Football x 3

1. I'm on the home stretch of David Goldblatt's The Ball is Round, which, as the blurb says on the cover, could replace a whole shelf of books about football. In parallel, am also learning a lot about 20th century world history, economics and politics. Here's an interesting comparison between two Middle East countries and Japan. In Iran, women haven't been allowed (until very recently) to attend football matches; in Japan, 10,000 of the 16,000 members of Tokyo Verde's fan club are women, mostly teenagers. When Iraq failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, the team were forced to play a game kicking cement balls which broke the souls of their feet and toes; in Japan the teams would go over to both ends of supporters and, in a line, bow in unison.

2. This afternoon in the garden I taught the girls how to head and volley a ball. They're really quite good!

3. Watched the World Cup Final in The Stag up the road. A dirty, unattractive match but glad Spain ran out winners.

And that's the last footie post for some time.