Sunday 24 June 2012

England 0 Italy 0 aet (Italy win 4-2 on penalties Euro 2012 Match Report



           “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it” so the saying goes and ignoring its wisdom has led to some of the greatest calamaties in history. If you are French or German do not invade Russia in the winter. If you are Spanish do not send your Armadas out when the weather forecast is unfavourable. And if you are an English football team never play decent opposition in the knockout rounds of an international tournament away from Wembley. This is where the wheels always come off, the house of cards collapses and my stock of rubbish cliches is exhausted.       
       But, though neither France nor Germany have invaded Russia for ages and Spain have given up launching armadas, England still stubbornly refuse to stop banging their heads against their own footballing brick wall (turns out my stock of cliches wasn't quite exhausted after all). And so Steven Gerrard led England out to face Italy in Kiev hoping his team wouldn't find themselves ninety minutes later metaphorically washed up on the West Coast of Ireland with a broken mast and a soggy Spanish/Gaelic dictionary.
          The build-up had featured very little of consequence. Wayne Rooney had attempted to distract everyone from mocking his hair by skillfully revealing his appalling taste in music and getting them to mock that instead. Roy Hodgson had told the English players who were on yellow cards to play without thinking about them which as managerial advice goes ranks one rung above “Try not to score too many own goals!” or “Remember to wear shorts!” And Steven Gerrard had come over all Carpe Diem and urged his teammates to Seize the Moment. Which is admittedly somewhat less ambitious than seizing a whole day but perhaps he perhaps he knows something we don't about their attention spans.
          The Italian build-up meanwhile seemed to have mainly concentrated on speculating about what goes on in Mario Ballotelli's head. Hodgson had expressly denied that anyone from England would try and deliberately wind the combustible young Italian up and was immediately followed by James Milner telling the media that Mario sulked when it got cold and was lazy in training. So no contradiction there then.
          Nevertheless as the teams walked out many an English chap and, in the interests of sexual equality, many an English chick in Kiev (BOOM!) couldn't help but cast their dusty history tomes to one side and wonder if this could be the dawning of a brave new world...
          For the first five minutes it didn’t look that way. Italy took early control and camped out in the English half. Memories of their earlier performances in the tournament meant England watchers feared that ceding the initiative time after time was going to get you into trouble sooner or later. This was almost confirmed when the ball broke to De Rossi outside the penalty area and he hit a volley with his outside foot so sweetly that no goalkeeper on earth could have stopped it. Fortunately, the post did.
          This early shock seemed to shake England out of their defensive mindset and the next ten minutes witnessed their best play of the tournament. Glen Johnson was the suprising catalyst surging down the right, laying off the ball and continuing his run. The resulting cross fell to him perfectly in the centre-forward position and his shot though too close to Buffon nevertheless required an outstanding save from the Italian goalkeeper.
          England continued to surge forward. Johnson again made ground and put in an excellent cross which Rooney should have done better with. Crucially, England had finally found the rapid tempo that they needed if they were to be successful and the Italians were stretched and rattled as England strived for a breakthrough/
          Unfortunately this brief excellent spell didn’t yield a goal and Italy gradually began to reassert control over the match. England allowed the dangerous Pirlo far too much space and he responded by picking out a superb pass for Baliotelli who dithered just long enough before shooting to allow John Terry to block.
          But it was a harbinger of things to come. With Cassano picking up the ball in the inside left channel and prepared to shoot from distance and Baliotelli constantly trying and often succeeding to get behind the defence it was England who were now under sustained pressure. With a little luck they made it to half-time level but there was no question as the referees whistle blew for the interval who was the most likely winner.
          If there was any doubt who the better team was it disappeared in the opening minutes of the second half when Italy created a number of good chances. First after a corner was half-cleared Lescott was slow to clear the six yard area and a looping ball from the edge of the 18 yard box found De Rossi in on goal with only Hart to beat. Luckily his rushed shot went wide. Next a fierce Italian shot from outside the area could only be parried forward by Hart. Baliotelli brilliantly controlled the rebound and fired on goal. Hart parried but the ball bounced invitingly from his save only for the next Italian to hook it over the bar with the goal at his mercy.
          Hodgson reacted to the pressure by sending on Carroll and Walcott when an extra midfielder and leaving Rooney alone up front seemed a better option from where I was sitting as England were still giving Pirlo far too much time and space. In fact, proving me completely wrong, Carroll had an immediate impact winning balls in the air and giving the beleagured English defence a target to hit and some relief from the relentless Italian pressure.
          There was still no question who the better team were and eventually a clever run around the English defence by Nocerino was picked out by the peerless Pirlo. The Italian left back’s control and shot were perfect but Glen Johnson who has had a sensational tournament had tracked him every step of the way and produced a crucial block.
          As the clock ticked into injury time, England even had the opportunity to nick it. Cole was picked out by Young on an overlapping run, his cross was headed back across the goal by Carroll only for Rooney to send his attempted bicycle kick over the bar.
          Extra time was one way traffic. Henderson replaced Parker and with his introduction England ceased entirely to compete in midfield. Wave after wave of Italian attacks followed but somehow the amazingly resolute English defence held. The Italians finally breached it only for the goal to be rightly ruled offside. The referee blew for penalties.
          England! A penalty shootout in a knockout round of a tournament against a top team away from Wembley. There could only be one result.
          And sadly there was as England’s luck eventually ran out and the two Ashelys joined Gareth Southgate and Chris Waddle in the growing pantheon of famous English penalty missers and the Italians delightedly and deservedly advanced to the semi-finals to face the Germany.
          England head home outplayed but not outfought. One day they will have to learn to keep the ball and not to rely on defensive grit and determination to see them through because when the opposition gets too good it never will. Nevertheless for a tournament that promised so little they had acquitted themselves much better than anyone expected and could leave with their heads held high.  


