The English press get excited about tonight’s game, and the French press get the knives out After the frustration and false hope of the USA game, the English press have gone with a mature, low-key build up ahead of tonight’s match against Algeria, instead prioritising a detailed analysis of the likely tactical battle between the two managers. ‘THEIR FINEST HOUR (AND A HALF)’ screams the front page of The Sun, a reference to the fact that this is the 21st anniversary of the day the woman from cutepop band The Sundays found a pound on the underground . See, if England win tonight they’ll be quids in too! Eh? What? Oh, apparently it’s a reference to the fact that today is the 70th anniversary of Churchill’s famous speech , an obvious reference point when talking about a bloody football match against Algeria . It’s also 27 years to the day that we last wet ourselves, so that’s a good omen too: clean up your act lads and you can go all the way! The Sun’s front-page preview also includes the heartwarming tale of newlyweds Dave and Serena Stone, who will display a 15ft St George’s flag with the words ‘Serena and Dave’s World Cup honeymoon’ at the game. “We’ve been more excited about the World Cup than the wedding,” said Serena, suggesting this one will go the distance. The Mirror, meanwhile, have an interview between John Terry and James Corden , and features a picture that gives a whole new range to the “one bullet” dilemma . They also report that the reason England’s passing was so awry against America on Saturday is not, in fact, because they are almost to a man a bunch of overrated clodhoppers, but because the FA contrived to lose 25 Jabulani balls that were delivered in February. The upshot is that England did not get to train with the official World Cup beach ball until they reached Austria in May, with the idea of getting 25 more delivered apparently beyond the wit of man. In other news, the Daily Mail reports that Warren Beatty’s teenage daughter Kathlyn plans to have a sex change . This is clearly a good omen for England, who are also looking to change their identity tonight. In the same paper, Martin Samuel is happy that the “moribund 4-4-2 formation that made such little impression on the United States will be abandoned” , with Gareth Barry returning and Steven Gerrard moving to the left in a 4-2-3-1 system. We were going to point out that England actually played something resembling a 4-2-3-1 against the US, and the way in which England play 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 makes them blurred almost to the point of indistinguishability, and that tactics aren’t really the problem anyway, it’s that the team are naffing useless at the highest level, but we can’t really be bothered. In the Telegraph, Henry Winter says that “England face a Nadir on Friday night but it is only Belhadj” , a neat pun in no way compromised by the pesky culture of capitalising proper nouns. If England do manage a nadir tonight, they will doubtless take one hell of a beating from the press tomorrow. But it will do well to match the scorn on show in France. ‘THE IMPOSTORS’ roared the headline of L’Equipe, landing a range-finding right-hander before really getting to work. “The rubbishness of the France team belies the claims by Raymond Domenech and his players about their strength of character and their ability to respond to adversity. France wakes up this morning to survey a field of ruins: its national team. “No sadness, no desolation and, above all, no anger: that is too much to give to these men who are unable to offer anything … the I-couldn’t-give-a-a-damn attitude is the only banner under which this team is capable of rallying . It is now highly probable that the France team will exit the competition, their immense failure sealed.” Le Figaro was not much kinder. “One cannot see how this team with no backbone and no soul can hope for a miracle,” they said. “This French team deserves nothing but scorn and will only be saved if the gods of football fall on their heads.” The last word goes to La Depeche Du Midi. “There can be no quibbles. There were no refereeing errors. No nasty twists of fate. No. Just another defeat for a France team that has no soul, no desire, no way of playing . The final team rejig yielded nothing – absolutely nothing – and the Mexicans, rapid and technically adept, gave the invisible Bleus a lesson on rigour, tactics and spirit. “At the conclusion of a bland – or perhaps bitter – match, something nevertheless happened and it is the major scoop of this World Cup: it turns out that, beneath his arrogance, his Mr Know-it-All air, Raymond Domenech has been hiding a heart. A genuine heart. His dejection at the end of the match proved it, the way he turned to the TV camera and let slip a laconic ‘Today, I am crushed’. The tears he wept, the ones no one believed they saw, also proved it. So it transpires that Raymond The Haughty is human. It was about time he let us know.” World Cup 2010 England Algeria Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
Originally posted here:
World Cup 2010 paper view: Nadirs, Churchill, 4-2-3-1 and a sex change
