Three and in – not just another football blog

From 1pm today threeandin will live blog the opening ceremony of the World Cup 2010 as well as the first game between the hosts, South Africa, and Mexico.

Feel free to join in with your comments. You can log in with your Twitter or Facebook accounts. If the volume of comments is too high not all of them may appear but we do welcome your feedback.

Your live bloggers today will be Hogger and Last man back. You can get an email reminder when the event is about to start, hope to see you there.

The message from the players at the World Cup has become familiar.  In one voice, they are saying: the time for talking is over.  How wrong they are.

Tomorrow, the real battle begins. Far from the pitch, behind the glass windows of their insulated media booths, the punishing punditry schedule kicks off.  The Beeb and ITV have named their squads – now it’s all down to the individuals.  The World Cup is where pundits can become legends – I have a sneaking suspicion that Martin O’Neill is still making a career as a manager largely of the back of a particularly perceptive spell at the BBC.

For readers not based in the UK, the following could get quite boring quite quickly.  However, I do promise to make at least one disparaging remark about Mark Lawrenson, and if that can’t unite a global audience then I don’t know what can.

The big talking point is the last-minute defection of Adrian Chiles from BBC to ITV. Not only has he consigned the satanically-faced Jim Rosenthal back to whatever Hell he came from, but he’s due to provide the Beeb’s Gary Lineker with some genuine competition in the critical ‘anchor’ role. It’s Gary’s smarm versus Chiles’ charm. I have to say I have a particular fondness for Lineker’s combination of polish and puns, rather than the much-lauded ‘everyman’ quality that Chiles possesses. Also, I find the fact that Chiles is half-Croatian so surprising that it makes me question everything else about him.

There were some nailed-on picks. Guys who were on the plane before the qualifying campaign even began. BBC have the dour miserable trio of Hansen, Lawrenson and Shearer, whilst ITV will lean precariously on the duo of Robbie Earle and Andy Townsend.  Townsend and Lawrenson will both infuriate any viewer with a memory as they attempt to erase history by talking about England as if they didn’t defect to the Republic of Ireland during their playing careers.

Hansen and Lawrenson will be delighted by the arrival on the couch of another self-confessed Liverpool fan: highlights presenter Colin Murray.  The BBC will be hoping his jaunty demeanour and regional accent will make up for Chiles’ absence.  For ITV, the eloquent Matt Smith takes up supporting duties, denied a central role by the badger-faced Croat’s surprise switch.

These pundits represent the spine of each respective teams.  But the flair comes with the surprise appointments.  Here, the two sides have matched each other almost pundit for pundit.  ITV appointed an English manager known to have built his limited success upon some exorbitant transfer spending: Kevin Keegan.  The BBC answered with Harry Redknapp.  BBC plumped for the energetic but often incomprehensible Emmanuel Adebayor.  “Touché”, responded the ITV execs, hiring their own excitable but occasionally unintelligible African, Marcel Desailly.  Both sides have a former dreadlocked Dutch international: Edgar Davids is with ITV, whilst Clarence Seedorf is with BBC.

The commercial station have gone with the most surprising pick: former rugby player Francois Pienaar.  Yes, that’s right, the man recently portrayed by Matt Damon will be taking his place alongside Townsend and Southgate.  You can see what they were thinking: “It’s a World Cup, it’s in South Africa, and it’s football.  He knows about two out of three, so it’ll be fine”.

My tip for Pundit of the Tournament?  The BBC’s Roy Hodgson.  Yes, he sounds like a North London cab driver, but he is an intelligent, articulate man who knows global football inside out.  I’m actually looking forward to hearing his analysis, which is more than I can say for most of these folk.  I’ll be popping out for half-time cups of tea and flicking over to Wimbledon.

Robbie Savage is one of those footballers it’s easy to hate. His hair, his nose, his face, his entire torso and limbs, his hair, his annoying playing style, did I mention his hair?

