Those t-shirts and my t-shirt

Day -622. WorldCup2018

Did you hear the story about the 4,000 t-shirts that the English FA planned to hand out to supporters at the England-Malta match next week but are now in the bin/garbage/trash (I never know who's reading this)? The t-shirts had a quote from Allardyce on his first day on the job: "The journey starts with us all pulling together."

As sad as I am about the FA's wasted money, I wonder if they, or The Telegraph's fake far east investors, or Allardyce himself (for being so greedy) will consider compensating me for the t-shirt I had printed for my fantasy trip to Wembley:
"Big Sam: Watch out! Norway nailed Ron! Iceland froze Roy! Malta will make you cross!"

I may even have to ask the FA for my money back for my flight and match ticket. A big part of the attraction was going to be watching Sam's nicotine gum chewing get more furious, the furrow on his brow get deeper, and the shouting at his players get more incomprehensible as Schembri of Boavista, Muscat of Arezzo and Mifsud of Valletta run rings around Stones of Manchester City and Smalling of Manchester United. Gareth Southgate may be a tad less easy to wind up, unless somebody mentioned a missed penalty.

Seeing as my crowdfunding comment the other day did not generate any positive response, the FA may not have to refund what was indeed just a fantasy trip. I'm still holding out that the Malta FA Wil choose to reward one of their top supporters with a trip to Wembley.

This has been played many times over since 1981 but since I mentioned it, it's an excuse to play this classic commentary moment again. I just can't wait for the Maltese equivalent of.

Racisim in Russia

Day -623. #WorldCup2018

A few days after Fifa disbanded it Fascism task force because it's work had been done, and a few days after I used an incident in Rostov-on-don as an example of the problems with racism that still exist in Russia, fans of FC Rostov once again showed the world how welcome the world is going to be in Russia.

A banana was thrown onto the pitch during FC Rostov's match against PSV Eindhoven. UEFA will now undoubtedly take action against FC Rostov while Fifa have nobody to deal with the problem of racism and discrimination in one of the host cities of its World Cup.

England-Malta: it starts here

Day -624 #WorldCup2018

In case we (you) have forgotten amongst all the Sam Allardyce hoopla yesterday, managerless England's next match is a World Cup qualifier against Malta on October 8th.While Gareth Southgate has been named interim manager for England's next 4 matches as the hunt for a straight, clean, whiter than white permanent replacement starts, this match against Malta is perfect ammunition for the "even _____ could mange England to a win over Malta". Anything or anyone from the Prime Minister's children (does she have any?) to Victoria Beckham's personal assistant to the FA mascot could fill that blank. I would even offer that I could sit in that England dugout, tweeting and facebooking live updates, yelling out a few instructions (pass, shoot etc) and doing that fancy thing that all managers do with their dancing fingers and still England would win.

If Southgate gets invited to something better on that Saturday evening and the job is given to somebody else for the day they will be all out to better Allardyce's record as England manager: a 2-0 win will mean a 100% winning record but with more goals scored and a better goal difference.

It'll be good to point out now that I am fully behind the Malta team and dream of an incredible upset. It is unfortunate that this comical moment in the history of English football had to happen just before they play Malta. The humour material is just too easy.

It will also good to mention that in my moments of feeling like a 12 year old again I'm hoping that the FA do have one of those "manager for a day" competitions and me, the winner, gets to be at Wembley on October 8th. Yes, in case you wondered, right now there will be no live updates from Wembley from me.

I also think that the Malta FA should run a competition for one lucky winner to be there. The conditions for entering said competition should be:
-Must be Maltese, but one parent (preferably mother) must be English
-Must be currently living in Toronto, Canada
-Must have attended the Malta-Jordan match in April, 1985
I believe I would stand a pretty strong chance of winning.

I did try the more conventional method of getting to Wembley. Forget the small matter of crossing the Atlantic, I tried looking into tickets. I say tried becasue it seems even the FA website is conspiring against my presence. After trying every way possible of signing in (facebook, twitter, email) to buy tickets as an away supporter the website kept stubbornly refusing to take me any further.

This could be an excuse for an interesting social experiment. Crowdfunding. Could it work? Could I even think about it for the sake of getting to Wembley to watch Malta play England? Hmm.

Sam, what else.

Day -625. #WorldCup2018

Oh Sam. What have you done? You had made it. From the often ridiculed manager of smaller clubs, laughed at for your different methods that were ahead of most other teams in England, snubbed by the big clubs, to your dream job: manager of England. When you got that appointment you probably went home, enjoyed a few cans, threw on a DVD of Jay Jay Okocha and Ivan Campo in their finest moments for Bolton and stuck up your middle finger at the dart ridden pictures of Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho in your basement man room. I did it, you poncy twerps in your designer suits and league champions medals.

When you got the England job I surprised myself that I was a fan and in agreement. This is what England need, I thought, somebody who can shake things up, one of the lads who says it as it is; a coach who will not stand for any whiny players and any "oh look at my latest haircut photos on instagram" distractions.

