Thursday, July 06, 2006
Hornby on (English) Football
For those of you who may prefer the Read over the Game (think Keith Hernandez' "Pure Baseball" v. a real Phillies-Mets game), this book "The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup" may be your way to appreciating the humungousnessicity (???) of football. The book is a collection of 32 stories, one for each team that qualified for the World Cup 2006 championship. As a tickler, here's a shortened version of a contribution to this book by Nick Hornby. I noticed I've been criminally negligent of posting a Nick Hornby realted entry. So, this will have to do.
A short quote from his story:
"Wayne Rooney was a teenager during the 2004 European Championships, but when he limped off injured in the game against Portugal, the team fell apart. He's very strong, incredibly skillful, and as likely to get a red card, possibly for swearing, as he is to score one of the best goals you've ever seen. (In a game against Arsenal last season, Rooney was estimated to have told the referee to f*** off more than twenty times in sixty seconds. As "foul and abusive language" is supposed to be a yellow-card offense, one can only presume that there are some really really bad words, words worse than the f-word and the c-word, that footballers know and we don't.) ".
Now if I could only figure how to be sure I'm sitting next to Mr. Hornby in South Africa in four years, cheek to cheek, watching the Red Sox English go down in flames once again at World Cup 2010.
A short quote from his story:
"Wayne Rooney was a teenager during the 2004 European Championships, but when he limped off injured in the game against Portugal, the team fell apart. He's very strong, incredibly skillful, and as likely to get a red card, possibly for swearing, as he is to score one of the best goals you've ever seen. (In a game against Arsenal last season, Rooney was estimated to have told the referee to f*** off more than twenty times in sixty seconds. As "foul and abusive language" is supposed to be a yellow-card offense, one can only presume that there are some really really bad words, words worse than the f-word and the c-word, that footballers know and we don't.) ".
Now if I could only figure how to be sure I'm sitting next to Mr. Hornby in South Africa in four years, cheek to cheek, watching the Red Sox English go down in flames once again at World Cup 2010.
Comments:
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Sorry I have that tribal thing going on with Nick Hornby. Like I cant even read a word of his books without thinking 'Arsenal tosser'.
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