Favourite Sketches No. 1

Channel 4 did a run down of the Top 50 sketches last week. Dissapointingly, a Little Britain sketch came No. 1. I say dissapointingly because Little Britain is one of those shows which a lot of people find funny but I don't. It seems to me that very little writing goes into some of the sketches and it is just a case of putting the same jokes in a different situation.

The sketch that won was that one where the guy in the wheelchair can actually walk and does something when the other guy, who's looking after him, is away, or has his back turned, and then returns to his chair before the other guy comes back. Do you know the one I'm talking about? The one, two, five or ten that I'm talking about, as they are all the same joke?

Compare that with Vic and Bob, Monty Python or even old school greats like the Two Ronnies and Morcambe and Wise.

I'll put a few sketches up over the next wee while, things that I find very funny. Little Britain won't be among them.

A favourite of mine that didn't make the list is shown below. It's related to Little Britain, as the comedy is drawn from the same things happening all over again. Only this has imagination, a surreal edge and, most importantly, is funny.

Monty Python's Flying Circus - Deja Vu

1. Paper

I'll do graffiti, if you sing to me in french

I don't know if other people are familar with this phenomenon but sometimes albums that you have had for a while seem to jump on you and wrestle you to the ground in ways that they never did before.

I've had "A Certain Trigger" by Maximo Park for a good while now and thought it was mostly OK. It had a couple of excellent songs, namely Going Missing and Graffiti but the rest, while not being bad, never struck me.

I was sitting doing corrections for one of my thesis chapters tonight and decided to stick it on iTunes just for something different and it has just sounded better than it ever did before. I can't explain why but the music is clicking, the enthusiasm is coming through strong and making me smile, the lyrics and sometimes jerky style is working, rather than mildly annoying like it has been in the past.

Its great and less than £6 on Amazon.co.uk, bargin. Apparently they are brilliant live too. My brother saw them on the NME tour that was supposed to be the Arctic Monkeys' property but he far preferred Maximo Park as they put a lot of heart and soul into the performance. I will try and catch them sometime.

My only regret is that I don't quite know how to do that double dot of the i needed to accurately spell the name.

Its all Dutch to me

Are we sure that the Dutch language was not put in place by God to let the rest of the world laugh, while the Dutch themselves were relaxed and good natured enough not to take offence.

Take this quote from Dutch footballing great Johan Neeskens about joining Barcelona as a coach. I'm no expert in Dutch, but I might be able to work out what he saying here:

Neeskens: "Barcelona is mijn droomclub"

Yeash...

Martin Jol for Prime Minister!

Go on Duffer!

Hopefully this is the first signing of many this summer for Newcastle. It would be great if this was also setting the benchmark for the quality of signings that are going to come in, as Damien Duff is a great player.

I think that Glenn Roeder seems intelligent enough to not spend all the money the club have on bringing in a left winger when we still need plenty of options right up front, so it might be an indicator of more money being available than had been thought. Freddie Shepard is a fool and has sat over some really bad mismanagement of the club in recent years but also seems to be able to sign players that it wouldn't seem possible to get. Michael Owen came to us last season and now Duff, after rumoured interest from Liverpool.

It has also now been revealed that the fee was only £5M, which is an absolute bargin! Obviously he is going to be earning a good wage, but what decent premiership player isn't these days. This is a top way to kick off the transfers. I'm hoping for more where this came from.

It's good to think that my friend from Dundalk will now be shouting "Go on Duffer!" at the TV whenever Newcastle are playing

Space (I Believe In)

Yesterday was the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 space mission allowing the first men to walk on the Moon. I have been reading Moondust recently, in which the author travels round trying to speak to the men who have been to the moon and see how it has affected them, both while they were there, but more when they have come back.

Some of it is fascinating. Even the description of the moon landing excited me greatly, talking through how it set down and creating images of the men in the Eagle lander looking out the windows to see the surface of another planetary body. I have read much more fantastical things in science fiction before but the massive difference is that this is fact, that people have actually walked on the small, grey sphere that you see in the sky each night.

