THE BRITISH THREAD II

Well, Mr. Know-It-All, the speaker was a sports reporter on NPR.

I didn't know anything about it and I won my 6-1 odds bet with a friend. He gave me 6-1 odds that America wouldn't win / draw or even lose 1/nil.
He was so cocky that he thought England would win 6-0!
And then after it was over he started talking about how the England team was older than the American team, etc., etc., and I asked, 'But didn't you already know that when you placed the bet?'


Anyway - I figured, what the hell and I took the odds - and I WON SIX POUNDS! I should have bet a tenner.

Now I'm just waiting to see how Brazil does - that where my money is - even though I don't know anything about sport.

I baacked England to not win too but I only got 5 to 2. I must admit though that I was a bit fortunate. Scoring a goal is harder than threading a needle on a rocking horse in games like these. It's a bit easier playing Australia.

Goalkeepers secondary!!!!! Sheesh.

So...you would be good for a loan then ??

I once won $50 in a football pool . . . that was in the early '70s when $50 meant something and not just a fill-up of gas and a latte. I just put my name into one of the few empty spots left on the card!

Congratulations on winning six pounds! Unexpected money is always so nice!

The Guardian's website has highlights of the England - USA game recreated using LEGO bricks:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2010/jun/14/world-cup-2010-england-usa-brick

If you were more famous wande perhaps they could have done one of you having a **** in the ****** position.

The anti-ID position's logic is the beliittling of men.

Perhaps a ceiling-busting career woman's application of lubricating jelly from a tube prior to having career enhancing *** would have been more amusing.

Bloody Sunday Report.

"Closure " seems a long way off, even further now.

£200 million? wow.

Are you Welsh?

That's a joke - I've lived in England now long enough that I'm picking up on all the little jabs the English/Welsh/Scottish make against each other (apparently English men believe that Welsh men like sheep or something- I say men because I've never heard women mention anything about it).

But at lunch the other day, we were playing Scrabble and this British guy said, 'I can't believe that a Welshman (Rhyddian) and an American (me) are beating English people at an English game...'
I was like, 'Huh?! I've never really thought about it before, but I think if you were to research it you'd find that Scrabble was conceived of/patented in America- how much you want to bet?' (We bet on everything now).
Sure enough,


Then he said, 'But it's OUR language.'
Yeah, alright, whatever...

And then the next day, America and England battle to a draw at another 'British' game.
So satisfying.

depends on how much you need.

My father once slipped me $50 he won at the football pool because right when I was first out on my own I was so determined not to take money from him so I could say I was totally independent that the only way he could get me to take it was if he mailed me the cash- it was very helpful sometimes and he knew if he sent me a check, I just wouldn't cash it, but if he mailed me cash- I probably wouldn't take the trouble to mail it back.
Anyway, I still have the letter he sent me with this $50 bill- 'I won this in the football pool, so it's found money for me and I figure you can use it more than me.'
He was such a good dad.


Yeah, I might have some more coming. I picked South Africa, Algeria, Greece, Uruguay and Nigeria along with Brazil.
The pool is that whoever picked the winning team gets 80% of the pot. Whoever picked the team that has the most goals scored AGAINST them gets 10% of the pot and the other 10% goes to charity.

I figure I have a good chance of winning with Brazil, and maybe even having the most goals scored against one of the other teams.

We'll see. Something to look forward to.

Most certainly not. I regularly bet against England. The odds are slightly better than they ought to be to begin with. I started betting against England when the great feminist conspiracy took over media. Even the Telegraph surrendered. And I can't get xenophobic about a bunch of rate-busting millionaires who throw their weight about as compensation for being under the cosh from the hand that rocks the cradle.

What I'm really looking forward to is Royal Ascot. The rot can be seen in that in all its ragin' glory. What a nice curtain raiser for Mr Osborne's austerity budget it should be.

It should be remembered that the World Cup consists of 8 group stage games in which the top two qualifiers from each group are more or less predictable due to the seedings. So 16 teams qualify for the knock-out stage. Hence to be in the final a team plays 7 games. So the group stage games are not played flat out by the top teams to keep injuries and exhaustion to a minimum.

So I don't think England "battled".

Oh, so I guess America didn't 'battle' either- right? I mean their coach probably reminded them that they had to play seven games too and they had to avoid injuries and exhaustion too - right?

Or no? Maybe the English players held back on purpose because they're much more mature and and the Americans played full-out because they're just a bunch of impetuous and impossibly competitive roughnecks who can't delay gratification or approach the whole tournament with the skill and mature and reasoned approach the English team can.

I'm kidding. My son really wants America to win. I told him that I'd just as happy to see England win if Brazil doesn't win. Who would I be trying to kid? I live in England for a reason - I like it- it's a good country.

Wrong. USA wouldn't expect to go so far. Beating England would be a prize on its own. It was a low energy game. Last time Italy only just scraped through the group stage and then won the final. They did a fair bit of fannying about last night.

I'd like to see Ghana win. They have the best supporters.

Whatever happens, and whatever the outcome, you may be assured that our chaps will give of their best.




Which usually doesn't amount to much, really.
What does Mr Capello get? £6 million a year? They're having a laugh.

Someone take spendi out the back and explain the finer points of soccer supporting.

I see the thing as a betting medium pure and simple. Brazil are 33-1 to score 10 or more tonight.

Supporters don't really understand the game.

I assume it is the supporters you will be fleecing....sorry, betting against...Unless you place random bets then you would have a good understanding of the game. Might not one refer to you as a soccer supporter ? Would you have a fav team ?

Following the meetings BP had in Washington yesterday, the parties seem to have accepted the position stated by me weeks ago, namely that deep-water drilling should not be taking place without a robust code of practice to deal with bad leaks at depth.

I could have saved them billions.

They're asking for it. They are trying to fleece me. It's only a game.

I have no favourite team.