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Pacman to the point

Reflecting on the state of the "Beautiful Game"

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Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco spends the whole weekend watching football and reflects on the state of the modern game...

The truth is that over the last five years or so I have gone from being virtually obsessed with football to being at times little more than mildly interested. To the extent that football is now just one in a portfolio of four or five sports that I follow, either through work or pleasure. It's not by chance that chocaholics who choose to work at the local chocolate factory where they can scoff as much of the dark stuff as they like quickly lose interest and in some cases go off it for life and I think the excessive availability of football on satellite TV and via the internet has contributed to me losing my passion for the "beautiful game". The fact that I had a season ticket at Fulham this year probably had something to do with it as well.

However, having watched just one game last weekend when my beloved Everton couldn't keep possession or create chances for Toffee against Merseyside rivals Liverpool (Arteta and co are now a [9.2] chance for a Top 4 finish which may make for a decent trade at some stage) I realized on Saturday morning that without having planned it that way, I had a football-packed weekend ahead of me. As they say - when it rains it pours.

I started by flicking between the West Brom v Portsmouth FA Cup semi-final and Arsenal's Premiership clash with Liverpool. Two things instantly struck me as disappointing. The first was that two matches that were enticing on paper were scheduled for exactly the same time. I know that these days factors such as TV deals, policing resources, sponsorship agreements and transport considerations play a big factor in determining when matches are played but it still didn't seem right.

The second was that of the starting line-ups from the previous Wednesday night's Champions League match (where presumably both sides fielded their best elevens), only five of Arsenal's and three of Liverpool's players started the Premiership match. I appreciate that these days football is about priorities and the Champions League is clearly the main concern of both teams at the moment but it still didn't seem right that Arsenal season ticket-holders, Liverpool away supporters and Sky Sports subscribers were watching (no disrespect) the likes of Armand Traore, Justin Hoyte, Damien Plessis and Yossi Benayoun rather than Robin Van Persie, Alexander Hleb, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard.

The football pragmatists will tell you that it's a long old season these days and that it's about the squad rather than the starting eleven but I think you want to be watching the best players in the big games whatever the circumstances. For what it's worth, I thought the FA Cup match was the better of the two and even though the West Brom players will be bitterly disappointed to miss out on a cup final, it now allows them to focus solely on promotion to the Premiership. Odds on Frank Skinner being at the Hawthorns next season watching Cristiano Ronaldo tearing apart the Baggie's defence? [1.6] - not a bad price.

As soon as that was over, I made the 100 metre journey down the road from the Pacman pad to Craven Cottage to watch Fulham attempt to recreate Steve McQueens' motorcycle jump over a barbed wire fence into Swiss territory and freedom. The result is likely to be the same as the Cooler King's: failure and a return to somewhere you don't want to be. For McQueen it was solitary confinement with no more than a baseball mit and ball for company, for Fulham it's a return to The Championship with the likes of Blackpool and Burnley for company but you can lay Fulham at [1.09] if you expect them to enjoy a similar fortune to James Coburn and Charles Bronson and successfully make "The Great Escape". Further disappointment for me was present in the shape of the likes of Diomansy Kamara who, when he eventually departed the pitch after 72 minutes of disinterested, toothless football on a rainy, muddy day, still sported an immaculate and spotless white kit. Shows to what extent he got stuck in.

On Sunday I was lucky enough to be offered a ticket at Wembley for the second FA Cup semi-final and caught the last half hour of the Boro v Man Utd match before the game. A cracking match which proved what I've suspected for a long time. The best way to get something out of facing the top teams is to attack them. If you're on the back foot and need to get men behind the ball you have less energy to get forward when you do have it and that's what happened to Man Utd yesterday. With Arsenal at home and trips to Blackburn and Chelsea away still to come in the next three weeks and injuries to Vidic and Ferdinand, I'd be amazed if the [1.41] on the defending champions doesn't go out at some stage. Get laying.

The Cardiff v Barnsley match was a pretty good game with 22 fully committed players getting their moment in the sun (ok, there wasn't much sun, it is after all early April) but Cardiff took their chance and Kayode Odejayi didn't and that's football. Brian Howard, the Barnsley captain, put in another fine performance and I suspect he won't be at Oakwell next year if they do go down. I can't see Cardiff going all the way but I can see it being a tight affair so look out for the 1-0 Portsmouth win on Betfair nearer the time.

What did I learn during my football-fest of a weekend then? Like everything else in life, you need to be selective and there are going to be good games and bad games. Secondly, football has changed and you can criticize its current state and wish for the "good old days" but the flipside is despite it being more defensively-minded than in the past, the quality is vastly better.

The European Championships are just around the corner and England or no England, it really is an open tournament. I might have a dabble on Portugal at [8.8] and France at [9.8] but whether either of these two win it or not, I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe I'll rediscover my passion after all.