"Matters Political, Polemical and Historical"

But in the end all that mattered was the play on the pitch.  And while the Russia - Poland match-up produced a fair bit of quality on it, uninspired dreck was all that was on show in Greece's clash against the Czech Republic.

Greek Deficits and Bouncing "Czechs"

The goals came fast and thick (though not anywhere near pretty) at the start of the game, and it became quite apparent that Chalkias should've grabbed the bull by the horns and taken himself out that point (Greek fans now experiencing the engrossing ineptitude that the PAOK faithful have endured in recent years), while the new central defense combination of Papadopoulos (Kyriakos) and Katsouranis proved expectedly, if understandably, ineffectual.

The first forty-five saw the Greeks completely lose their wits, while Tomas Rosicky ran riot in the midfield.  But his still unexplained absence at the start of the second half provided the opening for which Ellas had so clumisly been searching.  It didn't hurt that Petr Cech chose that exact moment to return to his form from his foray against the Russians.  Alas, it didn't prove enough in the end (the fractionally, if at all, offside goal in the first half contributing to the scoreline inadequacy), and the Czechs are now second in Group A.  Seriously, who had that prediction after Day 1?

How to Celebrate Russia Day in Poland

Might I not suggest an organized march through the capital of a country with whom you've had varying degrees of enmity from the time of the Polish-Soviet War following the Bolshevik Revolution to present?  Nevertheless,contrary to the widely abused cliche, it is always still a game - and that, my friends, is the beauty of it.

And it proved to be quite the little charmer.  Andrei Arshavin showed the Euro 2008 form he was unable to recapture at Arsenal, with a brilliant inswinger that Alan Dzagoev flicked into the back of the net.  Russia had the run of the first half, though the Poles looked dangerous on the break.  The counterattack proved particularly fruitful in the second, as Jakub "Kuba" Blaszczykowski's spectacular solo effort on the other end of a blown Russian break brought them level in the 57th minute.  Kuba took care of business as a captain should (take note Stevie G).

Another fair draw in tournament play and one with which the Poles should be particularly pleased.

Update: Tomas Rosicky injured his Achilles tendon in the match today and is doubtful for the Czech outing against Poland.

A Long Summer Vacation

You're a winner in our book, Andrei.

With World Cup qualification (finally!) coming to a close and the draw for next summer's tournament already taken care of, attention has largely been on the winners, the 32 qualified nations. And while that is all well and good, we here at Femme Football would like to take a moment to offer our sincere condolences to those footballers who will be missing out on South Africa.

For these poor souls something to hang their hat on in the interim, we have created a new honor: the "Best Player Not Playing in This Year's World Cup," abbreviated BPNPTYWC, and known commonly known as the Ryan Giggs Award.

Here are this year's honorees:

4th Runner Up: Petr Cech, Czech Republic (It really has been all downhill since that Steven Hunt incident)

3rd Runner Up: Dimitar Berbatov, Bulgaria (Not scoring goals in a Man Utd uniform to be replaced by not scoring goals in Bulgaria's red and green)

2nd Runner Up: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden (At least you won't fall prey to the tricks of small children off the field or those of wily defenders on it)

1st Runner Up: Emmanuel Adebayor, Togo (We shall miss your strikes, but, as any Arsenal fan will tell you, we'll mostly miss you're class)

And this year's BPNPTYWC/Ryan Giggs Award goes to......Andrei Arshavin, whose Russian side decided to do everything in its power to undo the 2-1 advantage it had going into the second leg of UEFA qualification play-offs. Andrei, you may be king of the house, but your coronation in South Africa was just not to be.

Oh yeah, and congratulations on your win!