Cup football is gone

Cup football was for a long time regarded as one of the highlights of the football season, where the game was not about performance, stability or consistency, it was a just a game of: Get a scrappy goal into the back of the fuckin' net and say no more about it. The type of football where Emile Heskey could tap in from a half yard and celebrate as if there was no tomorrow.

But I'm afraid to say ladies and gents that Cup football excitement is no more. 

There are several reasons for my seemingly wide and controversial statement about the decline of the Cup. First of all, is the fact that there are now two cups, the FA Cup and the Carling Cup, the difference has never been explained to me but the FA Cup is better (for some unknown reason) because it will get you to the Charity Shield Final at the beginning of the next season. 

All very complicated. 

The Carling Cup, mostly due to a personal idol of mine, Arsene Wenger, has been reduced to a playground for the U-18's. Great in a way, but when Man City decide to field a full strength side against an Arsenal side with an average age of about 21, you feel the balance of play has shifted. This makes the game unnecessarily unfair and just creates uninteresting games and sometimes conveys a message of "I don't give a shit about this cup, so lets field the twelve year olds" from the managers to the fans.

Then there is the FA Cup, and this is where it get's a little more interesting. Fans flock around the country supporting their team and the draw is sort of mildly entertaining but the games offer little. I watched Arsenal-Leeds last night and sat through 70 minutes of boredom before at last. Thierry Henry came on and galvanized the Arsenal side. Great, so Arsenal won and a legend returned, but looking back at the Third Round of the Cup I wished it didn't happen.

For me, there are two main problems with cup football. The first, people and the teams by consequence seem  disinterested by this brand of football and don't really get hyped about it anymore. This is a problem because if there is no fan support, there is no game.

Second, and more importantly, is the fact that the quality of the football is not that good. As I said, it's two teams trying to hit each other on the break with no fluidity or class about them. Surprises like a lower league side being the Premier League leader are rare and even then not that exciting. The general air of disinterest and the more important aspect of cup football becoming two scenarios: A. Youngsters playing and the game being riddled with errors, understandable but not necessarily enjoyable; or B the game being shite with a last gasp goal sending the fans into euphoric raptures which did not reflect the game.

Premiership football cannot be contested as the finest brand of football there is. Teams need to be competitive, consistent but also with a touch of class.  

Hype preparing me to the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

David Fincher, absolute master of preciseness and high quality film has created the English version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Now, this is something to get quite excited about in my opinion. Yes, there were the translated books and the original Swedish films but no one can really get excited if it's not in English. Now, don't get me wrong, I love to see films in their original language and I love to see films that are foreign. 

But really, if someone can recreate the magic of the originals in English, then its a bonus point for the whole Hollywood culture. I haven't seen the film yet, but it tops my list of things to do when getting home, after exam studying of course...not. 

There are several reasons for which this film has attracted me. First of all, the director. I absolutely adore David Fincher. Director of Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network, he manages to draw you into films by being both violent and coarse but also clever and distinguished. His attention to detail, his selection of his cast and his beautiful screenplays bring his films to a new level. And yet, no Oscar, but no surprise there really in a way.

Second, the cast. Rooney Mara, if you don't remember is the girl at the beginning of the Social Network who breaks up with our hero Zuckerburg. She has a bit-part role in the Facebook film but she is the star in the chilling Swedish crime scene. Daniel Craig is an actor with fantastic grace and charisma which he displays not only in James Bond but previously in Layer Cake, a film I highly recommend but which is little known to international audiences. Christopher Plummer, delightfully chilling and Stellan Skarskard, who is Swedish himself make up the rest of the cast. A strange mix, if you look at their history and their accomplishments but I think that under Fincher, he will be able to get the best out of them, and make exactly what he wants of them. 

