Shedding a tear as the circus leaves town

Day 19. "There's a feeling that an African side has somehow got to win a World Cup and if it's going to be this year it's got to be Nigeria. I think. Well, there is nobody else," said Kevin Keegan on ITV last night, up with the pace of the game as ever. Now there's not even Nigeria, leaving romantics like Bill O'Herlihy and me shattered and gutted and distraught and tempted to run off with the World Cup ball. "There's no place at all for people who come fresh and vibrant and new into football, they will be destroyed by professionalism," moaned Bill, after Denmark's 4-1 win. Liam Brady and Johnny Giles begged to differ.

"There's no pattern, no discipline to them," said Liam. (But Liam, is that not one of the reasons why we loved them?) "I'm glad they're out, they're a circus team," he added.

They weren't Johnny's cup of tea either. "Cardboard players", he called them. "You say there's no room for beauty Bill, but I think Denmark were beautiful tonight," he swooned, in a most un-Johnny like fashion. "Nigeria were flashy and some people might like that, because beauty's in the eye of the beholder, but in a football sense Denmark were very beautiful tonight." (Never knew Johnny wrote lyrics for Eric Clapton).

(Note the `in a football sense' bit - Johnny looked very uncomfortable calling eleven hairy men beautiful, but Bill had driven him to it. Either that or he's been watching Daveed Ginola in his spare time).

"So you go for substance, not style," alleged Bill. But, for Johnny, substance is style. And, in Nigeria's case, he's probably right . . . but it still hurt to see them go out.

Some of us big softies even thought Jay-Jay Okocha and his mates should have been given a bye in to the quarter-finals, at least, where they would have played Brazil, a fixture made in football heaven.

We'll miss Jay-Jay, now he's gone. So will Kev. "His first name's Austin and it's probably because when he was little he could motor as well," he said. One thing we have learned from France '98 is that, like Jay-Jay, Kev is a unique talent. Commenting on the spirit in the Nigerian camp, he said: "It's very important to get that kind of spirit going when you're at the World Cup because you're together such a long time you can begin to get on each other's nerves." Mmm, know what you mean Kev.

France v Paraguay. Big softies might have shed a tear or two for Paraguay as well, victims of the tournament's first golden goal, scored by Laurent Le Blanc, as the BBC's Barry Davies insisted on calling Blanc all afternoon.

Tuned in to RTE to see the match. "Bonjour Gerree," said Michael Lyster. "Bonjour Michel, comment allez vous? Welcome to Clones," said Ger Canning. Eh? France and Paraguay in Clones? I know the Tour de France is coming to Ireland, but isn't this overly generous of our Gallic chums?

The teams were wearing drastically changed strips too. And they started with 15-men-a-side. And the ref missed eight handballs in the first 30 seconds. And . . . oh . . . time to tune in to the BBC.

"The population of Paraguay is eight million, there are 58 million Frenchmen," Barry told us, which leaves you wondering how they're going to produce the next generation.

Even for those with not a drop of Paraguayan or French blood in their veins, golden goal extra time was gut wrenching stuff. You wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy. After running out of nails and fingers there was nothing left to chew but knuckle. And then Le Blanc struck and broke Paraguay's hearts. Learned one thing though - if you ever have to go to war you wouldn't mind their goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert being on your side. He was immense.

"France will beat Italy Des, definitely," said Martin O'Neill after the match. "I go for Italy," said Alan Hansen. "You've been wrong before and you will be wrong again," said O'Neill. Boys! Enough! Who cares anyway, the `circus' team are out and World Cup '98 will never be the same again.