How depressing is this video? Let me count the ways.
- The actual match. Watched on fast-forward, you barely get a glimpse of the goalposts in
the entire game, and when you do it's mostly goal kicks.
- With the benefit of freeze-frame, Festa's disallowed first half equaliser, which
would have thrown the match wide open, is clearly shown to have been onside -
what's more, the ball travels fully 15 yards from Stamp's pass before the
linesman raises his flag. What was that rule about "when the ball is kicked"
again?
- Di Matteo's cynical, disgraceful professional foul on Juninho in the second half
looks worse every time you see it.
- The only exciting moment in the whole game (Di Matteo's goal) is shown in the
opening credits. Just two hours to go, then.
- The eternally hideous spectacle of fully grown professional athletes bouncing up and
down on the spot to dismal showtunes like Chelsea's even-worse-than-usual Cup Final
record, only this time for even longer than usual.
- An hour's extra footage on the tape, but all of it made up with insufferably
tedious pre-match interviews with the Wembley groundsman, idiot supporters and a load of
footballers who can't speak English.
- The usual knocked-up-in-half-an-hour-with-a-Letraset production values.
- No action at all from any of the either side's genuinely thrilling matches in the
previous rounds.
- Having to look at Bryan Robson's haunted face all the way through.
Looks like nine ways, then.
VERDICT: Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, in football form.
NO STARS |
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