You can tell a lot from a teamsheet, can't you? Aside from a handful of dull old Tims, Michaels and Jonathans, the USA team that plays England on Saturday will be a joyous riot of New World energy and democratic informality: Clints, Brads and Landons will rub shoulders with Joses, Carloses, Ricardos and even the occasional Herculez. Marcus, DaMarus Beasley, Demerit et al will link arms with Benny Feilhaber, Josmer Altidore and Steven Cherundolo. Will the pitch even find room for Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra *and* (my favourite) Edson Buddle? Doubtless there are a million future Chads and Thads and Brads lining up behind their awesome battalions of Soccer Moms - and 'Soccer' isn't even their number one game.
And up against them will be our Johns and Franks and Joes and Robs and Waynes and Glens with only Jermaine and (God, how unlikely it sounds!) Emile to add any hint of the exotic depths of the brave new England!
I bet Spector scores.
ReplyDeleteAt both ends.
I'm missing the Trevors of yore.
See, even the Jonathans have resonant surnames, don't they?
ReplyDeleteYes, there was a very Trevor period in the 70s, wasn't there Geoff? I think Ron Greenwood may even have used it as a selection criterion at one point. This was before the great edifice of English nomenclature - the glorious Pantheon of Wilfs and Walters and Raiches - began to be eroded by sinister foreign elements.
I mean, *Emelyn*?? I ask you....
;?
xxx
Robert Algernon Blanchflower Fanny Blankers-Koen Swipe