new lion squeaker

We even bought a new lion squeaker for the World Cup football, caught in the soccer madness that had led me to expect Sainsbury's to be empty.

Wrong.

The pre-match car park was almost full which made me wonder how many had decided to watch the afternoon matches ahead of England vs USA.

Like many, we scrunched down in front of the telly, with a few beers and munchies as well as the attractive distressed England beach towel(£3), the lion that shouts 'goal' and 'penalty' when you press a button (£2) and some hair extensions in Union Jack colours(£1), which confusingly are the same as the USA's.

We had well and truly invested in this match, in as ITV described, "the unforgettable experience'' of its High Definition splendour.

By now, everyone knows the result, so it is almost superfluous to mention the England team performance, except for the lightning fast first five minutes which led to a spectacular goal. Unfortunately, our television didn't show it because the ITV HD service decided to play a car advert. We were most confused, especially when the match returned and someone said 'look England have scored'.

We missed the whole goal and the post goal cheers because of the wrong button pushing by someone at ITV command central - who are already blaming another organisation for the problem.

As play resumed, the HD allowed us to see the layering in Cappello's hair style, but for some reason the on field play was sometimes rather jerky, as if the HD frame buffer was not keeping up.

I can't swear to it, but it then looked to me as if the rest of the game (after the jerky bits) was shown in standard definition on the HD channel. Don't worry ITV, its our little secret, but annoying to those who've gone out specially to get HD for the occasion.

Well, so what to make of the match? I suppose a few of the US players are also in the UK leagues, so they should be OK. I still think that a country that positions its soccer as the national game should be able to trounce a country where its something of an afterthought, behind their version of Football and Rounders.

Oh well, c'mon engerland etc.