The 2010 World Cup: The Best and the Worst

Let’s face it, the 2010 World Cup has not been one of the greatest. The first round of group games were hugely disappointing. There have been too many low-scoring matches.

But nevertheless the tournament has still had its moments.

Here’s my Best and Worst. How about yours?

Best game: The last twenty minutes of Slovakia v Italy was amazing.

Best single team performance: Germany’s 4-0 demolition of Argentina.

Best Player: Thomas Muller of Germany.

Worst Player: Wayne Rooney.

Biggest flops: England and France.

Most Boring team: Portugal- ok, they got seven against North Korea, but failed to score in any of their other matches.

Worst match: Paraguay v Japan was dreadful, but considering the talent that was on the pitch Brazil v Portugal gets the vote.

Worst pundit: The BBC’s Danny Baker, who assured us after the France v Mexico game that France would beat South Africa and make it to the quarter-finals and also that England would go a long way too.

Saddest moment: Asamoah Gyan’s last second penalty miss for Ghana against Uruguay.

Best losers: The USA took their extra-time defeat against Ghana really well, with manager Bob Bradley warmly embracing his counterpart at the final whistle - and credit too to the Germans for the sporting way they took their semi-final defeat against Spain.

Worst losers: Raymond Domenech of France, who refused to shake hands with the South Africa coach, and Italy’s Marcello Lippi, who stormed off without shaking the hand of Vladimir Weiss after his side’s defeat against Slovakia.

Team of the tournament: Despite not making it to the final, the vote goes to Germany. Three great performances against Australia, England and Argentina. And it looks like they’ll be the tournament’s top scorers.

As to who’ll win on Sunday- well, Paul the Octopus says Spain. I’m not going to argue with him.

The New McCarthyites and the sacking of Octavia Nasr

Last year, in the First Post, I discussed the ‘New McCarthyism’- the worrying trend for people to be hounded out of their jobs by certain lobby groups for expressing the ‘wrong‘ opinions.

Here‘s another example, from America. Octavia Nasr apologised for her ‘tweet‘ in which she talked of her ‘respect’ for the Lebanese theologian Ayatollah Fadlallah. But as David Cairns points out in the First Post, her "reasoned and reasonable clarification" was not enough- and Ms Nasr’s twenty-year career with CNN is now at an end.

Another victory for the New McCarthyites.

UPDATE: It seems that the British Ambassador to Lebanon is the latest target of the New McCarthyites.

Here’s a couple of the comments underneath the article:

Frances Guy should be sacked immediately

Melanie, please start a e-petition to get her sacked

Go for it, New McCarthyites! We can’t have people in positions of authority expressing opinions with which you disagree, can we?

All Aboard the Gravy Train

This column of mine appears in the Morning Star. It's also cross-posted at the Campaign for Public Ownership.

Neil Clark assesses the bleak future of our public services under the Con-Dem regime.

 What have Britain's privatised railways got in common with the England football team?

Every time you think they can't possibly get any worse, they prove you wrong.

The state of the railways during New Labour's period of office can be compared to England's performance against Algeria - desperately poor.

But just two months on from the election it's clear the railways during the era of the Con-Dem coalition are going to be more like England v Germany - a total catastrophe.

Labour, to their shame, accepted privatisation. Under their so-called rail price formula they allowed train companies to raise prices by 1 per cent above the level of the RPI measure of inflation.

But at least there was some form of restriction on raising ticket prices.

The policy of the "progressive" coalition, however, is simply to let the privateers do what they want.

How the Premiership got found out in South Africa

This article of mine appears in the First Post.

Neil Clark: The best league in the world? Forget it. World Cup performances have exposed the myth

The belief that England's footballers were among the most talented in the world has been rudely shattered by their abject performances at the World Cup.

But even after the shambolic 4-1 defeat by Germany, one myth about English football still persists: namely that the Premier League, where all of England's players ply their trade, is "the best in the world".

Look at the squads of the four semi-finalists of the World Cup and one thing strikes you: the small number of players from the so-called best league in the world, who are still involved in the competition.

You can read the whole of the article here.

‘Very Average’ Germany 4 Argentina 0

Exactly a week ago, British football pundits, brimming with confidence ahead of the England v Germany clash, were asking us how many members of the ’very average’ German side would make it into England’s ‘talented’ team.

Well I think even the most blindly patriotic England fan knows the answer now: all of them.

Yesterday’s 4-0 demolition of Argentina was one of the most impressive team performances I have ever seen in a World Cup. And for those who maintain that the Premiership is ‘the greatest league in the world’, it's worth noting that not one member of the brilliant German team plays his club football in England.

Olching highlighted the talents of Thomas Muller in the comments section on a recent post- and once again the Bayern Munich man showed what a great footballer he was with another terrific display. And what can we say about the performances yesterday of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Phillip Lahm?

Germany, available at an incredibly generous 14-1 to win the World Cup before their match against England, now looked nailed on to win the tournament.

And their progress surely cushions the blow for Serbia fans, disappointed at their team‘s early exit. If Germany do win the World Cup, then at least Serbia have the satisfaction of knowing that they were the only team to beat them. And it’s now clear what a tough group the Serbs were in- not only did they have Ghana to contend with, but also a very lively Australia team.

On the subject of the German football team- and the contrast between Germany and England, here’s an excellent post by Peter Wilby in the NS, flagged up by Karl Naylor.

World Cup heartbreak for Ghana and Africa

In this tournament's 80-year history, surely there has never been such agony for a country, and a continent.
says sporting life.com after Ghana’s dramatic- and heartbreaking- exit from the World Cup last night.

We were just a penalty kick away from an African side making the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in history.

Technically, I thought Ghana in this tournament were miles ahead of England, and indeed much better than Uruguay. They were a joy to watch.

And I think if Gyan had converted his penalty, Ghana would have had a very good chance of beating Holland in the semi-final. But it was not to be- and the wait for an African side to win the World Cup goes on.

I don’t know about you, but I felt sadder after yesterday’s match than I did when England’s bunch of overrated millionaires lost to Germany.

Tory prison U-turn is an opportunity for Labour

This piece of mine appears in the First Post.

Kenneth Clarke’s ‘hand wringing’ prison policy isn't progressive - it's a classic Conservative attack on state provision

This has been a year of surprises. Leeds knocking Manchester United out of the FA Cup. Tomas Berdych beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon. But now perhaps we have the biggest turn-up of them all: Labour attacking a Conservative-led government for being soft on crime.

Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke's dramatic reversal of the Tories 17-year-old 'Prison Works' policy has not only left grassroot Tories
fuming: it's upset Labour too.

Writing in the Daily Mail, former Home Secretary Jack Straw accused Clarke of returning to the flawed liberal "hand-wringing approach to crime", which marked a succession of post-war Home Secretaries before Michael Howard.

You can read the whole of the article here.