Friday 22 June 2012

Book Review : The Hunger Games


Book Review : The Hunger Games

          The Hunger Games is the first book of Suzanne Collins' best selling trilogy of the same name.  Almost everyone in the world has read it and the people who haven't have seen the movie. Should you happen to be reading this review but so far but have, miraculously, neither read or seen either I should make it clear that there will be spoilers. You have been warned.
          The book is roughly divided into three parts. The first part takes place in District 12, the deprived home territory of the main character, Katniss Evergreen and her family. The second is set in the Capitol, the glitzy city that controls the state of Panem and keeps the outlying 12 districts in brutal subjugation. The third part happens inside the vast set of the nation's most popular and savage TV show, The Hunger Games, where 24 Tributes (2 from each district) aged between 12 and 18 must fight to the death. Additionally, there is also a epiloguey fourth bit which occurs after The Hunger Games are completed.
          The first part is almost completely successful. District 12, the tough mining area in the Appalachian mountains whose inhabitants struggle simply to survive and who regularly succumb to starvation is impressively realised. Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen is a realistic product of this environment. After the early death of her father and the subsequent slump into depression of her mother, Katniss is left as sole provider for her mother and her younger sister, Primrose (Prim). She works with her only friend, Gale, hunting illegally outside the fenced confines of the district to kill animals they can eat or trade. She is alert, cunning and loath to trust anyone though extremely loyal when she does.  Above all, she is a survivor who, despite recognizing the injustice that blights the lives of pretty much all inhabitants of District 12, knows the harsh realities of existence means she cannot afford much compassion for those outside her family (save Gale).
          However, Her devotion to her sister is unconditional and when Prim's name is selected at  the Reaping to become one of the Tributes the older girl immediately insists on volunteering in her place. Prim represents innocence and Katniss will die to protect it. Surprisingly, I found myself reminded a little of the relationship between Holden Caulfied and his sister Phoebe in The Catcher in The Rye.  Like Katniss, Holden's dream was to keep his younger sister and her friends safe and ignorant of the true nature of the world.
          However, it is in the Reaping where  Collins makes her first mis-step in the book, which is the character of Haymitch Abernathy. Theoretically as an ex-victor of the games he is supposed to act as a mentor to the District 12 tributes. However, the murderous actions he was forced to take to win the games and his subsequent mentoring of numerous losing (and hence dying) Tributes have psychologically destroyed him and he is now a bitter alcoholic who is initially contemptuous of Katniss and her fellow Tribute, Peeta. This in itself is not problematic. However, his abrupt character change later in the book when he discovers the two District 12 tributes have a chance of victory and suddenly becomes a shrewd and supportive mentor is unconvincing. Katniss, in a bit of uncharacteristic musing, which hints that Collins herself was very much aware of this difficulty, suggests this change in Haymitch's character was due to all the previous District 12 Tributes having no chance and he was driven to drink by watching them die. Katniss and Peeta re-awaken his interest because they can compete. However, if a writer creates a character who has taken this level of mental punishment and clearly demonstrates it had almost destroyed him then to have him just snap out of it is poor and a little insulting to the reader. 