But, Sam, you couldn't give it all up, could you. The loutish, uncouth character that the the critics of your appointment, well, criticised you for was in the end your downfall after 67 days. 67 days. I feel terribly disappointed for you. The dream job gone because you couldn't say no to a bit more money on the side after sitting around having some beers with a couple of dudes who did a pretty good job of playing the parts of shady investors from the Far East. Making fun of Roy Hodgson's speech impediment, saying that Gary Neville should sit down and shut up, and calling the FA's Wembley stadium redevelopment stupid really didn't help at all. But really it was about the money and the interest in making deals on the side, deals that would break FA rules and make yourself some more money for yourself. This is the same FA that hired you, that trusted you, that had faith in you to not only make the England team a whole lot better than that sad Euro 2016 bunch, but also to bring some respect back to English football. And now, just as the laughter from Italy, Germany, France, Spain was dying down after that Iceland loss there is probably a lot more snickering from Munich to Madrid. Hire the saviour and fire him after 67 days. Who is on that hiring committee?

So Sam is gone. I predicted a while ago, about 67 days ago, that he might slip into retirement in Iceland, sometime after Euro 2020, and end up living in Steven Lennon's basement. Now what will he do. How do you get over that life-shattering disappointment?

Well, maybe, here is the answer.....

In other news today, Aston Villa carried on with their quest for a record number of draws in a season. I am not making this up. It's almost as though they want to fulfill my prophecy. They came close to messing it up, but thankfully conceded an equalizing goal in the last minute. All eyes are on the manager, Roberto di Matteo, who's mandate of promotion is not looking very attainable.

In further English Championship news, Derby County suspended their manager, Nigel Pearson, because of his "behaviour". It is rumoured that he will not return.

Di Matteo could be gone, Pearson is pretty much unemployed and you know what the obvious thought is. All of a sudden Sam's bad day could lead to him being back in his element. Nobody will be laughing for much longer when him and his new team bully their way to promotion.

Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, Sam. Maybe there is supposed to be a different ending, that doesn't involve Steven Lennon and a basement in Iceland.

Fifa: no more racism

Day -626. #WorldCup2018

This is old news now, if you were following this kind of news today, but it is still worth repeating because it is so shockingly amusing in a dark humour kind of way.

Fifa's new general secretary Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura announced that Fifa's Taskforce Against Racism and Discrimination has been disbanded. That's it then. Fifa has decided that they have solved the problem of racism in football. This as one of the countries with the worst records of incidents of fans' racism aimed at players prepares to host the football world, and Fifa's flagship tournament, in less than 2 years

Only this month UEFA punished Russian club Rostov, from one of the Russia 2018 host cities, for racist behaviour in a Champions League match.

Quite rightly the decision has been criticized by many within football and organizations that campaign against racism as shameful. Maybe Fifa thinks that because they hired a lady from Africa to be their secretary general that they have done their bit and the world is a better place.

TFC and hockey

Day -627. #WorldCup2018

I have two funny, or mildly amusing, stories today mostly for non-North American readers because unless they don't turn on a radio or TV, or go online then they probably have heard both of these a few times. And the humour is needed, not to ignore the incredible horrific events happening because the Americans and Russians carry on a disgusting argument over who's lives are more important while those lives get destroyed, but because I never feel I am in any way fit to sit here and offer an opinion on Syria and it's people. So I deal with it not by ignoring it but by talking about what I do know about and what can give me some surreal, maybe, distraction. Maybe one day I will meet refugees from Syria and the only thing I will be able to talk them about is football and that will make them happy.

Toronto FC qualified for the end of season playoffs today. That was the news last week. Today's news: Toronto FC qualified for the end of season playoffs today. Yes, again, because it turns out last week, a day after celebrating the achievement the league informed the club that, er, sorry, we kind of messed up and you haven't made it yet. All North American sports run on playoffs. The leagues are built for them. With no promotion or relegation it's the playoffs at the end of the season that generate all the excitement. And the MLS (Major League Soccer), like all other leagues keep a number of statistics all season and figure out numerous mathematical combinations of who can qualify for the post season as the regular season nears it's end. Last week somebody in that MLS office must have missed carrying a number somewhere or putting an "x" in an equation in the wrong place. They even admitted that it gets so complicated that they don't expect the clubs to keep track, but that the clubs rely on the MLS telling them if they have qualified. So the MLS said yes last week based on a number of x's and y's happening and Toronto FC announced the good news to their fans who celebrated. But on Monday the MLS said there was new set or permutations that had to happen this week to make it official. Finally, Toronto's spot was confirmed after a draw yesterday against Philadelphia.

The other little story goes back to my post about the World Cup of hockey a couple of weeks ago. The experts on the sports radio I was listening to in the car in desperation (despair at the same music played over and over again) were almost laughing in their dismissal of Team Europe as a serious contender. Well, guess who's in the final (or Finals to use the North American lingo)? Yes, the useless Europeans, made up of players from the lesser European hockey nations (no Swedes, Finns, Russians or Czechs) will play Canada in the final. The final, because hockey can do this, is a best of three games series. Just like in football, so much for the experts. And why am I talking about hockey? It'll take too long to go back over that again. Trust that I did have a solid reason for the diversion a couple of weeks ago.

Pogba!

Day -628. #WorldCup2018

So today, on the traditional day of football in England, Saturday, all I saw was a Brazilian-esque goal from Arsenal who showed Chelsea's new Italian manager that he has a long way to go before he turns Chelsea into a mean defence Italian style team. And I saw Fernando Llorente score his first goal in England, sorry Wales, for Swansea. He's one of those players who, for no easily explainable reason, I wish will do well in the Premier League. Sadly, he seems to have joined a team that is going to be struggling and going through changes this season.

