Birds World Cup (TM)

Interest in the Birds World Cup(TM) here I'd imagine has been greater than that at home. Women here are particularly into it, whereas I would suggest that the men are only watching it to see those tight shorts that Sepp Blatter decided to make compulsory.

So have we been watching? Has it been really awful? Or has it kind of been sexy in a mud wrestling kind of way without the mud or the wrestling? Lets be fair those birds play pretty tough don't they? No room for prima-donna's, or Christian Ronaldo's eh?

From what I have seen the passing and movement has been pretty good, some teams a lot better than others. You could see how they were trying to establish passages of play but the players were too often let down by the final ball or lack of general power and strength. The goalkeeping is bloody appalling mind and cringe-worthy at times.

I have only seen snippets on the box, and little of England up until Saturday when I got up early to watch the USA v England quarter final. There I was cereal bowl, cup of tea and the country of my birth versus the country of my residence. Excited? Nope, when the USA took the lead, I just shrugged. This is not really England is it? It's just 11 birds running around with an England shirt on. What did the people at home think?

I read that the BBC viewing figure for the quarter final was 1.9m but the commentating was crap. Two birds actually commentated on the game here, one Julie Foudy used to play, she has 271 caps (!) and also does the mens games as well.

The Americans were too strong but then again girls start playing soccer here from the age of 5 and believe me, some are very good. There are high expectations that they will go on and win the 'world series of soccerball.'

The last four consist of Norway, Germany, Brazil and the Yanks and the crowds should be decent for these games despite hosts China going out. However when Fifa seek to massage their Birds world cup(TM) message into a tale of unqualified success, please treat it with a healthy dose of scepticism. Stories of contrived 'rent-a-crowd' have surfaced almost every game. 'Fans' sat staring blankly ahead each wearing white t-shirts – the uniform, apparently, of those whom the organisers have enticed from the Shanghai schools and streets to the best seats in the house.
One earlier England game, was said to have sold 900 tickets but the official attendance was 27,146! When the world is watching for signs of China's ability to stage an attractive, atmospheric Olympics next year, appearances count.