culduthel

England are looking good! As usual they have a truck load of great players but to date have never realised their potential at big competitions. The way they played in the second half against Croatia is an indication that things could be different this time around. Happy for Tuchel. It would be ironic if they win it with a German in charge 60 years after they last won it. Sporting life tends to throw up these kinds of serendipity from time to time.

Am I the only one thinking that the visual of the USA supporters in the stadium at their game looks like a "Where's Wally" puzzle !

Our past nemesis Peru 2 - our likely future nemesis Haiti 1 last night.

Haiti put four past New Zealand last night. Be prepared for them to do the same to Scotland in about eleven days time. I truly believe the adage " the triumph of hope over experience" was coined to describe what it feels like to support most Scottish sporting teams but especially our national football team. I suppose there is always the enjoyment of watching England go out on penalties to look forward to. France or Spain to be the eventual winners I reckon.

When I was young in the 1960's, watching all the football scores coming through on the BBC teleprinter etc late on a lazy Saturday afternoon, I loved hearing some of the more unusual, imaginative and innovative club names that used to come up. Given how slow the announcer went with reading the scores out you had plenty of time to let your mind wander about such things. Nowadays some of my favourite team names are : Accrington Stanley; Leyton Orient; Plymouth Argyle; Queen of the South; Raith Rovers and ( the best of the lot! ) Clachnacuddin. I am not a supporter of any of these teams by the way - apart from ( being an Invernessian ) having a very soft spot for Clachnacuddin. I could name many more but will leave it to others if they are interested.

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

Have been saying this for years on this forum, that they need to set up a North Atlantic Group for the World Cup. Need to get Greenland into FIFA first. I reckon if they made the top two in the group qualifiers, then Scotland would have a real chance of qualifying for the World Cup and European Championships in the future. Mind you I can see us struggling at times against Iceland and the Faroes. Bring it on I say.

A big well done and congratulations to England for qualifying for the World Cup in Brazil. The only British team in it this time around. They have achieved something that the Scottish team has failed to achieve for a long, long time now. So England deserve our applause for carrying the British Flag and British hopes to Brazil next year. Gives us something to follow and support. Hope they get a group with Brazil or Germany or Spain in it. Will make for great viewing. I reckon they will get through the group stages and get to the semis but doubt they will get past there. Would be great if they won it though.

Let us please.

And at a celebration party, in a flat up at the Meadows in Edinburgh, on that Saturday night around 11.30 pm Alan Rose and a couple of accomplices arrived back from Wembley with the netting from above mentioned goal and several pieces of Wembley turf. The netting was draped appropriately over the top of a big ornate mirror above a very large ornate fireplace in the lounge room of the flat and the turf placed on the mantlepiece. I can still see it all now.

Tahiti are rated well down here in NZ. They would easily beat the sorry excuse Scotland has for a football team nowadays. In fact if Scotland were in the Oceania Group they would come last.