With apologies to my ardent followers. The day has become the next day and the time to write has become limited by my ability to focus on this small screen.
So a couple of quickies. First of all I eat my words about two things: I had the pleasure of watching Argentina-Panama in the Copa on tv last night. I didn't have to navigate any questionable websites. I only found it early in the second half with Argentina up 1-0 and Panama a player down. After watching the Argentinians huff and puff for 10-15 minutes or so, the player I have criticised on numerous occasions for his inability to do anything of use for his national team, Lionel Messi, came on. Not long after he had scored a hat-trick, set up another goal and it was a 5-0 win. Well done Leo. I still have some un-eaten words though. Let's see if he can do it against another team that's not 10-man Panama.
In the Euros the Swiss Kosovar ethnic Albanians played against the Albanians and Kosovar ethnic Albanians and one Swiss Kosovar ethnic Albanian whose brother decided he was more Swiss than him and played for the Swiss against his own brother. By Russia 2018 they may all be playing for Kosovo if Fifa can figure out the legalities of it all. I'll ask my question again. Fifa rules say a player cannot represent more than one country at senior level. But if the one country didn't exist when a player chose to play for a country that did exist can that player be denied the right to represent his country of birth now that it is a country and the option didn't previously exist?
On the other side of the world which everybody has forgotten about, PNG almost pulled off a Tahiti but a couple of missed penalties meant they lost the OFC Nations Cup final to New Zealand after a 0-0 draw. The Kiwis were without their captain, Chris Wood, as he had to attend his sister's wedding. Not very considerate planning on his sister's part, you may think. However, it was planned a year ago to not coincide with the final but the dates of the tournament were changed. And I guess it's easier to alter the logistics of a major continental football tournament than it is to change a booking on a wedding venue and all the extras. So Mr. Wood was out of luck. For his sister's sake at least I hope he wasn't a grumpy brother for the whole day.
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