Dr De'Ath will spice things up for World Cup:WHAT'S IN a name? Well the England soccer squad will be hoping not much in relation to the chef who will be cooking all of their meals during the soccer World Cup in South Africa. Tim De'Ath, who previously catered for Hollywood film stars and the marginally less famous players of West Ham United, will look to pamper, in culinary terms, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard et al for as long as they remain in the tournament.
Affectionately known as “doctor” from his days at Upton Park – those footballers never miss a trick – De’Ath has already visited all the hotels in which Fabio Capello’s England squad and management will be staying, including those earmarked as an England base for the quarter-final, semi-final and final.
He previously spent a little over a week examining the kitchens in which he will cook in South Africa but first will head to England’s pre-tournament training camp in Salzburg next week.
There are certain accoutrements the well-travelled footballing palette can not do without and most come under the heading “Spicy”.
While De’Ath will use fresh, local produce he will also be transporting the following essential items from England as it appears the players can not do without them: six bottles of Tabasco sauce, 24 bottles of peri-peri sauce, 12 tubes of wasabi paste, 25 bottles of sweet chilli dipping sauce, 10 bottles of English mustard, 30 packets of seaweed sheets, 25 bags pine nuts, 30 bags dried apricots, 30 packets custard, 30 packets of vegetable stock cubes, 200 bars of organic chocolate, 30 bags of herbal teas, 10 bags of Arborio risotto rice, five litres of olive oil, 10 bottles of balsamic vinegar, 24 jars of jam and 15 bottles of brown sauce.
The reason behind the players’ insistence on so many mouth-blistering sauces can be gleaned from a sample menu (below) of what the English players can look forward to in South Africa.
It’s unlikely to send them rushing for the dining room.
Pasta, rice and chicken are non-negotiable ingredients of the modern sportsperson’s diet so to try to spice up rather bland fare the players will douse their palates in eye-watering accompaniments, an undertaking supported by medical research.
Apparently peppers contain anti-oxidants and naturally lift mood levels, while pepper elevates endorphin levels, which in turn eases pain.
Quite how they’re going to tart up the oak cakes with cottage cheese though is likely to prove a tricky assignment. You can almost picture the scene.
Capello: “We are not getting on the bus until those plates are completely clean. Do you hear me, Wayne?
“That means every scrap of cottage cheese or there’ll be no organic chocolate bar to go with your Lapsang Souchong elderberry infused tea.”
Mind you if England prove to be less than successful during the tournament the headings in the newspapers might take on other culinary connotations, more generic than label-driven . . . 11 puddings anyone? Or what would happen if there was a repeat of the alleged food poisoning scandal that laid low several All Black players ahead of their 1995 Rugby World Cup final defeat to hosts South Africa: doctor + De’Ath + food poisoning, the sub-editors would be salivating.
It’d be interesting to see what Bobby and Jack Charlton and the rest of their 1966 World Cup winning team make of the focus on food, diets and chefs. One suspects they mightn’t approve (no cigarettes, chip butties, bottles of ale) and resign themselves to buffing their winners’ medals for another four years.
WORLD CUP MENU:
BREAKFAST– Toast and scrambled eggs
LUNCH– Pasta and grilled chicken
AFTERNOON SNACK– Oat cakes, cottage cheese, salmon
DINNER– Chicken, rice, steamed vegetables
Morgan makes us bat for England
CHANNEL SURFING last Sunday afternoon between Gaelic football (Derry and Armagh, Tipperary and Kerry), rugby (the Irish boys in action for the Leicester Tigers against Bath) and the Twenty20 World Cup cricket final between England and Australia, I settled on watching England bat or, more specifically, Dublin’s Eoin Morgan.
At least that’s what I believed initially but in watching the cricket I was struck by the fact not only did I want the hugely-gifted Morgan to excel but also his team to prevail. It was a strange feeling because it’s completely at odds with my allegiances in the sport over the previous 30 years.
From the moment I stumbled across Test cricket in about 1980 – it was one of the few sports live on TV – I was smitten by the West Indies, the sport’s great entertainers, the swashbuckling, cavalier style of my favourite cricketer of all-time Viv Richards and others like Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes.
They were rugby’s Barbarians and basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters rolled into one. At the other end of the team making grown men cower there were the five pacemen of the apocalypse in bowling terms, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Joel “Big Bird” Garner, Michael “Whispering Death” Holding and Colin “I’d bounce my grandmother” Croft who vied for four starting places.
