Poems tagged ‘World Cup 2018’
World Cup day 10
Lukaku and Hazard at the double
Belgium 5-2 Tunisia
Lukaku joins Ronaldo
In the race for the Golden Boot
Romelu does have an ace
It’s Hazard playing the flute
As the Belgians rout Tunisia
Both stars each wa brace
Dylan Bronn and Wahbi Khazri score
Tunisia sink with no trace
Eight goals in two games
Each Red Devil a star
Batshuayi makes it 5
The highest score game so far
23 06 18
number7
© emdad rahman
South Korea 1-2 Mexico
Carlos Vela was in mourning
His Grandad had cheered El Tri
Thereafter he’d left this mortal plain
After the win against Germany
Javier Hernandez with a milestone
Reaching fifty not out
Beating Jo Hyeon-woo at the near post
To hand the Taegeuk a knockout
Son in turn hammers a worldie
Football can be so mean
This puts El Tri on the verge
Of the World Cup last 16
23 06 18
number7
© emdad rahman
Kroos control as Germany fight back
Germany 2-1 Sweden
“Alles klar” proclaimed the Hoff
Toivonen caught them off guard
Until Reuss stepped it up
And Boateng got a red card
A last minute stunner it is then
Amidst the stadium din
Tony launches his Kroos missile
For a dramatic last gasp win
Thoughts for poor Jimmy Durmaz
Questioned for his right to live
For the foul that led to the win
You people need some perspective
23 06 18
number7
© emdad rahman
Interesting or What?
A sigh of deep relief
Released on Copacabana Beach
Fills the air as Nay Ma swoops to score
Yet yer man was the proverbial mile off-side
As camera angles on the half-way line
Clearly show yet are blatantly ignored.
An earlier tantrum by the whining star
Earn him a well deserved yellow card
For shall we say a bit of a hissy fit?
Add to that his penalty shout VAR turned down
When he self wrestled in slo-mo to the ground
Made the cynic in me think…should such a hair-cut even still be on the pitch?
On Brazil Switzerland & Nigeria haiku -WC Day 9
Brazil 2-0 Costa Rica
play-acting aside
just a glimpse of this Brazil
In those six minutes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Serbia 1-2 Switzerland
late Shaqiri touch
Squeezes under Stojkovic
Swiss roll sweetly on
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nigeria 2-0 Iceland
Musa repays faith
Nigeria are transformed
Messi lies in wait
Serbia v Switzerland
Cuckoo about to coo for time
Shaqiri sprints towards the line
With deft precision strikes a blinding goal
It’s two-one on the night
On this cutting edge performance…one just might
Clock the fact The Swiss are deffo…on a roll.
A blatant bout of Kane-like WWF
Completely ignored by the ref
Cost The Serbs a chance to make one-two
Another Very Average Referee
Chose to look bemused and still not see
If the chaps with all the cameras…might have had a better view?
World Cup day 9
Coutinho and Neymar leave it late
Brazil 2-0 Costa Rica
In Phil Coutinho
Seleção Brasileira have an ace
The Barcelona playmaker
Runs the hard race
Costa Rica set up well
Douglas Costa came in flying
They’d shed Brazilian skin
Even had Neymar crying
And so it looked like the favourites
Had run out of breath
But Coutiinho and Neymar
Swooped to seal it at the death
Magic Musa at the double
Nigeria 2-0 Iceland
Close control and a tidy finish
In my book he’s a maestro
Exquisite touch and deft of pace
What if Musa was Latino
Gylfi Sigurdsson fluffs a penalty
Iceland never in the race
Ahmed Musa for Nigeria
With a magic second half brace
The Super Eagles super win
Leaves second spot to grab
Both teams can still do it
Even the Argies still have a stab
The Eagle has landed
Serbia 1-2 Switzerland
Mitrovic pounced
Xhaka’s howitzer was regal
The Swiss are made from sterner stuff
Behold the Albanian eagle
With the clock ticking
They looked to share the cake
But Shaqiri’s late stunner
Leaves Serbia with heartache
Kaliningrad erupts
Raw emotion in the ground
Rossocrociati in the driving seat
To reach the second round
22 06 18
number7
© emdad rahman
Heat haiku
Nigeria/Iceland
equatorial/polar
clash of latitudes
Who will win today?
Volvograd thirty degrees
Scandies will struggle
Beards Snails & Stars haiku -WC Day 8
things are hotting up
still the ‘fave-rites’* struggle with
beards snails and stars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Denmark 1-1 Australia
Jedinak spot on
striking pens like stroking beards
Socceroos hold Danes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
France 1-0 Peru
Bleus advance like snails
with their huge army of fans
bold Peru are gone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Argentina 0-3 Croatia
Croats light the night
Rakitic their shooting star
Argies lost in space
WC2018 Day 8 – haiku
a dodgy keeper
giving us all the willies
Caballeroooooooh-no!
