Compiled by PHILIP REID

Ireland ride their luck as Spain pass to higher level

IN truth, who really knows for sure who coined the phrase, “The Beautiful Game”?

Some attribute it to the English commentator Stuart Hall, others to the Brazilian footballer Didi – or Valdir Pereira as he was christened – who reputedly coined it in the 1950s. Pele, though, was the one who epitomised all that was beautiful about soccer. His actions spoke louder than any words.

That’s the past.

The present?

Anyone watching the Republic of Ireland the other night might have good cause to wonder what could ever be so captivating or beautiful about this sport that is loved by millions upon millions across the globe.

The result might be seen to warrant the tactics employed by Giovanni Trapattoni in Ireland reaching the European championship play-offs but such a negative style full of back passes and poor touches would never be used as a marketing video to attract the next generation to play.

Thankfully, there is another option. Watch Spain! At the same time as Ireland were using up their share of luck in bucketfuls, our Celtic cousins – the Scots – were being given a first-hand lesson in how beautiful the game can be.

Scotland had the distinction of being involved in the very first international soccer match, against England in 1872. Nowadays, there are 208 countries affiliated to Fifa, the world’s governing body, and the game’s global appeal is such that there more soccer fans in India than there are in either England or France.

On Tuesday, though, Scotland – who have long ago relinquished any pretensions to being powerhouses of the sport in which they trail-blazed – were like mere statues when matched against the skill, wizardry and speed of world champions Spain in their Euro 2012 qualifying match.

It wasn’t even a case of men against boys, rather a situation where a Spanish team without Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas conjured up the type of magical play that embodied all that is beautiful about soccer when it is played with skill and speed and fearlessness.

For the first two minutes of the match, not a single Scottish player managed to touch the ball. It was a mere precursor of what was to come in the stadium in Alicante and the analogy of the matador toying with the bull in a ritual which finished with the blade being plunged into the beast won’t have been lost on those unfortunate Scottish players.

Spain’s first goal arrived in the sixth minute of the game and came after a sequence of one minute and 34 seconds where the Scots were reduced to chasing shadows and didn’t touch the ball during which time all 11 Spanish players were involved.

The move, which would number 42 Spanish touches by the end with the ball barely leaving the turf at any stage, started with Busquets in the centre circle and finished with David Josué Jiménez Silva – or simply Silva – literally passing the ball into the Scottish goal.

It was mesmerising, and it was beautiful and it was a demonstration of how the game can and should be played.

Imagine – 42 touches with not so much as a Scot getting a sniff of the ball. Of the 41 passes, 18 were forward; seven were lateral and 16 were back passes, with one of them finding its way back to goalkeeper Valdés.

The move began with Busquets and he would touch the ball no fewer than seven times, including making the game-breaking 39th pass out to David Villa who then released debutant Jordi Alba – a full-back who actually had the temerity to tack down the wing, would you believe? – before he released Silva for the opening goal that told us all that we need to know about how the Spaniards currently play the game at a level above everyone else.

Beautiful!

Ireland, under Trapattoni, might be the luckiest team left in the European championships (with the draw on Thursday continuing the trend that includes the Miracle of Moscow and the presents handed out at the Aviva the other night) and would give some credence to the adage that the means might justify the end.

But, in their own unique way, the Spanish prove that you make your own luck.

Woods's security detail dogged by slip-ups

WE may all have allowed ourselves a chuckle or two when first seeing the incident where a spectator threw a hot dog – uneaten, it would appear – onto a green in the direction of Tiger Woods at last week’s tournament in California.

But there is a more serious side.

What if it was a rock?

Or worse, what if he had attacked Woods rather than merely lying on the putting surface after his gesture?

The issue of security surrounding Woods has always been to the forefront of tournament organisers, regardless of where he plays.

And rightly so, given he remains the world’s highest earning sportsman: Forbes magazine recently put his brand worth at €40 million, more than double that of tennis player Roger Federer who is in second place worth an estimated €19 million annually.