At one point the author is rememebering watching the landing on TV and running outside to look up at the moon in the night sky thinking, "There are actually people walking on that, right now". The astronauts had the privilige of looking back and seeing the whole Earth above them, containing the whole of humanity, apart from them. They were the only members of the human race who were not on that beautiful piece of rock, floating above them.

Having spent a childhood obsessed with space, superheros, sci-fi and having also carried that into my adult life, it blows my mind sometimes.

I think I'll sign up if they ever want people to go back

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Cheated Hearts

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are one of those bands that inspires a great devotion in their fans, maybe mainly due to their front-woman, Karen O, being extremely bonkers in performances and dressing like she was catapulted through a charity shop and came out the other side.

They used this devotion to their advantage in the making of their latest video and got fans from around the world to send in videos of themselves being the band. They spliced them all together to make the video below. I got this from You Tube, which also seems to have quite a few posts of videos that were made for the competition.

Superman Returns

I should be going to see Superman Returns tomorrow night and have just heard a good review of it from Mark Kermode on Radio Five's podcast. It was quite encouraging and he said that while the film is not groundbreaking, or does not fit the trend of the "dark superhero" films (Batman obviously, the Spiderman series less so), it is an enjoyable film.

A couple of things give me hope added to this; The poster above, showing Superman hovering in space, above the Earth, the similar scene in the trailer when he is listening to the world from a similar position and the great bit in the trailer when the stereotypical "bad guy" shoots him, point blank, in the eye, only for the bullet to squish like a fly hitting a fast-moving juggernaut. All these things show that the director, Bryan Singer, understands a bit of what makes Superman who he is and is willing to play around with the powers he has to good effect. This can only be a good thing.

We will see though. I have a habit of being dissapointed with these type of films, although Batman Begins didn't let me down, maybe his buddy won't either.

I know its old but its still funny

The Empire BrokeBack

A nice surprise

This is maybe a bit long and goes round the houses a bit but I have had a nice surprise this evening and it's all because Airplane! is on TV tomorrow night. I'll tell you why...

Airplane! is one of my favourite films, due to its ridiculous amount of jokes and its sense of humour. It is on Channel Five tomorrow night.

Wednesday nights are my wife and I's "Date Night", a night in the week where we make sure that we are not doing anything else with other people, or that we do not have washing/shopping etc. to do and relax together and have some chill time. It is important to do this because we otherwise find that our weeks fill up very quickly and we never see each other. We basically do something that people would on a date.

This Wednesday we were deciding between going to see Superman Returns, or staying in, having a nice tea and watching Capote on DVD.

Obviously, Airplane! being on in the early evening doesn't really fit in with this plan, so I decided to tape it and watch it at some other time. The probelm being that I didn't really know what was on all the tapes I had lying around in the living room, so thought I would go through them and see what things were there and what things could be taped over.

I had forgotten that I had taped a lot of stuff. There was a series, Mirrorball, that was on Channel 4 a long time ago that focused on the work of a different music video director each week, including the guys who worked on Sexy Boy by Air (Mike Mills), Rabbit in Your Headlights by UNKLE (Jonathon Glazer), Smack My Bitch Up by The Prodigy (some Swedish guy whose name escapes me at the minute) and the guy who made the disturbing videos for Aphex Twin's classics, Come To Daddy and Windowlicker (Chris Cuningham. If you have never seen them, approach with caution!). There was plenty of old South Park, including the first appearance of Mr Macky, and before the whole show got so obsessed with shocking and offending everyone. There was the series Catterick, the brainchild of Vic and Bob, featuring the characters Chris and Kinky John (now playing a policeman, "I am the American Eagle") who took part in The Club ("I might just be wrats!"). I found Match of the Day from the first day of the 98/99 season, which had the amusement of picking out Kevin Davis being a good investment for Blackburn, and also highlights of Arsenal playing Fiorentina at Wembley in the Champions league with Rui Costa, Batistuta, Petit, Overmars and Adams all on view. Flims I'd forgotten I had included the Game, The Blair Witch Project (the most poo-inducing film I think I've seen), Fargo and Seven

That was all a nice surprise but not what I'm posting about.

