You're so far away and so long ago but a dream goes on forever (Todd Rundgren)

England 1 - Italy 2

Maybe it was me, but I thought the Italy v England game was slower and less intense than the other games I've watched so far.

England didn't press and so Pirlo ran the show...again. Rooney fizzled. End of story.

If you want to know what the FIFA World Cup means to ordinary Nu Zilders here's a story:

I watched the game wearing my old Umbro England shirt (one star above the three lions - that one) and stuck with it for the rest of the day. When I was out and about in Waipukarau (service station, New World foodmarket etc) I got lots of comments:

"Didn't help ya last night did it mate" (The All Blacks played the second test against England in Dunedin)

When I pointed out it was a football shirt and I was supporting the English against the Italians this morning they looked at me with a billion questions in their eyes.

"Football? You mean soccer?" No I mean football.

Oh nevermind.

In this part of the world rugby is King and the All Blacks are the anointed ones; football is soccer and, ipso facto, soccer is supported by fanatical passionate tribes of weirdos elsewhere in the world. 

The gathering of the tribes happens every four years.

And here we are again - watching England at a World Cup finals, hoping like crazy we can have our very own 1966.

But then the Prince Valiants fall at the first hurdle and we're in familiar territory. 


Love and peace - Wozzinho

Who knows where fate comes from? (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

It happens every four years and it's happening right now. Euro 2012 is in the preliminary pool stage before all hell breaks loose with the sudden death quarter finals.

There's all the usual script components: a group of death (Denmark, Germany, Holland, Portugal); England playing in a laboured fashion and blaming the heat; Rooney is suspended (he misses the first two group games); great goals (this morning's equaliser by Poland was sublime); camera shots of beautiful foreign women (never see that in the premier league coverage) and fat blokes with their kit off and painted up in the national colours; tears and joy. All human drama is trotted out basically.

I wanted to focus on one special moment at this stage.

If you look really carefully at the Gomez goal...

...you will see that it is down to a split second of chance. As the ball is crossed into the box it takes a wicked deflection off a Portuguese defender and loops up perfectly to meet Gomez' head. Without the deflection? Harmlessly headed away by another defender and the game turns in another direction.

This is why I love sport so much. At any given moment in time anything can happen. The possibilities are endless. Gomez was fated to score (he was also about to be replaced by the coach - if he had been substituted a minute before, Germany may not have scored. Gomez stayed on side and moved into a promising attacking position).

Who's going to win Euro 2012? At the moment any of the 16 teams still have a shot. Should be a great few weeks of viewing.

Love and peace - Wozza