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Portugal get Les Bleus

After the entertainment provided by the first semi-final, it was little surprise that last night's match could not live up to those standards. Having got this far by conning referees, whinging incessantly and being generally the least likeable team in the competition, Portugal's campaign came crashing down around their ears in a crescendo of jeers and unseemly behaviour. Ricardo Carvalho having been the victim on Saturday turned villain last night, bringing down Thierry Henry in the area for the penalty that was the only goal of the game. Having bragged beforehand that he knew where the taker would put the penalty before it was taken, Ricardo proved that it was no idle boast, narrowly failing to stop Zidane's spotkick. Thereafter the match faded out, with little to speak of in the way of chances for the remaining seventy minutes.

For one who has been berated in the English media for his ungentlemenly conduct following Rooney's dismissal, Cristiano Ronaldo appears to have learnt little or nothing from that episode. A deserved reputation for "exaggerating" any physical contact by an opponent was enhanced further with his theatrics shortly after the French penalty. When attempting to meet a cross from the right, he threw himself at the ball, performed a little hitchkick in mid-air and jerked his head wildly to try to con the referee into thinking he had been impeded by a French defender. The referee to his credit was having none of it and let play continue. However, the credit is taken away as he did not caution the chinless wonder for his theatrics.

For France, a number of players were treading on eggshells for a caution could have kept them out of the final. Henry and Vieira fortunately escaped missing Sundays match but inexplicably Louis Saha got himself booked less five minutes after replacing Henry in a replay of his booking against Brazil. At the end, Scholari's undefeated World Cup record went to the wall and he reacted with all the petulance of a six year old whose favourite toy has been taken away. Quite what view FIFA will take of his verbal assault on the referee is unknown but it is a poor reflection on him. It is one thing to be passionate, quite another to be a bully.

Todays Tunes

REM again, another bootleg from the mid-1980's. This time it is from the Paegentery Tour, New York's Felt Forum the venue. Download it here.

Bowyer Loses Pounds And Feels Fine

Whilst Italian football is on a high on the pitch and low off it, English football had a day of shame with Lee Bowyer being fined for his on the pitch brawl with Keiron Dyer, Craig Bellamy being forced to defend himself against accusations of assault in a nightclub (again) and Gary Charles in court for assaulting a taxi driver.

Like most neutrals I was amazed when the Bowyer / Dyer incident happened but highly amused also, the now West Ham player acting like a complete drongo during yet another home defeat for Newcastle during Souness' reign. The question is to where this crossed the line in the minds of the police to report the matter to the CPS? There have been numerous incidents in recent years where more than two players have been involved in a scuffle so what made Bowyer different, other than his "previous"? Was this any more serious than say Arsenal players behaviour at the end of the either of the last two visits to Old Trafford. Given that professional footballers are supposedly role models to the youth of today, maybe this is a salutory warning to players coming after a season of police investigations into "Roasting" and the like. Whether they will change is another matter. Very few have shown any nous to learn from the mistakes of those who have trodden the same path before them so I don't have high hopes of any improvement in the near future.

Having already been fined in the region of £250,000 by his club and the FA, Bowyer may well have burst out laughing when the £600 fine was handed down today. Even adding on costs, it has come to less than £2,000 making the law well and truly an ass. I wonder if he had the front to ask if he could pay over a number of weeks?

The Italian Stallions

Italy and Germany served up one of the games of the tournament in last night's World Cup Semi-Final in Dortmund. Two goals in the last two minutes of extra time did scant justice to the Germans performance which was solid if slightly unthreatening. Both teams created openings in the ninety minutes but Italy looked more likely to score, Jens Lehmann fully justified Klinsmanns decision to make him number one for the tournament by making a number of key saves. In the end Grosso's opener was down to poor marking as he initially ran into the area on an arc and past Lehmann to the right edge of the area from where he scored. The German full back tracked him until he got outside of the six yard box and promptly stopped following. A tough lesson to learn. The breakaway for Del Piero's second was pure class and everything that you have come to expect from Italian football, a classy backheel to set the Juve forward free and a fine curling finish. Over to France and Portugal to match the class, hopefully the French will wipe the floor with them and the Portuguese will implode as they did after the Euro 2000 Semi Final. Should the French win then Italy have that particular monkey to get off of their backs when they conceded a last minute equaliser and went onto lose to a David Trezeguet Golden Goal. If the French match the level of performance that they have shown against Spain and Brazil, then the Portuguese are in real trouble and the Italians would be by no means the clear favourites for the final that they ought otherwise to be.

