States of Play

Hello to those of you who have just been linked here from my email, this is my, rather poorly kept, blog page website thing. I’ve decided to use it to keep you all abrest of my goings-on in the States over the summer. I’ll try and update this page as much as possible while I’m out there and I’m taking my digital camera so will be able to upload pictures relatively regularly.

You can still email me at trilby7@hotmail.com. That is, you know, if you want to.

Anyway, here’s a little bit of info about where I’m going:

Utah is one of the Four Corners states, and is bordered by Idaho and Wyoming in the north; by Colorado in the east; at a single point by New Mexico to the southeast (at the Four Corners Monument); by Arizona in the south; and by Nevada in the west. It covers an area of 84,899 square miles (219,887 km²). .The state is generally rocky with three distinct geological regions: the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau.

You want that Togo?

Seeing as my days are now filled with endless free hours, its probably about time I started doing some more blogs. There is the small matter of the World Cup after all.

And what a tournament its been so far! There's been upsets (Ghana 2 Czech Rep 0), brilliant goals and typical England fustration already, and we're only 10 days in. Apart from a few games (both involving the French, unsurprisingly) most of the games have been fast, fresh and furious. I'm currently sitting in front of the Togo-Switzerland game and the passion is infectious. Much like the Korean fans yesterday the stadium is resonating with noise, and the teams are playing like there's no tomorrow and despite what looks like on paper a dull game, it is highly watchable.

The African teams in general have impressed me. Ghana look more like a seasoned Eurpoean team than first time qualifiers, the Ivory Coast have looked highly competent against very good opposition and Togo will surely win many friends this summer (probably more friends than points). What the Africans have over many of the Eurpoean teams is their fast and furious pace. They play games in the most watchable way rather than many of their Eurpoean counterparts who try to dull their way to a 1-0 victory. I have already fallen asleep twice during games this summer (France v Switzerland and Portugal Angola).

Pele may not have got it right with his predictions but it is certain that Africa is having a big an impact as it has ever had at the World Cup.