In my other watching, the social media and online updates side, I saw that Paul Pogba scored his first goal for Manchester United. That will be the start of him paying back some of his massive transfer fee, they will say. But he's not about the goals, they will also say. He does way more than that. I will say it's a good thing he scored because finally most people realised he was actually on the pitch.

And finally, in the other twitter match, my suffering as a fan of a newly relegated team carried on as Aston Villa did indeed, as feared and predicted, stick to their objective of trying to become the first team ever to win promotion with more draws than wins or defeats. I cannot remember when they last lost a match (I do, really, Bristol City, 1-3 and then Villa went and paid a record fee for their centre forward, but it fit my story) but did they actually beat anybody this season? (er, yes 3-0 over the mighty Rotherham).

And tomorrow is the traditional day of football in Italy which, in my childhood was my football day. Now, nothing. But it's ok because the best player in Italy from the last few years, the superstar Pogba is apparently showing up on some pitches in England these days.

The SAS-Ligaen, again

Day -629. #WorldCup2018

I wish I could be intelligent and philosophical, write something deep and meaningful when I get round to writing this a few minutes before the end of the said day in my countdown. Or better still I should do this 12 hours earlier when I might come up with something a bit more thoughtful.

Instead I'm looking for results from the Danish SAS-Ligaen for my entertainment. And there were none today. Whereas Friday night football has become widespread in Europe, not in Denmark. I guess on the 5th day, they rested.

The Danish SAS-Ligaen

Day -630. WorldCup2018

I've been checking football results from around the world everyday this week. I may see more of a pattern of different leagues' structures as I keep looking. One thing I have noticed so far is that not only is Monday the day for a match from the Danish SAS-Ligaen. So is Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. Football everyday. Fans there must either love football or hate the schedule, or at the very least have a hard time figuring out what day of the week their team is playing each week.

The other World Cup

Day -631. WorldCup2018

I'm sat here watching the World Cup of hockey, as opposed to the Ice Hockey World Championships (see my post from a couple of weeks ago for reference) thinking is "sat here" bad English English, from England, or bad North American English. Where have I borrowed it from? It sounds horrible anyway.

The other thought I have as I'm sitting here watching the NHL World Cup of Hockey, not the IIHF World Championships, is that this may compare to Fifa's World Cup when it comes to the astronomical value of talent on the ice but it really doesn't do too much for me.

I enjoy, and will watch, most sports if they're on TV and it's a world championship or major tournament. There's excitement in the winning and losing. I will watch Costa Rica play Greece at the football World Cup, not because I think it will be great football but because it is the World Cup and there are players doing their best to win. I have watched handball at the Olympics for the same reason I sat through Costa Rica and Greece. This is the first World Cup of hockey game I am watching and I will probably watch the semifinal and final if I am around.

There's two things for me, or that maybe I should say aren't for me. It's the World Cup of NHL players and it feels like it, a made for TV glamour event. I've watched IIHF World Championships and that seems to be more about the hockey. The other thing is the hockey itself. When I came to Canada I got into following hockey and it became my TV replacement for football. Of all the North American sports it was the most like football: none of the shot clocks of basketball, or the is-anything-happening-yet of baseball, or the NFL and it's never ending commercials interrupted by a few overly complicated, tactical plays. Hockey was simple: end to end, get the puck in the other net. I just had to ignore the blue line and the celebrated statistic of a player's number of career fights.

Then it changed. There has been, for a number of years now, more football on TV, so I realised I didn't need this frantic, wild, no-possession game anymore. It's just too quick and nerve racking for my gentle football brain.

I will give this World Cup credit though for not being like Olympic hockey where all the teams are split into groups, just like football, but, unlike football they all qualify for the next round. It's all just to figure out who plays who. What a waste of time and emotions. In this World Cup they do the sensible two groups of four with the top two in each playing in the semifinals.
So I will watch and I will enjoy. But it will never be a substitute for my football World Cup, just as long as Fifa never take too many ideas from the NHL.

Men at heavy work

Day -632. WorldCup2018

I always love a story in a headline, or a headline to a story that tells the story. When I say "love" I mean think it's pretty funny, as though the writer couldn't think of a title after writing the story so he or she just wrote another sentence and put it at the top. Probably like I've done a few times.

The Welcome Russia 2018 tourist portal has a great example of one of these:
"Workers assembled a giant crane to help build a 2018 World Cup stadium"

No prizes for guessing what this story is about. Well, they're building a stadium over there in Russia for that World Cup thingy and they needed a big crane so some men built the crane....to build the stadium...in Russia...for the World Cup.

I still wonder how that sort of information is of any use to any tourist visiting Russia for the World Cup. Architectural tourism maybe.

Monday night football

Day -633. WorldCup2018

Further to my post a few days ago that there is always football being played somewhere, everyday, I checked results from around the world today and it's not only in England that Monday has become the one-match day. Ironically, there was no Premier League match today, but fans from Spain and Portugal to Sweden and Romania and all over South America could have been coming home from work to watch "the Monday match" on TV.

It's a good thing, right? Keep the weekend going into Monday night, or call it the hangover match. Also those two teams get all the attention on Monday. Football does indeed never stop.

Middlesbrough or Grays?

Day -634. WorldCup2018

It was fun yesterday remembering how I became a fan of Aston Villa so many years ago. Why I became a football fan is another story which I've never really thought about.

