It's here at last. The World Cup is upon us, set in the country that is romantically associated with beautiful football. Names such as Pele, Garrincha, Jairzinho, Zico, Socrates, Ronaldo and Ronaldhino, trip off the tongue, conjuring up thoughts of 'samba' football, where the pace of the game is dictated - quick, quick, slow, slow, quick - almost like a dance in itself, by breathtaking charisma, skill and daring, with a total lack of footballing inhibition. That is Brazilian football artistry at its best and how we all like to envisage the Brazilian national side. To actually play football in this way though is extremely hard to accomplish. For a start you need players with exceptional ability in every position on the field, who gel as a team, both on and off the pitch. A certain chemistry is required and not every side will be blessed with an array of talent as seen in the teams of Brazil '70, or Brazil '82 - and that team didn't lift the trophy. Although this year's Brazilian vintage has many excellent players, the only real superstar would appear to be Neymar. Perhaps it is too much to expect memories of former Brazilian teams to be resurrected and home advantage could either lift or suffocate them. We shall see.
What we do know is there are many other superbly talented teams at this World Cup. When Brazil won the competition in 2002 in South Korea, it was against a sea of mediocrity. This time around, there would appear to be several teams in with a shout besides the hosts, plus numerous dark horses. Spain, as current World Champions will be hard to dethrone, Argentina look very strong, Germany are always contenders, as are current holders of the Copa America, Uruguay. Then come the outsiders of Belgium and Chile - if they can negotiate the group stage - and you write off the Italians and Dutch at your peril!!
First and foremost, we all want the football to be good. In South Africa 2010 - apart from Spain - the football was average at best, with a brutal Dutch side forgetting that they invented 'total football' and killed the Final with their newly devised brand of 'anti football.'
Beyond the football, to make the tournament live in the memory, you need that extra special ingredient - atmosphere. As FIFA has sanitised the World Cup in recent times, with its flatpack stadia, corporate takeovers and carefully choreographed T.V schedules, this atmosphere has to come from the host country - it's culture, it's people. Germany 2006 had it to a certain degree, although the last tournament to nail it and truly capture the imagination, I feel, was France '98. Exciting football, great talent on show, the French team was superb and the French nation fully embraced it, which elevated the experience above and beyond the mere spectacle of football. It can really help the atmosphere if the host nation performs well. Good luck then to that formidable footballing nation Qatar, in 2022.
Spain in 1982 is the first World Cup that I truly remember and the first World Cup match indelibly etched on my brain is Brazil v Italy. I am transported back to my friend's house, where I saw the match after school. An incredible game of football, accompanied by the continual blare of air horns. Whenever I think of Spain'82, I instantly hear that high pitched buzz. We aren't talking the mass marketed, thoroughly annoying vuvuzelas of South Africa here but a noise which naturally derived from the resourcefulness of the supporters. These days, you wouldn't be able to take an air horn into a stadium, only the bland official merchandise would be allowed in the grounds. The bigger the tournament has become and the more control FIFA has exerted, the more character and personality has been lost from inside the grounds - or so it feels watching on T.V. Outside the grounds is another story, as I have read that FIFA have displaced street vendors, moved people from their own homes and managed to get street parties banned within a certain radius of the stadia. It would appear that FIFA have taken it upon themselves to behave like some kind of totalitarian regime.
A major international sporting event like the World Cup is a great vehicle for a nation's voice to be heard though and the Brazilian public has been protesting en masse against the huge cost that has been involved in staging the World Cup - money which could have been spent on public services - new schools, better housing, hospitals, transport. The hope has to be that any demonstrations during the competition itself are done in a peaceful manner but that voices are still heard.
The other major tension in the lead up to the big kick off has come from the tournament sponsors. Sony, adidas and Visa have all done the right thing and rather than just thinking of the dollar, have demanded to know the truth about potential corruption and bribery in the way Qatar won the right to host the 2022 Finals. It's a shame questions weren't raised at the time, as thousands of construction workers have died whilst building the stadia. We are living in 2014, not building pyramids in ancient Egypt!! How could any nation that is incapable of holding the tournament during the break in domestic football competition, due to its potentially life threatening hot climate, be considered a viable option? OK, Qatar cannot control the temperature but it is an unavoidable fact which should have excluded them. Again FIFA is after world domination, just thinking of expanding their brand, bringing in more money and in the process have lost sight of the game.