           The second part of the book takes place in the Capitol. This was the least interesting section for me but was nevertheless far from being a failure. Though some of the preparation for The Hunger Games parts dragged – notably the design team who didn't really work at all being crude lazily drawn stereotypes – it was more than defensible to build the tension for The Games themselves and make them convincing as a mega-budget television show where the hype and whipping up of the audience's anticipation is crucial. Katniss' cool perspective on the preparations is excellent because Collins' focusses explicitly on her hero as an experienced and sophisticated viewer of the series  – I particularly liked her knowledge of the show's history and her references to the fact that in its search for evermore cruel novelty it had not always satisfied the bloody demands of its audience – the memory of the year when the Tributes had nothing and so were too weak to fight and all ended up freezing and starving to death was a nice touch. Collins admirably refuses to let Katniss feel sorry for herself or become a victim in her own eyes whilst simultaneously making it clear that she is fully aware she is almost certain to die. It is this remorseless, cold-eyed, unsentimental realism that makes Katniss' eventual victory convincing.
          It is also during the Capitol sequence that Peeta reveals he loves Katniss He has loved her since they were children when he saved her from starvation by giving Katniss a loaf of bread stolen from his father's bakery. Katniss has never really understood why he did this. Again this is convincing. Katniss was poorer than Peeta and it was a feat of endurance just  to keep herself and her family alive. Altruism was a luxury she could not comprehend so his motivation mystifies her. Her suspicion of his initial televised declaration of love is also credible. But as we move into The Hunger Games themselves Katniss questioning of Peeta's motives become less and less satisfactory. Obviously, Collins intends the reader to recognise the sincerity of Peeta's feelings well before Katniss does and this begins effectively enough. In the end, however, Collins keeps Katniss doubting Peeta for far too long and stretches the reader’s credibility almost to breaking point. Katniss is simply too clever not to see what is staring her in the face. What does work brilliantly, however, is Katniss' use of Peeta's love (whether sincere or not) to create a narrative she feels will appeal to the viewers and give her the best chance of surviving. This is Katniss at her cunning and resourceful best.
          Finally, we come to The Hunger Games themselves. And Collins is faced with a big problem. The obvious “villain” of the piece is the Capitol and its cruel demands for human sacrifice. However, the Capitol is largely invisible in this sequence which leaves a “villain void”. Collins solves this problem cleverly by creating the Career Tributes. It is revealed that the richer districts such as 1 and 2 train Tributes from an early age to give them the best chance of winning and receiving the rewards that the Capitol bestows on the victors. Therefore effectively we  have “good” Tributes (those from the poorer districts) and “bad” Tributes (the Careers).  But whilst a neat solution it is also a cop-out as it means Collins dodges putting Katniss in any truly morally difficult positions – she conveniently only has to kill “bad” Tributes.
       This unambitious decision by Collins is what makes the book in the final analysis no more than a good thriller. The Career Tributes are just as much victims as Katniss (one could even argue more so as they are destined to fight to the death whereas she is simply unlucky). Despite their extensive training they are nevertheless children fighting for their lives and while it would be wrong to expect Katniss to show much concern for them – they are after all trying to kill her – the author should have worked harder to make the reader reflect on this. Instead Cato (the most dangerous Career) especially is depicted as a sort of robotic terminator invested with such blood-lust that he is deemed worthy of no sympathy at all. By mistakenly switching the reader's primary feeling to being anti-Careers rather than anti-Capitol, Collins wins the battle but loses the war. What I mean by this is that she succeeds in making The Games section a thrilling ride but by the time it is over the reader is no longer that bothered about the wider issues and the real “villain” - the Capitol.
          To be fair to Collins, she makes a valiant effort to undo this mistake with the final epiloguey section and the appearance of President Snow but it is not particularly successful – the reader exhausted after the climactic fight with Cato is in no mood to redirect their sympathy once again and the book fizzles out with the unsatisfactory ending having “there will be a sequel” written all over it