Well, England Did Want Out of Europe

And sure enough, Roy's boys ratified the Brexit vote with as limp a defensive and offensive display as you'll ever see.  I watched the game in a London pub, and the wild cheering after Rooney's penalty quickly turned into grumbling, then angry resignation.  Some of the comments:

"These wankers couldn't beat anybody!"

"Rooney, yer past it, mate!"

"The combined salaries of the England players is more than Iceland's GDP."

England never looked like scoring from the run of play.  Everyone looked poor almost all night.  Kane was ineffectual, and of the other Spurs stars, only Kyle Walker looked as though he belonged out there.  Rooney had one of the worst games of his career.  Sturridge was awful; Sterling barely better.  The substitutes (including Wilshere) didn't do much to change the dynamics except for Rashford, who was put on too late.  Iceland's goals should have been prevented, though they were well executed.  The Times had published a diagram of Iceland's throw-in play the day before the game.  Lee Dixon in the commentator's seat said exactly what Iceland was going to try to do.  The next day's Times fumed that Iceland did to England what Stoke used to do to Arsenal when Rory Delap zipped his throw-ins into the area.  Well, the England defense went to sleep and it was like none of them were there.  Pathetic.  On the second goal, there was too much space for Iceland to get the shot off.  Well done Iceland, but come on.

A humiliating Engxit.

Watford and Arsenal

There's no comparison, really.  This was brought home to me by accident.  My younger daughter was playing for New Zealand in the World Ultimate (frisbee) Championships at the University College London athletic fields in London Colney.  UCL is where Watford FC has its training ground, and is next door (literally) to Arsenal's.  At the tournament, thousands of players and spectators trampled all but two fields in this large complex, and tracked mud through the Watford FC eating facility.  When I tried to drop in on Arsenal's training facility, a guard stopped me from even taking a picture of it.  I got closer to the Scottish crown jewels on this trip, and pictures were OK.  Sheesh.  There was a sign outside telling people that autographs were not to be solicited, leading to sad scenes like this.


So, Brexit.  That happened during the tournament.  Among other things, it's going to mean that every English club is at a disadvantage.  It took three years to get a work visa for Joel Campbell.  Imagine if that were the case for Monreal or Bellerin.  Today, if a prospect from Poland looks promising, any English club can have him playing the next season.  Not after the Brexit takes effect.  Then, it'll be a French or German or Italian club that snaps him up.

This and That

David Ospina is showing why he deserves to start somewhere.  He's been awesome for Colombia, keeping out several shots (including a dynamite free kick from Clint Dempsey) that would have eluded quite a few Copa America keepers.

Olivier Giroud is giving his critics reason to rethink their position.  He won't convince any of them until he scores several goals in the Euros, though.  He should feel very confident.  He's been quite good for France recently.

My earlier optimism about DC United has evaporated.  Losing to struggling Seattle at home was a real low point.  At no point did United look as though they were likely to win or even score.  I don't get it.  They appear to have quality, even flair, in a lot of positions.  Their keeper is fantastic.  The coach is smart and a motivator.  So why do they stink?  It's tough enough to watch MLS games after seeing EPL players.  Watching second-rate soccer when your team is losing is really galling.  I dislike RFK and was hoping to see more games in person at the new park.  But it would be nice to see a winning team.

I will admit that I was not happy to read about the possibility of Vardy coming to Arsenal.  I reconciled myself to it and even started thinking about the possibilities, and then the stories came out that Vardy wanted to stay at Leicester.  So, back to square one on the search for a lethal striker.  Fine.  At this rate, we'll be bringing Sanogo back for another run up front before we acquire someone.

Juventus was brilliant again this season, but it didn't start out that way.  Here's the sequence in Serie A:

LLDWDLWDWLWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDWWWWWWWWWWLW

After a dreadful start, they got 15 wins in a row, then a draw, then another ten wins in a row, then lost to a team desperate to avoid relegation long after Juve had sealed the top spot.  They also progressed through Champions' League until a quarterfinal loss to Bayern (in heartbreaking fashion) and won the Coppa Italia, so this was an all-fronts campaign.  In the process, they became the first Italian team to win the domestic double two years running.  Not too shabby.

Szczesny did very well for Roma, who will have a play-in for a Champions' League spot again.  I like him a lot, and was hoping he'd be starting at Arsenal this year and every year, but he may have needed this.  Cech has done extremely well for us, so we're not suffering; but Szczesny could be our future at the position.  Unfortunately, we're overdosed on excellent keepers and can't play them all, so we'll lose more of them, as we already have Fabianski and Mannone.

Fiorentina will be in Europa League.  Milan is not going to be in Europe next season, which I like, nor is Lazio, which I like even more.  Inter and Sassuolo (!) round out the Italian Europa League places, and of course Napoli is in Champions' League.

I hope to see Theo Walcott working on his defensive skills when I visit London Colney in a couple weeks.  Maybe I'll pick up some news, such as spying Alvaro Morata ducking through a side door for a medical.  I'll be sure to post it here.