One aspect of the build up that I have thoroughly enjoyed, is the lack of hype surrounding England. I am not seeing cars driving around with St,George's crosses stuck to their aerials. Neither are there a great number of flags draped from windows. You can safely say that expectations are exceedingly low. If we get through the group stage, we will have performed well. The refreshing aspect of being no hopers is that you can sit back and enjoy the football of the other nations, which is what I intend to do.
The country of Brazil is a major factor for me. Considering my brother in law lives in Sao Paulo with his wife and kids, I know very little about the country itself. I realise the place is vast, massive, enormous, colossal - beyond my comprehension. Discovering Brazil will be another great aspect of this World Cup. Our generalised view is of a party nation living on beaches, with guys playing football, whilst girls wearing skimpy bikinis look on; or the carnival with its outrageous costumes and persistent beat, in full swing in Rio. I will be glad to see that view blown out of the water and for the real Brazil to boldly step forward.
Our Brazilian sister is here for a few days on business, so we will get to watch Brazil play this evening, in the opening game of the Brazilian World Cup, with a real life genuine Brazilian!! With Spain against Holland on Friday and England versus Italy on Saturday, this World Cup could start with a real bang. I can't wait...
Carlos Alberto 1970...
I couldn't leave an article about the Brazilian World Cup without posting the greatest goal of all time, which just gets better each time you watch it...
Thursday, 12 June 2014
Head Space Daily Image...
As the tournament kicks off, here are three World Cup related pictures:
My eldest son's World Cup drawing, featuring Diego Costa of Spain, Neymar of Brazil, Germany's Mario Gotze, Messi and Ronaldo...
A timeless image of an England flag stuck in a flower box...
The ubiquitous St.George's flag taped to the wing mirror of a truck on a construction site. Have some of that Dave...
My eldest son's World Cup drawing, featuring Diego Costa of Spain, Neymar of Brazil, Germany's Mario Gotze, Messi and Ronaldo...
A timeless image of an England flag stuck in a flower box...
The ubiquitous St.George's flag taped to the wing mirror of a truck on a construction site. Have some of that Dave...
Head Space Daily Tunes...
Sergio Mendes And Brasil '66 - Mas Que Nada
This Brazilian classic was made famous by the 1998 Nike ad, featuring the Brazilian football team - with the original Ronaldo - showing off their skills at the airport...
New Order - World In Motion
The only World Cup song that really matters. As John Barnes says, "this ain't a football song," and never have truer words been uttered, it is so much more...
Stevie Wonder - Another Star
Congratulations to the BBC for turning one of the most uplifting pieces of music ever made into a football anthem...
Back Home - England World Cup Squad 1970
Not only could Booby Moore inspire England to winning the World Cup in 1966, he could also orchestrate a good old sing song. Surely the best of the England World Cup records...
This Brazilian classic was made famous by the 1998 Nike ad, featuring the Brazilian football team - with the original Ronaldo - showing off their skills at the airport...
New Order - World In Motion
The only World Cup song that really matters. As John Barnes says, "this ain't a football song," and never have truer words been uttered, it is so much more...
Stevie Wonder - Another Star
Congratulations to the BBC for turning one of the most uplifting pieces of music ever made into a football anthem...
Back Home - England World Cup Squad 1970
Not only could Booby Moore inspire England to winning the World Cup in 1966, he could also orchestrate a good old sing song. Surely the best of the England World Cup records...
Wednesday, 4 June 2014
Head Space Daily Words...