Supporting the Windies was easy when contrasted with the dour obstinacy of the England team, with the honourable exception of David Gower and Ian Botham. That England’s team’s approach provided substance to the accusations that cricket could be excruciatingly slow moving and boring.
Test cricket and its Twenty20 sibling are nearly two different sports but I suspect it was England’s approach during the recent World Cup that struck a chord: fearless, aggressive hitting with Morgan and Kevin Pietersen leading the way.
Football a religion for FC St Pauli supporters
AS CLICHÉS go this one may appear a real doozey. Supporters are wont to equate football and religion, some seeking to beatify players and elevate them to god-like status. This method of worship is not an exaggeration when it comes to FC St Pauli, newly promoted to the Bundesliga next season for the first time in eight years.
A group of the club’s fans can genuinely claim football is a religion in their eyes as they have decked out an executive box like a Gothic chapel. This particular corporate facility at FC St Pauli features stained-glass windows, candles, an altar to football and depictions of the team’s players as saints. Obviously it is a moveable feast and there most be some scope for a sinners’ window based on occasional on-pitch shortcomings.
The chapel box, owned by marketing firm Jung von Matt, stands in the South Stand of the Hamburg-based club’s Millerntor Stadium. There’s no doubt a few prayers, silent or otherwise, were offered during the course of the season, as St Pauli regained elite division status in German soccer, in their centenary year.
The Germans have arranged pre-season matches against FC United of Manchester and Neil Lennon’s Celtic in recognition of the fact both clubs place great store in the bond they have with their supporters. You see, St Pauli is member-owned and Andreas Kahrs, the club’s centenary co-ordinator, pointed out fans have a right to voice their opinions about the direction the club takes. It would be wrong to push the holy metaphor too far as the club is not as angelic as it seems. St Pauli wear a brown and white strip but their fans sport a skull and crossbones symbol that first flew on flags in the Millerntor Stadium in the 1980s. The club’s anti-authoritarian image has mass (couldn’t resist) appeal and the centenary is seen as a celebration of being “non-established since 1910”.
Harinordoquy is not one to panic
TOULOUSE ENTER today’s Heineken Cup final at the Stade de France seeking a fourth European crown and will be strong favourites to achieve that goal. While it’s impossible not to enjoy the manner in which they play the game there’s a part of me that hopes their opponents, Biarritz, will overturn the formbook, in spite of their largely dour and rather limited style. It’s simply because the Biarritz team contains Imanol Harinordoquy.
His athleticism and footballing skills mark him out as an outstanding footballer. His bravery in the Heineken Cup semi-final against Munster that commanded even more respect. Going into the game – a sport with massive physical collisions – with a broken nose, protected only by a flimsy facemask he produced a towering performance before finally retiring. He was central to his team’s victory and will carry their hopes on his shoulders again today. His attitude to life and the sport of rugby is contained in a Basque proverb – he is fiercely patriotic to the region – “Hil arteraino bizi, han arte ez izi”, which translates as “Live until you die; until then, don’t panic.”
He stuck to those words and hopefully this afternoon will offer another testimonial, this time with a happy ending. Biarritz lost the 2006 final to Munster, a defeat that Harinordoquy maintains was the most painful of his career.
Sorenstam still playing in a lead role
THIS WEEK Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam was appointed as one of two vice-captains to European Solheim Cup captain Alison Nicholas for the tournament that takes place next year in Ireland at the beautiful Killeen Castle.
The greatest female golfer of her generation, it was a timely announcement as seven years ago, almost exactly to the day, May 22nd, 2003, she became the first woman to play a US PGA tour (men’s) tournament in 58 years when she teed it up at the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas.
The last woman to play on the PGA Tour was Babe Zaharias, one of the greatest all-around female athletes across a number of sports including golf. She qualified for the 1945 Los Angeles Open and made the 36-hole cut before she was eliminated in the third round with a 79.
Phil Mickelson said of Sorenstam: “I’m as curious as anybody to see how the best LPGA player of today, and possibly all time, will play against the men,” before predicting that Sorenstam would “definitely” make the cut.
Not all the men were so supportive with Vijay Singh quoted as saying he would not play if he was drawn with her.
As it transpired Sorenstam didn’t make the cut, amassing a five over par total to languish in 96th place of 111 starters after the first two rounds.
