culduthel

The FIFA Under 20 World Cup ( the second largest football tournament in the world ) kicked off this afternoon in Auckland. Nil all draw between NZ and Ukraine to start us off. Quite a good game. Have just been watching the USA vs Myanmar. Another good game with open flowing football. A lot of players in the tournament are signed with top clubs in Europe and South America so should be an entertaining few weeks. Argentina are favourites to win. Hoping for a Brazil vs Argentina final. Have my tickets for the group stages, quarters, semis and final. Tune in and watch if you get a chance you will be surprised at the level of skill on display. All the best to the boys at Hampden Park this avo. Cannot believe that it is not being screened live here in NZ.

I now want to see Maradona carpeted and banned for the "hand of god' incident in 1986 and the World Cup final stages of the tournament replayed as a matter of course even if we have to bring out all the old players and have them replay it all. This would be consistent with the way the SFA approach a missed hand ball in a match. Petitions anyone?

ICT in the Scottish Cup Final with a very good chance of winning it - dreams are made of this. By the way how come the mighty Celtic support only managed to cough up about 25,000 supporters for the Semi. Majority probably saving up for the Final. Or perhaps the majority of their support had no interest in the game.

Tell us more.

Meadowbank I remember a Caley game against Meadowbank at Meadowbank Stadium back in 1978 or '79. Think it ended in a draw. Pretty boring game overall. Anyway the place was full of Jam Tarts supporters taking the p**s out of Caley fans and their repertoire of songs. Their main criticism was the very dated and simplistic aspect of the Caley songs ( I'm afraid to say they had a point ). The Jam Tarts started to sing their songs and a chanting/singing competition ensued which was more entertaining than the game being played on the pitch. Nice to dwell on the respective position of Hearts and ICT now.

Ref. : You could never tell its a wig. How much are they son ? Player : If you look closely you can see the join at the tap of me heid. If a heid the ball hard it bleeds like this. Half price special at Poundland.

OK I'll vote Yes, I'll vote Yes! Don't hit me again.

The Dirge! The Dirge! ARGHHHHHHHHHHH! Scotland stop winning Gold I can't stand hearing the dirge. HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

Thought overall it was a good opening with plenty of Glasgow p**s take humour, not taking themselves too seriously. Thought Nicola Benedetti's piece was brilliant - she really is world class. NZ commentators gave it a 9 out of 10 - one saying that the Scots know how to pull at your heart strings and bring you to tears - on several occasions. They are also saying that Glasgow is the friendliest place they have ever been to for a sporting event and they are all loving being there. Hope the weather holds out. I heard a rumor that a lot of the African countries had been training in the Arctic Circle for the last few months so as to acclimatize to a Glasgow summer - is this true?

Thank goodness they did not use that terrible, pitiful, embarrassing dirge O' Flower of Scotland as an Anthem for the Opening Ceremony. A totally cringeworthy song if ever there was one. Every time I here that song being sung it reminds me of piles of drunks spilling out of the pubs in Scotland in the 1970's, singing the song through the piles of vomit spewing from their mouths. The song should be banned. Who says it is our National Anthem anyway? From memory it got sung once at a Rugby International in the 70's and was used from there on. No decent Scot with good taste ever had any say in the matter.

But do they have a bridge and a castle? No Castles, but they all do have beautiful reefs, beaches, weather, food and a wonderful friendly laid back lifestyle that is beguiling and infectious. Once you are there you don't want to leave.

Reports down here in the New Zealand press say that Butcher is on a shortlist for the vacant All Whites Coaching role. Other candidates on the shortlist are Iain Dowie and Lawrie Sanchez. Seemingly more than 100 applications were received from across the globe. Would be a nice job to get though - frequent travel to Fiji, The Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and The Solomon Islands as well as numerous parts of Asia. A bit different from going to Dundee, Aberdeen, Motherwell Paisley and occasionally Buckie.

From The Chosen One to The Sacked One in less than a season. Did Moyes deserve longer than he got to get United back on track. On this basis Fergie would not have lasted a season either.

Great opportunity for a North Atlantic group - Scotland, Iceland, Nth Ireland, Faeroe Islands and hopefully Greenland. I reckon if we played in this group we would get at least six points from playing Greenland and come in second last. Bring it on I say! A chance for Scotland to capture former glories.

Sir Alex Ferguson