France cruised to a routine victory over Honduras at the weekend and now seem likely to make the second round with some ease. No sooner had the commentator informed us that Wilson Palacios had rarely played ninety minutes for Stoke City this season, than a bizarre challenge on Paul Pogba ensured he carried that record into the World Cup. Red card, game over.
English viewers got to see the game on the BBC, which rarely covers live football these days. It showed. Thierry Henry and Clarence Seedorf were worthy panellists, both have a sackful of medals and their contribution to the debate was insightful and intelligent. Alongside them was... Robbie Savage. Did someone else call in sick just before the game started and Robbie happened to be passing the studio? There can be no other explanation for his presence. In a grim parody of his playing career he was, once again, outclassed and outwitted by those around him.
Invited to explain how Honduras could cope with the attacking flair of the French, Savage reminded Henry how the clubs he'd played for had sought to contain the Frenchman and his Arsenal colleagues. The Welshman suggested that his brand of physical football could work just as well for Honduras as it had back then. Henry looked bemused, then I'm guessing he ran through in his mind the goals he scored when Savage was an opponent before delivering a superb coup de grace.
"We coped," he said. France were one nil up before the teams had even taken to the pitch.
Savage once famously suggested that he was a better player than Graeme Souness. I doubt even his mum would support him on that one. Credit to the BBC for getting two top panellists but Savage? I don't think so.
Gold medal for stupidity, however, goes to commentator Jonathan Pearce for his diatribe about the failures of the goal line technology system. Listening to him again yesterday, he is still convinced the system malfunctioned during the game. He claimed that it showed two contradictory results for the same incident. A child of four could see that there were two separate decisions to be made. The ball hit the post and rebounded along the line, the system correctly showed - "no goal," - then the ball hit the keeper and crossed the line, the system correctly showed - "goal." No issue, no problem but Pearce's failure to look and think means that there probably are a few viewers out there that think the system is flawed.
Anyone know what John Motson's doing these days?
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