Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Quote of the Tournament?

"There’s a real international flavour to this World Cup"

Jimmy Arnfield, BBC Radio 5 Live

9 comments:

Mondale said...

He's a living genius is Mr Armfield.

mj said...

my goodness, and he's not American? ;-)

Wisdom Weasel said...

Neither is he Australian, as he wasn't whining about the ref/the rules/the poms beating them through some cunning trick (like playing better).

Mondale said...

The thing I love about the World Cup (or any international sporting fiesta for that matter) is that it brings out the blatant xenophobe in us all. The Italians are 'emotional' the Brazilians are 'magical' the Australians steal stuff. I cannot even print the things my dad has been saying about the Portugese (who knew?)

Wisdom Weasel said...

I can hear the Sliver Fox now: "Bloody Henry the Navigator. He was a complete cat's arse of a man, with his astrolabes* and what not. And don't get me started on Eusebio."

(*No you filthy monkeys: its a navigational instrument, not a anatomically specific lubricant).

Anonymous said...

what about that american commentator who said the eng v ecu game was 'not exactly free and easy on the oblong'. i still don't know what that means. can anyone over in the US help me out?

Anonymous said...

More stereotypes: the Argentinians are cynical (ie dirty cheats); the english are honest (ie will lose to the dirty cheats); the germans are efficient (ie crap, but they will still get to the final); South Korea are poor at set pieces (just a bunch of midget asians); did i mention the argies are dirty cheats?

Wisdom Weasel said...

Remember Mockney, over here its all about assists from those cross kicks.

There was a great bit on Armando Iannucci's radio show about national stereotypes seeping into commentary; things like "the Brazillians are samba-ing down the wing", "The Colombians are tearing up the line", "The French are passing among themselves insolently", and "The Germans have invaded the opposition's territory well in the first half but are likely to suffer setbbacks and ultimate defeat by full time."

I like that wince-worthy moment you talked about last weekend, when the British commentator said something like "after 400 years, the slaves take on the masters" about the Angola/Portugal game. Ewww. That's just not right.

mj said...

...we wuz robbed...

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