Comments on: Someone’s Been Watching Too Much Footballers Wive$

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:08:24 +0000

‘66 was a fluke

Nick, even that’s probably going too far. England is a good footballing nation, but so are many others. The top ranks are crowded. Even when they produce a very good team, they can’t expect to win perennially. There are very good countries that have never won (Netherlands, etc.).

It would be nice to see England get through a tournament without losing a critical player to a red card or giving up an impossible goal, however.

By: Nick Kiddle

Nick Kiddle — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:30:30 +0000

If England could just accept that ’66 was a fluke and they don’t have some divine right to another world cup, maybe they wouldn’t have to scrape the excuse barrel every four years.

By: human

human — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:14:11 +0000

Oh. I thought it was Cristiano Ronaldo’s fault they lost, because he ran over to ask the referee to give Wayne Rooney the red card he already had coming to him and then winked at his bench. I guess I’m just behind?

By: kate

kate — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 00:20:20 +0000

Those damn women, the cause of all pain in a man’s life! There should be a law, I mean a law to keep them home where they belong and away from messing with the order of things.

By: Natalia

Natalia — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 23:39:22 +0000

Ok… I have nothing but distaste for the phenomenon that is Posh Spice, but even I think this is a little bit weird. And sexist. And just… I mean, what’s next? Should we make sure that all the fans show up wearing lucky underwear, or something? How odd.

Civilian, you hit the nail right on the head.

By: sly civilian

sly civilian — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 22:16:40 +0000

Gosh, and i though Rooney cost them them match by being a jackhole and stomping on another guy’s nuts, leaving England to play a man down for most of the match.

Silly me.

By: emjay

emjay — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 20:50:50 +0000

Many of the Wags stayed together at the same hotel, which created what the linked story felicitously calls a “paparazzi honeypot.”

So the wives and girlfriends were not staying with the football team, but on their own in the hotel. They were not dining and dancing with the football team, but going out on their own.

Short of taking away the passports of anyone married to or seen in the company of a member of the national team, how does the FA propose to prevent the players’ significant others from traveling wherever they please, in whatever groups they please, and shopping and partying in whatever manner they please?

During playoffs and tournaments, coaches of teams often sequester their players, requiring them to stay in the same hotel, take their meals together, and not socialize (or only for limited periods of time) outside of the team in order to keep the focus on the tournament. However, I have never found a coach to be omnipotent and able to tell persons not on the team what to do, with the exception of some communist bloc countries like the USSR, East Germany, Romania, etc.

By: idiosynchronic

idiosynchronic — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 19:29:52 +0000

I wonder if this would help the Cubs?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 19:16:02 +0000

Because it’s so much easier to blame women than it is to accept that England just didn’t play as well as the team that beat them.

Exactly right. They have not won since 1966. They don’t even have to accept that other teams were better! The level of competition is very high, and a bad game can doom a team even in the pool round. The winner is the team that plays well enough to beat each of the opponents they face, when they face them. England has not had a team that outplayed each opponent when it counted since then (excepting possibly the loss on Maradona’s handball in 1986…) They keep producing talented players, and they will have another shot in four years.