The chance to witness live sport again is stuff dreams are made of
Christian’s winner at the death
THE dreamy news the nation has been waiting for – we will be back in time to see England get knocked out of another major football tournament.
We will be back in time to see the Brits at Wimbledon last little longer than our first legitimate pint.
And it will matter even less than it has ever done.
You can picture it. Croatia have turned England over, as they like to do, but Gareth Southgate’s men have scraped past the Scots.
And now – just 24 hours after all Covid restrictions have been lifted and we are in a brave, old era in front of a Wembley full house – England need to hammer the Czech Republic to go through to the knockout stage of the Euros.
Leave the rest to your imagination.
But whatever transpires, however far England go in the Euros, whoever wins Wimbledon, or The Open at Royal St George’s, or the Test series against India in August, or the British Grand Prix on July 18, it will matter even less than it has ever done.
This country has always been a sporting isle and that is not blind jingoism.
That is why Wembley is full for England football friendlies against B-listers, that is why people camp out in a field next to Wimbledon, that is why they line The Open fairways 10 deep, that is why 351,000 people went to Silverstone to watch the British Grand Prix in 2019. I went to Silverstone for the 2020 edition of the same race when there was not many more than 351 people there.
Emotionally, it was the British Grand Prix only in name. Just as, emotionally, every other major event that has taken place without fans has been a sporting occasion only in name.
Sporting authorities do not always get the best press and the suits behind the scenes certainly never get much acclaim. But they deserve rapturous applause for the way sport has adapted to demands it can never have imagined.
Let’s face it, though, picture GREAT sport and you picture the crowd. You see it, you hear it, you feel it.
The throng swarming up the 18th to watch the winning putt, the Centre Court on its feet as the victor weeps, the Silverstone roar so loud it quietens the engines, the blaze of colourful passion at Wembley.
In an ideal, fantasy-land scenario, the grand reopening of sport will be celebrated by England, Wales or Scotland winning the Euros, by a Rory McIlroy or a Justin Rose lifting the Claret Jug, by Lewis Hamilton winning an eighth British Grand Prix, by a Brit hanging around for the second week of Wimbledon.
But whatever happens, it will matter even less than it has ever done. Jock Stein is credited with the maxim: “Football without fans is nothing.”
Whoever uttered it, he or she could have said: “Sport without fans is nothing.”
Roll on the dreamy days of summer.
CHRISTIAN BENTEKE’S glorious far-post volley earned Palace a precious win in the Sussex fog.
Roy Hodgson’s side had their back to the wall for almost all of this grim contest between two sides looking nervously over their shoulders at the relegation zone.
But with Hodgson, 73, coming under pressure after a run of only two wins in their last seven games, his team did him proud.
They had only real two attacks. With the first, new on loan striker Jean-Philippe Mateta’s brilliant back-heel gave them an unlikely lead.
Joel Veltman levelled for Albion, who pinned Palace back for long periods.
But in injury time Andros Townsend crossed, and Benteke volleyed home gloriously for only his fourth goal of the season.
The tension was there for all to feel. Neither team had found goals easy to come by, neither had a match winner in their ranks.
But it is Hodgson and his Crystal Palace team who will feel delighted after this grim struggle. It was a backs to the wall, at times heroic battle from Palace who had won only two of their previous seven Premier League games.
They were totally outplayed by a Brighton team who penned them into their own penalty area for 90 per cent of this one-sided battle. Hodgson had been under pressure, with fans hanging banners outside the training ground calling for change this week. But his team fought for him last night.
For Graham Potter and Brighton it was a night of frustration. Not for the first time this season, his side played lots of good football but could not find that killer touch. Palace don’t win many games without Wilfried Zaha in their side – they had lost 18 out of their previous 20. But with their talisman still out, this will count as a major plus. Brighton were on top from the off. Neal Maupay missed his kick when Leandro Trossard’s cross dropped to him, and then from Veltman’s cross, Trossard stabbed the ball wide. Hodgson’s team had barely got over the halfway line in the first 25 minutes, content to sit deep and soak up the pressure.
But suddenly, out of the blue and totally against the run of play, they were ahead.
Cheikhou Kouyate played a long ball out of defence, and Jordan Ayew beat Dan Burn to cross from the byeline.
Mateta was alone in the area, but, as Ben White tried to close him down, the Palace striker brilliantly backheeled the ball past the Albion defender, and keeper Robert Sanchez, into the net. It was the 23-year-old’s first goal in only his second start from Palace, having joined in January on an 18-month loan from Mainz.
A stunned Albion tried to hit back, but Veltman drove wide.
Then, from Veltman’s cross, sub Danny Welbeck stabbed wide.
They levelled when Pascal Gross’s shot came off Tyrick Mitchell to fall to Veltman, who drilled in off the post.
And then the thumping volley from Benteke late in injury time proved crucial.
THERE’S no greater indignity for a footballer than being hooked after coming on as a substitute.
I was fortunate that it never happened to me, but I saw it at just about every club I was at, and it’s not a nice situation for a player to be in.
That’s why there’ll be plenty of sympathy from pros and ex-pros alike for Callum Hudson-Odoi after Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel whipped him off on Saturday just half-an-hour after sending him on against Southampton.
I, for one, don’t mind that he did it and have to say that Tuchel (right, with the Blues winger) is really starting to grow on me.
We knew before he arrived that he likes to get involved and has a genuine, ready smile, along with a nice line in self-deprecation. The German has shown us all these traits.
We also know that when things aren’t going for him, he can become a bit of a you-know-what, and we have to be mindful of the fact we could well see that side of him at some point.
But the fact is that Tuchel has been straight-talking over the whole Hudson-Odoi situation.
From immediately after the game to what he said yesterday, he gets a big tick, because plenty of other managers would have dealt with it all very differently. Many of them would have said it was tactical, but there has been no ambiguity whatsoever from Tuchel. He hasn’t talked in riddles, and there’s a direct comparison with Jose Mourinho here and the way he is happy to burn players he’s not happy with over time. Mourinho (left) did it with
Luke Shaw at Manchester United and he’s doing it with Dele Alli and Gareth Bale at Tottenham.
Dragging things out, alluding to something rather than dealing with it in the there and then.
The difference between those two ways of handling things is subtle, but it is very important because of the impact they both have.
When it’s Mourinho’s way, team-mates see the impact it has on players in training every day and they start to feel sorry for them as a result.
Whereas Tuchel’s approach of, ‘Look, I’m not happy, I’m taking you off, that wasn’t up to scratch, let’s get back to training, get back to work and I will give you another opportunity down the line’, isn’t about being the big man, it’s just about delivering a message loud and clear.
I guarantee the rest of the team will have gone, ‘Callum, pull your socks up, you have to graft a little harder and when you do, rub his nose in it with a goal and a couple of assists’.
And once he has done that, Hudson-Odoi will come out and say, ‘The gaffer was right, I wasn’t at the required standard’.
He will come back better and that’s the difference between good, fresh management and the approach Mourinho gets involved in.
One approach is cancerous, the other simply finds out if a particular player is willing to pull his socks up or not.
I know which one works best for me.