Switzerland: CAMP 55%
Italy: Giorgia 45%
Total Voters: 44
Poll closes: 1 Jul 2008 @ 12:30
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SWITZERLAND: CAMP – “From Extremely Far Away”
The manager says: ““Plucky underdogs or pop titans? I think a fair few people are surprised to see Switzerland make it to the final, and we definitely waltz in as underdogs against the Italian pop titans. And the Swiss squad limbering up for the final is fit, keen and raring to go. BUT, do they have it in them for this final gasp? The scouts have spent a lot of time scouring the Swiss charts: spending a considerable amount of time at Wankdorf records. And so to the final decisions. Left on the bench are the arresting Electric Blanket with I Never Ate That Bird, Tim And Puma Mimi (worried about the Japanese influence) and the Swiss Hadouken: Must Have Been Tokyo. Just missing the cut were a couple of terrific tracks by the Round Table Knights: mainly a Rock Around The Clock mash-up worrying the selectors about its provenance). And Valeska’s Cool As Berlin got passed over because Berlin is not in Switzerland and thus not very patriotic.
In the end as manager I had to stick with a keen squad player who had been threatening to break through for the whole league, but I never quite had the courage to risk them. But Sven made a mistake not throwing the young Theo Walcott up front: so here is my version in the untested form of CAMP. A robust defence is evident but admittedly this is tactical programming, and I am not sure where the goals will come from. Actually I know exactly where they are coming from .The are coming From Extremely Far Away. Lets see if the Swiss excel with the long ball game, and if I win, I promise you a Poptimism Podcast of all the tracks mentioned above.”
Our analyst says: In his refreshingly candid pre-match conference the Swiss manager isolated the problem with this formation – it has pace and energy, certainly you couldn’t accuse them of negative tactics, but there’s an awful lot of emphasis on getting balls to a frontman who may not be up to the task.
ITALY: Giorgia – “Spirito Libero”
The manager says: “Never in my wildest dreams did I expect my young lads and ladies to get this far, we’ve had a lot thrown at us, we were only a couple of Romanian votes away from another ignominious group exit, but we managed to throw even more back out there and I’m proud of every single one of them. I think the Swiss have also done fantatstically well to get here, I’ve got the utmost respect to them as another team full of attacking flair and they’ve been a credit to this tournament. A victory either way wouldn’t be an unjust result, and my squad may never experience another night like this, so I told them ‘just go out there and enjoy it’. We hope you do too.”
Our analyst says: Italy have certainly put together a side who can play prettily here, but I wonder if their more languid approach might tell against them – they’ll be looking to dictate the tempo of the game, but too many flicks and tricks and the fast-moving Swiss will be able to counter. Some lovely attacking interplay – do they have the end product?
Coming Next…: That’s it! At the weekend look out for a Muxtape of the best tracks. At next week’s Poptimism dance to a “best of Europop 2008” set. And keep your eyes and ears open for news of the 2010 Pop World Cup, preparations for which may already be well underway….