It must be a false memory.
Like that one where I’m still convinced that, when I was about 6, I used a toy phone to speak to my cousins in Dundee. I am still sure, to this day, that I did speak to them despite all evidence to the contrary. I’m nothing if not stubborn.
So it’s with an expression of perplexity that I sit night after night and watch the World Cup (of Football, in case you were confused). I hear the vulva horn thingies buzzing away and can see the pitch, the ball, the referee and the players. Every possible moment has a mention of England in one form or another, and there are liberal doses of casual xenophobia left, right and centre.
It’s definitely a World Cup.
But by GOD it’s boring. It wasn’t always this boring, I know it wasn’t. I got to watch ALL (every single game) of Mexico ’86 as I was off school with chickenpox. I kept my own notebook of scores, laboriously coloured in each flag and the mascot was painstakingly recreated on the cover. The football was fun, goals were score, crowds cheered, commentators fumbled over foreign names and got over excited every time one of those new fangled Mexican Wave things started.
It was exciting, entertaining, and engrossing.
Fast forward to South Africa 2010 and… what has happened? Dull, boring and I’ve even turned off a couple of the games through sheer disinterest.
It wasn’t always like this, was it?
I’d started to wonder if it was just me and my apparently severely diminished attention span. Being in the middle of law related exams you’d think I’d jump at the chance to be distracted by constant football on the tv, but no, I’m actually finding the finer points of the Lisbon Treaty to be more gripping…
Do you still have that scrapbook?
I’m not sure, it might be amongst the pile of stuff my Mum gave me a while back (in which case it’s currently in a box in the garage awaiting the sale of the house!).
The vuvuzelas I can handle, but the quality of the football has been poor so far – England I expected, but Brazil? What I also loathe, and has been worse this time around, is the apparent need to visit the England camp every 30 minutes. I’m English, so heaven knows what you must make of it, but really I couldn’t give a shit. For me, world cups are about watching gloriously unexpected games by teams I rarely get to see. I’m also not impressed by the astonishing amount of patronising of the Africans….. Oh look, they’ve only just got electricity etc.
Grrr.
I’ll keep watching, obv.
I’m not a huge fan of football, but I definitely remember previous World Cups being far more exciting than this. I fear this WC will be remembered for a monotonous drone from the stands and a monotonous effort on the pitch.
I have no idea what you’re talking about 😉
And long may it stay that way, as it always has.
The only way it’s touched me is in being inconvenienced in the supermarket by huge piles of cheap beer and lager everywhere, blocking the aisles.
BW – careful or I might organise a march past of vuvuzela blowing, lagered up idiots! 😉
It has been dull so far, looking at the group fixtures I’ve not thought that there are any outstanding interesting matches so far. Possibly Portugal v Brazil will be a thriller but more likely dour as they both try to ensure that they get out of the group.
Hopefully it will improve during the knockout phase.
It wasn’t always like this Gordon and you’re right it’s been kak so far. However Uruguay and Chile’s performances yesterday perhaps give promise of better things to come. I wonder if a country outside of the big four could cause a genuine shock and win it?
And I don’t mean England!!
Is it really more dull than previous world cups?
Or are we different and older?
I’m sure the opening rounds of most world cups (rugby, cricket too) are quite dull. It then builds as teams get knocked out and the number of matches (and saturation diminishes)
That aside I’m proud of my home country and I think we’ve put on a good show. Red cards and stupid losses aside.
It is boring, a few glimmers of hope, but too much defensive play, it’s worse than anything I can remember since Italia 90 and certainly not the carnival of football I signed up for… I’m hoping it only gets better, it can’t get much worse
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