To answer the question as to whether I had any direct connection with Aston Villa, or Birmingham, (the question was asked by me as a projection of what somebody might ask) it's a no. Nobody from my family is or was in Birmingham, or had any connection there. If I had to follow a team from the one side of the my family I would be a fan of Middlesbrough or Grays Athletic. Thankfully, I didn't find out about my mother's birthplace until long after I had discovered Villa. And Grays? They were, and still are, a non-league team so they don't really count.

I was going somewhere with this other than another trip down memory lane. Where to, I don't remember. So I'll just like any bad writer I'll leave it there, with no conclusion. Take it as a snapshot. Nothing more.

Fridges and Villa shirts

Day -635. WorldCup2018

Before I expand my inspiration and material search to the wider football world, I have two happy memories brought on by watching English football today.

I wasn't watching Leicester play Burnley but following the updates online. It was wonderful to see the name Islam Slimani pop up as the scorer of Leicester's first goal today. Slimani made quite a name for himself as part of the very exciting Algeria team at the 2014 World Cup. They were a breath of fresh air with their quick, all out attacking football. I adopted them as my team, using my French Algerian grandmother as my justification. I hope my fellow countryman is a hit in Leicester. Two goals on his debut is a pretty solid start.

While keeping updated on the Premier League scores I was searching online for a stream of Aston Villa's latest shot at not winning or losing, and ensuring they get promoted from the EFL by winning one point at a time. I couldn't understand much of the (what I think was) Czech commentary apart from "Aston Villa" and "Ipswich", but "Villa onslaught" and "Ipswich almost stole it at the death" were probably said. Villa did indeed manage to maintain what the score was at 0 minutes right up until the final whistle.

That Villa were playing against Ipswich didn't just remind of the best goal I saw live at Villa Park, right in front of me: Dean Saunders' lob from a distance against Ipswich in 1993. It took me way back further than that to 1981, when Ipswich Town almost became my team for life. It was my first season of following English football and the headlines always seemed to say, "Ipswich, top of the league". A team to follow was needed seeing as my older brothers already had their teams. They must have used similar selection strategies as me seeing as they were Leeds and Liverpool and given their ages and those teams' corresponding success at the time. So Ipswich it was about to be until that Saturday afternoon in May, at around 4.45pm, 1981 when I walked into a sports shop with my mother having asked her for an Ipswich team shirt. Thanks to the man in the shop listening to his radio and informing us that Villa had just won the league, on his recommendation a Villa shirt was bought and a Villa fan I became. The conspiracy theorist buried in me may try to say that maybe he didn't have any Ipswich shirts and so my timing was very lucky in terms of him making a sale. Also, to take away some of the romanticism of the moment, the "Villa shirt" was hardly the real thing. This was shopping in Malta in the days of socialism bordering on communism and sugar rations and something that was a sad excuse for chocolate. The "sports shop" was part of an appliance shop. You went in and asked for your bad imitation football kits, and football boots that fell apart after a few weeks, while your parents looked at what washing machine they were going to buy to replace the latest one that had stopped working. Which reminds me of the washing machine repair guy.....hmm, but that's a whole other memory.

I was still very proud of my Villa imitation shirt. The colours were right and I loved it. A few years later it was replaced by an authentic 1982 European Cup winners shirt bought by mail from the club shop. I remember walking home from a local match and somebody stopped in a car and asked if I would sell it to him. No way. I was not walking home with no shirt on. No, I was not giving that up. Not only did I wear it way too often, I must have known that it was retro hip when it was current.
Many years later (I'm not counting) I'm sitting on my couch watching the two teams, who those so many years ago battled it out to be crowned English Champions, try to get out of mid-table old school second division mediocrity, with a Czech commentator who for all I know wasn't even born on that Saturday in May 1981. He might have told us a story about 1981, maybe. I wonder if he had Villa and Ipswich shirts in real-Communist Czechoslovakia.

Nicaragua?

Day -636. WorldCup2018

I like the sound of this day in the countdown.....636....636.....sounds melodic.

Anyway, moving on. A memory hit me today of when I first thought of this crazy countdown idea. It must have been before the World Cup in 2006. My plan was to report on football for a year from around the world. My thinking was that on any day there is a football match going on somewhere in the world. It would be fun, I thought, to find out who's beating who in the Nicaraguan first division.

I may re-visit that plan. It's not hard to find football these days however. Champions League on Tuesday and Wednesday, Europa League on Thursday, Premier League in England on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, plus Bundeliga and other leagues from Friday-Monday. But that's all too easy. I'll have to find something a bit more interesting.

After that idea in 2005, it took until 2013 before I got something going. After this countdown ends, what next?

There's always the Europa League, no?

Day -637. WorldCup2018

Another short one.

The European club competition that most teams are embarrassed to qualify for started today. For teams like Manchester United it's a reminder that they finished outside the top 4 in England last season. And for the Italian teams, Roma and Napoli, it's another year of not being quite good enough to win a qualifying round to get into the Champions League. And so the competition of sour losers will carry on with an overall sense of Thursday grumpiness until April when the remaining teams will realise that there's only 8 of them left and there a good chance they could win this thing.

And just like Liverpool they will put a lot of effort in and lose in the final to Sevilla, again.

Come on...oh Spurs!

Day -638. WorldCup2018

Ignore me today. I'm just making sure I don't miss a day.

Totenham Hotspur were back in the Champions League today but played at Wembley Stadium. The biggest crowd ever to watch an English club showed up at Wembley: 85,000. Spurs spoiled the moment and the fun of probably 82,000 of them by losing.

