NZ All Whites: Unfriendly Underdogs

The All Whites, possible World Cup underdogs, have a dark side...

New Zealand’s surprise 1-0 victory over Serbia in their World Cup warm up match in Austria last night confirmed a strange paradox about the All Whites: they will be a team that neutrals are pre-disposed to support, and a team that neutrals will be pre-disposed to oppose.

A Pink Shirt is NOT an Everton Shirt

The disgrace that is apparently the Toffees' new away shirt.

It was today confirmed on Everton’s official website that the club’s ‘revolutionary’ new away kit will be launched on the 3rd June, and given that the word “revolution” is presented in pink, it seems to confirm the long-running rumours that the Le Coq Sportif strip will again prominently feature a colour that has little or nothing to do with the club’s heritage. Whether or not the strip is indeed the supposed ‘leaked’ shirt from last week, I cannot agree with this.

While I’ll admit that pink isn’t my colour, and so I dislike the concept on a personal level too, my main issue with their insistence on producing pink away shirts for Everton Football Club is that it disregards our history and tradition purely in an attempt to make money. A clubs colours should not be trifled with so easily, we have a long tradition of blue, white and amber, and I for one hanker for a return to the good old days.

Shoes 4 Souls Charity & Competition

As you guys know, They Think It’s All Over… is a charitable place and we believe in the power of football to make a difference in people’s lives – hence our support for such schemes as the Global Futbol Initiative and Football Aid. So when our friends over at SoccerPro informed us of their new campaign called ‘Shoes 4 Life‘ which works in tandem with the ‘Soles for Souls‘ charity, we were always going to get behind it.

Basically, if you become a fan of SoccerPro on Facebook and donate a pair of your shoes to the cause, you can win ‘Shoes for Life’ from SoccerPro and also have the chance to win $1000 cash. If (like me) you’re short on dry shoes (thanks Wellington weather), you can also give a cash donation or buy a Shoes for Souls T-Shirt. Basically, this is a great initiative to get people involved in charitable work – because if you give something, you could just get something back.

So do get on over to SoccerPro and do what you can.

Exciting News!

Hi everyone, once again it’s been a while since I got a post up here, and once again, I come bearing excuses. Last week I officially graduated from Victoria University of Wellington and so I’m now officially an academic, so I spent a great few days with my family in Wellington. It’s also that time of year where assessments all fall on you at once and so much of my time has been devoted to writing about English Literature rather than football.

That said, I don’t think I’ve really missed much. The World Cup is still, at the time of writing, 14 days, 13 hours, 25 minutes and 15 seconds away from kicking off (yes, I have got a countdown on my desktop…) and it rather feels like we’re stuck in limbo. Pre-World Cup friendlies are still in experimental mode and the couple that I’ve seen (England vs. Mexico and Australia vs. New Zealand) have rather suffered for it. Hell, many nations still haven’t picked a final squad – how can we begin the analysis when we don’t know who exactly is gonna be there!?

However, the coming month will be a busy time in football, it’s what we look forward to for three years at a time, and as such They Think It’s All Over… is going to be rushed of its little feet, or rather, my little feet. Annoyingly, my aforementioned university has had the audacity to arrange the exam period smack bang in the middle of the greatest sporting event on earth too, which further complicates matters.

However, I will soon, happily, have some reinforcement around here, as I am delighted to announce that They Think It’s All Over… will soon have its first ever regular guest contributor. Matilda Hankinson (of The Offside (Bolton) and The World Cup (England) fame) will, as of next season, be writing a weekly Premiership Review column, and I’m delighted to have her on board. In the mean time though, she will be contributing occasional World Cup articles to her weekly slot, which will hopefully keep the place ticking over.

So please everyone, give a warm welcome to Matilda, and stay tuned for some World Cup action from They Think It’s All Over… and of course, because we’re not ones to shy away from showing our allegiance here at TTIAO, come on England!

A competition, and the dangers of Mexican Waves.

A mexican wave at the Confederations Cup... surprise surprise.

Sony Ericsson have been in touch with me to let me know that they’re running a World Cup initiative known as the South African Wave. The idea is simple, basically you send in a video of you doing your own sad and lonely one-man-mexican wave and they tag them all together and create a giant online wave, and, because everything is a competition, you signify your allegiance and the team with the most fans wins the uhhh… award for the most fans with too much time on their hands? I’m not sure, but at the time of posting that dubious honour belongs to England.

