Boycotters

[Sean of the Shed]

Skye Sports.

[Gangster Octopus]

I’ve just got back from a week on Skye and can reveal important scientific boycott evidence: on the drive there, starting the survey from the Loch Lomond road, there were 13 Dutch number plates; 4 German; 3 Belgian; 2 French; 2 Luxembourg; 1 Spanish/Hungarian/Estonian etc.

On the way back the scores almost exactly reversed: 15 German; 5 Dutch.

Why on earth would you use the Loch Lomand road? It's dreadful.

[Satchmo Distel]

This tournament has been the best World Cup in decades, at least so far.

Too many teams have been disappointing and it looks like we could have a fairly weak semi-final line-up as in 2002, especially the bottom half. It seems to be wide open, though, unless France or Brazil suddenly hit top gear. Bottom half is a total guess at this point; three good-ish performances and you're in the final. Even three mediocre ones won on penalties.

I don't think the boycotters have missed any very high quality team displays but Germany v S Korea will be a "did you see it, Grandad?" moment for pure gobsmacking WTF'ery. Argentina shipping 4 to France will seem obvious if France win it but at the time it felt like I was watching something extraordinary. Uruguay's last two games have also been very enjoyable, as was Croatia v Argentina.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Loch Lomond rd is bad but makes a change from the overfamiliar slog up the A1 which can break the spirit when you’ve hardly started.
Plus we have a habit of breaking the journey overnight in a different declining west of Scotland town each year

[linus]

Not sure about that. Though perhaps my feelings are influenced by yesterday and those two utterly fucking awful matches

What they lacked in pure football quality, they made up in drama. Then of course, you have today's masterpiece which had both elements in spade.

[Sits]

This is an annoying start to the working day. Extra time finished about 7am, and there are a lot of very excited expats in the office babbling on now at 8.40. It’s like England have won the whole thing. Whilst I want them to do well, being slightly detached from the process makes it all look a bit silly.

[ad hoc]

What they lacked in pure football quality, they made up in drama.

I think penalty shootouts are only dramatic when the winner matters to you. Otherwise they're just as tedious as the rest of the game

[Satchmo Distel]

And the drama is very artificial, and perhaps sadistic. It's a contest to see who is going to fuck up under pressure, or a keeper make a lucky guess.

[Tactical Genius]

And the drama is very artificial, and perhaps sadistic. It's a contest to see who is going to fuck up under pressure, or a keeper make a lucky guess.

This hasn't done the Saw movie franchise any harm?

[Ray de Galles]

I think penalty shootouts are only dramatic when the winner matters to you. Otherwise they're just as tedious as the rest of the game

An English supporter in the office this morning was talking about the "fantastic tension" of last night's game. I assumed he meant the penalties as the rest of the game was largely just a parade of awful shithousery from both sides but he seemed to think all of it was dramatic.

[Satchmo Distel]

This hasn't done the Saw movie franchise any harm?

No, but popularity is not relevant to deciding whether drama is authentic.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

An English supporter in the office this morning was talking about the "fantastic tension" of last night's game. I assumed he meant the penalties as the rest of the game was largely just a parade of awful shithousery from both sides but he seemed to think all of it was dramatic.

And you think it wasn't? I mean, at one point I was expecting the ref to go home and the players sort it out with Bruce Lee kicks.

[Ray de Galles]

Yeah, that's not really tension though, is it. At the most charitable you could call the game "incident-packed" but nothing more complimentary.

Not that I think England supporters should care about that one little bit, I should stress.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

I dunno, I got stuck on your "dramatic" which I think it was in every sense of its meaning. First you had an England controlling it, then you had the entire Colombian squad turning up the villain trying to erase the penalty spot among other things, then you had Colombia take over at the end and first 15 min in overtime, then England take over next 15 min. 7-8 yellow. Mina the defender score his third goal, jump up in the crowd and get a stupid goal celebration injury limping the rest of the game yet not sub'd, and.... No, there was drama alright.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Yeah, that's not really tension though, is it. At the most charitable you could call the game "incident-packed" but nothing more complimentary.

Not that I think England supporters should care about that one little bit, I should stress.

I'd say that drama and tension aren't always the same thing - and that a knockout game that was level for more than half the match, and with no more than one goal in it for the rest by nature is going to be tense for those with an interest. Throw in the atmosphere in the ground and the game becoming increasingly unpredictable as discipline started to break down, and I'd say it was definitely a tense watch, but that isn't necessarily a compliment - there was very little football being played and until added time very little actual drama, but it was tense.

[HORN]

Even Mrs HORN was transfixed by last night's game, so it must have had something going for it. She was even more animated than for Japan v Belgium.

I think she needs to see a doctor. This World Cup has changed her somehow.

[diggedy derek]

We need Hitchcock's distinction, in his interview with François Truffaut, between surprise and suspense here.

“We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!” There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o’clock, and there is a clock in the décor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: ‘You shouldn’t be talking about such trivial matters. There’s a bomb beneath you and it’s about to explode!’ In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second case we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense.”

[Hot Pepsi]

This is an annoying start to the working day. Extra time finished about 7am, and there are a lot of very excited expats in the office babbling on now at 8.40. It’s like England have won the whole thing. Whilst I want them to do well, being slightly detached from the process makes it all look a bit silly.

England football aspirations, at least the realistic ones, are now about the same as the US’. - Scraping through to the quarter finals.

That should give some English fans pause.

[Amor de Cosmos]

It won't though.

[Flynnie]

To be fair to England fans, at least their ambition is realistic while the US's is arguably unrealistic. The 1998 and 2006 teams were hyped to shit as possible QF or even SF contenders, which in retrospect made no sense at all.

[Satchmo Distel]

I can't recall if the US expected to beat Ghana in 2010. To me they were always going to go out to whichever team they got from that bracket. They also had no chance v Belgium in 2014.

[Cal Alamein]

To be fair to Wondo, it wasn't a tap-in. The keeper came out and did not give him much to shoot at.

EDIT - I had hopes of us beating Ghana in 2010. I was less optimistic in 2014, having been snakebit the last two times.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Swedish television dug up some English fan yesterday in Bristol, Hull, Castleford or whatever, and had a 2 min thing with him. Sporting a white three lions shirt and a white three lions cap he showed off his new tattoo in a completely empty pub. It was only him, no one else there. The tattoo was of course the trophy and England and 2018 and World Champions.
That's the kind of thing which only a few years ago would have had me enter Gargamel-hands rubbed together wishing England go out.
But shit, this lot players along with coach isn't loathsome.
Of course I want Sweden to beat them, but I won't feel the urge to gloat as before.

[Belhaven]

This tournament has been the best World Cup in decades, at least so far.

I was not really talking about the football, How would I know, I am not watching.

[diggedy derek]

Reflecting back, I wish I’d followed through with boycotting the whole thing. It wasn’t really worth watching the semis onwards.

I’ll remember that when it comes to Qatar, even if teams I wish well like Wales are there