Head Space Daily has been anything but Daily in recent times, largely due to the fact I have been working, which is an extremely good thing but leaves me little time to write anything remotely coherent. Any spare moments have been generally taken up with running my youngest son's football team. Talking of which, our final game of the season took place a couple of weeks ago, with a resounding 5-0 victory, ending in a champagne shower of Fanta, copious amounts of custard creams and Celebrations aplenty, as we bid farewell to one of our team, who bowed out with a hat trick. Get in!!
One of the best things about being freelance is working in different locations and being able to experience different areas of London town. So far this year, I have spent time in Docklands, Fitzrovia and my latest haunt has been Kensington High Street, which is truly another world. The amount of money sloshing about those parts is a whole different level. The houses are incredible and the streets, as well as probably being actually paved with gold, have the feel of old well to do London. Kensington Palace is a stone's throw away, with Britain's most expensive street - Kensington Palace Gardens - with it's foreboding security guard sitting in his hut, running alongside the Palace. What you see is what you get - a sense of look but don't touch.
On my first day, parked opposite the building in which I was working, was a black and red sports car. A grotesque, hideous, ostentatious, monstrosity - a gigantic, ill formed, metallic reptile. It is obviously an exquisite piece of craftsmanship and bespoke engineering but not my cup of tea. If you couldn't guess, I'm not into cars in the slightest. To me they are a functional means of getting from A to B, then again I have and never will be in the position to afford a Maserati. Having googled the car, it looks like it could be a Maserati Birdcage, which can reach a top speed of 217 mph, which must come in handy in London.
These kind of cars are status symbols, as are personalised number plates, which seem to have become the latest middle class trend of status display.
The funniest personalised number plate I have seen recently was when a guy in a porsche drove past us on the M6 with a number plate that spelt the word JIT5U. He was branding himself via his registration number, saying to guys - back off, I'm really hard - and to girls - I'm tough and available. I think the number plate D1CK would have been far more suitable.
At least he got his message across coherently though. The number plates that mean nothing are the worst. Why bother? On the internet I found a personalised number plate for sale which reads BI5 JMY. Look at it. It means nothing beyond a random combination of letters and a number five. Yet how wrong could I be. This little combo translates as "BIG JIMMY." Good grief. Treat someone like a fool and they'll behave like one I guess. I would love to know if anyone has bought the registration number M5V TWT yet.
Anyway, back to Kensington. I don't know West London very well at all, so it is an area to explore. A walk along Kensington Church Street and you're in Notting Hill, where I have not been for a long time. There are some tremendous buildings and places of interest but I would never feel as comfortable there as I do in South East London, where I live, or the East End. That's where home is and the particular area of West London that I've been talking about, feels like a different world, the playground of the mega rich. Fair play to them, they've earned it, they can enjoy it and spend it however they want. Although it is a lifestyle that is out of my reach, I would never want to grab hold of it, even if I could. You can keep your strange Maserati batmobiles, I would rather live in a world of nonsensical registration numbers...
One of the best things about being freelance is working in different locations and being able to experience different areas of London town. So far this year, I have spent time in Docklands, Fitzrovia and my latest haunt has been Kensington High Street, which is truly another world. The amount of money sloshing about those parts is a whole different level. The houses are incredible and the streets, as well as probably being actually paved with gold, have the feel of old well to do London. Kensington Palace is a stone's throw away, with Britain's most expensive street - Kensington Palace Gardens - with it's foreboding security guard sitting in his hut, running alongside the Palace. What you see is what you get - a sense of look but don't touch.
On my first day, parked opposite the building in which I was working, was a black and red sports car. A grotesque, hideous, ostentatious, monstrosity - a gigantic, ill formed, metallic reptile. It is obviously an exquisite piece of craftsmanship and bespoke engineering but not my cup of tea. If you couldn't guess, I'm not into cars in the slightest. To me they are a functional means of getting from A to B, then again I have and never will be in the position to afford a Maserati. Having googled the car, it looks like it could be a Maserati Birdcage, which can reach a top speed of 217 mph, which must come in handy in London.
These kind of cars are status symbols, as are personalised number plates, which seem to have become the latest middle class trend of status display.
