Park Life

It's massive for them, I don't care what they say. Course it is They're trying to say we're their Boro to Newcastle. Oh dear. Parky Jnr confirmed this morning she'll be supporting Germany on Sunday. That's fine, watching an England-Germany match in a German household with split loyalties is great fun. I was sharing a place in Mainz with two Germans, two Canadians and a Welshman when we won 5-1, and the Yanks from next door came round for it too. The "neutrals" weren't sure who to support at first, but it ended up with us all drunkenly abusing the Germans for the rest of the night and having a gay old time of it. Obviously that kind of thing is less societally acceptable when it's your daughter, but hey, they all have to learn some time. Mrs P's dad seemed more interested in Spain...That's all changed now though.

Stevie Bader.

It's massive for them, I don't care what they say. Course it is They're trying to say we're their Boro to Newcastle. Oh dear. Parky Jnr confirmed this morning she'll be supporting Germany on Sunday.

There is a discernable tension across the whole of Germany this morning.

Nice variation...

Blatantly wear it for the games, sat on your kitchen bench seat in your living room. ...with a blow up posh spice...

Goalkeeper's fear of the penalty? Not for me DAVID JAMES What a difference four days makes. I give away a penalty in the England game, which was really frustrating, then I save one for Pompey in yesterday's win over Wigan. I've got penalties on the brain with the FA cup semi-final against West Brom looming. Last time I was in a semi-final, with Aston Villa, it went to a 4-1 shootout win against Bolton. Do goalkeepers get nervous about the dreaded spot-kick? I don't, not any more. Last Wednesday in Paris I wasn't nervous, I was just peed off that I'd given a bloody penalty away against France again. I've never saved a penalty for England, which really bothers me. Although I think I put one player off at Euro 2004, if you're counting. Penalties are paradoxical things. If you give away a penalty and don't save it, it's your own terrible mistake, but at least it's you that everyone is blaming rather than someone else. If a defender concedes one and you don't save it, you feel even worse. You picture their face as the guy lines up to take it, full of expectation. And then disappointment. I would rather it was all in my hands. I know that sounds mad, but at least then it's my responsibility and no one else's. Not that you want to be there at all. Ideally, you just want everyone in front of you feeling focused. Concede a penalty and it disrupts the way people play, all of a sudden the pressure is on and they're feeling down. You can't save from a brilliant penalty taker and Eric Cantona was the best. His technique was so good it was a joke. You would stand on the goalline waiting and waiting - his run-up was so slow. He didn't need to sprint and blast the ball: he had control. After he retired I found out his secret - he was watching the keeper. As soon as the keeper's knee went, Cantona took the ball the other way and left him stranded. For any keeper, a bent knee is the point of no return. There is a complex amount of psychology every time a penalty taker faces a goalkeeper. They try to read each other's body language, and the best attempt to psych each other out with false cues. As a keeper you're never expected to make the save, but that doesn't stop you wanting to. How do goalkeepers save penalties? David Seaman said he had a special technique, but never let the cat out of the bag. The very best was Paul Cooper for Ipswich Town. He saved eight penalties out of 10 one season back in 1979-80. Keepers were not allowed to move their feet in those days, so he used to stand there swinging his arms and leaning to one side to put people off. I remember mimicking him in the playground. It was a bizarre technique, but it worked. Sometimes it's just instinctive. There have been a couple times this season - including yesterday - when I knew which way the ball was going as soon as the guy put it on the spot. Then the only thing you have to do is stand up long enough to save it. When the ref pointed to the spot yesterday I thought 'Oh no, it's Wednesday again', but then as soon as Ryan Taylor put the ball down I thought: 'I know which way he's going to put this.' I was right. Sometimes it's the gamesmanship that gets you. It's worse against former team-mates or players you know from the national team. When we played Liverpool in the Asia Trophy last summer Stevie G stepped up. I looked at him, thinking: 'I know where you're going to put this.' Then I asked myself: 'But is he thinking the same thing? What if he puts it the other way?' Your head is full of questions. (Stevie scored, but we won the shootout 4-2). People are forever asking why England don't practise penalties more, and under Mr Capello we have done. But it's not always as simple as people think. Practising penalties with your team-mates can complicate matters. If a penalty taker continually practises with the same keeper, the keeper starts reading the penalties and saving them. Then you've got your penalty taker developing a complex because he is not scoring, and your keeper completely thrown when someone new takes a shot at him. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Just like with Zinedine Zidane's free-kick and penalty at Euro 2004 when we had done no preparation because he hadn't taken one for France for two years. Then he stepped up and I was all over the place. It's not difficult to develop a mental block about penalties. I had a good spell at saving them with Liverpool and then all of sudden it dried up. I remember a reporter said to me: 'Dave, you've got a great penalty save record.' I said 'Thanks very much' and then didn't save another one for two years. I started believing in mystical powers, being jinxed and all that: it was a long time before I spoke to that reporter again. You can dream up a million theories on how to score them or save them, and I have a few secrets of my own. But in the end a lot of it does just boil down to guesswork. Yours and theirs. For any budding penalty takers out there, your best bet is just to smash it as hard as you can. At least that way you won't tie yourself up in knots about it.