One of the tapes had some of 4Later contained on it, including a show, Really Good Videos (I think was the name but I could be wrong) where they played a video by Adam Green called "Jessica". It was a good song that I had never heard before but had heard of Adam Green as he was also in a band called The Moldy Peaches, whose CD I bought many years ago. I bought Jessica on iTunes and listening to it and searching around the internet for info about him lead my mind back to The Moldy Peaches CD.

Its an odd one due to it being very lo-fi in its production and by the cleverness of some of the lyrics being so linked to the simpleness of some of the music. The Adam Green song seemed a lot more expansive, featuring strings and normal production values (shock horror). Hearing it made me want to go and find my Moldy Peaches CD and give it another listen, a re-visit.

I dug it out of my boxes of CDs, along with a couple of Dinosaur Jr CDs and "Scream, Dracula, Scream" by Rocket from the Crypt, that I happened to see in the course of my search, and opened it up put in my computer.

That's when the surprise came. Sitting in the case, along with the Moldy Peaches CD was my copy of Sigur Ros's first album, Agaetis Byrjun, which I had thought I had lost somewhere along the way as I had opened up the case of it one day to find that it was not there, was not in my CD holder elsewhere and no where to be seen. I was a bit sad because it is one of the most amazing albums around and I mourned the loss of it (despite the fact that I had already put it on my computer and therefore could still listen to it).


I have no idea why I put it there, or when, but I now have it back in circulation, and all because Airplane! is on TV on Wednesday night.

Pocoyo

I was told at the weekend that I reminded someone of Pocoyo, the cute little boy in the CiTV show. Apparently it is because of his big smile.

Its a great show and proves that TV for young kids doesn't have to be bland, boring or patronising.

The makers of the show are obviously quite cool too, having their own blog to tell people stuff about how the show was put together and where the characters came from.

I'll have to go out and buy myself a blue hat and a little blue suit...

Feeding Horses Polos

Back to work after some lunch and whatnot and carrying on with the Top Rated shuffle for this afternoon. We'll see what comes up.

• Elvis Presley - An American Trilogy
• Avril Lavigne (!) - Complicated (Umm...I have varied tastes......)
• Hundred Reasons - Silver
• Daft Punk - Human After All
• Johnny Cash - Boy Named Sue
• Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World
• Tom McRae - Draw Down the Stars
• Pulp - His 'n' Hers
• Arctic Monkeys - From the Ritz to the Rubble
• Mogwai - Yes! I am a long way from home
• Veruca Salt - Seether
• AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Cheap
• Al Green - Glad You're Mine
• Weezer - The Good Life
• Therapy? - Trigger Inside
• The Divine Comedy - Little Acts of Kindness
  

And with that, I am becoming bored by writing this, so I'm sure that anyone reading it will be bored as well.

It's good that I have spent most of the day listening to good music, and having a few unexpected treats thrown up in the mix.

And remember:

Little acts of kindness
Make us all feel better
Unexpected flowers
Unrequested letter

So when somebody calls you
Give a friendly answer
And when somebody fails to call
Remember that weve all been there before

Little acts of kindness
Ill-conceived and reckless
Stay in bed this morning
Let me make you breakfast

So when somebody needs you
Do your best to help them
'Cos when somebody needs your help
Remember - well, we've all been there before

Little acts of kindness
Little things you can do
Helping those with blindness
Saying "please" and "thank you"
Making cups of coffee
Giving friends your rolo
Going to the offy
Feeding horses polos
Keeping your bedroom neat
Giving children dairylea
Putting down the loo seat
Doing work for charity

Truffle Shuffle

I've put all my top rated songs on shuffle in iTunes to see me through working this morning. So far I've had the joys of:

• The Smiths - Panic
• The Eagles - Hotel California
• Johnny Cash - Sam Hall
• Radiohead - Planet Telex
• At The Drive-In - Rolodex Propaganda
• Malcolm Middleton - Loneliness Shines
• Dirty Pretty Things - Bang Bang You're Dead
• Weezer - Butterfly
• Lambchop - Is a Woman
• The Smiths (again!) - How Soon is Now?
• U2 - The Fly (live in Boston)
• Radiohead - Talk Show Host
• Dinosaur Jr - Out There
• Damien Rice - Cold Water
• Public Enemy - Give it Up
  

Where I now break for lunch, a bit of Five Live or Jeremy Vine, Neighbours and the chance to think about something other than chemistry...

