Balls and bumps, plus World Cup success
As an international competitor in a sport with very low media profile, it's interesting to watch the progress of the English football team in their World Cup campaign.
I appreciate how difficult it could be, being pursued by the media 24 hours a day, with your every comment, performance or move on the training pitch being picked over; but the actions of some of the footballers just seem unbelievable to me.
Some England players (as well as players from lots of different countries) have . Now, I'm no expert, but I'm guessing that the ball is a fairly important component of the game.
So why come out on the eve of the tournament and tell all your opponents that you can't kick the ball properly? This would be akin to us turning up to the Olympic regatta and telling all the opposition that the oars we had to use weren't any good and that we were going to row really badly with them.