One other point worth commenting on from last night's game was the absence of gamesmanship, both sets of players should be commended for their willingness to accept a decision and get on with the game, helped in no small part by probably the best refereeing performance of the tournament so far.

Chelsea report Real - Will FIFA ask Arsenal and Milan for their views as well?

Having asked yesterday whether FIFA would bring Real Madrid to heel over their transfer dealings, it seems they will have little choice but to investigate following Chelsea's decision to write to the Governing Body complaining about the tapping up of Arjen Robben - the West London club showing a previously untapped sense of irony. Peter Kenyon complained that Robben was still in contract, he would not be sold and that no contact had been made between the two clubs. So Mijatovic and Abramovich talking about the deal does not constitute contact. I wonder if the words "Ashley" and "Cole" will jog Kenyon's memory, he will no doubt recall that his clubs shameful conduct in that matter cost them a few used notes in a suitcase and involved their manager tapping a player up. FIFA will be presumably be contacting Arsenal and AC Milan for their observations about the comments and actions of the supposedly biggest club in the world. We wait to see if FIFA have the balls to take on the Spaniards and whether they will impose transfer sanctions. Still, at least Calderon will be able to blame someone else for any ban, Pedrag Mijatovic is being set up nicely with all of the election promises being dumped on his shoulders. Whilst they are at it, perhaps a wee diversion into Lyon would be in order after it was claimed today that their President tapped up Gilberto Silva whilst visiting the Brazilian World Cup camp. Not that one expects anything to come of it. Although David Dein might do well to phone Lyon and tell them that he'll keep quiet if they take Pascal Cygan off the clubs books for a couple of million.

Todays Tunes

Continuing the REM theme, these are the outtakes and demos for Out Of Time, with a highly original title of Slightly Out Of Time. Download it here.

Can't Get There From Here

Football is a sport on which rumour and innuendo thrive, particularly in the close season. For the uninitiated it is what makes the months of June and July pass quickly when there is not an international tournament taking place. Speculation is passed around the pub or the office as if it is true, hopes are raised when your team is linked to a decent player, only to be dashed when you realise that the story was made up over the fifth pint in whichever bar happens to be the gathering place of the hacks in question.

Undoubtedly a number of those stories are plants; Player X wants to engineer a pay rise and needs to concoct some interest, the player may actually want a move and is putting out feelers for interest, a manager may want to offload a player and is testing the market or even an Agent may be down to their last Rolex and wants a payday. It's there, it's part of the game and we love it. In the days before the transfer windows became effective in England, the speculation started and never stopped, it did not respect the start or end of a season.

The various regulatory bodies all have rules about this type of behaviour and for years the rules have been flouted, sometimes quite brazenly. And yet there comes a point where questions have to be asked, ethics need to be enforced or else just do away with the rules of engagement. Make it open season on all players futures, any day of the week, any club officer can say what they want when they like. The Italians have been at it for years. Famously, Luca Moggi told Zlatan Ibrahimovich to create a fuss to engineer his move from Ajax. The Swede did by kicking lumps off of an Ajax teammate in an international fixture, to such an extent that the two fell out and the move duly went ahead.

The current trend seems to be from Spain. For years, Real Madrid and Barcelona have been masters of the outlandish statement, hoping to make it the truth. Each club have their favoured mouthpiece and their words are reported as the "Gospel Truth". It first came to international notice when Florentino Perez was running his election campaign, noting that he had the signature of Figo wrapped up. He had nothing of the sort but waved a cheque in Barcelona's direction with the sum of £30m on it and lo, he was a man of his word. Seeing the success of this, Laporta repeated the trick with Beckham in his election campaign. It was a done deal, Manchester United had agreed a fee with him, promising to deliver the player if Laporta won. He duly did. Except nobody had bothered to tell Beckham who promptly turned down the move. Still, Ronaldinho was not a bad second choice to have.