It’s little wonder that this YouTube video of Robbie Savage being hit in the face, repeatedly, was voted ‘Best YouTube video of all time’*

So the news that he is take over as the presenter of BBC radio’s iconic 606 phone-in show should really have been met with a chorus of disapproval. An amateur broadcaster and one of the most annoying characters football has ever produced should have the placard wavers out in force. He’ll co-present the show with John Lennon’s murderer, Mark Chapman, and at yesterday’s announcement he said:

It’s an honour and a privilege to be presenting the show. I’ll be edgy but fair and I’ll definitely have opinions. I’m delighted to have this opportunity.

So why isn’t there more outrage? Simple. It’s because Robbie Savage, for all his faults, is about a billion less annoying than the man he’s taking over from, Alan Green. The Liverpool supporting Norn Irelander is without question one of the most ignorant, bumptious, shrill broadcasters ever. If ever a man loved the sound of his own voice it is him – he clearly can’t hear the annoying twang to his accent.

Alan Green is so utterly awful that he made me agree with a Daily Mail article. There are certain things in life you never want to admit in public, agreeing with the Daily Mail is one of them (along with an admiration for the films of Adam Sandler, the music of Ace of Base and a predilection for pre-pubescent children). Yet I would proudly tattoo ‘I love the Daily Mail’ on my face rather than listen to one second of Alan Green.

So while Savage might well be a love-to-hate kind of figure he, at least, doesn’t take himself even remotely seriously. He might have an opinion but I’m sure he’ll differ from Green who believed that there was only one point of view worth anything – his own.

It’s a brave move by the BBC to throw a rookie in at the deep end like this, but getting shot of the ghastly Green is the best they’ve done in ages. And just because Savage is the commentary box doesn’t mean his talent for being hit in the face will diminish any.

* voted by me in a wide ranging poll of 1

And so it seems that Rafa won’t be Gaffer at Anfield for much longer. Join me on a Youtube-dominated trip down Memory Lane, as we review the highs and lows funny stuff from Rafa’s time at Liverpool.

The hall-mark of Benitez’s early days was his ability to tactically transform a match from the sidelines. Here, for example, he uses the international language of gesture to ask Steven Gerrard to dig a tunnel to Goodison Park, swear at everyone, then return.

Benitez’s gesturing was so authoritative that even Sky’s in-game graphics were at his command.

It’s no wonder the players respected him. He used to play for Real Madrid, don’t you know.

It all started to go wrong for Rafa as the pressure of the 08/09 title race took its toll. The signs of stress were obvious: he grew the sort of dreadful goatee only a disturbed mind could permit, and his weight suffered.

Still, at least if Rafa does leave Anfield his summer, he’ll be able to leave with his dignity intact.

…Oh:

As well as providing you with our own sparkling content, Three and in will point you to some of the best football blogging elsewhere. Our web round-ups will be regularly irregular but you know each link is a goal.

The Offside – World Cup players on Twitter: If you’re a Twitterholic and a football fan this is fantastic. Don’t forget, you can follow Three and in on Twitter right here.

Who ate all the pies – Flashback to Heysel: The always fun Pies strikes a serious note. Hard to believe it’s been 25 years.

Arseblog – The 10 real reasons Cesc wants to leave Arsenal: Anything that invents the Ebouesaurus Rex has to be good.

The Spoiler – Football grounds 30 years ago: More backwards time travelling, should bring back some memories for those of you around back then.

Dirty Tackle – Terrible balls: Goalkeepers getting their excuses in early. Don’t we have the exact same complaints from keepers before every major tournament?

Bolivian football channels Street Fighter II. It’s a few months old but doing the rounds.

Stewards can often have a bit of trouble when fans decide to invade the pitch. Not this time though.

Three and in is a brand new football blog. Yeah, we knows there are loads of football blogs out there but this one is different.

Why?

It just is. You’ll have to take our word for it. We’ll have written, audio and video coverage of football as it happens. From this summer’s World Cup in South Africa to the national ‘three and in’ championships which take place on your side road, your green, your bashed up old hockey pitch, every day of the week.

Looking at football through football tinted glasses, taking no shit, falling for no dives, not putting up with any backchat or crap refereeing decisions.

Three and in – you know you want to play.