Show me something special.

Day -639. WorldCup2018

I realise it takes a lot to impress me, or to put it better I don't get wow-ed easily. It may be my older age, older than when I was a young boy or teenager who thought anything that Gary Shaw or Diego Maradona did was pure magic. Yes, I am talking football. It would take too much insight to delve into what impresses the other me, the person outside football.

My lack of enthusiasm for a wow factor which seems to hit other people could also be down to the overload of information on so many forms of media telling me what I should be impressed by. I decided for myself that Brazil 1982 were beautiful to watch, or that a Maradona move was breathtaking. Now I'm told that Lionel Messi should be adored as a football god. Debatable. Or that Paul Pogba is the greatest Frenchman to walk this planet since Michel Platini. Don't make me laugh.
And, on a slightly different note, I hear, and read about, a two day debate about what England manager Sam Allardyce said about Wayne Rooney, that he can't control what position he plays on the pitch. Uproar! English newspapers and social media went into overdrive. How dare he say that? Has he lost control already? Really, hands up anybody else who thinks that that off the cuff, backhanded compliment of Rooney's talent wasn't really that shocking. Thankfully, Rooney agreed and said it wasn't a big deal. Even though I occasionally doubt the decisions of football players off the pitch I do give them a big virtual pat on the back when they come out and say, "what's all the fuss about"?

I was thinking about this media's need for sensationalism and big stories twice today. On my way home a breaking news story came on the radio. What's this, I wondered, as I realised from the newscaster's happy tone that it was good news. The "FANTASTIC" news (in capitals because the lady on the radio put so much stress on the word that it sounded like it was in caps) that we were to be amazed by was that for the first time in over 20 years more than 3 million people had attended Toronto Blue Jays home games. Interesting news, sure, and a sign that the team is doing well. But how is that going to do anything to help the sort of struggling team make this year's playoffs. How many fans really care? I do not think I am exaggerating this lady's tone when she seemed to expect there to be dancing in the streets tonight.

The other thing big news today was from the opening round of Champions League matches. Barcelona beat Celtic 7-0. That's a big score and doesn't happen between two professional European teams very often. But hold the praise and ooh and ah parade for Barca. They played a team that plays in the same league as Hearts. Hearts, who a few weeks ago were beaten at home by Birkirkara, of Malta. I'm sure Barca were amazing. But surely whenever they want to they should be able to dismantle a team that wasn't much better than Hearts last season. Don't get me wrong. Barca, in full flight, are a joy to watch; football truly at its best, but I'll wait to see what happens in the semifinals when Messi can't break down Athletico Madrid's defence. Figure them and Fernando Torres out, and I'll be impressed.

Back to Birkirkara and Hearts, there's a story that impresses me. And maybe I'm biased but watching Malta's Carmel Busutill weave through the West German to score that goal created a never to be forgotten impression that didn't need tweets and posts to tell me how great it was.

LU-KA-KU!

Day -640. WorldCup2018

If I missed a day, what would I do? Could I? Probably not now. So on I go.

At 10 minutes to the end of the day, what comes to mind. Romelu Lukaku. He scored a hat trick today for Everton against Sunderland. All day I read about how he hadn't scored since March. And then he scored three. Did I see any of them? No. Do I really care that I missed football on TV? Not really. It hardly seems special any more when it seems to be on everyday.

But it was good news for Lukaku, after a bad start to the day when a story emerged that he was angry at Everton for not paying for the private jet to fly him back from international duty with Belgium in Cyprus. Lukaku tweeted that the story was all BS. Modern football: on TV all the time and players on social media with instant quotes. There is no need for the old fashioned press conference anymore.

Bravo! Or not.

Day -641. WorldCup2018

Wow, I say myself. I've been doing this for a while. I decided to start a few days after the official 1000 days to go was marked. I originally said I would not keep this up every day. I thought I would do it weekly or at milestone days...950, 900 etc. Now I worry if the day is coming to an end and I haven't written anything.

It was an English football weekend. Yesterday Pep masterminded a win over Jose once again. But, ah, the embrace was so warm. However, I bet that many in the media wished there was a refused handshake or an angry exchange of words. Without any controversy, the sports writing folk had to make something up about Man. United's terrible tactics as an excuse for why Manchester City looked like they were going through a training routine for most of the match. There was a little bit of after match entertainment in Pep's praise of City's new goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo. A proud manager has to stand by his much sought-after man. However, it was hilarious that he could praise that performance. Pep was said to be a big fan of Bravo's ability with the ball at his feet. Based on what we saw yesterday, he's terrible in the air with his hands and looks a bit lost when trying to do anything with a football at his feet.

Today I was back to the search for an online stream to watch Aston Villa's new expensive signings put a few goals past poor Nottingham Forest. Armed with a laptop and an hdmi connecting wired I hunted all over the internet in between pop-up ads and warnings that my laptop was about to explode unless I contacted the saviour offering his phone number while my phone kept me updated on all the goals I was missing. When I thought I was close I then had to figure out how to get what was on my little screen onto the TV. It was all to no avail anyway. The 90 minutes were up and I was still searching. Forest, meanwhile, very cheekily equalised late on and Villa's stirring comeback from a goal down went flat. At least it wasn't Nicklas Bendtner who scored for Forest. There's a player with a story, or two, for another day.

The upshoot of my morning experience was that I was all technologically prepared for the US Open tennis final in the evening. This techy business might not be that far fetched for me after all.

