F: It's a reason of two halves

Some of you may have worked out from the title of this post that the letter F reason to be cheerful is football. Let's be clear about this, I am talking about what is technically known as association football, in which the round ball is kicked. Americans are inclined to refer to this game as soccer.

Cue a collective groan from all those who can't stand football. Well, I'm sorry, but I like football and I happen to think that at its basic level it is a very democratic sport. I accept that its international administration does resemble the activities of the Medici family in 15th and 16th century Italy, but in some ways that is partly why I like the sport. The political manoeuvring can be fascinating.

Football can offer something for everyone - tears and laughter, pleasure and pain. It is a lesson in life: strive and you will succeed, except for when you don't and some feckless chancers come out on top causing you untold angst.

I have no doubt that there are fans of many other sports who are adamant that their chosen sports are superior to football. All I would observe is that football is one of the few sports where kids will just get on and play it in the street or wherever they happen to be. They may play it badly, following rules that they interpret in their own way, but give them a ball - any size will do - or even just a tin can and they'll get on with it.

Youth football in Cambodia. Most of the  players appear to be
barefoot apart from one who has just one flip-flop.

For sure, it is easy, and not unfair, to be critical of football for the way the top tiers of the game are dominated by money, but for those of us who follow more humble teams, money only becomes an issue because there's not enough of it. As long as our team survives to fight another day and maybe, just maybe, has a really good result which leads us to think that this will be the season they exceed expectations then we're happy.

So why the title for this post? Those of you familiar with football pundits, those people whose ability to talk seems to be in inverse proportion to being able to come up with any meaningful comments, are reputed to refer to football as "a game of two halves".  In football-watching circles this is known as stating the bleedin' obvious, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Lots of songs to go with football, some better than others. New Order's World in Motion was recorded to be the official England team song for the Italia 90 World Cup. Sadly, not even having a group such as New Order doing your team song was enough of a help although England did get through to the semi-finals. Ah, well, there's always Russia 2018....if we qualify.

• Question: Do you support a football team? If so, which one? If not, why not? Answers in the comments section beneath, please. For those of you who are wondering, I support Gillingham, pride of the middle reaches of English League One.

* Picture of Cambodian footballers used under General Product Licence.

In the land of ifs and buts

The late, great Bobby Moore. England fans
 will know of his significance, everyone else
will just have to accept he was a great man.
 Pic by Carlos Yo. Used under GNU Free
Documentation License

I know a lot of people are already fed up to the back teeth with the World Cup - yes, rugby fans, the football world cup, your turn is next year - even so I can't help following up yesterday's post.

Last night I went out to watch England who were beaten 2-1 by Uruguay, and Greece who achieved a no-score draw against Japan. This leaves England and Greece both needing a) to pull their fingers out and actually win a match, and b) other teams in their groups to have results that favour England and Greece.

Interestingly I noticed this morning that players on both teams have already invoked the Almighty as a possible means of getting through to the next round.

England captain Steven Gerrard, a man who rarely lets a carefree grin cross his face, admitted that England were now at the stage of "clutching at straws." In particular he said: "We need to be professional and pray for that scoreline to go for us."

Specifically, Stevie G needs to pray that Italy beat Costa Rica and Uruguay, something I am sure the Italians are more than capable of, and that England beat Costa Rica by a hatful of goals. Oh dear, can you see where that might go wrong?

Greece were dogged against Japan even after going down to ten men when Greek captain Konstantinos Katsouranis was sent off, something he seems to have a penchant for, having been so punished three times in his last 16 games for club and country.

Dogged or not, bottom of the group is bottom of the group. Defender Sokratis Papasthopoulos has taken a philosophical view, but then, of course, he is Greek and with that name, too. He said: "If things go well, let us get four points with a win in the next game - and if God decides that we are eliminated because of the other result, so be it." What was missed out, but I bet he said it anyway was that favourite Greek phrase "Τι να κάνουμε" - What can we do?

Decision day for both England and Greece is Tuesday, June 24. I can hardly wait, can you?

While writing this I was reminded of the desperation I feel nearly every time I watch the English football team play and "hanging on in quiet desperation" led me to this:

Question: Do you feel desperation while doing something that you really ought to be enjoying? Or is that only for England fans harking back to 1966 (and the late, great Bobby Moore)?

Listen, I can explain. It's not what it looks like

Oh, I'm a bad, bad blogger. It was all going so well, I was posting regularly for the A to Z Challenge and then.....woomph! Nothing for more than a month.

Well, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, all I can say is that I went back to the UK for a month - during which I managed one, yes, one, post - and then I just found myself always doing something else. OK on that basis I'd convict me, too, on charges of wilful slackness and culpable workicide.

Anyway, now I'm back on the rock with all the distractions that life here offers in the summer. And on top of that we've got the World Cup to contend with. Actually, when I put it like that it's quite amazing that I'm even writing these words now, but miracles can and do happen and so here I find myself tapping those keys to produce the deathless prose that is my attempt to stave off a full-on descent into bonkersness. I'm not sure it's working, but I'm giving it a go.

Having mentioned the World Cup I might as well admit that I've been watching quite a lot. It's still the group stage when there are at least three matches a day and four on the concluding day of each group, so the potential to put in almost a full working day just watching football is always there. I try to be discriminating, if only to prevent the onset of pressure sores from sitting too long gawping at the big TV sets in my local café where I watch matches.

Tonight is a big night. England play Uruguay and Greece play Japan. I'm English and would like England to do well, or at least not be disgraced, and I live in Greece and would like to see them do well also. Unfortunately, my footballing loyalties are causing me some pain and both sides need to win or they might as well head for the airport. I suppose supporting teams that might not triumph is where the character-building element of sport resides. We shall see.

Since writing the opening line of this post I've had a song in my head and it eventually surfaced through my murky consciousness as Bad, Bad Boy by Nazareth, Scottish heavy rockers formed in 1968 who I'm pleased to say are still going, albeit in a slightly different line-up than they started with. As a way of making amends for dilatory behaviour with the blog I offer you Nazareth at their raucous best.

Question: Does anyone have any top tips for avoiding fecklessness? There must be a way, or should I give in now?