England to Get to Semis? Illogical Captain

We finally get a high caliber coach and then we set him illogical targets. No, not Fernando Clavijo, but Fabio Capello. The powers that be at the English FA, who so ridiculously insisted on having Steve "I'll stand under my umbrella and drink mineral water" McClaren as national team coach, have now heaped the pressure on the Italian to make sure that England reach the semi-finals of either the World Cup in 2010 or the European Championships in 2012. What is the point of such targets? It's almost like predicting scores in games, absolutely pointless, because it takes no account of luck, form of players, how well the oppostion is playing and any other number of indefinable factors. I understand the need to get a solid future plan together for the sake of English football but I think we should spare the silly targets. Yes, it would be nice to get to the semi-finals of a major tournament, something we haven't done for a while now (Euro 96, Italia 90) but so much will be out of our hands. We can play our best, play some proper football that the England players are well capable of and then we will see. Personally, I think Argentina will beat the Ivory Coast in the World Cup Final in South Africa with Didier Drogba scoring two in a 3-2 defeat of the Super Elephants. See how stupid it is to predict things? Here's the link to the BBC story on silly target setting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7386163.stm

Dublin Gets All Italian - Che Bello!

Strange bedfellows indeed. Not only is Giovanni Trapattoni taking over as the new Republic of Ireland coach, he's getting World Cup hero Marco Tardelli to be his number two. OK, so it's just an excuse to link to what is without doubt the best ever celebration of a goal in the history of soccer (see below). I don't think the video link really does the celebration justice but it really remains a thing of beauty for its pure naturalness.
First England with Capello, now Ireland with Traps and Tardelli. I note few real doubts on the Irish side insisting on an Irish manager. Ireland against England in the final of World Cup 2010? Probably not but they'll all be eating better and listening to Puccini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3IMTGXmnSk