PT Barnum may have been right 150 years ago, but The Greatest Show on Earth these days gets underway this afternoon, despite the shameful corruption displayed by Fifa. By comparison, the Olympics is a sideshow. My first experience of the World Cup was watching Scotland play Zaire in 1974. For 20-odd years the tournament had participation value for Scotland, even if the joy of being there was short lived.
These days the joy is all about being a neutral football fan and soaking up the drama and brilliance from the game.
Statistically it is difficult to look past Brazil, who will benefit enormously from home advantage. European teams have never won the tournament in the Americans, where Brazil and Argentina have won every competition since Uruguay triumphed in the last time the tournament was held in Brazil 64 years ago.
Leo Time
Lionel Messi was, until recent times, the undisputed best player on the planet, but his position in the all-time greatest list is in considerable dispute. Ask an older Barcelona fan, who has watched Cruyff, Maradona Ronaldo and Messi all do their stuff at the Camp Nou, and they are likely to tell you Leo is by far the better player. His stats as a striker bear this out, but ask an Argentinean, and he’ll scarcely get a mention in the same breath as Diego. There is not even a debate that Messi is the greatest Argentine.
After giving a spectacular display of goal-scoring prowess in 1982, then 25-year-old Diego Maradona singlehandedly led Argentina to their second World Cup in 1986 and back to the final four years later. By Comparison, 26-year-old Messi has looked comparatively pedestrian in his two previous tournaments. He’ll be 30 by the time of the next tournament, which will be held in the completely different environment of Russia. If Messi is to be considered an all-time great, he needs to take Argentina to the final. If his career ends without an outstanding World Cup, he’ll slip somewhere between Eusabio and Cruyff in the list.
I’d like Belgium to win. Belgian clubs and FA go about their business correctly and brought a remarkable bounty of talent to Brazil. It’s always been easy to back Brazil but I’m still not over the Neymar thing. The guy is an abomination in the Brazil No. 10 shirt, a vastly over-rated charlatan. Anyone but Neymar, please.
Bertie Auld live chat, tomorrow, 1pm, on CQN. Be there.
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his tome, All the Best.
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BOBBY, the HiPPy, the everything has been so manipulated. I cannae understand why really Clever people just dinnae turn around and say God is Real.
People, because of certain things have committed Suicide.
Rapper whoever, I dinnae blame any person, it is an entity.
Listen to it all, it is terribly disconcerting, the root cause is………
That was a very poor opening game.
A couple of dodgy decisions decided the game.
Brazil have an easy ride now.
Mexico and Cameroon.
Mexico struggled to qualify.
A USA goal against Panama inside stoppage time promoted them to fourth in the section and earned them a play off against New Zealand.
Ironically USA were rewarded with a section including Germany, Portugal and Ghana.
No one here gives a lot for their chances
Fekn Bass!
Missed Mr Maynard cause I got an Edinburgh airport grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
swings’n’roundaboutsC.S.C
‘GG
03:20 on 13 June, 2014
Thanks Ghuys.
The nurse has just administered meds and in on nil by mouth till tomorrow afternoon.
I’ll be drooling over recipes on my iPad
_____________________________________
Dinnae be listening to me, My Mum & Dad have an unbelievable amount of Drugs to take every day, I’m not pleased but they are My Mum and My Dad.
TnT…….
Just arose on another hot an humid day in the desert.. Didn’t need to check PP account as just flicked back a few pages on the blog.
Many thanks on Mr Maynard, hope you’ve got hollow legs for all the drink that’s pledged.
Flushed a few lurkers out an all.
HH
voguepunter
03:34 on 13 June, 2014
Fekn Bass!
Missed Mr Maynard cause I got an Edinburgh airport grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
swings’n’roundaboutsC.S.C
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Don’t you ever rule out me coming to the Vogue for a drink or 2, does it have a Pool table?
petec
No
Got rid of pool table ,but we have kept the pool cues in case you show face :O)
Geez a shout mhate we will look after you.hh
Petec
I take a load myself.
There are plenty of pils to treat a condition but few that cure.
voguepunter
03:48 on 13 June, 2014
petec
No
Got rid of pool table ,but we have kept the pool cues in case you show face :O)
Geez a shout mhate we will look after you.hh
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I know ye would, all the extremely large Squad would.