The World Cup's Over...

What am I going to do, and write about, now? I have to get on with writing my PhD and not have the little bright spots of football matches popping up throughout the day...

So long, thanks for all the memories...

World Cup 2006 Awards

Congratulations Italy

They won the most important thing of all but here are a few of my own awards for those in Germany over the last month:

Best Goal
Maxi Rodriguez







I always prefer individual goals to team ones. Argentina gave us the best of both and this one wins out in terms of sheer skill and excitement

Best Team
Germany

A team that had looked shamoblic in defence and had been derided by the media in the build up showed a very un-German, attacking style of play. The enthusiasm created by the first match carried them through, with the team improving all the time, giving a new national pride and identity across the country. Enthusiasm only gets you so far, though, and their talent just wasn't enough to get them past Italy in the semis. Despite that, they were like a breath of fresh air. 3rd place has been celebrated like a win in the host country.

Most Disapointing Team
Brazil

To whom much is given, much is expected. Brazil turned up at the tournament with the biggest number of potential match winners but failed to perform, besides a thrilling 45 minutes against the Japanese. Ronaldo - fat, unfit but seemingly untouchable, Ronaldinho - well below par, Adriano - lumbering, Kaka - faded after a promising start, Robinho added some of the missing spark but was criminally underused.

Least Inspiring Team
England

They always talked a good game, even after some terrible ones. Always promised that they would play better. They sucked so much of the life out of the game and the tournament when they stepped on the pitch. The so called Golden Generation lacked sparkle and value.

Lack of passion, pace, strong leadership, intelligent play and skill. They presented themselves as the Bolton of international football.

Most Lovable Manager
Jurgen Klinsmann

Like his team, entered this World Cup with a country against him and left with the country firmly behind him. His energy on the sidelines and his celebrations of goals were, at times, heartwarming. He managed to change the perception of German football in the space of a month by having a vision and sticking to it. Good on ye, Klinsi.

Best Game
Germany vs Italy

Right from the start both teams went for it. They continued to try and win all the way through extra time and Italy delivered the dramatic finish the game deserved

Best Team Performance
Argentina vs Serbia and Montenegro

Six goals, five scorers and those 24 passes, yet no player stood out above anyother. They were all brilliant.




Best Individual Performance
Zinedine Zidane vs Brazil

The highlight of my World Cup. Reminded everyone what he used to be and why we all loved it.

Best Newbies
Ghana and Ivory Coast

Ukraine got the furthest but were boring, Togo brought a certain ramshackle charm, the Czech's shone brightly.

The Ivory Coast were unlucky to be drawn in a tough group and it was great to see them celebrating the winning of the match against Serbia and Montenegro with such joy.

Ghana were fiercely competative and confounded expectations. It was a pity that they went out in such a limp match as that against Brazil

Much Ado About Nothing Award
Wayne Rooney

Could be given to the whole of the England squad but Rooney summed up their campaign. Everything promised, nothing delivered. England fans must have felt like Ricardo Carvalho and experienced a collective kick in the groin.

Best Young Player
Franck Ribery

Not a great deal of choice with players who burst on the scene in Germany. Franck Ribery, though, became my personal cult figure through his looks and playing style. He was called up due to public demand and, like the rest of the French squad, started terribly but got better and better as the tournament progressed. His style of playing incorporated pace, skill and commitment. He also looks like someone who will only become a well known figure through his sheer ability, as he is not what some people may call conventionly attractive. You want attacking players to be exciting and unpredictable when they get the ball and Franck certainly was.

An honourable mention should also go to Phillip Lahm. Again, he was a player who gave everything and allied it with a great footballing ability. The fact he reminded me of Phil Neville never dulled my enjoyment of watching him. Robinho caught the eye but was not used enough and, despite eveything else, you cannot deny Cristiano Ronaldo is highly talented.

