EDitorial ± 17-Jun-2010

World Cup Shorts

Another World Cup, another part-completed pull-out guide from the Guardian. Pleasing to see the Frenchies go down 2-0 to those Mexican bandidos tonight, even though j'adore rubber-faced Ribery. That Dos Santos fella with the girly hair has played at all the great clubs, you know: Barcelona, Galatasaray, Spurs, and, er, Ipswich. Scored a goal against the Canaries, too. Go Giovani!

Doesn't seem too long since Deutschland '06, where I stayed the course from day 1 right through to day 31. I was younger then, and so were you. Going way way back to palindromic 2002 is to visit a foreign country: contracting, in my 30s and with kids who didn't talk back quite so much.

In search of a particular Lego Atlantis set (OK, the Seabed Scavenger) at my local Asda last weekend, and pumped up in anticipation of the Uncle Sam showdown, I shamelessly purchased a WC2010 tie-in -- a highly bouncy one quid football carrying the livery of St George. Size 5, too. As it swung pertly from a carrier bag on the handlebars, it symbolised energy, newness and tension. A week later, post Robert Green, it can be found in the pit under the trampoline reeking of despair, dirt and deflation.

Working from home today -- The Boy's off school having collected another stamp on his casualty loyalty card following another playground knock to the head -- I was trying to be good, concentrating on the dining room laptop, the Dell Air. Then I weakened and thought it would be OK to put the lunchtime match on a second PC screen, taking advantage of the miracle that is tvcatchup.com (watch live UK TV on your 'puter). About 15 minutes in, The Boy raced in saying 1-0!

No, I said, looking at the tiny screen, nobody's scored yet: maybe he did have mild concussion?

Argentina, he said, they just scored.

Look, I said, it's still nil-nil.

No, look, he said, and we watched my pixels rearrange themselves as an unfortunate South Korean stuck in an own goal. Turns out that TV catch-up is a minute or two behind the pace.