Rome wisnae built in a day though.
I know you are Humans, but some are bordering on Giants.
Massive respect, even if your eyesight was Supernatural when seeing the Glamour Family heading to the Roses Gig. SuperNatural, I will never forget that moment, I thought it was one of the most amazin’ moments of my Life, latterly as I look a lot deeper into things.
I guess that is just yer everyday Job.
Who wants it, Who wants a Pool Table Re-install at the Vogue?
BMCUWP……you still around?
Got the email regarding the Fleg. No problems mailing it on.
Will get an email to you when I get outta hospital – hopefully tomorrow afternoon (CST).
HH
TC45
‘GG
04:05 on 13 June, 2014
Petec
I take a load myself.
There are plenty of pils to treat a condition but few that cure.
__________________________________________________
I’ve made a choice not to do any Pharmas, it is a really difficult choice.
We are slightly different, I think, you are older…
~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I read about Pharmakeia in the Bible, it sort of made sense.
//////////////////////////////
When Lemsip (Aspartame? WTF?) and Many other over the counter SHIT is classed as medicine, ye just know they want you LOCKED into Their Bonus Payments for the Ignorant, exceptionally Ignorant.
I would not want to Bore, CQN, any more.
VOGUEPUNTER
Lot of roundabouts between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Not many swings though.
The Media will make so much up, the gullible will fall for it.
THECELT45
Terrific,mate.
And terrific too that you’re out tomorrow.
I’ve got an e-mail addy for a lurker on here who works on an oilfield in Angola. I’ll mail him,check he’s still there and pass it on.
He might know where you can get decent whisky,not that rotgut ACGR gave you,haha!
VOGUEPUNTER 348
That was cruel!
I won’t ask you who the baseball bats are for,as I’m easily offended…
HH BMCUWP!
Evening from Houston mate! Any CQN contacts in Angola welcome, be good to catch up out there if possible.
TC45
.
So Gordon Strachan reckons Jesus visited England..!!!!
FYI..Doh..
You signed Him from Man City..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8380511.stm
Summa of SammiTheRedimerCSC
Summa of Sammi….
04:37 on 13 June, 2014
.
So Gordon Strachan reckons Jesus visited England..!!!!
FYI..Doh..
You signed Him from Man City..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8380511.stm
Summa of SammiTheRedimerCSC
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Missing you already………..
Not Geo, But SOS, I’m glad ye didnae use the proper terminology, because, dinnae be broadcasting it, the propppper wan is coming back very Jam and Spoon.
Sooner than anyone is even aware of.
The Age of Love is Finished.
THECELT45
Just sent him a mail,mate. Hopefully he’ll be in touch
He might not be speaking to me after I inadvertently left a number of addys open on a mail a few months back. Never before nor since done that,there was no-one more p’d off about it than I.
For how long are you expecting to be in Angola?
‘gg
Good luck mate
HH
Good morning friends and a Big Happy Friday from a dry, mild and bright but totally cloud covered East Kilbride.
Notwithstanding that last night’s penalty was soft (but still was a penalty in my opinion) I thought the refereeing standards were exceptionally high which made for a very enjoyable flowing game. Am I right in thinking there wasn’t a single offside decision either? I don’t think that Brazil were Brazil-enough though.
Nae papers this morning. Full of nothing. Roll on the CL qualifiers.
twists n turns –
Thanks for the Mr Maynard tip.
Jobo
Glad so many won a few quid. Always worried sick at racetime when tipping up nags as I feel terrible when they run poorly. He run well yesterday though so we are well in the black.
Good game tonight in the ole World Cup….well, on paper anyway.
Referring to Spain v Holland of course…
TWISTS N TURNS
Brilliant stuff wi the tip,bud!
Being a Thursday-heavy shift day-I forgot all about it,nae chance of getting it on anyway.
But delighted for those who did. Good luck wi yer op,btw,but scunnered wi the NHS on yer behalf.
TNT
Nothing doing in the papers Celtic-wise,as you say.
I was disgusted at this in The Guardian though.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/12/racism-northern-ireland-couple-tell-abuse-belfast
A Celtic fan’s view from Sao Paulo, cracking read, http://ilikefootballme.wordpress.com
Finally,the headline in The Sun down here yesterday was that ITV had paid for a student to consume 48 units of alcohol. About 24 pints equiv.
