Introducing Freema Agyeman...

Farewell Billie Piper...hello, Freema Agyeman who takes over as Doctor Who's ccompanion. She will be playing a brand new character, Martha Jones, in the next series.

The Road To Hell (continued)...

Israel continues its bombardment of Lebanon and Hezbollah continues to fire their rockets into Israel.

There is at least US$3 billion in infrastructure damage and loss of work in Lebanon. Banque du Liban, the Lebanese central bank, has been forced to draw on its foreign reserves because of the crisis, selling part of its US$12.75 billion assets. The Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) has thus far declined 11%. Thousands of tourists who visit Lebanon in the summer and contribute over US$4 billion to the economy have fled, according to a senior analyst at a leading Lebanese bank. Looking beyond the economy, ordinary Lebanese civilians have been the main victims of the current crisis in terms of deaths and injuries. Thousands have become internal refugees, seeking safety in areas that are not being bombed by Israel.

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."
Jimmy Carter (1924 - )

The World Cup (postscript)....

Biggest winners of the World Cup (besides Italy, obviously):

• The German people for an efficient and smoothly-run finals - Wunderbar!
• The German team - nobody (including me) gave them much of a chance. Coming 3rd was a great achievement...
• The bookies - since posting this entry, London-based bookmakers William Hill announced profits of £17.5 million generated from punters betting on the tournament...
• Ghana - just for making the next round...
• Ivory Coast & Argentina - these teams caught the imagination and their brilliant attacking football was a joy to behold (which made Argentina's exit against Germany and the subsequent fracas between both teams all the sadder)...
• The fans...
• The BBC - 20 million viewed the World Cup final on the Beeb.
• Flatscreen TV - Strong demand for flat screen TVs has helped to lift sales at catalogue-based retailer Argos, its owner GUS has said. Like-for-like sales at Argos rose 7% in the four months to June as football mad shoppers snapped up new TVs for the World Cup (this all changed after England were knocked out, though)...

Biggest losers:

• Footballers with big "reputations" - a few "superstars" left the World Cup looking less than super (ie: Ronaldinho, most of the England team).
• Ah yes, England - what happened to our "Golden generation"? Instead we saw boring football; Rooney getting sent off (regardless if it was an accident or deliberate, his actions were reckless); struggling against teams they were expected to cruise past; inept tactics (Theo Walcott had a great holiday, though) and inept defending (remember how Sweden scored).
• The WAGs - nothing but hype and spin...
• The card-happy referees.
• Cristiano Ronaldo - while some of the press has been over the top, he's done himself no favours and his actions throughout the World Cup were embarrassing.
• Zinadine Zidane - the man is a football genius. Which is why his banishment in the World Cup final for head-butting Materazzi was so shocking. If only he retired in a blaze of glory instead....
• The lip-reading experts, who gave many different versions of Materazzi's jibe which so incensed Zidane into the infamous head-butt. So far we've been told that the insult was based on Zidane's wife, mother, sister, family, race, Islam, terrorism, and sexual preference.
• ITV - only 3.5 million watched the World Cup final on ITV...
• Jose Pekerman, ex-manager of Argentina whose tactics were held responsible for the South Americans' defeat against Germany...
• Football - for the diving and cheating...

Tomorrow...

July 7th 2005.
I haven't much to say, except God bless the families and friends of those who died on that tragic day and those still affected by that awful event.

ALLEZ LES BLEUS (continued)...

Allons enfants de la Patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'étendard sanglant est levé,
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes !

Chorus
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons !

(La Marseillaise - the national anthem of France)
Portugal 0-1 France

I can't wait......

Ok, Andy Murray's out of Wimbledon (too bad, kid) and England's out of the World Cup.
But if this is true, then 2006 won't be a total letdown!!
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories will be available exclusively on the PSP system in North America on October 17th, 2006 and Europe on October 20th, 2006.
Time to start saving those pennies....

A new era?

And the repercussions from England's World Cup exit continues with David Beckham's emotional decision to retire as England captain today.
I guessed Becks decided to jump before he was pushed. His performance against Greece 5 years ago was brilliant and he has done considerable charity work off the pitch, but on the flipside Becks admitted intentionally fouling Ben Thatcher while playing against Wales in October 2004, resulting in suspension for a match (against Azerbaijan) that he was certain to miss through injury anyway. Also his leadership skills were debatable and having the "brand Beckham" celebrity machine in tow was tiresome (to say the least).
One can't afford to be sentimental. By standing down, it's the best thing Beck's done for the team. For England to progress, changes are required and that includes our captain.
PS: I don't mind if the next England captain is either Steven Gerrard or John Terry.
Beckham quits as England captain

ALLEZ LES BLEUS

Oh well, Que Será, Será, life goes on and all that jazz...

After the drama of last night, we're down to the World Cup semi-finalists:

Tuesday, 04 July 2006
Germany v Italy, 20:00 (BST)

Wednesday, 05 July 2006
Portugal v France, 20:00 (BST)

I pray to all the gods of football to help France thrash the Portuguese theatrical troupe (ok, so I'm still a little bitter about England's exit)....
Brazil 0-1 France

Some good news (continued)....

While I'm really sorry at England's exit in this World Cup, I won't be sorry to see the back of tabloid stories about Victoria Beckham and the over-the top antics of the WAGs.
I'm not surprised Skinny...sorry, Posh Spice is considered a 'thinspiration' on pro-anorexia websites.
Posh 'too skinny' say experts

Some good news....

Well done, Andy Murray, who defeated third seed Andy Roddick in straight-sets at Wimbledon today.
The 19-year-old Scot won 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 6-4 and is now in the fourth round, where he will play either Sebastien Grosjean or Marcos Baghdatis in the last 16.

PS: as for talk about "boycotting" Murray because of his alleged anti-England comments for the World Cup.....some people need to get a life!
Brilliant Murray shocks Roddick

England 0 Portugal 0 (1-3 on penalties)

SODDING PENALTIES AGAIN!!!!

England played with great gusto in 10 men (Wayne Rooney was sent off - hopefully he'll learn from this) and ironically it was probably their best performance so far, but in the end it was the same old story - out on bloody penalties....again! I think England deserved to win...but deserving to win isn't enough.
Overall, lessons has to be learned from this campaign - but that will be down to Steve McClaren, who will take over from Sven-Goran Eriksson with immediate effect. Hopefully McClaren will be given time to find a system that gets the best out of the players, and hopefully he'll be tough enough to drop players who are underperforming. Let's be honest, this England team never matched their pre-World Cup hype.
England 0-0 Portugal

Just an hour to go before England v Portugal...

Well, in a few hours time I'm either going to be drowning my sorrows or having a hell of a celebration......

GOOD LUCK, ENGLAND!!