And so it goes. We go full circle to this year with Henry's supposed defection to Barcelona, Wenger going to Real as manager. All presented as fact, the average punter having an inkling of the truth in each story but ultimately, they proved to be just that. A story. Calderon, the newly elected Real President, has claimed for weeks that he has agreed deals with Kaka, Robben and Fabregas. He's delivered Capello as the manager so it is pretty fair to assume that he has been working behind the scenes, talking to the Players Representatives, promising them the earth and their clients a fair portion of the Universe as well. The media pick up on this and present it as the truth. Agents become involved and then promote the story at every given opportunity. The headlines from people such as myself and those of the Fourth Estate scream of "Imminent Moves" and extortionate fees being paid.

But at what point do these shenanigans become in breach of the rules. Kaka, Robben and Fabregas are all under reasonably long term contracts at their clubs. That the President of the Club should have tried to tap them up - Fabregas has all but admitted to talks with Real - as part of an election campaign is surely bringing the game into disrepute? Once the man takes office, it must be against the rules for him to pursue the deal having already tried to broker it. FIFA should step in now and bring him to heal otherwise yet again, Real ride roughshod over the laws that others try to obey, the Odious Ones From West London aside.

From an Arsenal perspective, Fabregas' Agent hit the nail on the head when he noted that The Gunners would not sell his client "for all the Gold in the World". However, it would not surprise me if the conversation quickly turned to Reyes who I think would leave given the opportunity and I am unconvinced that the chance to cash in would be turned down.

Todays Tunes continue the REM Week, these from a bootleg of Michael Stipes recordings outside of the Group entitled "Not Field Recordings". The tracklisting is as follows:

Arms Of Love / Guilty By Association / Your Ghost / Full Moon / To Sir With Love / Trout / Alive And Living Now / Kid Fears / Future 40's / Little April Showers / A Campfire Song / Boy (Go) / Clustering Train / Omaha / Hot Nights In Georgia / Treason / Meeting

Download it here

It's All Greek To Me

FIFA has suspended the Greek FA and its international team from any participation in competitive football due to undue interference from the Greek Government. This ban will also affect all Greek clubs meaning that at present there are no representatives from the country who are eligible to play in next seasons UEFA Cup or Champions League. This means that there is one space in Group Phases of the latter and logically speaking, it should be the next highest placed of the seeds who is given priority for this. Now obviously I have a vested interest in recommending this course of action, given that the team in question would be Arsenal, but it is hard to see how UEFA can do this without screwing up the draw for the final Qualifying Round. Should they give Arsenal the leg-up into the Group Phases, one other team would need to be given a bye to make the math work. The only other alternative is to give two teams a bye from the Qualifying Round by means of a free draw, something that would appear to contradict previous behaviour which has all but proved all that they are interested in is money.

Coming so soon on the heels of the Italian scandal, this is just the sort of publicity football does not need. For many years, Greek football has been a hotbed of rumour, innuendo and outright allegations about corruption amongst officials. It can be of little surprise that state interference in the Game is coming into play. The issues surrounding the domestic game have been known for long enough for FIFA to have no excuse for a lack of action. The fundamental problem is that the Statutes allow the Organising Body a convenient shelter when they wish to do nothing about any issue, diverting blame onto local FA's for anything that is wrong.

If FIFA is so hellbent on independence, perhaps they would be good enough to inform us why the Italian FA, the Azurri and clubs are not suspended pending the legal investigations that are going on. Surely this is an example of the State interfering in football? Or could it simply be the case that the Greeks are a soft target, never likely to generate the money for football that the Italians do?

Todays Tunes are from REM, a concert held at the Rockpalast on 10th February 1985. The Set List is as follows:

Feeling Gravity's Pull / Harborcoat / Sitting Still / Maps and Legends / Fall On Me / Green Grow The Rushes / Driver 8 / Hyena / So. Central Rain / Have You Ever Seen The Rain / Can't Get There From Here / King Of The Road - 7 Chinese Brothers / Auctioneer / Old Man Kensey / Little America - Pretty Persuasion / Write A Letter / Toys In The Attic / See No Evil / Second Guessing / Ghostriders In The Sky / (Don't Go Back To) Rockville / We Walk - Paint It Black

Download it here

He's A Winker (Misprint)

England's World Cup Dreams are over for at least another four years ago. As in France 1998, they were ended by a petulant outburst of a temper nutured by Sir Alex Ferguson. This time though, the red card was thoroughly deserved, Rooney's stamp on an opponents knackers being a step up from Beckhams flick of the foot on Diego Simeone.