Or breakfast,as we called it in my day.
Anyway,it got me thinking.
I’m gonna try for some sponsorship for the next dayooooooot/hoot.
BMCUW
Hmmm…disturbing story bud.
On a lighter note ( literally), I was reviewing Coca Cola’s new healthier drink earlier. Cola life. They are using leaf sweetener. Clearly they didn’t do enough market research in the West of Glasgow, and won’t be shifting many of their new drink in that area. Comes in a lovely green and white can:-))
I note that the team that morphed from our former rivals have officially announced that they’ve sold 17,000 season tickets. For anyone that might have an issue in visiting their official site please don’t then click on the following link.
http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/7059-season-ticket-sales
Time to work (for a bit…)
A snippet of Celtic gossip
Celtic are considering a move for Rotherham midfielder Ben Pringle. (The Sun)
Jobo
I’m glad your weather observations are more in keeping with the available visual evidence than your penalty observations apparently are!!!!
Soggy in dunblane and not looking much better as i head towards the big G.
HH jamesgang
Jobo
whilst i agree its best not to look at official sevco site link, i did notice that they have a headline and story about a guy who has moved from Arniston Rangers to THE rangers
Are THE rangers still the same old mob that went bankrupt or does THE rangers acknowledge that they are a brand new mob of iceholes
GARY67
I hear he’s a crisp passer.
Well,sumdy had to say it!
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers
07:22 on 13 June, 2014
An appalling story
Racism is racism whoever it comes from.
Crushed nuts – u have mail
Good morning CQN
Watched the opening game last night, very disapointing cheating from Brazil not a patch on the 1970 team
To all those who worry about the return of the Zombies, below is the resume of the player they are now signing
by EWING GRAHAME
12 June
2014
DARREN McGregor has revealed that being a lifelong Hibernian supporter would not have prevented him from joining Hearts for their assault on the Championship next season.
However, he admits that the prospect of playing in front of 50,000 fans at Ibrox meant that he was always going to sign for Ally McCoist rather than join Craig Levein and Robbie Neilson’s Tynecastle revolution.
The central defender was a free agent once his St Mirren contract expired last month but any thoughts of switching allegiances to the maroon half of Edinburgh were abandoned as soon as Rangers came calling. He said: “I think this eclipses that. You only have to look at the size of the club, the fan base and what they have to offer – there was really only one choice.”
However, the 28-year-old insisted that being an Easter Road regular as a child was not an issue when Hearts expressed an interest in signing him.
“That was fine,” he said. “I was a Hibs fan when I was younger and I still look out for their results but, the older you get, that becomes irrelevant.
“It didn’t have any bearing on decisions and what-not. The size of the club here, what they have to offer, just the whole magnitude of Rangers as a club in the world, was a great opportunity that doesn’t come along often.”
McGregor admitted that twice in the past decade he’d feared he might never be given the opportunity to play for one of the biggest names in the game. When he was only 19, Mixu Paatelainen told him he wasn’t good enough for part-timers Cowdenbeath then, two years ago, he suffered cruciate ligament damage for the second time in 12 months.
“Mixu came in [at Central Park] and didn’t quite fancy me,” McGregor said. “They had Gary Smith, the former Hibs player, and Innes Ritchie, a former Motherwell centre-half, in the team so I was content to learn from them.
“But Mixu didn’t see it like that and released me. I resented it at the time – I was Second
Division and dropping down. But I was lucky enough that Brian McNaughton was a coach at Cowdenbeath. He’d taken me to Arniston [juniors] and I’d had two years there.
“I did well, got my immaturity out the road. I learned the game a bit more.
“Danny Lennon gave me another opportunity at Cowdenbeath and I spent a year there. He moved on to St Mirren and then I got the phone call when I was working in retail.
“But, if you’d said six years ago I’d go from Arniston Rangers to Glasgow Rangers when I was sitting in this wee poky dressing-room in Gorebridge on the outskirts of Edinburgh, I’d have said: ‘No chance’.
“It’s not as if I didn’t have the aspiration but, at that time,you’re thinking about the next step higher, not six or seven steps higher. It’s a dream come true from where I’ve been.”