~ # ~
Mbappe taps home
Les Blues looking cohesive
France advance
~ # ~
- VAR
VAR sees the smoking gun –
the sheriffs sitting in their judicious techno-box
sometimes
call for instant justice
and sometimes
turn a blind eye
the players have suddenly become charades experts
as pestering as ever, of the disarmed referee;
the tv technicians are loving it – re-run after re-run, keeps them busy
while the punters are just dizzy
from not knowing when, the whistle might blow
and we re-trace our steps
back to the gallows
World Cup day 8
VAR to the rescue
Denmark 1-1 Australia
Australia are still in it
With Jedinak so trusty
Securing the first point
Against the Danes in Group C
Eriksen with a stunner
Cancelled by the Aussie penalty
Yussuf Poulsen’s handball
Thanks video assistant referee
Aaron Mooy went close
Sisto almost with a goal
France play next
As Age Hareide’s side take pole
21 06 18
number7
© Emdad Rahman
Les Bleus reach last sixteen
France 1-0 Peru
If France have a blazing weapon
It’s Mbappé’s youthful flame
It was left to the young star
To decide an absorbing game
Les Bleus are the third team
To clinch a spot in the last sixteen
Los Incas could’ve shocked
Had Gareca’s strikers been more keen
So France’s youngest World Cup scorer
Is a mere nineteen years old
Tapping in a Paul Pogba pass
To think things stone dead cold
21 06 18
number7
© Emdad Rahman
Argentina on the brink
Argentina 0-0 Croatia
With Ronnie on four goals
Would Messi start to shine?
Already playing catch up
We’re assured it’ll all be fine
A clanger from Caballero
Ante Rebic with a super volley
Modric hammers in a blinder
You can’t just scapegoat Willy
And as the seconds ticked away
Rakitic applied the handcuff
Now even a win against Nigeria
May not be quite enough
21 06 18
number7
© Emdad Rahman
WC2018 Day 7 – haiku
big boys out in force
Ronaldo, Suarez, Costa
who else of course
~ # ~
one-nil common score
Morocco and Saudi out
alas already
~ # ~
somersault throw-in
we all wanted to see it
aborted desires
~ # ~
Gareth jog amiss
Southgate restrained by shoulder
no more punching air
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Welcome to Football Poets -- a club for all football poets, lovers of football and lovers of (alternative) poetry. Discover poets in every league from respected internationals at the top of their game to young hopefuls in the school playground.
Publish your football poems here and then discuss them with your team mates and fans. We're archived by The British Library, so your masterpieces are in the safe hands of a world-class keeper. What a result!
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Latest Poems
John Gilbert Ellis
28th November 2024
joe morris
26th November 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
26th November 2024
Gacina Bozidar
26th November 2024
Wynn Wheldon
26th November 2024
joe morris
17th November 2024
Crispin Thomas
17th November 2024
kevin halls
10th November 2024
joe morris
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
10th November 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
27th November 2024 at 5:55 am
‘You’re Supposed To Be At Home’ is an excellent and moving poem Denys.
You start off thinking it’s just about another oft-sung chant, one we personally heard a lot last season throughout our second relegation in a row here at Forest Green(FGR) ! I always love poems where you think they are saying one thing and then they suddenly pull you deeper to somewhere or something else else.
I’m currently helping in a local school for FGR in a voluntary capacity using football to help young students with reading. At an upcoming session we will tackle racism, just like we did in workshops at football schools and grounds when we first started this site 24 years ago. I’m gonna try and weave your poem into a session.
We’ve added it to the Anti- Racism/Kick It Out section under Crispin’s Corner.
Best C
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26th November 2024 at 1:59 pm
Great poem and great to see you back Wyn.
Don’t leave it so long next time my friend!
More please.
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13th September 2024 at 6:14 pm
Welcome to Football Poets Beth
Great evocative poem Beth….
More please !
Haiku always welcome.
Hope we (FGR) get to play you again soon
Best
Crispin
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26th July 2024 at 6:25 pm
Great poem Mike Bartram. Eddie was a legend, affectionately known in Liverpool as, “the first hooligan.” Even the hoolies were well dressed in those days. The amazing thing was he was only 26 when that picture was taken. He’d played for Everton youth team and was well known to the players. He never got arrested. They threw him out and he climbed back in, just in time for Derek Temples winner.
I used the picture of him being tackled to the ground on the front cover of my book, “Once Upon a rhyme in Football.” It’s worth looking on youtube and finding the re-enactment of the Wembley scene. Frank Skinner and Baddiel went around to Eddies home in the 1990’s and acted it out on the green outside. It’s hilarious, especially all the effort they put in to get Eddie sober enough to shoot the scene.
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10th July 2024 at 6:07 pm
Hi Crispin,
I don’t know if you’ve see the picture in social media today…
a picture of a teenage Lionel Messi cradling a baby in Africa as part of a photoshoot…. the family had won a lottery to have their baby pictured with him….
the photographer has just revealed that the baby is actually in fact Lamine Yamal!!!!
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26th May 2024 at 2:30 pm
Hi Denys…
Re Man City:
OK it was 20 years ago but Criag Wilson did write this and a few others on them back in 04/05.
BTW I’m more Forest Green Rover since 2014 (and Chelsea) these days . I drum and am a standing season ticket holder .
Best
Crispin
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29th April 2024 at 2:47 pm
Hi Denys,
Yes Richard Williams you’re a brilliant wordsmith, my friend. When I first saw your football poetry I thought it was the superb Guardian sports and music writer. I once had the honour of sitting next to Richard Williams while at the Independent on the sports desk. He writes about music and sport with immense knowledge and authority. I’ve read a couple of Richard’s books recently. Great writer rather like you Richard Williams the Pompey fan. Congratulations on promotion.
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28th April 2024 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Denys. Yes your replay poem was superb.
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26th April 2024 at 4:46 pm
Nice work, Joe. You were quick off the mark with that! Good one from Richard Williams too I see.
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25th April 2024 at 7:33 pm
Hi Denys,
Thanks mate. I’ll do it now.
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