Two World Cups

Day -642. WorldCup2018
 

If ever you, a football fan, worry about Gianni Infantino's plan for a 40 team World Cup and what that would do to the format, and who all the extra spots would go to, just be thankful that you are not a hockey fan, of the ice variety.

As I live in the land of hockey, and as I am generally drawn to any sports news on the radio and TV just like any star gazer is enthralled by any Toronto International Film Festival news, I find myself following the news about the upcoming World Cup of hockey taking place in Toronto. And here is your first lesson: this is the World Cup of hockey, distinct from the hockey World Championships. In a nutshell it is the tournament for players and fans of the National Hockey League (NHL), whereas the World Championships are run by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

My apologies at this point to anybody who might be offended, or who's intelligence might be insulted, by my ice hockey for dummies tone.

So we have 2 World Cups essentially, one run by the world governing body of hockey and one run by the richest league in the world. A simple comparison is the English Premier League running its' own World Cup, only for players who play in its' league, and running this as a competing World Cup to Fifa's. Add in also that the World Cup of hockey is played by NHL rules, not IIHF rules. Yes, there is a difference. One of the benefits, for the NHL, of the NHL rules is that there are more breaks, which means more TV advertising time and of course more money. The NHL World Cup is not an IIHF sanctioned event, but does need it's approval for the various countries to participate. Sepp Blatter would be turning in his grave of football exile if he knew that the Premier League clubs were running a non-Fifa sanctioned World Cup.

Now to the teams taking part, which is where to me it gets rather amusing and bemusing. The NHL seemed to have embarked on an exercise of "how do keep the true hockey fans (the ones who spend money) happy and interested but also be seen to be inclusive of all hockey countries". There was no qualifying. Instead it was all by invitation with a couple of made up teams. Canada, USA, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic are in, the countries from where the majority of the NHL players originate. But still left out quite a few NHL players. So a Team North America was put together made up of Under 23 players from Canada and USA. Sadly, the third North American country, Mexico, don't have any players in the NHL. That still left out a few more players who should be at the party. They will be there as Team Europe, which includes the Danes, Latvians, Slovaks, Germans, etc. My information generated from listening to sports radio tells me that while Team North America will be fun to watch, and a dangerous opponent, Team Europe is a bit of the sad team, there to make up the numbers and to keep all the minor hockey countries happy.

The World Cup of hockey is making a comeback after it was last held in 2004 and before that in 1996. It is a successor to the Canada Cup, held five times between 1976 and 1991. Ironically, given how different this World Cup is to Fifa's World Cup in terms of structure and make-up, the brainchild behind the Canada Cup, Alan Eagleson, was inspired by Fifa's World Cup when he came up with the idea. He wanted a true World Cup where all the best players played. At that time the Olympics were strictly for amateur players and the World Championships clashed with the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs. In 1997 Eagelson was found guilty of fraud and embezzlement, for stealing money from his clients in his role as a hockey agent and from tournaments such as the Canada Cup. I daresay that rather than him being inspired by Fifa, some of his more questionable work may have inspired a few now-disgraced Fifa officials.

This has all taken me a long way from football, for a few reasons. One because when I hear World Cup I immediately think of football but this is a World Cup which can hardly be compared to Fifa's. Also, as a football fan and a European, I find the whole concept mildly amusing. And lastly I probably wonder about the way football may go. With all the political interference that has seeped into everything from domestic leagues to the Champions League, to the World Cup and the huge amount of revenue that football is generating for some teams, some players and some countries how long is it before the Fifa World Cup is replaced by the Champions League World Cup of football?

Almost blank

Day -643. WorldCup2018

Another late day. It's hard finding something of interest everyday. I will be better tomorrow. One more day off the calender.

Late night

Day -644. WorldCup2018

One of those late nights where thoughts of football and World Cups are on my brain but are getting stuck somewhere on the way down. Back to weekend league action this, er, weekend. Maybe Neymar will remember that he plays for Barcelona after what seems like 6 months playing for Brazil. But Brazil weren't complaining.

No Luke at Wembley

Day -645. WorldCup2018

Ah, silence. After a few days of qualifiers all over the world it's time to relax and look forward to the next batch in October.

Malta's new superstar Luke Gambin of Barnet FC, won't got his fairytale appearance for Malta at Wembley against England on October 8th. After his sending off against Scotland, Fifa informed the Malta FA that he would be summoned to a disciplinary hearing. Poor Luke. A momentary rush of blood to the head and his story for the grandchildren is ruined.

Around the qualifiers

Day -646 WorldCup2018

I very often think that I enjoy World Cup qualifying more than the actual finals. This is especially true for the last round of qualifying when there are multiple matches going on with a number of combinations of possible results that will produce qualifying teams and others that narrowly miss out.

Today is by no means the final round anywhere but in CONCACAF the final matches of the fourth round are being played. Six teams move on to the final round. I am watching Canada-El Salvador as I write this. Canada need to win but they also need Mexico to beat Honduras and the combined goal difference has to be plus five in Canada's favour. Sadly, it's not looking too good for my second home country. At 2-0 to Canada with 15 minutes left there was hope that even with the other match still at 0-0, Canada could score a couple more and hope for a late Mexican winner. But El Salvador just scored and now it looks like the inevitable will happen: another disappointing qualifying campaign will end with Canada nowhere near qualifying. Four minutes left that should have been 3-1. Ah well.

