Winter wonderland
Rainy Day readers might be aware of our soft spot for Henry Winter, the football writer of The Daily Telegraph. He last appeared here following the Champions League Final, when he served up delights such as "Just when Arsenal were hoping to march from Highbury to their new Ashburton Grove home through the Arc de Triomphe, they were run off the road by a Spanish street-car named desire. Eto'o and Belletti forcing Wenger's men down a boulevard of broken dreams." Thursday's England-Trinidad & Tobago game brought out the best in our 'enry, and he hit top form with:
"England are progressing through this World Cup with maximum points but minimum panache. Fittingly, against Caribbean foe, this was a rum do, lacking conviction and flair but with the intoxicating sight of Wayne Rooney returning to action and goals from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard. A Mersey Killing indeed."
In one sentence there, we got a "rum do" and a "Mersey Killing". Classic! And Henry followed up with this observation: "For a few minutes, Eriksson's new tactical philosophy appeared to be drawn more from confusion than Confucius." Excellent! Given Henry's penchant for boulevards, arcs and things Frenchified, it was almost inevitable that we'd get this: "The clock was running down, and England were running down culs de sac." Superb!
But Henry Winter can drop the sacks (sacs?) of colour when needs be, and today's offering from Baden Baden (so good they named it twice!), "Follow that, Sven", is a sober analysis of the gulf between the game as played by England and Argentina. Still, Henry being Henry, he can't resist a dash of purple, so we get this gem: "Sven-Goran Eriksson's men must also embrace the Latins' philosophy of treating the ball as a precious gift to be shared among friends." And then this: "Rooney, like a child waiting for a sweet shop to open, does not understand the concept of patience. As England players confirm, he has resembled a stone in a stretching catapult these past few frustrating weeks, aching for the moment to be launched at the opposition." Nuff said.
