Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A good week for Germany, England, Italy and Holland but not so good for the Portuguese or the tabloid press in England. These stories and more feature in this week’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which can be heard on our weekly podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.
Good
A good week for European powerhouses Germany, Italy, Holland and England as they won both of their two European Championship qualifying matches this week. Germany were perhaps the most impressive as they easily beat a tough Belgium side away from home, though after their dismal performance in South Africa, the two England wins against Bulgaria and Switzerland were the most satisfying.
Bad
While it was good for most of the big European teams, other heavyweights came a cropper. Portugal, ranked 8th in the world were beaten 1-0 away at Norway 14 places below them in the FIFA rankings. And that follows an exciting but embarrassing draw 4-4 at home against minnows Cyprus. The Portuguese outfit are now fourth out of five in their group and, although it is early days, they’re looking at a fight for qualification to the 2012 European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine. While they do have the excuse that their star player was injured, a team featuring Quaresma as a replacement, and stars such as Nani, Carvalho, Almeida, Alves… should be able to play better than this surely!
The Ugly
Wayne Rooney has been at the centre of attention recently here in the UK and not just for his 4 assists on Friday against Bulgaria or his goal against Switzerland but rather that lots of speculation has emerged over his private life with the tabloid press really sticking the boot into him. Yes, today’s players are arrogant, overpaid and so far removed from society that fans have started to wonder if they have anything in common with them but do the players really deserve the media attention when it comes to salacious gossip? Rooney, Crouch and Terry have all been in the newspapers recently for their supposed ‘indiscretions‘ but the majority of fans simply do not care. Chelsea manager Ancelotti finds it amazing that there is so much attention on the personal lives of players here in England, French commentators simply laugh at it, while other nations’ media outlets would never let these sorts of stories appear as it might affect team spirit – particularly when the national team are playing important matches. Do I really expect footballers to be role models? No. So, unless they break the law, leave them alone. Ugly indeed.
Vocabulary
powerhouses: Strong teams in the region
dismal performance: The team played very badly indeed
to come a cropper: to fall heavily, to fail, (in this context – to lose)
minnow: small team, weak team, unfancied team
outfit: team
assists: Passes that lead to goals
sticking the boot into him: Attacking him (in print)
salacious gossip: Juicy gossip; usually involving stories about sex
indiscretions‘: Things that someone has supposedly done wrong (here it refers to sexual scandals of the players)