Moment that Left You Thinking of What Once Was but Most Likely Will Never be Again
A portly Ronaldo running in on goal against Ghana, doing a trademark step over and sliding in his recordbreaking 15th goal in World Cups...but all slightly slower and more clumsy than it used to be...

Best Goal Celebration
Fabio Grosso
If he ever gives up football he should take up doing impressions. His Marco Tardelli, after scoring the late goal against Germany in the semi final, was very good.


Best Bit of Commentary

"Holding his pants there, just a little tug on the pants" - David Pleat, the kindly old, unintentionally comedy, uncle of the punditry world

Worst Bit of Commentary
Sorry, don't have the time or the space to make a list that big. Suffice to say that ITV win hands down, although the BBC are closer to challenging them than in the past.

Best Fans
South Korea

Throughout their match with France, the South Korea fans never gave up hope, never gave up making as much noise as they could and raised the volume (in a strangely high pitched tone) when their team looked to mount an attack.

Be the Reds!

Man Who Looked Least Likely to be a World Cup Manager

Otto Pfister

With a black shirt open to the belly, showing his medallion, coupled with pair of saggy blue jeans, and an equally saggy face Otto struck a very strange figure on the sidelines during Togo's opening match with South Korea.

Most Outrageous Show of Self Confidence
Zidane chipping his penalty in the World Cup final

If anyone else had done it you would have to have branded it arrogance but with Zidane it was mere self confidence. Buffon went the way of Zidane's semi final penalty, the ball went the way no one would have expected. You could almost believe that Zizou hit the bar on purpose.

Extra marks for the ball having enough spin to bounce back out, hitting the bar for a second time

Most Outrageous Show of Arrogance

Basically anything Cristiano Ronaldo did at this World Cup. The Craig Bellamy of top class, international football. You'd like to admit he is brilliant but you can't quite bring yourself to do it.

New Pantomine Villan for English fans
Cristiano Ronaldo

The complain ing to the referee, the diving, the showboating, the arrongance, the wink, the pout, the kissing of the ball and the triumphant penalty.

In the building tide of general dislike of the Portugese, Ronaldo was always going to be at the top of the list.

All together now....BOOOOO!!!!

(whisper it, he was brilliant at times though)


The Biggest "Oh NO!" Moment
The realistion of what Zidane had done, that he was being sent off and that was the end of his career.






I could go on and on but will leave with a heartwarming sight after such a heartbreaking one

Moment of Unexpected Beauty
The sunset over Berlin during the final

Thank you to the BBC for all the great photos

Pictures from my computer No. 13

Marco Tardelli, and friends, after scoring for Italy in the '82 World Cup Final

The Man in Black

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.

By: John R. Cash, © 1971 House of Cash, Inc.

The Man in Black

I'm just going to select all my Johnny Cash songs, put my iTunes on shuffle and spend the afternoon in the company of one of the greatest voices in American music

Good news for the final...

Italy are the designated "home" team for Sunday's final and so will wear their traditional blue kit with France in white and red.

(The Guardian)

Hopes for the World Cup Final

I hope that Zidane plays like he did against Brazil, rather than how he did against Portugal

I hope Italy are as positive as they were in the semi-final, rather than revert to type

I hope that there is a lack of diving and rolling around on the pitch

I hope that France wear white, to save us from an apearance by the horrendous Italy away shirt


I hope that Henry shows his Arsenal form not his french form

I hope we are talking about Zidane, Totti, Henry and Del Piero after the match, rather than Cannavaro, Thuram, Gallas and Buffon

I hope the support in the stadium isn't as negative as it was in Munich for the France vs Portugal. The crowd was whistling constantly, booing Cristiano Ronaldo (understandable) and booing Zidane (ridiculous)

I hope that there are no red cards

I hope there are no penalties


I hope we see a goal to rival the goals of the tournament

I hope Zidane adds a significant performance to close out his fantastic career and leaves us with a great memory, win or lose

I hope Totti finally lives up to his hype in a major tournament

I hope both teams follow Marco Van Basten's advice: "we have to be brave enough to play to win - and not be afraid to lose."

