What Tom said.

I had an ominous feeling England would lose the shootout when the TV cameras focused on Vassell’s face before the shootout and his look was one of abject terror.

Oh well, losing to the hosts on sudden-death penalties is no disgrace, and we can take heart in that it was a good team effort, and the determination of the entire back four (Sol Campbell in particular) was admirable, and England should have won with Campbell’s goal. But our defence was too deep, midfield too spread and tired, and the tactics were plain shoddy (why continue longballing it to two of the shortest forwards in the game?). England deserved a win for their effort, and Portugal deserved a win for being the better side technically. Paradoxical, no?

Tonight was fairness and unfairness, glory and pain, pride and failure, and a whole bunch of other stuff, all mixed together in 120 very exciting minutes, and the whole nation shared in it. Now 90% will turn their back on football for another two years, but the rest of us will be enjoying such ups and downs and dealing with such conflicting emotions all the way through next season - we just can’t get enough of it.

Another great find on Boing Boing - a percussion orchestra version of ‘Paranoid Android’ (mp3). It’s fantastic, I can’t stop listening to it.

Found an article saying that football fans don’t mind their stadium being named after a sponsor (via Adam Bowie). This has been commissioned by Arsenal FC, who themselves are building a new ground, which leads me to fear that we will be playing in the London NikeDome or some such idotic name when we move into the new one. Not really the same ring as “New Highbury”, and I’d be sad if it does, in fact more than sad. But at the same time, Arsenal are pretty strapped for cash with the construction, and given the choice of losing a good player or being saddled by a horrible corporate monniker, I’d go for the latter. Maybe that means I’ve become a cynical win-at-all-costs fan with no sense of romance or history?

I want one of these - a Dalí-esque digital clock (via Boing Boing) (scroll down a bit). Made from silicon rubber it’s properly bendy, but sadly only at the prototype stage at the moment. :-( The other designs are also fairly nifty.

Well, well, well. Italy knocked out of the tournament, after their rivals Sweden and Denmark managed to get the 2-2 draw that perfectly suited them. The anguish on Cassano’s face as he scored, only to find from the bench that it was all in vain tugged on my heartstrings.

So, a Scandinavian conspiracy? Unlikely, especially given the rivalry between the two nations, but given tonight’s result, and Italy’s controversial loss to Korea in the World Cup and you might sympathise with the Italians’ accusations that their team is being conspired against. Then again, it might just be karma from 70 years ago, Italy won the 1934 World Cup with some heavy assistance from the referees - it wasn’t entirely coincidental as Mussolini had hand-picked them, and treated the official for the Final to dinner the night before the match.

Actually the real reason is neither - it’s because their midfield wasn’t creative enough, Del Piero was past it and Totti was an idiot. But no-one will like the facts spoiling a good story.

Still, two big teams out already, and another one going out tomorrow as only one from Germany and Holland can make it (and indeed possibly both, if Latvia do the impossible and win while Germany don’t). Like the last World Cup, this is very much a tournament for the underdog.

Continuing the Eurocentric themes of late, here is Eurobad ‘74 (via Coofer Cat), a collection of Europe’s worst interiors of 1974. Ranging from the simply bad to plain bizarre (do many European homes have a combined stable/kitchen?), to my personal favourite (sort-of NSFW) - perhaps the only room in the world so bad, that even the addition of a naked woman cannot improve it.

Oh, while we’re on the subject, there’s another good Indy article on the myths surrounding the EU constitution.

Forget the other “Best of Euro 2004″ XIs you’re going to see, this is the one that counts. The team of players that would best help you out if you were playing a game of Scrabble:

Quim (Portugal)
Zirnis (Latvia)
Zwyssig (Switzerland)
Yevseev (Russia)
Grygera (Czech Republic)
Peev (Bulgaria)
Xavi (Spain)
Srna (Croatia)
Prso (Croatia)
Makaay (Holland)
Vryzas (Greece)

(No room for Lizarazu, after I remembered that (a) You only get one Z in Scrabble and (b) His name is more than 7 letters long. Though I suppose you could do something funky with blanks)

I have a spare Gmail invite, if anyone wants it then email me and grovel. Most deserving case wins.

In other news, England are going to use the diamond formation that saw us completely outplayed by Japan against the Swiss. After me now…”They’re coming home, they’re coming home, England are coming home.”