Less Rock, More Talk

Don't know what day of the week it is? What time of the day it is? What meal you should be eating next? Or even when you last ate? When you have to be at work next? Spent a little too much time with your Panini sticker album? Fantasy team? Daily podcasts? Hourly news reports? Minute to minute tweets? My god, it's 2010 World Cup overdose!

Amidst watching six hours of football everyday Pass It! has found time to bring you in depth analysis of all the action so far.

1. How is it that in this commercial golden age of football the commentators and TV pundits just get worse and worse? TV revenue ballons and yet someone feels the need to send Alexi Lalas and John Harkes halfway across the world to jabber on like...well, American tourists. Neither one of them seems able to accept the fact that the United States' disallowed goal against Slovenia isn't the first time a referee has made a mistake let alone something worth mentioning every half a minute.

Granted ESPN has shelled out a lot to bring in the likes of Martin Tyler, Ruud Gullit, Jurgen Klinsmann, and Steve Mcmanaman (lord knows he ain't cheap) but the asinine and Ameri-centric comments from Lalas and Harkes have ruined a few matches. We here at Pass It! have even discovered the frequency of the vuvuzelas in order to turn them up in the hopes of drowning out the blabbering yanks.

2. While some have acknowledged the success of the South American sides in the tournament so far, few are offering an explanations why. Pass It!'s opinion? It's really not that complicated. The South American qualifying campaign involves at least eighteen matches against high level opposition. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay all had to face each other twice before reaching the finals in South Africa. In the end Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia all finished within two points of Uruguay. Did I hear someone say squeaky bum time?

Contrast this with European qualification groups, such as the one the reigning champions Italy faced - Ireland, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Montenegro and Georgia - and it's not hard to see why the European sides might struggle. The European teams need to play only ten matches and could qualify, as Switzerland did, despite losing to the likes of Luxembourg at home and drawing against Israel and Latvia.

The number of competitive matches against quality opposition look to have given the South American teams an edge over their European rivals in the early stages of this World Cup. Of course, as we all know, it's early days yet and the knock out rounds could easily turn everything upside down.

3. It's 2010 and some Yanks think they'll win the World Cup before an African side, yet you still have to teach people - soccerball fans, mind you - about the offsides rule. USA to win the World Cup? You're 'avin a laugh. The only reason this Pass It! correspondent sleeps soundly at night is knowing he won't have to live to see it happen. Sadly he still has to spend his waking hours attempting to educate American soccerball fans.

4. Finally, cheers to Nicolas Anelka for finally having the guts to tell Raymond Domenech what the entire country has been dying to for years. In the end the buck stops at the FFF who should have fired Domenech's ass a long time ago. At any rate with Larry White filling in Douchenech's role I've already put a nice bet on France to take Euro '12.

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That's it for now. I won't promise any more posts because there won't be any. Back to the Panini sticker album!