1) After 137 caps and 71 goals for Germany, Miroslav Klose has retired from football at the age of 38. Who can forget that hat-trick in Germany’s 8-0 trouncing of Saudi Arabia in 2002? Spoiler alert: it features some pretty rank defending.
2) It’s once more unto the breach then for Wales this Saturday … they’ve lost their past 11 matches against Australia, the last nine of which have been by less than 10 points, and in five of the last six they have been within a try. The exception is last year’s World Cup pool match when Warren Gatland’s side could not break down the Wallabies’ defence despite playing against 13 men for the best part of 10 minutes. Other gut-wrenching defeats include 2014, when Bernard Foley’s late drop goal and penalty sealed a 33-28 win, and perhaps most galling of all, in 2012 when Kurtley Beale grabbed an injury time try for a 14-12 victory, despite Leigh Halfpenny putting his head where it hurts, and Nathan Sharpe taking the conversion just for good measure.
3) Silky.
4) Silkier.
5) Last week’s nodding was a return to form for Garth Crooks. Among his previous best bits: Garth on “petulant schoolteacher” Mike Dean; Garth giving Terry Fenwick a well-deserved kick; analysing a 4-2-1-3-1 system; reacting to a Mesut Özil goal; playing football with Mr Blobby; going offline in the middle of a sentence; and doing a song for Fantasy Football League – “I’m the intelligent ex-footballer. Relatively speaking, of course.” Plus there’s this Garth tribute from Alistair McGowan in 2002.
6) And here’s Cheltenham assistant Russell Milton taking one to the groin, going down like a sack of spuds and fellow men reacting with s̶y̶m̶p̶a̶t̶h̶y̶ bantz. If that floats your boat, enjoy “The Ultimate Football NutShot Compilation 2016”.
Highlights from last week’s blog
1) The late, great Carlos Alberto stars in one of the most memorable Phoenix from the Flames.
2) Any excuse …
3) Ball boy winds up goalkeeper. Goalkeeper loses temper.
4) Muddy hell.
5) Adam Gilchrist takes a trip through the Long Room at Lord’s and luckily for you, he filmed it.
6) Poker gets out of hand. Part II. But is it a sport?
Spotters’ badges: TheCedarRoom, whobroughtoranges, kisbie, GrahamClayton, RayGillGumm, TheCorporal.