It should be noted that the Woods brand was estimated at €60 million prior to the disclosure of the extra-marital affairs that led to his fall from grace.

Anyway, the Woods security detail has been known to cause its own share of humorous incident. One such occasion was on Woods’ reappearance at the Masters in Augusta last year where one of the security men accompanying the player in a practice round approached a woman spectator.

“Ma’am, are you the stripper?” enquired the security guard, reaching into his pocket to produce a sheet containing colour mug shots of Woods’s alleged mistresses.

Limerick and Wexford can feel aggrieved

LIMERICK – especially – and Wexford can feel very hard done by in being exiled to what is effectively the second tier for next year’s National Hurling League.

After all, in the league season gone, Limerick (in seemingly getting promoted) and Wexford (in apparently avoiding relegation) did the work on the field of play in achieving their goals only for the goalposts to be moved in committee rooms later on.

It would seem that the last word on the matter has been delivered by the GAA’s Central Council – in opting to go with the new format of six teams in the top division (Division One A) and another six in what is effectively the second division (even if it is labelled Division One B).

In reality, there is a world of difference between the two with three teams progressing to the knock-out semi-finals from One A and only one from One B.

Limerick and Wexford have every right to feel aggrieved.

Cruel finish for Here Comes Frazier in Kentucky

YOU only have to look the dossier of career injuries suffered by jockey Ruby Walsh – fractured wrist (twice), dislocated hip, fractured hop, cracked elbow, dislocated shoulders, cracked vertebrae, fractured ankle, broken arm, ruptured spleen – to be only too aware horse racing can be extremely cruel even on its most favoured sons.

However, horses can end up bearing the brunt of mishaps as the case of Here Comes Frazier this week would confirm. The Julien Leparoux-ridden horse was in a clear lead coming down the home stretch in the Bourbon Stakes flat race at Keeneland in Kentucky. The horse moved to avoid Leparoux’s whip and the jockey was flung over the railings.

Leparoux escaped with minor injuries but the horse suffered fractures in its hock and is unlikely to ever race again.

Bad Blood with Green and Tyson

ON this very day, 15th October in 1997, a jury in New York awarded damages of $45,000 (€33,000) to a boxer known as Mitch “Blood” Green. It was to be the high point of the fighter’s career, which says all there needs to be said about Green, a one-time gang leader originally from Augusta, Georgia but raised on the streets of Harlem.

His nickname – “Blood” – came from his days of street fighting where his ferocious punches often left opposing gang members with bloodied face. Nice! He was the leader of a gang called The Spades, which was used as the basis for The Warriors, a violent B-movie that found its own cult following.

But he was to put his fists to somewhat better uses when he took up boxing, winning four Golden Gloves titles in New York before a certain Don King came calling and lured him into the professional ring.

Green’s professional career didn’t amount to the great riches he had envisaged, and although he had a record of 19 wins (12 by knockout), six defeats and one drawn bout it would be his out-of-the-ring antics with Mike Tyson that generated more headlines and publicity than anything he managed to achieve inside the ropes.

The two boxers had actually fought each other in a legitimate contest in Tyson’s early career, but Green’s attempts to get a rematch proved futile.

He decided to take things into his own hands.

In August of 1988, Tyson – then the reigning world champion – was shopping in a store called Dapper Dan’s in Harlem. Green got wind of Tyson’s presence there and tracked him down with the aim of securing a rematch.

Of course, things didn’t go to plan. A scuffle ensued, and it ended with Tyson landing a punch to Green’s nose.

Tyson suffered a broken hand – causing him to postpone a scheduled defence against Frank Bruno – for his troubles.

Green, who received five stitches, never got his rematch but did bring a court case against Tyson: he sued the champion for $25 million (€18m) in a civil action which reached a conclusion in October, 1997 where the court awarded Green a sum of $45,000, an amount which didn’t come near to meeting his legal fees.