From the moment that happened, hopes sank. Lawrenson's hysterical high-pitched whine of "They'll play for Extra Time and Penalties" being spot on and the best and worst we could hope for. Despite being reduced to ten men, little fault could be found with the England performance from the sixty minutes onwards, save for the usual poor ball retention. Robinson in the England Goal redeemed himself for his early nervous performances by being on the whole calm and a dependable rock. All someone needs to do is give the lad some guidance on his distribution, train him so that his first reaction to claiming the ball is not to belt it as far as he can into the opponents half. Defensively, Che Neville returned and put in a decent performance, Terry and Ferdinand coped with everything that was thrown at them whilst Ashley Cole proved to be the best left back in the tournament with another consistent display. Aaron Lennon proved that Beckham's desire to gain 100 caps may not be quite so easy to achieve. Replacing the England Captain, it seemed for the first five minutes that no-one wanted to pass to him but when they did, he put fear into the Portuguese defence, beating three men before his colleagues spurned the chance. Gerrard worked hard but Man Of The Match was Owen Hargreaves, a suitable reposte to those who claimed he wasn't up to it, step forward Alan Hansen. Frank Lampard was the huge disappointment of the tournament for England and yesterday proved no exception, certainly not aiding his desire to play for Barcelona. Frankly, he cannot hit the arse of a cow with a banjo in an England shirt at the moment; hardly the form expected when topped the midfield scoring charts domestically. Joe Cole did OK yesterday and has been excellent in the games prior to England's exit. Up front, Crouch did well as a lone striker, raising the thought of what might have been had he been up front with Rooney playing off of him.

But the penalties themselves. Dear God, we were reliably informed that the players had been practising. How can they have been? Aside from Hargreaves, all of them were pathetic. Carragher was specifically brought on with Penalties in mind! The only plausible explanation is an incapability to deal with the mental pressure yet only twelve months ago Gerrard and Carragher were in the same position with Liverpool in Istanbul. Perhaps the affliction only hits when they wear the white or red of England.

And what of the media. Predictably, Eriksson has been chastised along the lines of "£20m over five years for what?" but leaving aside the manner of the performances, he was on course to put England into the semi - finals for the first time in sixteen years until the Red Mists descended. It is hard to make him the scapegoat for yesterday's defeat, having been let down badly by Rooney. The Scouse Git is being let off relatively lightly today by the Red Tops, compared with the vilification that Beckham got eight years ago. Indeed, Cristiano Ronaldo is coming in for greater criticism and may just have engineered his desired move to Real Madrid, with a number of papers printing photos of his knowing wink to the bench, "Got him!" being the inference.

All that aside, the exit from the Competition has one saving grace. Number One Son had been raving about Rooney for a few days, showing an unsavoury leaning toward the Glazer Disneybucks. Now, a flood of tears has put paid to that.

"Dad, why did he do that?"
"'Cos he's a twat"
"But England lost because of him. I thought they would win"
"Welcome to the world of supporting England. A lifetime of raised expectations and dashed hopes and shattered dreams"

It's Sunday so it's a full on day of transfer rumours. Apparently, Arsenal will sell Ashley Cole to the Russians of West London for £20m, exactly the sum that will be spent on bringing Michael Carrick across North London, a move favoured by the player as he will not have to move home. Sol Campbell's move to Portsmouth should be completed this week, at least that's what is says here, with Dirk Kuijt, Curtis Davies and Yaya Toure all moving to Ashburton Grove. And nothing on Pascal Cygan leaving which is a bit of a pisser. Meanwhile, Thierry Henry is knackering his tendons according to his surgeon and will miss the start of the season apparently. Didn't seem to affect him last night as he scored France's winner to send Fat Ronnie and Goofy home early.

Todays Tunes continue the REM theme. These are from 1982, Carnival of Sorts bootleg:

Gardening At Night

9 - 9

Shaking Through