The funniest personalised number plate I have seen recently was when a guy in a porsche drove past us on the M6 with a number plate that spelt the word JIT5U. He was branding himself via his registration number, saying to guys - back off, I'm really hard - and to girls - I'm tough and available. I think the number plate D1CK would have been far more suitable.
At least he got his message across coherently though. The number plates that mean nothing are the worst. Why bother? On the internet I found a personalised number plate for sale which reads BI5 JMY. Look at it. It means nothing beyond a random combination of letters and a number five. Yet how wrong could I be. This little combo translates as "BIG JIMMY." Good grief. Treat someone like a fool and they'll behave like one I guess. I would love to know if anyone has bought the registration number M5V TWT yet.
Anyway, back to Kensington. I don't know West London very well at all, so it is an area to explore. A walk along Kensington Church Street and you're in Notting Hill, where I have not been for a long time. There are some tremendous buildings and places of interest but I would never feel as comfortable there as I do in South East London, where I live, or the East End. That's where home is and the particular area of West London that I've been talking about, feels like a different world, the playground of the mega rich. Fair play to them, they've earned it, they can enjoy it and spend it however they want. Although it is a lifestyle that is out of my reach, I would never want to grab hold of it, even if I could. You can keep your strange Maserati batmobiles, I would rather live in a world of nonsensical registration numbers...
Head Space Daily Tune…
Change - Change Of Heart
Picked up this great little soul tune today from my favourite charity shop in Forest Hill. What a gem…
Picked up this great little soul tune today from my favourite charity shop in Forest Hill. What a gem…
Friday, 16 May 2014
Head Space Daily Words...
At the time of posting these words, it is a mere 26 days, 10 hours, 49 minutes and 52 seconds until the World Cup kicks off. I know this because my boys have an App which tells them how long it is until major sporting events get under way. In case you were wondering, it is only 811 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes and 41 seconds until the Brazil Olympics starts in 2016. Technology bombards us with this wealth of information, which also includes every fact on every football player appearing in the World Cup - players who nowadays can earn in one week what it will take many of us many years to accumulate. I read the other day of Samir Nasri's girlfriend tweeting a foul mouthed tirade at the French manager on leaving her beloved Samir out of the French World Cup squad. Good move Mr.Deschamps, the last thing you need are sweary trouble making WAGs following the team around. Whilst football players have grown ever further away from the fans who support the clubs for whom they play, one thing that has remained constant in a World Cup year, hardly changing in look or design and of vital importance to every young (and slightly older) football fan, is the Panini Sticker album. At my son's school, the Panini album seems to have been usurped by the way inferior Match Attax cards. This is the equivalent of buying CDs or MP3s over vinyl (see HSD Tune as an example.) One is throw away, inconsequential and less satisfying, whilst the other is to be savoured, enjoyed and invested with memories. For example, who can really look at Terry Fenwick in the 1986 Panini album and not wonder why, as the last man, he didn't bring down Maradona and 'take one for the team,' as little Diego waltzed past our entire team on the way to scoring one of the all time great World Cup goals.
Who can seriously turn to the Brazil team in the 1982 sticker album and not be dumbfounded by reading the coolest names to ever be assembled in a football team. In 1982, I can truly remember two of the greatest games of football I have ever witnessed. One was obviously Aston villa beating Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam on May 26th, to lift the European Cup; the other was Brazil v Italy in their final Second Round Group game of the World Cup in Spain. I can still transport myself back to the noise and excitement of the afternoon. I was at a friends house after school and you could cut the tension with a knife. The noise of the stadium that day and the excitement it instilled, still lives with me. The incessant, high pitched drone of air horns saturated the atmosphere. Zico, Socrates and Falcao were running things in midfield but slack defending allowed Paolo Rossi to bag a hat trick and send Italy to the quarter finals with a 3-2 victory. That is possibly the best game of football I have ever seen and I must get hold of a copy on DVD. My Panini album, like a family photo album takes me back to that moment.