No such negative feelings amongst Brazilian fans today. They beat Colombia 2-1 and seemed to have really turned their campaign around since their Olympic team won that emotional and historic gold medal. And they have a new coach.

In other exciting non-final day news Albania and Macedonia came back to play the last 13 minutes of their match, abandoned because of torrential rain yesterday. And the 13 minutes made a difference as Albania scored a winner.

And Syria. Oh Syria. Keeping track of where they are going to play their home matches is as difficult as it probably is for their coach to keep track of his players. Up until last week they were meant to be playing their "home" match against South Korea in Macau. Then, with just a few days to go, the Macau football association announced that a consensus was not reached with the Syrian association. It was not said but it can be assumed that money was the issue. So a new venue was needed. The original hosts, Lebanon, were mentioned but the Koreans were not happy at the prospect of having to find a flight to the Middle East at such late notice. Finally, Malaysia were chosen as the hosts and Syria won their first point in a 0-0 draw. It is unknown if Malaysia will become Syria's permanent home. It will be fun waiting to see where they play next.

Canada's out. Done for another 4 years. A 3-1 win was not enough. It's pretty sad as a fan when that moment hits that you realise your country will definitely not be at the World Cup. I never had that problem with Malta, but I always hope Canada will do it. But just like any good Canadian, or person living in Canada, I will just follow my other team in Russia. Now let's hope they qualify.

Kosovo

Day -647. WorldCup2018

Amongst all today's fixtures in European qualifying the most significant was the debut of Fifa's newest member, Kosovo, the country that is not really a country. Six players were cleared by Fifa just a few hours before kick off to play for Kosovo having represented other countries in the past. Valon Berisha was one of them. He played 19 times for Norway and scored the equaliser today in Kosovo's 1-1 draw in Finland.

Tomorrow another new non-country country play their first World Cup match. Gibraltar, the British Overseas Territory of 30,000 people, will probably be nowhere near as strong as Kosovo and limiting the number of goals conceded will be their objective.

Malta-Scotland: live updates

Day -648. WorldCup2018

Part 1
How to "watch" a football match on social media. Not only can I not be in Malta to watch Malta-Scotland, I am also nowhere near a tv or computer. So all my updates will come from Twitter, Facebook and BBC online updates.
Match started with me driving. A quick stop just before kick off and another stop 10 minutes later. Terrible. Walked into a mall and Scotland just scored. Snodgrass. What a goal but did he mean it, says the BBC. I don't care. They scored. I used to sometimes have to turn away from a tv because I couldn't stand watching. Now I have the fear of the next update on twitter. Hope it's a good one.....

Part 2
Yessss!!!!! In the time I wrote that last post Malta equalised. This is going to be hard to "watch". Back to twitter.

Part 3
Now the wifi's not working. I didn't want it anyway. Oh this unreliable technology! Give me a radio any day. Wifi turned off. Back to updates.

Part 4
And I can breathe. Halftime All this switching between twitter, facebook and bbc is exhausting. Back to the car now, but a passenger now. Scottish fans on twitter say Scotland are terrible, embarrassing to be drawing against Malta. Pity there aren't Maltese tweeters. Want to hear the other side. I think it's amazing. Now I hope Malta can keep it at 1-1 and score a winner in the last minute.

Part 5
Deflated. Sitting in the car, not enjoying the view, and Scotland score. Just read tweet that Chris Martin doesn't deserve to be playing for Scotland. Then he scores. Typical. Between searching for updates, news of the goal came from my Scottish friend, huge Rangers fan but caring less about Scotland today than I am.

Part 6.
Losing all enthusiasm for this project. 1-3, Malta down to 10 players. Almost at destination, with stop for now much needed beers on the way.

Part 7
Bbc baffled by the penalty decision. "Was never a penalty". Even harder to take.

Part 8, maybe?
It's 4-1 now. This is terrible. Malta don't have many of these embarrassing results anymore. Against England maybe. But not Scotland. I guess I can say at least I wasn't there. All excitement I had 2 hours ago is now gone.

Part something....I don't care anymore.
1-5. Can we stop now, please? Car ride almost over. Malta coach's job almost over?

Part 10?
And I didn't end there. Another player sent off before the end, our English Malteser Luke Gambin. 5-1 and two players sent off. Right now I don't think it could be worse against England at Wembley in October.

Part 11.
Nightmare match ended. Silver lining if there could be one. Just enjoyed Toronto's move into the 21st century: finally being able to buy food and beer in one stop. Time to forget the 1-5.

Malta-Scotland: part 6, the memories

Day -649. WorldCup2018

Tomorrow while I will probably be driving on a highway outside of Toronto, Malta and Scotland will kick off their World Cup qualifying campaign. I've been looking forward to this for a while not just because it gives me some real material to talk about, or because of the excitement of Malta being in Scotland and England's group, but also out of nostalgia brought on by not being able to attend.

I have not lived in Malta a number of years and have made my home elsewhere, but when I do remember the days when it was home a big part of those memories belong inside Ta' Qali stadium. It is no cliche to say that I can still smell the cigarette smoke wafting through the air while sitting in a half empty stand listening to the bad jokes and the inane comments about players' habits and the reasons why we are losing again. For sure, every set of supporters in every country have their style and their peculiarities, but in your own country they are more significant because you understand them. I will never try explain the comment about the Portuguese goalkeeper looking like a "duster" that came from behind me many years ago. It just won't do justice to the humour of the comment.

