do wonder whether this will be Jenson Button’s big chance to step onto the top step of the podium finally, but you can never discount the McLaren’s, who are drastically faster than anything else on the track, but I can hope that the Briton can do it, a win for Jenson has been long overdue, and maybe even a podium for Couthard could be on the cards, which would make a nice end to the Scot’s season! Now the question is do I get up at 5:45am in the morning to watch it, or record it and get up at a more sensible 8:15am to watch it before work?
Onto something none sport related, I was going to write a blog entry, entitled ‘should I stay or should I go?’ – to quote the excellent Clash song, but it never got posted as I received a call from Stephen who managed to talk me into going out to JFK’s anyway, I wish I didn’t now though, as I felt like shit this morning and for most of my day at work. Which is annoying as I didn’t drink that much, I actively watched what I drunk to avoid that feeling in the morning. The problem is that I never get Saturdays off as I am almost a linchpin at work, holding the pot wash team together, so they want me to work as much as possible. But on the other hand, I would never go out if I was worried about the consequences in the morning, as I don’t get a regular day off work, as I work 22 out of every 28 days, working every other Sunday, and getting a random day off during the week, usually between Tuesday and Thursday. This has been leaving me feeling quite low within myself because of it, I am just not enjoying life at the moment and drinking helps me escape for a while, suppose my current mindset could be described as “down, depressed and lonely”, I just wish I could turn back the clock to 2001, when life was good!
But none of that is as bad as what happened to my good friend from Iceland, Tomas’ younger brother, Arni; who was suffered a severe industrial accident, breaking several bones in his legs. He is being kept in a sort of enforced coma by doctors because the pain is so severe; more information can be found on Tomas’ blog HERE; get well soon mate, and hope you make a full recovery and conquer the world with Silent Rivers.