Scott Walker Column

Published 23 Jun 2010 12:41 0 Comments

FROM a French farce to a North Korean nightmare, South Africa 2010 is throwing up plenty of talking points.

When I first heard our Gallic cousins had gone on strike from my villa here in Florida - I had to get that in there - it seemed a certainty the farmers or truckers were at again, not Les Bleus.

The players are now out of the huff but the damage has already been done - their campaign has been a disaster. Nicolas Anelka has been sent home and his team mates will more than likely be following him, if as expected, they get knocked out in the group phase - something I'm sure will have Irish eyes smiling.

But it seems the bigger European nations are not having difficulty finding problems. Italy, England and Spain are all having some sort of setback, both on and off the pitch.

The Auld Enemy are facing an early bath along with a guaranteed mauling from the media if they fail to progress, and it's not looking good. They have to beat Slovenia in all likelihood to guarantee their place in the next round and I wouldn't be laying down much money on them finding that an easy task ... time will tell.

John Terry is apparently aghast at Fabio's failure to send Joe Cole out into battle, while the England manager in turn seems convinced his former skipper would have been better taking his bucket and spade to South Africa.

Even the reliable Germans are having their beach towels ruffled, after opening with a comfortable win against Australia, they stumbled to a surprising defeat to Serbia.

The North Koreans played the role of whipping boys in the second round of matches, losing 7-0 to the Portuguese, which means they can't emulate their 1966 world cup achievements when they shocked the world by beating Italy on their way to reaching the quarter finals.

But fair play to the biggest underdogs of them all, New Zealand - 2000-1 outsiders when things kicked off. The all-whites are unbeaten after the first two rounds of matches and held reigning world champions Italy to a draw. A win in their third game against Paraguay would ensure their fairy tale continues.

It promises to be an exciting week of games as some of the best teams in the world sit just 90 minutes from being eliminated from the biggest sporting event on the planet.

There will be plenty more twists and turns before it all ends, there's no doubt about that, but I can't help feeling most of the usual suspects will be in the line up for the closing stages.

There's a pool here at the villa we're staying in on our family holiday and I'm getting up at 7am to do 20 laps - so it's not all fun, I'll be working on my fitness throughout our stay.

We're going to Universal Studios tomorrow but I'd be surprised if there's anything there that could top the drama from the World Cup so far.

Next week, I'll give you my reaction to what's going on in South Africa and update you on what I'm doing to keep fit here in the sunny States.

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