My boys current album is slowly taking shape as they take their swaps to school and negotiate deals for shinies and sought after players - their first introduction to wheeling and dealing. Word soon spreads as to which stickers are 'rare' and there has been some jealousy towards a kid who has already completed the album!! He has missed the point though. It is not about finishing it in the quickest amount of time. You want to be collecting the stickers throughout the tournament, so that all of a sudden the average looking guy from South Korea who has just done something sensational, becomes a talked about player and a sought after sticker. Footballing nobodies can out of nowhere become household names and that is why the sticker album is so important, because it contains all these memories to be looked back on when you are older - just like me with my 1982 and '86 albums and one day in the future, my boys will be able to look back with the same sense of nostalgia. I just wish I had collected the 1990 Panini sticker album...
Who can seriously turn to the Brazil team in the 1982 sticker album and not be dumbfounded by reading the coolest names to ever be assembled in a football team. In 1982, I can truly remember two of the greatest games of football I have ever witnessed. One was obviously Aston villa beating Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam on May 26th, to lift the European Cup; the other was Brazil v Italy in their final Second Round Group game of the World Cup in Spain. I can still transport myself back to the noise and excitement of the afternoon. I was at a friends house after school and you could cut the tension with a knife. The noise of the stadium that day and the excitement it instilled, still lives with me. The incessant, high pitched drone of air horns saturated the atmosphere. Zico, Socrates and Falcao were running things in midfield but slack defending allowed Paolo Rossi to bag a hat trick and send Italy to the quarter finals with a 3-2 victory. That is possibly the best game of football I have ever seen and I must get hold of a copy on DVD. My Panini album, like a family photo album takes me back to that moment.
My boys current album is slowly taking shape as they take their swaps to school and negotiate deals for shinies and sought after players - their first introduction to wheeling and dealing. Word soon spreads as to which stickers are 'rare' and there has been some jealousy towards a kid who has already completed the album!! He has missed the point though. It is not about finishing it in the quickest amount of time. You want to be collecting the stickers throughout the tournament, so that all of a sudden the average looking guy from South Korea who has just done something sensational, becomes a talked about player and a sought after sticker. Footballing nobodies can out of nowhere become household names and that is why the sticker album is so important, because it contains all these memories to be looked back on when you are older - just like me with my 1982 and '86 albums and one day in the future, my boys will be able to look back with the same sense of nostalgia. I just wish I had collected the 1990 Panini sticker album...
Head Space Daily Image...
A recent photo I took of the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture at the Olympic Park, from alongside the Olympic pool building, with Canary Wharf in the distance...
Head Space Daily Tune...
William Onyeabor - Good Name
I picked up the 'Who Is William Onyeabor?' album the other day and it made me remember just why buying vinyl is a beautiful thing. Not only have Luka Bop Records managed to persuade this elusive guy to release his fine music as a compilation, it also comes on three pieces of quality vinyl, with fantastic artwork for each record. Not only do I get to hear the music at its best, but the artwork can be fully appreciated. What an artist to discover as well!! In deepest Eastern Nigeria, William - who is now a tribal leader - was making music in the late 1970s using an early synthesiser. This predates, synth pop, Afrika Bambaata and Detroit techno but you can hear elements of all of them on this record. Whilst all the British, European and American music was feeding off each other, little did they know that a Nigerian guy was making his own version with this incredible Afro, elctro funk!!
I picked up the 'Who Is William Onyeabor?' album the other day and it made me remember just why buying vinyl is a beautiful thing. Not only have Luka Bop Records managed to persuade this elusive guy to release his fine music as a compilation, it also comes on three pieces of quality vinyl, with fantastic artwork for each record. Not only do I get to hear the music at its best, but the artwork can be fully appreciated. What an artist to discover as well!! In deepest Eastern Nigeria, William - who is now a tribal leader - was making music in the late 1970s using an early synthesiser. This predates, synth pop, Afrika Bambaata and Detroit techno but you can hear elements of all of them on this record. Whilst all the British, European and American music was feeding off each other, little did they know that a Nigerian guy was making his own version with this incredible Afro, elctro funk!!
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