Tuesday, 5 May 2009
The third one
The first one was unlucky for the Slipping Boy, but was handsomely taken by the South Korean lad.
The second one might have been saved, but from forty-one yards out you can't give The Greatest Player in the World that kind of chance.
But the third...
... was an object of beauty.
End of minute-by-minute report. Played them off the Ji-Sung Park. And a dastardly sending-off for our kid too.
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Checked my Introduction to Déry's 'Niki' that arrived from the NYRB this evening. Life is all Introductions. On Friday to Oxford. On Sunday to Basle. Tonight, to bed.
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6 comments:
It was indeed a sublime goal, and the second goal was not far off sublime. Even Wenger couldn't blame the referee, though he did have a go.
My first look at the goals. I chose a Bob Dylan concert last night on the basis that a Dylan concert in Ireland is much less frequent than a United win in Europe. Great goals and I love the different styles of foreign language commentators. Great not being able to understand the commentators' cliches. My other reds, Sligo Rovers, languishing towards the bottom of the league though. Ah well life isn't perfect.
Sorry to hear about Sligo Rovers, Michael. How have they been in recent years? Is this just a bad year?
Fourth in Irish Premier League last year, now third from bottom. small squad, financial worries. Current manager from Liverpool.
You can surely never love a man with such an odious cheating mentality as CR?
Sure he has his gifts, but what is the residual memory of him:
It is this: having dived to the floor, simulating agony, he is on his knees with his hands raised to the heavens and a look of aggrieved petulance on his face. He is seeking out the referee's eye, he is appealing for both a free kick and for his opponent to be sent off. He is beyond appealing; he is demanding it.
Love? Where did I mention love?
I assume you noticed the capital letters throughout. You used to call that sort of thing 'notation'. It is what I think of as reasonably delicate irony.
Ronaldo is of course a petulant spoilt-child git. But he is no more a cheat than many others.Certainly no more than Maradona - in fact a great deal less. He did not score 42 goals last year by cheating. Nor is he currently top scorer in the Prem by cheating. And how many people have been sent off for fouls on him? How many penalties has he 'earned' by cheating? He is the one player Ferguson has hardly ever 'rested', meaning he works harder than most overall.
He actually does get really fouled more than most though the fouls are not of the Norman Hunter type generally. He has however been deliberately kicked and stamped on by far worse cheats. He has not done that. As to the kind of foul he committed against him I think he is one of a series of long-legged light-on-their-feet wingers including Peter Thompson, Cliff Jones and Chris Waddle who were also fouled a lot, meaning shoved off balance with no contact with the ball.
This does not make him worse than other players of his type. Unless you are implying that being a greasy south Mediterranean makes it all a lot worse. But I wouldn't believe that of you. I suspect that is at the back of some of the UK dislike. Old fashioned anti-wop racism.
The picture you paint of him is your residual memory and you will no doubt hang on to it as will many others. It is not mine. My memory is of a number of wonderful, exhilarating goals he has scored in tandem with Rooney.
You don't have to like him. I don't have to like him. The fact is I don't like him in so far as I have a sense of him as a man who happens to be a footballer. As a footballer plain and simple he can be devastating.
I don't know why I am bothering to say this. I know it wont make the blindest bit of difference. Except you know I am saying it.
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