The Warm-Up: Mesut Ozil's bombshell, symbolic dead birds and East Fife 4 Forfar 5
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Updated 23/07/2018 at 07:24 GMT
Adam Hurrey braves this heat - even at 7am - to bring you news of pre-season unhappiness all round...
Mesut Özil
Image credit: Getty Images
MONDAY’S BIG STORIES
Ozil has had enough of your s***, quite frankly
A three-tweet, two-thousand-word statement over the course of seven hours surely can never contain good news and, as Mesut Ozil’s Roman-numeralled thread unfolded on Sunday, it was clear he had plenty to get off his chest.
Firstly, he offered his side of the story – or BROKE HIS SILENCE, if you prefer – on his much-criticised pre-World Cup photocall with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"For me, having a picture with President Erdoğan wasn’t about politics or elections, it was about me respecting the highest office of my family’s country."
Then, after attacking the double standards of the German media and thanking his sponsors for their unwavering support, Ozil dropped the real bombshell in Part III.
"It is with a heavy heart and after much consideration that because of recent events I will no longer be playing for Germany at international level whilst I have this feeling of racism and disrespect. I used to wear the German shirt with such pride and excitement, but now I don’t. I feel unwanted and think that what I have achieved since my international debut in 2009 has been forgotten."
After 92 caps, culminating in Germany’s dreadful defence of their World Cup title in Russia this summer, Ozil will – for the moment at least – be hanging up his international boots to focus all his attention on being the scapegoat whenever Arsenal lose instead.
I don’t want to even discuss the hate mail, threatening phone calls and comments on social media that my family and I have received.
“They all represent a Germany of the past, a Germany that I am not proud of. I am confident that many proud Germans who embrace an open society would agree with me.”
In a time where footballers are rarely far away from accusations of self-indulgence – especially during the supposedly quiet summer months – this is a principled, well-argued stance from a player who has clearly had enough.
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Mesut Ozil and Joachim Low
Image credit: Getty Images
The International Champions Cup is really no fun
Extortionate ticket prices may not be new to American sports fans, but they surely won’t be fooled by the illusion of competitiveness that is the International Champions Cup for much longer.
One look at any Premier League manager’s face this summer confirms that this was not the ideal pre-season, coming so soon after the World Cup and in the middle of an even tighter transfer window than normal. In Santa Clara, a modest crowd of around 32,000 watched a barely recognisable Manchester United team – albeit with a jetlagged, visa-clutching Alexis Sanchez trying his best – draw 0-0 with San Jose Earthquakes.
Antonio Valencia lasted just six minutes before suffering a calf injury, which inspired one of the most miserable-sounding post-match Jose Mourinho quotes since…oh, last week probably.
He’s injured. We need to get used to it. Last season he was already in this kind of situation and probably this season we’re going to have more of that.
Bring on the proper football. But not too quickly, we all still need a rest.
IN OTHER NEWS
January 1964: Forfar 5 East Fife 4
October 2011: East Fife 4 Forfar 3
July 2018: we finally got there. Sort of.
The mythical scoreline once fantasised about by Eric Morecambe has finally come about, albeit in a penalty shootout. East Fife 4 Forfar 5 – the “red lorry, yellow lorry” of classified football results – has finally happened. Yes, it counts.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Heroes: Toluca
One of the World Cup’s more curious sub-plots was the ongoing paranoia about teams kicking off and scoring a highly immoral counter-attack goal while their opposition were still celebrating their own.
That was debunked by anyone with a copy of the Laws of the Game, but the danger still exists for any team who’ve had a goal disallowed. You all remember the heart-stopping few seconds after Sol Campbell’s goal-that-wasn’t against a quick-thinking Argentina in 1998?
Anyway, over in Mexico…
On the opening weekend of the Liga MX season, Toluca snatched a 2-0 victory from the jaws of a 1-1 draw against Monarcas, thanks to their highly alert goalkeeper getting things going.
Zero: Matteo Darmian – Bird Killer
We’re not saying that Manchester United 0-0 San Jose Earthquakes wasn’t a classic (we are). We’re not saying that 15 San Jose Earthquake substitutions and an unhelpful first-half injury for Antonio Valencia laid bare the utter futility of the International Champions Cup (we absolutely are).
But, if you’ve paid north of $100 for your ticket, you might as well focus on the real action. Here’s United’s Matteo Darmian absolutely destroying an innocent Californian pigeon [citation needed] with an agricultural clearance.
Please also note the referee forbidding the San Jose no.9 from coming to its rescue. A sad day.
HAT TIP
One thing that is not really in dispute is Bolt’s desire to play football. He insisted during his stint at Dortmund that he intended to make it as a professional and do so “at a high level”. The longer his trials go on, the more of a challenge this would seem and those who watched Bolt perform in the televised charity match Soccer Aid earlier this summer will have noted that the rest of his footballing skillset does not quite match up to his pace.
The Guardian’sPaul MacInnes provides a measured “woah there” to this now slightly irritating Usain Bolt World Football Tour of Futile Trial Periods. The thing is, he has actually lost that half-a-yard of pace too.
IN THE CHANNELS
Whether it’s the relentless improvement in computer graphics or the relentless rise of “eSports”, I’m not sure, but I genuinely can’t tell if Dominic Matteo was settling in for some commentary on a real game here:
[insert your own joke about the International Champions Cup not qualifying as real football here]
RETRO CORNER
On this day in 1987: two decades before this sort of thing happened every summer, Liverpool take on Bayern Munich in a glamour friendly at the Olympiastadion. Bruce Grobbelaar helps them on the way to going 3-0 down, before John Barnes helps restore some pride.
COMING UP
Chelsea join in the sprawling, global pre-season fun by taking on Perth Glory, before England’s under 19s face their French counterparts for a place in the European Championship semi-finals over in Finland. That do you?
Tomorrow’s edition will be brought to you by Nick Miller, whose big-name brain cells are still yet to return to training after their World Cup exertions
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