This morning was pretty good football watching. It was a pleasant surprise to have Celtic-Rangers on TV, which then overlapped with West Ham-Spurs. There were five goals in that second match, but as luck would have it I saw only the first one. I was very good at switching channels or going to get a coffee and coming back to see another goal had been scored.
The Glasgow derby was all passion and noise. It was one of those times when you turn a match on and think "this must be good", based on the buzz from the fans. Both ends were rocking. But then as my brain tuned into the actual football, I wondered how much passion and a full blooded battle can I take without very little skill and anything of any note happening around the goals. The Celtic players seemed to think the same. They allowed Rangers to get their fans all fired up over meaningless 50-50 balls won in midfield and some useless long balls to a forward player who was constantly offside, but when they'd had enough they showed the difference in class and put together a few good moves of proper skill and organised football which almost led to a goal. Celtic's first goal came from Malta-style defending on on Rangers' part. One, two...three? How many defenders took a swipe, and missed, that ball. The second goal was a lesson for Rangers in one-two, wham-bam, Bob's your Uncle, that's how you get the ball in the net on a quick counter attack.
It made me think. Is watching a match like this (non-stop, edge of one penalty box to the other, crowd baying for blood) any better than my ultimate benchmark of World Cup turgid-ness, Costa Rica-Greece, decided on penalties. I'm not sure. In the latter there is very little threat of any excitement breaking out and I can deal with that. In Glasgow there was the frustration of expectation.
So Celtic have gone and done it again. They have pretty much wrapped up the most boring league in Europe before many fans across the continent have settled into their seats for the long season ahead. They are still getting a beer from the fridge, putting the kettle on, cleaning up after dinner (enjoying the end of summer, getting the kids ready for the school year, switching over to the winter work schedule). Celtic are eight points ahead of Rangers and, sure, the second placed team are only five points behind. But that's St. Johnstone. Aberdeen could get within two if they win their game in hand but what bookmaker is not offering to pay out already to anybody who bet that Celtic will have the league mathematically won by soon after Valentine's Day?
It's good news for Scottish fans though because the many Celtic players who play for Scotland will be able to take it easy long before next June and the Scotland players on the other teams will have given up on really being competitive. So Scotland's team for the World Cup will be physically and mentally fresh.
What's that? Oh. Right. England, Slovenia, Slovakia.
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