EURO 2008

Euro 2008
Originally uploaded by Gerej

I had to laugh at the English commentary on the Russia Holland match last night. After listening to them for 120 minutes, I was convinced the Russian team had two players - one sporting the rather unfortunate name Jerk off and one with a strangely Scottish Culloden. Strangely, this morning's papers mention only a Zhirkov and a Kolodin. Why do the English find it sooooo difficult to attempt to pronounce anything even remotely foreign?

MORE ABOUT THE ENGLAND MATCH

You really couldn't fail to win after a start to the night like this, could you? :-)

:-)

Tee hee hee!

GERRY WAS WRONG!

I met an old mate in the pub last night. He predicted I'd go into labour at 7pm tonight. Why? Well, he said that when Scotland beat Italy the whole country jumping and dancing at once would cause such huge vibrations that it'd start my labour. Looks like you were wrong, Gerry :-( No jumping happening here!

...1 hour later - why oh why are England always so bloody hoachy?

CRUNCH DAY

Crunch day
Originally uploaded by PhylB

This van seems fairly typical of Glasgow this weekend, if you look closely at the graffiti on the back of the van! Today, Scotland is playing Italy to try to qualify for a major tournament for the first time in a decade. Yesterday the whole country, all the way down to Pudge was meant to attend work, school, nursery decked out in a Scotland football strip. Last night Thomas and I went to the pub for Elspeth (a work colleague)'s leaving do and in the 5 minutes we walked up Saltmarket, 2 bright pink limos passed us with teenage girls hanging out the windows singing 'Flower of Scotland' at the top of their lungs! The atmosphere is great. I hope that the team's effort will mirror the fever in the country. Apparently if we win, we qualify, if we lose we are out, if we draw, the whole thing depends on the other results in the group and is out of our hands. Call me a cynic, but I'm going to bet on a draw where the other results put us out. Scotland is famous for that.

NAUSEATING MAN

I just recognised Gordon stopped his fish gasping for oxygen……well anyway I cannot stand this puppet who bites his fingernails and picks his nose…
Originally uploaded by jl7887

I guess poor Gordon was upset today then ;-) especially if he really is claiming Gazza's goal against Scotland was one of the highlights of his life. No wonder he didn't call an election if he is coming out with comments like that, that could lose him every single Scottish vote - he is truly vomit-worthy at times!

NOT QUITE THERE

I am more than impressed to see that with 2 matches remaining in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, Scotland is still above both France and Italy. To listen to the radio and TV, you'd assume we'd already qualified. Am I the only one still feeling a sense of doom and gloom? Both France and Italy are only a point or two behind and can still qualify - one of them still has to play the Faroes for heaven's sake, couple with that Scotland's amazing ability to fall spectacularly at the last hurdle. Sorry to be a merchant of doom - but I predict we won't get through!

FOOTBALL

I was going to blog it last night but I had a migraine. Scotland has only gone and beaten France in France - how surreal is that?
I went round to Derek's to watch as it was only on Sky - for some reason the terrestrial TV thought us Scots would rather watch the England match - don't start me - grrr! I know the French team well, having spent at least 10 years supporting France, not only because half the family is French but also because Scotland failed to qualify for anything for at least the last 10 years! So it felt odd watching what is supposedly my team, who I didn't recognize, play my other team who I know well! Anyway Scotland beat them and gobsmacked them all in one. We then had a problem getting home as Sauchiehall street had turned into an impromptu party, with singing, dancing and horn tooting, blocking the whole street - even my kids finally accepted that it was ok to support both France and Scotland - unlike the floods of tears we got last year when Scotland last beat France. I think as long as both France and Scotland qualify all will be quiet in my household, but if the evil Italians, who my kids still accuse of cheating France out of the last world cup, qualify instead of one of their teams, life will not be worth living!

FOOTIE

Tomorrow sees the clash of the century, that my poor kids didn't manage to get tickets for :-(

Scotland take on France in a qualifier for Euro 2008. So for anyone who is interested in betting, I have it from my kids that the score is going to be: 6-0 to France (Marcel), or 3-2 to France (Charlotte). Let's see if their predictions are any better than for the World Cup Final?

SOLD OUT

Oh dear! Next month's France Scotland football match sold out before I could acquire tickets for it - bad parent :-( Any volunteers to break the news to the football crazy kids?

SCOTLAND, FIFA WORLD CHAMPIONS (WELL SORT OF)

Marcel just asked me to check the score of the France-Italy match, 3-1 apparently, revenge!

But while checking that I noticed two other more astonishing things (well apart from the score line in the German match which was truly astonishing - 13-0, no they weren't playing rugby, they were playing San Marino, who patently left their goalie at home).

Firstly, I noticed the Italy - Lithuania score from last week 1-1, and the Lithuania - Scotland match today 1-2. So in theory Italy drew against a team we managed to beat away from home no less, that surely sort of makes us proxy World Cup Champions, no? (Clutching at straws ;-) )

The other thing I feel I need to record for posterity is the group table as it currently stands - mainly because in all my years I don't think I have ever seen Scotland at the top of the table in anything but with both the real World Cup Champions and the runners up currently below them, this really must be a one off!

ZIDANE

Came in to hear my kids singing this this evening. Quite catchy, apparently it is top of the French charts at the moment. Marcel particularly likes the bit about Trézéguet. It got me thinking about the cultural differences between such a close neighbour and the English. Imagine England had got to the world cup final and lost it because Beckham had head-butted someone and got sent off - he'd be in hiding living with daily death threats - the French however didn't instantly remove Zidane's national hero status after one fault - instead they had a laugh and a party! I guess you can't accuse them of being bad losers anyway!

Oh check this out too!