Paella & Chips

And so it begins.........

Having contemplated the art of blogging for a while, enthused by numerous witty and amusing posts by the Magathon, Darth Meerkat and many more, I have decided to unleash my ramblings on an unsuspecting blogging community. This is in no small part due to the fact I have a lot to say about most things, and it has now come to the point where my usual sounding boards have been suckled dry of the milk of human kindness, and are now not even pretending to listen!

I have therefore decided it is better (for both my ego and self esteem) to have a faceless critic ignoring my every word, than it is to stare at those I love knowing they're just waiting for me to finish.

So what to write for my first stab at this, bar mundanely explaining why I'm here in the first place obviously. Well, I may as well begin where I am most comfortable, most passionate, and at times the most ignored (by Lisa anyway)............Football!

Being a Bradford City and England supporter, some may argue that my cross is slightly bigger than most, and I've been dragging this hefty piece of wood around for the best part of 30 years. I've sen the good, the bad, the ugly and the completely f****** hideous, and yet I still watch. The kind of masochism that can only be attributed to sport. That said, there comes a game every once in a while that deserves mention, and dare i say a little cause for hope.

Watching the England Vs Spain game last week was certainly one of those games. The expectation before hand was certain defeat, but if we played our absolute best and Spain rested half of their team we may possibly scrape a draw. Oh yes, Optimism was at a high, the taste of Africa still bitter in our mouths. That said, I saw a side to England that night that I'd not seen in a long while, I saw an England hat didn't want to lose, nay REFUSED to lose!

This was no delight to watch, we did not play Spain off the park nor did we peg them back with new found attacking flair or bullish tactics...............we played like England, but an England of yesteryear. An England that threw bodies in the way, an England that ran until they could run no more, an England that finally showed that magical ingredient that we all remember so fondly from Italia 90 and Euro 96............BALLS!

Now one can not win world cups on Balls alone, but it's a bloody good start and will certainly make the inevitable crashing out at the quarter finals a lot more bearable for the downtrodden England support.........and it's a platform to build upon. We do have to take a slight reality check before getting carried away and remember that Spain rarely turn up for friendlies, but this was certainly no B team we were playing. Spain created chances however, particularly in the last 15, and on a more clinical day would have stuck a few past us. That said, they didn't. We stifled them in midfield not allowing them to cast their wand as they have done so majestically over the last few years, and forced them into playing out of character, and this shocked them

It's obviously far too early to get carried away, We were very sloppy in possession and as expected chased he ball for large parts of the game, and it could be said that had we been limited to 3 subs as per, then fatigue may have undone all we had worked for. But it does raise a very interesting point, and one that will be my parting shot on this matter. Many teams over the last 2 years have studied Spain attempting to emulate them, perhaps in the same way teams and players did with the Brazilians and the Dutch in years gone by, and sadly we have also fallen into that trap. My point is this, clearly there are grass roots issues in English football and these have been highlighted by the continental game. In fact to compete in the future I believe we must look at the basic building blocks of 'the Spanish game', but not copy it in its entirety. There are aspects to be taken from this way of playing, but not at the expense of some of the forgotten aspects of the English game displayed in the performances of Parker and Lescott. It was a strangely promising experience watching last weeks game, and I for one believe there's room for a Little Paella and Chips.

I am Spafmonkey......hear me roar.