I hope it's an epic

All going to schedule

Recently, as the World Cup got underway and Italy were playing Ghana in their first match, my brother pointed out that Italy get to the final every 12 years, last doing so when they were beaten in 94 by Brazil. Before that it was '82, where they beat Germany in the final, and '70, being swept away by Pele's Brazil.

Last night they won a great game against Germany to go through to the final on Sunday, twelve years after appearing in the USA final. It was a great match and Italy stood out as the better team and were quite un-Italian in the way they looked to attack for most of the game.

Their reward came in two minutes at the end of extra time. Italy looked as the prospect of facing Germany in a penalty shoot out was not an option, bearing in mind the fact that only one German player has ever missed a penalty in 5 shootouts.

To their great credit, Germany were not playing for penalties either and were piling forward for most of the half hour. At times there seemed to be two games of "attack vs defence" with a massive amount of space in the middle.

Grosso was the man to finally break the collective heart of Germany, both players and nation, with a wonderful left foot, curling finish when Germany first failed to clear a corner and then left him completely unmarked ten yards from goal.

He seemed to subconciously emulate Marco Tardelli's celebration in the 1982 final and ran away, eyes closed, head shaking and face that seemed to want to show 3 or 4 emotions at once, each of them battling for supremacy.

A minute later Del Piero hammered the nail in the coffin with another wonderful finish, after a quick break and cute pass from Gilardino and Italy were through to the final after another 12 year wait.

In Spain, as has been well documented, the Italy campaign was shrouded in the fall out of a corruption scandal and the team took a long while to find their feet.

It looked to me that they had definitely found their feet last night.

Return of Zizou

The World cup this year has produced a lot of good things, great goals and great performances but the one that has warmed my heart more than any was the performance of Zinedine Zidane on Saturday night against Brazil.

I would say that he is the best player I have seen in my lifetime but for a long time he seems to have been written off at Madrid and with France. From what I have read it seems rightly that this has been the case, as he has not performed in any way like his old self for the last couple of seasons, definitely not at the Euros in 2004 or the World Cup in 2002.

This competition seemed to start off in the same vein as those two other recent tournaments. Zidane was off the pace, the French seemed completely disjointed and potentially going home early.

Zidane was substituted against South Korea and it looked like the master had departed the international football scene in an undignified way, he had already been booked in the game, meaning that he would miss the last group game against Togo. He looked tired, angry and annoyed as he walked off the pitch and sat down in the dugout.

Then something happened in the Spain match, Zidane woke up and showed little glimpses of what I remembered from Euro 2000 and France 98. Maybe the substitution brought it home to him that his career was literally at stake. A little stepover here, a spin there and then his wonderful finish for the third French goal, seemingly twisting his legs in knots to shoot the way no one was expecting.

The penny dropped that he was retiring and that if they lost that match he was going home and never coming back to play in a professional football match ever again. He responded in the right way and started rolling back the years. He also found players, in Ribery and Henry, who were going to be inspired by the change and start to play themselves. It was only a little glimpse but more than had been seen in recent history.

In the Brazil game he started where he had finished against Spain by gliding away from three Brazil players within the first couple of minutes. He continued on throughout the game, aided by Vieira, Henry and Ribery, and it was all there, the touch, the movement, the effortless skill, the ability to glide past players and deliver a visionary pass.

Touchingly, Robinho, the Brazil and Real Madrid striker who had remained on the bench for far too longin this match, came over to him at the end, high fived and gave him a big hug. He was showing his appreciation for someone playing football as it should be played. Zidane may wear adidas boots but this performance was pure "Joga Bonito"

It was the best individual display of this World Cup so far and reminded me of what a joy it is to watch Zizou at this level of his game. He appears so effortless and majestic, never rushed, not gifted with great pace but just sublime talent and able to do so much with a football.

It gave my wife a further insight into my obsession with football as I think she was a bit baffled at me getting so excited by the performance of one player.

If Zidane continues in this vein of form he has rediscovered after so long, and the rest of the French team perform as they did alongside him, there might be a glorious end to the career of a glorious player.

Allez les Bleus!