Archives for June 2008
Euroballs and (not so) Super Strikers
Euro 2008 has been the 600th consecutive major football tournament where we’ve heard expert voices condemning the official ball as both a) too light, and, b) too inclined to swerve unpredictably in the air. According to this theory of ball… continue reading »
Days 15 & 16: Once Upon a Time…
Last Saturday, I described Luka Modrić (that marvellous orchestrator and string-puller) as “the chief sprite in [Croatia's] bewitching ballet of nimbleness”. Less than a week later, however, and the fat ladies of Turkey had sung their funereal dirge. The Croat… continue reading »
Spain: The Shabby Case – the Shabbier the better?
There is a word in Spanish used to describe someone or something that is unbearable, something up with which one will not put. The word is insoportable. I used to find the national sporting press in Spain to be insoportable… continue reading »
Of Probability
That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise. I felt lucky. Really lucky. Friday had fallen, and with it fell sunshine and, into… continue reading »
Putting the ‘art’ in RTÉ
Here in Ireland the fear was voiced, in some quarters, that this tournament would be somehow devalued by Ireland’s failure to qualify. Similarly, across the pond, the failure of England (and indeed any of the ‘home nations’) to make it… continue reading »
Warming Up
The team Fústar rounded-up for this, the blogosphere’s most entertaining kick-about, has played nothing short of a blinder. Reportage, meditations and nostalgia; oh, this lot have every position covered, and they write like Real Naturals to boot. But it’s late… continue reading »
Days 12 – 14: A Night At The Opera
“I was born like this. I had no choice. I was born with the gift of a golden voice” I have been silent for too long here at SESP, and for that I apologise to you all, and most cravenly… continue reading »
Day 11: French, Romans and Konterman
I come to bury Italy, not to praise them. We all did. No sooner had the obituaries been written, the wreaths arranged, the Burco boiled, sangwidges made and the Temple curtain come down on the Italian Euro 2008 adventure, than… continue reading »
