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Samba time – but one of only two finals…

So, The Boy Noble signs off at the end of a fantastic World Cup, from every perspective. The amazing results, the wonderful Japanese – who can’t be praised highly enough, and the fans from all round the world who were nothing but friendly, and from a personal point of view, it’s been absolutely fantastic – seeing my first England game is a moment I’ll never forget (even if the game might be)….

As for yesterday, it was brilliant see Ronaldo back to his best, and beautiful beat boring to let the samba time begin. Unfortuanately there isn’t much of a Brazilian community in Alice Springs, but we celebrated on their behalf.

On a slightly different tack, the Bhutanese also had cause to celebrate yesterday – after the alternative World Cup Final which was played hours before Brazil v Germany kicked off in Japan.

This was no celebration of footballing prowess, but a final for the two worst teams in the world, and was contested by teams from Bhutan and Monserrat – ranked 202nd and 203rd in the World respectively. For a full report check out this address:

Montserrat ‘world’s worst’ (BBC Sport)

Getting to Japan was the only the start of the journey for me, but the culmination of a long journey for Phil and Chris, who hopefully will go on to bigger and better things after eventually getting the media coverage they deserved.

Have to say that I had a whale of a time travelling through China, and it was worth everything to have experienced playing football with Buddhist monks in their natural habit(at).

Only 24 hours from…?

See you all in Germany 2006.

Written by on Monday, July 1st, 2002

3 comments on this post

  1. Luke & Claudes July 1, 2002 at 8:39 am

    Happy wishes to the Lads Heading for Home.

    Thanks for your website stories, images and videos.

    Will we see you in Kashgar in 2006 for the return trip to Munich?

  2. Luke & Claudia: still a whole heap of videos to come… they’ve only just reached Samarkhand. Sometime I guess they’ll get as far as Kashgar, and you’ll be able to see your good selves doling out the half-time watermelon. Oh I forgot… as camerawoman extarordinaire, I guess Claudia, you won’t be putting in an appearance :-(

    Kashgar anytime sounds like a good thing. It’s a bit of a detour between London and Munich, though…

  3. Tim: apparently Ronaldo doesn’t like samba, but prefers to listen to hip-hop. At least that’s what I read…

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The Ball 2018 left England on 25th March 2018 and travelled to the World Cup in Russia.

The Ball 2014 kicked off from England on 9th Jan 2014 and headed to the World Cup in Brazil.

The Ball 2010 left England on 24th Jan 2010 headed to the Opening Ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Ball 2006 travelled from London to the Opening Ceremony in Munich, Germany.

The Ball 2002 was carried 7000 miles across Europe and Asia to the World Cup finals in Korea & Japan.