Let's Put The Future Behind Us

I might never be able to say that I've seen England win an international trophy, but I will be able to say that I've seen their worst World Cup result, so that's something. I was far less upset by losing 4-1 to Germany than by Fulham's narrow loss in the Europa League Final, or by the various England penalty exits. This is largely because, unlike those occasions, we were definitely outplayed. Given that I follow Fulham and Stockport County, losing to teams better than you is something I'm pretty familiar with.

I suppose the interesting thing about the *cough* "Golden Generation" is that, being pretty much the same age as them, their decline sort of mirrors my own. The biggest opportunity they missed, I always felt, was the Quarter-Final in the 2002 World Cup, in which they outplayed Brazil for 45 minutes before falling prey to Beckham thinking the ball had gone out and David Seaman - who had been down for several minutes with a back injury just before - being chipped by Ronaldinho. Since then it's pretty much been downhill all the way, and the time is finally here to scrap most of them, and see what the Agbonlahor/Wilshere/Welbeck generation are like in the 2012 qualifiers. And with Heskey finally gone, maybe Zamora will actually get a call-up.

Always Crashing In The Same Car

It's my third driving lesson tomorrow, and so far I haven't actually damaged anyone or anything. In fact, my instructor reckons I have a pretty good sense of space and distance, which came as a surprise to me, as I never seem to be able to correctly estimate any distances. I'm also working my way through the theory test pack, learning all sorts of things, like what colour the flashing light is on the car of an emergency-call doctor, and when it's acceptable to wind the window down and shout to someone that they're a fuckwit. On a related note, when was the last time you saw anyone in a car using hand signals for turning?

I'm still not sure how long it's likely to take before I can actually drive, but hopefully sooner rather than later, as it'd be nice to get around the country a bit.

"Scrape Football Pie Off Your Shirt!"

So, the month of the World Cup has arrived, and to celebrate, here's one of the best World Cup goals I've ever seen live, from the first World Cup I ever watched - France 1998. It's Dennis Bergkamp's 89th-minute goal for the Netherlands against Argentina in the Quarter-Finals, with the added bonus here of Dutch commentary.