Iirc Germany see Holland as their main rivals and that view is reciprocated. There is certainly a bigger hatred there.

Based on what Stevie? World War II? I've never thought of the Germans as less humane than the British, if anything quite the opposite. I don't know the place and people as well as you, but it seems a tad extreme. The German people I've met have always seemed bang on, if a little starchy.... Lots of things. I've met loads of germans, they are calculated, humourless, cold and boring. We are a more emotive people without a doubt. I'll never forget Brehme's tackle on Gazza, it was done to make him react and get him sent off, calculated in an evil German way. They still have that nazi inprint stained across their very fibre, a sinister, cold way about them, this view isn't ignorance, it's what I see. They are more efficient, more organised, more staid in every walk of their life and less likely to make mistakes, they are robotic and mechanical, we are emotional and culpable. I mean look at these. I think this picture says it all. Look at the state of the jeans the one in the middle is wearing. ...and they get up at 5.30 and needlessly turn upto work at 7.30.

Lahm gave an interview in which he has already stated pens suit Germany. I reckon David James has a good record with pens iirc

It's a real shame we are playin each other so early, these are the two sides that have the mental strength and intelligence to upset the South American sides in the latter stages of the tournament. I appreciate your comments, but still think Germany will win.... I'm sticking my neck out and saying we'll win 3-1. The last time we played them our reserves utterly dominated in Berlin against them. I think the real England will stand up, I really do. Kin hope so, or it's going to be hell watching the rest of the tournament here. "Herr Parky, your team did not play so well I think! It is always this way against us! You vill hope we do not meet again next time, hein?!" * belly laughs and slaps back * Tactically don't know whether to watch it outside in the English pub (with Christian a perfumer knows fuck all about football and Karsten - boring) or with Mrs P's dad and brother. Both carry their own particular irritations.

Could do with some king of mad ref who starts carding argumentative Germans.

Can't believe it's the same Milner these days.

Brazil won't win it. Way too fragile as a team. He'll start those two defensive Dm's all tournament and most of it will come down the middle. Not enough variation. Kaka and Robinho aren't a patch on what they used to be. I know he got a couple the other day but I don't rate the striker either.

Chile could well do Spain. Tempted.

more like the good ones ie Zambrotta/Cannavaro/Buffon/Pirlo have gotten either old or injured and the new ones are rubbish on the whole. That as well. They also need to get back to playing small pitch tight football and hunting in packs like baldy used to get them to play (forget his name).

I can still see that robot cunt Moller right now, same hair cut all his life, I bet he counts the number of pumps every time he shagged his wife, we all knew, we just knew that stone cold cunt was going to score, it's their don't give a fuck mentality. I bet the German press are no where near as emotive as ours, and clearly German people are no where near as emotional as we are, the one aspect in life we are better than them is our humanity. There is a distinct cold side to a lot of Germans, its the way they are brought up really. I've managed to humanise Mrs P over the years. Their biggest asset is their pitch intelligence they have a very calculating tendancy to spot where the opp are misfiring. Schweinstieger only 50-50 for Sun. The debate here is whether Cacau or Klose should start. Their biggest weakness is the left back spot and the relatively inexperienced midfield. We need some good things to happen early to settle the side down, a lucky bounce for Rooney or a run and a shot on target. What we don't need are rash challenges and early yellows cause that will put doubt in the collective mind.

We practice pens now though. Also isn't James a bit of a pen stopper??

It's a real shame we are playin each other so early, these are the two sides that have the mental strength and intelligence to upset the South American sides in the latter stages of the tournament. I appreciate your comments, but still think Germany will win.... I'm sticking my neck out and saying we'll win 3-1. The last time we played them our reserves utterly dominated in Berlin against them. I think the real England will stand up, I really do. Kin hope so, or it's going to be hell watching the rest of the tournament here.

At some point in the last few years it seems all Italian players one by one have turned to shit.

It's a real shame we are playin each other so early, these are the two sides that have the mental strength and intelligence to upset the South American sides in the latter stages of the tournament. I appreciate your comments, but still think Germany will win....

Very impressed by Japan and I had the feeling they still have another gear.