The reasons, I’m telling you all this are two-fold though. Firstly, because you can actually win legitimate prizes by sending in a wave, including a trip to South Africa for the World Cup and some World Cup jerseys, and I know that everyone is a sucker for free stuff, so feel free to get yourself in the mix by clicking here. The secondary reason for this though, is to illuminate you all on why you should never ever join in a mexican wave at a football match.

The England World Cup Squad: My Picks

Later today Fabio Capello will choose 30 players for his initial squad for South Africa. Those lucky 30 will then be put through a rigorous schedule of training and fitness tests before the final 23 man squad is announced on the 1st of June. Which means that today is the last day we have to speculate wildly about who will be included in the squad. Will Ledley King stagger onto the plane? Or will Carragher, fresh from an awful season, return to the international fold? On both counts, lets hope not.

For what its worth then, I’ve picked a 23 man squad (with the help of the Telegraph website) which I think is England’s best bet for a successful campaign in South Africa, and without any further ado, here it is:

The 23 men I would entrust our hopes to. Agree?

Premiership Predictions

So it’s all come down to this, the final weekend of the Premier League season and there’s a fair bit still to play for. Chelsea will have to hold their nerve against Wigan while Man Utd must beat Stoke and hope that the Blues slip up. At the bottom it’s all already signed and to an extent the European places are done and dusted too, but Spurs will want to try to pip Arsenal to 3rd while City, Villa and Liverpool will jostle for position in the Europa League spots. Other than that though, it’s the last day of the season and everyone wants to go out on a high. Who will manage it? Read on…

All games on Sunday, all kick offs 3pm.
Arsenal vs. Fulham
Fulham really probably won’t give a damn what happens in this match, they’ll finish comfortably mid-table whatever happens and the thoughts of everyone involved with the club will be firmly set on the Europa League final. Expect Hodgson to risk the wrath of the FA again by fully utilising his squad, while Arsenal on the other hand, will play their strongest side to secure 3rd place and a home win for their fans on the final day. While stranger things have happened and Fulham’s reserves will be keen to impress, I can’t look past a home win here.
Prediction: 3-1.

They Think It’s All Over… on Facebook

Hi everyone, quick heads up that They Think It’s All Over… now has a Facebook page. I’m not entirely sure why, or what use it will be, but if you like the site and use Facebook then give the page a “like” and maybe some of your friends will find their way here through you.

The link to the page is a button like the one above in the sidebar ‘subscribe’ box, or you can click here.

Well done The FA, Pompey don’t deserve Europe.

The 2008 FA Cup winning Portsmouth team: ill gotten gains?

Now that Everton have finished 8th in the Premier League and will not be playing Europa League football next season I can comment, without accusations of bias, on the decision to prevent Portsmouth from being allowed to compete in Europe despite reaching the Cup Final. The decision means that whoever finishes 7th in the Premier League will take that Europa spot instead of the South Coast club and I have to applaud the FA’s decision on that front.

I’ve got nothing against Portsmouth, despite previous posts to this website where I’ve suggested that it would be good for them to be relegated (so as to relieve themselves of the mercenary remnants of Redknapp’s reign and start over). But as a club, I’m ambivalent towards Portsmouth, I certainly don’t want them to go bust but I shan’t miss watching them play. I’m also full of admiration for the job that Avram Grant has done since taking over, but despite his dignified slowing of their inevitable free fall, they don’t deserve a European adventure next season.

England’s Number One? Joe Hart.

Joe Hart has had a commanding season for Birmingham City.

It’s fair to say that it’s been a pretty good year for Joe Hart. Last season saw a promising stint as Man City’s number one curtailed by the signing of Shay Given and he must have feared that he would be doomed to warm the bench in a manner akin to Ben Foster at city rivals United, as his abundant talent slowly wilted. Fortunately for him, and for England, though, the sudden wealth of Man City has instead been something of a catalyst for him to step up and become a top Premier League ‘keeper.

And with the World Cup just around the corner and neither David James nor Rob Green making much of a case for themselves with their struggling club sides, one of Fabio Capello’s main dilemmas when it comes to naming his squad and selecting his best XI will be as to the identity of his no.1, a problem that has dogged England managers since Dave Seaman had a funny turn against Brazil in the 2002 World Cup. Luckily for Capello though, City’s millions may just have solved the problem for him.