Brian Moore: it's there!

Day 411. WorldCup2018

I'm doing this early today because later might come by too late..

I need a distraction from the continuous reports of the political madness going on in Malta. There's enough intrigue and mystery to make an award winning movie about it. Or a movie, at least. Award winning will depend on how it's made. See, there I go already, getting very distracted. This is working. But the movie, or no movie, is not the point. There is so much going on that it's beyond an easily dismissed joke about stereotypical politicians. Panama Papers has become "Prime Minister, his wife, his accountant, his chief of staff, a minister, a few Azeri's, a couple of Iranians" papers. Roberto Calvi, God's Banker, would probably be watching this in incredulous awe if he hadn't met such an unfortunate, mysterious death.

So again, I turn to football and my own very simple investigation. Last night I ended with doubts about "Big League Soccer" and "The Big Match". I'm relived that my memory wasn't playing tricks on me as I confirmed today that Big League Soccer was what was shown outside of England. As I looked it up I went on a bit of a Brian Moore memory trail, watching tributes to him after his passing and some of his best commentary moments.

My search was thrown off track a little by Brian Moore, the English rugby player, which led me to the great, late New Zealand player Jonah Lomu and famous performances of the All Blacks' Haka. I really have not had this much time on my hands for a long time.

I resisted posting a video of the French team's response to the Haka at the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cup and kept with my football theme. I have probably linked this previously, sometime over the last 600 days or so, or in my 2014 countdown, But, regardless, here it is again for two reasons. With Brian Moore on my mind, I probably watched this match (I almost definitely did) on Italian TV so didn't hear Brian Moore's description of this magical moment. You may be a Liverpool fan but how can you not appreciate a player's, a team's, incredible joy at scoring the title winning goal in the last minute of the final match of the season.

And what was Michael Thomas trying to do in his celebration. A somersault? A handstand? I'm sure he didn't really care, or know. I cannot imagine the utterly amazing feeling after scoring that goal. But every time I watch it, it amuses me.

Here is Michael Thomas' goal for Arsenal against Liverpool when Arsenal had to win by two goals to win the league from Liverpool, at Anfield. Now there's a Hollywood movie script.

"It's up for grabs now!"

It's there!