No contingency plans
It wasn’t unreasonable for the German football association to assume their team would get out of their World Cup group – after all, they’d achieved the feat in every previous appearance at the tournament.
So, you can’t really blame them for not planning on an early trip home. That, though, has presented a problem, according to Fox Australia. “The association had made no contingency plans for the team to exit the tournament so early – and so have booked no tickets for flights home.”
“Now, they are facing a major logistic problem. Currently, many flights to Germany are full, meaning the team has no set departure date and may have to depart in small groups whenever tickets are available.”
So fancied were Germany by many, they predicted their stay in Australia would last right up to and including the final. At this rate, it might still.
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Number of the week
6: The number of teams in the top 20 of Fifa’s rankings who have already exited the World Cup – Germany (2), Canada (7), Brazil (8), China (14), Italy (16) and South Korea (17). Carnage.
Confidence and arrogance
After coming within inches of being eliminated from the World Cup, when Portugal’s Ana Capeta hit the post in the 92nd minute of a scoreless draw on Tuesday, the United States’ players were just a touch relieved when the final whistle blew.
Safe to say, though, former US captain Carli Lloyd, now a pundit with Fox Sports, was not overly impressed by their celebrations, which included Kelley O’Hara and Trinity Rodman high-fiving fans and Megan Rapinoe engaging in a spot of dancing.
“I have never witnessed something like that ... to be dancing, to be smiling,” she said. “They are lucky to not be going home right now. There’s a difference between confidence and arrogance ... you never want to cross that line of becoming arrogant, it can come and bite you.”
Lloyd’s player of the match? “That post.”
Career highlight
Trickiest broadcasting moment from the last week: We’ll go with the one the BBC’s Joe Inwood experienced when he reported from a fan zone in Croydon after England had beaten China 6-1.
The crowd there was, need it be said, jubilant after such a zinger of a performance, so Joe moved among them with his microphone merrily asking them for their reaction.
“Magic,” “brilliant”, “fabulous”, “tremendous”, etc, followed by a pint-wielding chap who declared: “F**k the Tories”.
Inwood apologised, later describing the moment as his “career highlight”. This appalled the (Tory-supporting, BBC-loathing) Daily Express. “I think the Express might need an explanation of sarcasm. It is possible I wasn’t entirely serious,” he said.
Quote of the week
“To everyone, and I mean this, don’t ever forget, I’m the reason yous are all here, so I hope yous can get me that pint yous all promised me after Hampden.”
— Amber Barrett reminding the nation who scored the goal that got the team to the World Cup. She should never have to buy a pint again.
Shameful
Aside from being criticised back home for the manner in which they celebrated their 0-0 draw with Portugal, those United States players who are refusing to sing their national anthem continue to get a whole heap of flak.
“Megan Rapinoe, she’s the leader of all this,” said former Fox News presenter Megyn Kelly. “She’s not a starter. So that’s why she’s not on camera when they’re doing the national anthem, but she’s behind a lot of this.”
“She’s poisoned the entire team against the country for which they play. I don’t know about you, but I’m not rooting for them. I’m not with them. I hope they lose. It’s shameful. These girls are shameful. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.”
Apart from that, Megyn wishes them well.
