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I’ve entered two competitions this week. There’s the Guardian’s Gallery ‘Photoshop Juande Ramos’ comp. I’m number 22 on the site - I feel so dirty.

They actually had my ‘effort’ on the site’s front page for a while. Sometimes it pays to stick with the bleeding obvious, team.

And here’s my entry in the Dropkicks’ photography comp:

Today, I’ll be posting photos on Flickr from Eden park, where England are playing New Zealand.

Watch the action unfold - and pray it doesn’t rain.

Check out the Sportsfreak feed also.

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Luckily, I’ll be on a tropical island for the next week (yay!) - you guys will have to make stupid stuff up yourselves for a few days.

Righto

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Yet again, NZ’s best cartoonist nails the mood of the nation simply and elegantly. Twice. Fark he’s good.

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Thoughts on this evening’s defeat to England:
- Following a Black Caps top order collapse on CricInfo is much less fun than watching on the box (if you find that sort of thing fun, that is)
- Styris got 80 odd in a domestic match today - let’s get him on a plane, quick smart
- What were England DOING when they batted? They dwardled along like 11 Geoff Boycotts, it was more boring than ten man rugby from the 80s. If we’d had a little luck and got Flintoff out any earlier we’d have probably nicked it
- Flintoff is obsessed with punching gloves with his batting partner - one of England’s tailenders wasn’t expecting it when he came to the crease, and just about got a cock-punch
- Without Bond, our go-to tactic is still the slow-medium dobbers - twelve years ago it was Latham and Harris, now it’s Astle and specialist bowler Craig McMillian (who in fairness did a great job tying England down at the death)
- Tony Greig’s shameless cheering for the Poms is beyond a joke - if Sky Digital had an option to mute individual commentators, and have them replaced them with nails scraping a blackboard, I’d cheerfully pay double my subscription (Stu Wilson, you’d be next on my list, Bucko)
- Cricinfo’s headline right now is ‘Flintoff edges England in thriller’ - is that in a kind of Michael Jackson sense of ‘Thriller’?
- Scary thing is, England aren’t all that flash a side, and we stil lost. Did you spot anything to worry the Aussies?
- More depressing than the actual game was tuning into Radio Sport on the way to the video shop post-match, with one caller asking if Shane Bond actually had a migraine (back strain?), or just didn’t feel like playing. The horror…

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For those despairing of the Black Caps’ woes - here’s a scene from the Tsunami relief matches, when we had firepower like Jeff Wilson in the team, and Flem could set fields like this.

I’d take Greg Sommerville at this stage.

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Yep it was time to dust off the duvet for another Champs League final - although the muppets on Radio Sport reckoned there were 100 or so fans in The Blue Stone Room at 6 this morning. Here’s the thoughts from the couch before all that coffee wears off.

- The ref should have left Lehmenn on and let the goal stand. I bet he felt stupid for blowing hastily, and a real shame for the neutrals to have an 11 v 10 match with 20 minutes gone.
- Spurs fans everywhere obviously delighted for big Sol to score in big match after having goal disallowed in WC 98. *Sarcasm detector goes nuts and eventually explodes. Smoke everywhere*
- Ronaldinho disappointing - more flicks than a 1st XV shower room but no end product at all. Great smile though.
- Henry never recovered from THAT miss in the third minute. He spent the last half not running at all, and arguing with Wenger. He’d be farking frustrating to play with - he only makes runs for himself.
- From Spurs point of view - still have the same number of European Cups as the Arse.
- From Arse point of view - must keep Henry, even if he’s crap in the big games.
- As for the theory that UK football fans should support UK teams in finals - I cheered on Arsenal in the 93 Cup Winners Cup final - only to see Arse fans singing ‘Are you watching Tottenham?’ in the celebrations. Bollocks to ‘em.
- Blogger’s spellcheck suggestion for Ronaldinho is ‘Remolding’. Honestly.

Update: Video highlights of the match from N17.

link

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So. The big kick off is only a couple of weeks away, and now Tottenham have:

- Edgar Davids.

- England’s best goalkeeper.

- Englands’ best young centre back.

- FOUR strikers. Count ‘em, four.

- Several England and Ireland under 21s, including Wayne Routledge and Tom Huddlestone, who are meant to be a bit special.

- Martin Jol. He’s good. No talk of Arsenal background or faith healers. He seems like he’s been there for years when he talks about the Spurs tradition of attractive football. And he’s building quite a squad. His next challenge is to mould a team.

- Michael Carrick, a very Spurs player in that he can pass, can’t tackle and won’t get picked for England as much as he deserves (Sheringham, Hoddle, Anderton, Barmby, Waddle).

- Average age of first team squad - really young, like 24.

- It seems like we’ve got at least two decent players in every position.

So. Can I get excited yet?

link