That match against Portugal, by the way, was one of those oh-so-close 1-0 defeats, greeted by a mixture of relief that it wasn't five or six nil and disappointment that we were so close to finally getting a positive result. But the again 0-1 was kind of positive. Ah. The life of a supporter of perennial minnow and underdog.

And there were many more stories. I was there for numerous 0-5s, 0-6s but I also witnessed the epic 2-3 against West Germany. I remember the excitement of rushing home from school to go see the Rijkaard/Van Basten/Gullit Dutch team and experiencing the contradictory emotions of wanting to be awed, expecting them to be amazing, yet feeling cheated by Malta's performance that Van Basten could score 5 goals as they beat us 8-0. Equally terrible was arriving 14 minutes late for the match against Sweden and sitting down just as Ibrahimovich scored his third goal. His third. In the 14th minute. He scored one more and we lost 7-0.

I was also there for the loudest cheer I have ever heard at the stadium: as the Maltese players came onto the pitch to play Spain. It was a shout of revenge in the air, revenge for the infamous 1-12. We lost 2-0 but didn't make it easy for them. As we didn't for Italy, losing 2-1. And we missed a penalty. But it was almost more exciting that if we were to score just one goal that it came from open play and not a penalty.

And there was the fun of being there to witness the Republic of Ireland supporters celebrating qualifying for the first ever World Cup. The match? We lost 2-0. But nobody really cared. We had never seen supporters like that.

There was the mini excitement of leading 1-0 at half time against Croatia who a few months earlier had played in the World Cup semifinal. In the end we lost 4-1 but that was an enjoyable half time.

And I was there on an early Spring evening, with probably 300 other people, to watch us beat Jordan 3-1. Jordan. Yes. So what. We won. And I was there. That was one of those matches where I thought I should receive a special mention from the Malta FA for being a loyal supporter. Who would go to watch Malta play Jordan, my friends would say.

There were many hours spent laughing at the helplessness of our team, with friends (one fellow long suffering one in particular who made all the trips there more enjoyable) and father and brothers. There were also many matches watched by myself when the being there was a wonderful experience which brought joy to me and could not be explained to most of my friends. It was my place to go, where I had my fun listening to the men around me arguing not about the match in front of them but what they were listening to on their radios, commentary from Italy or England.
It therefore goes without saying that I will miss being there tomorrow. There is an organised supporters group now which adds to the fun, and the tickets are a little bit more expensive. But there will still be many of the same characters who were there 30 years ago. And they will still be watching Malta, and complaining about how bad they are, and throwing out their best English swear words at the Scottish players. And they, like I a few thousand kilometres away, will still be hoping for that rare win

Malta-Scotland: part 5, the adopted home country

Day -650. WorldCup2018

Only 2 more sleeps until the European World Cup qualifying starts and more importantly before Malta play Scotland. A home win, followed by a draw against England at Wembley in October, that will be a decent start. Malta, the surprise package in this round of qualifying.

Today, and right now, it's CONCACAF qualifying. As much as I would like Canada, my adopted country, to be in Russia it's looking more like the impossible dream after a 2-1 loss in Honduras. And with El Salvador winning 1-0 in the first half against Mexico right now, the required second place in the group looks even harder. It'll probably be another World Cup of Canadians supporting their other team: their country of birth or that of their parents.

My country of birth, despite my optimism (laughable and misguided) will not be in Russia. But a nice little win on Sunday would feel like a World Cup win.

Malta-Scotland; part 4, the excitement from afar

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Since I'm not there it's a fun substitute reading the Tartan Army forums about the Scottish supporters in Malta, or on their way to Malta for Sunday's match. There is talk of bars to meet, seats on buses to get to the stadium and, in a nice touch, a collection amongst the supporters for a local charity. It'll be fun in the stadium on Sunday, something not seen since Malta hosted Turkey a few years ago. The then newly formed supporters group did a great job of drumming up interest, and drawing crowds, by drawing on history and the attempted Turkish invasion of Malta in the 16th century. There's no need for anything similar to generate enthusiasm for Scotland's visit. It's only Scotland, and they haven't exactly been world beaters recently (or even World Cup qualifiers) but there is something exciting and glamorous for Maltese football fans to be playing a British team. Add in 5,000 Scottish supporters and it's going to be a great atmosphere.

Russia 2018 qualifiers started again today in Asia and South America. In the only surprise in Asia, Japan lost at home to the United Arab Emirates. Syria didn't have a fairy tale start to their first participation in round 3 of qualifying, losing 1-0 to Uzbekistan.

Lionel Messi returned from his very short lived retirement to score the only goal, via a big deflection off a defender, as Argentina beat Uruguay. But the biggest news out of all today's matches was Brazil's 3-0 , in Ecuador. Given their poor results recently, and a new coach, a draw would have been seen as a positive outcome. But it's great to see that the positivity from the Olympic win has carried over to the World Cup team. And the scorers today? Neymar and Gabriel Jesus. Both of them were instrumental in the Olympic victory and the question now is when are they are going to have an off season? I may have complained in the past about highly paid footballers moaning about not having a rest, but these two have been going strong since the beginning of last season. And next week it will be back to Barcelona, and Palmeiras for Garbriel before a move to Manchester City in January.
Neymar and Brazil is all wonderful to watch and read about. But it's the big match in Malta on Sunday that I am really looking forward to.