Are You Not Entertained?

“Are you not entertained?” The words of Maximus Decimus Meridius as he finishes entertaining the crowd as a gladiator, note the key word ‘entertaining’. Having watched my fair share of games in the opening stages of the 2010 World Cup I’d have to say that, no I am not entertained.

Just like the gladiators, footballers are there essentially for our entertainment – they just happen to get paid a ridiculous amount of money for doing so. On the other hand, if I suffered from insomnia I would love the World Cup and no doubt doctors everywhere are prescribing a good dose of World Cup football for their patients to help them get some sleep.

Unfortunately for me I don’t have such problems; I can understand teams not wanting to lose their opening games, but have they ever thought of trying to win them? I know it is a crazy suggestion, winning a football game instead of an easy draw.

Fair play to Korea Republic who went out with the intention of beating Greece and they did so quite comfortably, they may not end up lifting the cup but at least they’re entertaining the World.

Some sides actually look as though the concept of football is new to them. Poor control, poor passing and general poor play has been a theme to the World Cup so far. Teams try to play it safe too much; look back through any past World Cup footage and you’ll find outrageous goals or at least attempts for the spectacular but that isn’t the case anymore.

The World Cup has shown how predictable football has become, in some cases at least. Pass it all along the back four, and then let the midfield do the same and if there’s nothing on pass it back to the defence. Obviously teams don’t want to throw away their possession but why not be creative and try an audacious ball or even a 30 yard shot which looks like it has no chance but somehow manages to deceive the ‘keeper and end up in the back of the net.

There is still a long way to go in the World Cup and a lot of football to be played. Hopefully most teams pick it up a level for the second games where pressure begins to build and wins become imperative, though if they perform negatively with less pressure then I suppose they wouldn’t play attacking football when it gets important.

I hope that by this time next week I look like an idiot for suggesting the World Cup is less than entertaining, though if things carry on as they are I could be right.

Carl Leighton