World Cup blog: Pan-Europeanism?
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Italy won’t retain their title as world champions after falling short at the competition’s first hurdle. Like many of the fancied nations, the Italians weren’t at the races throughout the tournament. The even stranger news is that the favourites Spain might also be on the next plane home.
Like everyone else I was expecting the Italians to pull a big performance out of the bag yesterday, but they were soundly beaten by a gutsy Slovakian performance. The news means that both World Cup 2006 finalists, Italy and France, are already out of the competition.
The news also means that Italy are the only defending champions since Brazil in 1966 not to reach the second round. Ouch! Like the French and Cameroon coach, the Italian coach Marcello Lippi left his post following his country’s exit.
The four European teams that have qualified so far all face each other in the second round, as Slovakia take on the Netherlands, while England face three-time champions Germany.
Diplomatic danger
Politicians at this weekend’s G20 meeting in Toronto are gearing up for some argy-bargy during proceedings as British Prime Minister David Cameron has already said he won’t be sitting beside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He told a British morning show that sitting next to Merkel might not be safe. Adding: “We might get a bit carried away.”
I’m starting to feel like Europe may slowly but surely be losing their grip on this cup. With the South Americans turning on the style, the Mexicans and United States grinding out results, the Asians looking like they could run three or four marathons back-to -back and with Ghana keeping African hopes alive I think we Europeans might be in trouble.
So, it may be due to the fact that I have a lot of money riding on Spain and the Netherlands, but here it is, my first and probably last bit of pan-Europeanism (if there is such a thing)… COME ON EUROPE!
