Germany v Portugal. Who cares?

So tonight sees the 63rd and least important game of the World Cup - the "third place play-off". Why? What is the point? Two demoralised teams giving their fringe players a run-out whilst being reminded that if they'd only been a little bit better in their respective semi-finals they could have been playing the biggest match of their careers tomorrow.

And who buys tickets to go and watch the 3rd place play-off anyway?

I think that instead of having this meaningless match, FIFA would be better off organising some kind of charity gala night the day before the final, and then having an exhibition match. They could pitch a best of Europe XI (Well, XIV with subs) against a Rest Of The World XI, made up from players whose countries have already been eliminated from the Finals. That way we'd get a chance to celebrate the best players of the tournament by watching Ballack and Figo and Riquelme and Ronaldhino pinging the ball about for fun whilst raising money for someone like UNICEF.

It might be a meaningless jamboree, but then, so is getting two groups of players, who have barely had time to get over their anguish at narrowly missing out on the World Cup final, to play a match that nobody cares about, for FIFA's profit.

Comments

[michael]

good points. Could be more entertaining than some of the England games though? :-) Also, when, when...will England learn that hype and over-expectation are destructive? I also don't feel you have that much of a change under McLaren. God knows why Martin O'Neill was turned down.

Be good to see the Italians winning although I feel France will do it. And as a Scotland fan, I've got to wince at the thought of both World Cup finalists and Ukraine being in our qualifying group for Euro 2008. What went wrong with the seedings there? Although knowing the perverse way Scottish football works we'll probably do well :-)

[Martin Belam]

Actually the Germany - Portugal game turned out to be quite entertaining in the end, didn't it?

>> Be good to see the Italians winning although I feel France will do it. And as a Scotland fan, I've got to wince at the thought of both World Cup finalists and Ukraine being in our qualifying group for Euro 2008. What went wrong with the seedings there?

I don't think it can have helped that a pretty mediocre Greece side were made top seeds by virtue of being reigning champions.