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly is the fantastic trailer. I've read most of the first book (also on my reading list) and the trailer really seems to bring the story alive, and as some film critics have said; even betters the actual base material. The music on the trailer is superb, cold and claustrophobic, we are entrapped, unable to wrench ourselves away from the spectacle that has besieged us. I didn't think they made trailers this good anymore. The sweeping shots of the Swedish snow, which we only get a glimpse of but pull us in for more and the momentary violence, as if caught in the middle adds a frightening and horribly realistic aspect to it. 

Trailer

This movie looks different, classy, realistic, stylish but with a hard tone to it and an unmistakably violent character about it.

I say bring on this new brand of film, bring back the intelligence of the '90's, bring back class, wit and style that have been in large part, missing from the last decade of rubbish that Hollywood has spewed out. And if this is good - which it really had better be after I wrote this - push Fincher to make all three because as I said, properly interpreting a book for once is step forward after the horrors of Harry Potter and Eragon (which didn't even get a second chance). The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is top of my viewing list and I look towards it with a high level of excitement as well as expectation.   

Football is still the best

Well, I am an avid Arsenal fan and have always been a supporter of football throughout the years but a trip to New York and the opportunity to go and see New York Knicks, one of the basketball teams playing there was an alluring prospect.

So, a short subway ride to Madison Square Garden, home to the Knicks (basketball) but also the Rangers (hockey), the venue from the outside seemed majestic, if not a bit quite. Being an Arsenal fans, I have never really had the opportunity to be among raucous fans and noisy hooligans, but even this atmosphere seemed a bit dour! 

The Knicks were playing the Toronto Raptors who were not supposed to be very good and there was an air of superiority from the fans and players alike, superiority which lasted a very short time. Having won their last game again Sacramento, New York seemed to be in flying form and my excitement rose after I heard bribes that one of their star players Carmelo Anthony, was on top of his game. 

I sat down about half an hour before the game and watched the stands fill up with fans equipped with hats, shirts and large foam hands with one finger pointing up, not as rude as you think! On the side of the court there was a row of men in suits all sitting in front of computers. Speaking to one of the ushers I found that they were official NBA representatives who recorded all the statistics. Above us, and all round were huge computer screens displaying advertisements, statistics and which throughout the game would exhibit motivational videos trying to rally the crowd into supporting their team.

The game is pretty fun, its end to end and some of the plays are fast and furious but it doesn't really stimulate you as football does. For the first two quarters, 24 minutes that is, the crowd doesn't get involved unless something sensational happens and even the players look at time disinterested, knowing that the most important period of the game is yet to arrive. Unlike football where a two to three-nil lead will probably win you the game, basketball is unpredictable in that sense. Comebacks are always possible.

Only at the third quarter, when New York were down by a significant amount did the crowd really pay attention to the game. Previously, the surround system had made most of the noise and there had been few rallying chants to get their team to play. The cries of "defense, defense" were a pain to hear and seemed fruitless as every time they were uttered the adventurous Canadians usually scored.

Basketball players have one real requirement to get into sport, to be exceedingly tall. No one on the court was under 6"3 with the tallest being 7"1. They were immense, all of them. It was impressive at times, to see the players soar into the air and produce a "slam dunk" but the occasion was so rare that their size and impact on the game became unimportant. The game was mostly reduced to penalties or free-throws but my calls of "Send him off" were thoroughly ignored. But Arsenal FC had decided to follow me to New York; one of the players looked uncannily like Emmanuel Adebayor, a much hated person at the Emirates, especially since his arrival at Tottenham. Several times in the game I was tempted to yell the favourite " Fuck Adebayor" but didn't as I would probably been arrested.

Basketball was impressive to a certain degree. The players, massive and sometimes majestic could really motivate you and get you into the game but a distinct lack of noise from the fans and perhaps the general mediocrity of the game made it that overall, the last five to ten minutes were the ones that made it really important.

It was an experience, and in many ways a good one. It opened me up to a different kind of sport and to a different culture of sport. But really, who need basketball when on a freezing Saturday afternoon we can walk to our favourite football ground and spend 90 minutes chanting abuse to the opposing fans and players without fear of being arrested, and assured that the whole game can be exciting, as opposed to the last five minutes only.