Popworldcupjustice: Greece vs Ivory Coast

GREECE V IVORY COAST

Guest referee: Pete Paphides — Freelance journalist

 Mario Frangoulis — 'Hymn to Liberty'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYS1KLL_crQ

"Having a rubbish national anthem is really just an excuse to engage in passive aggres­sion on a global scale. However tedious the stirring paean to your moth­er­land emanating from the stadium PA might be, the opposing team and all the dig­nit­ar­ies assembled in their name are faced with no choice but to stand there and take it. And, of all the national anthems on the planet, there are none more passive-aggress­ive than Greece’s 158-verse monster, entitled Hymn To Liberty. In its way, it’s both impress­ive and appro­pri­ate that this is the song that the Greek XI have to sing along to. If ever there was a musical equi­val­ent of “parking the bus”, this is it. Lyrically, the song minutely details the Greek struggle for inde­pend­ence after centuries of Ottoman rule – and in doing so makes you wonder if it might have all been over much sooner if the Greeks had bored the Turks into sub­mis­sion merely by singing the whole bloody thing at them. Even though the version here jettisons the final 156 verses of the song which began life 191 years ago as a poem by Dionysios Solomos, the remaining two verses still manage to go on for approx­im­ately two verses too long. Part of the problem here is popular Greek tenor Mario Frangoulis. Over two decades, Mario has estab­lished himself as the sort of clean-cut over­achiever that the parents of every listless second-gen­er­a­tion Hellenic indie kid raised on a diet of Talulah Gosh and Pukka Pies secretly longed to have. As such, he is my mortal enemy and must be van­quished, possibly by having the entire version sung back at him."

 David Debono — 'L'Abidjanaise'

"By contrast, the Ivory Coast anthem, con­fid­ently played here by a man in his pants is a jaunty affair. It’s hard not to warm to David Debono as he turns to face the camera and applauds himself before playing a note. Then, as he rises to turn off the camera, David is SO INTO IT that he carries on singing it to himself. Watch, by contrast, the mildly sarcastic air of pomp he brings to the British national anthem. He clearly thinks it’s a dismal, life-sapping dirge which needs to be changed, perhaps for something by The Go! Team or The Feeling. David’s a good person to have onside. He even manages to inject a bit of life into the Greek anthem."

Pete's full time score:

Greece 0 — Ivory Coast 4

Now you can vote for your own favourite.

Next up: Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Iran and Nigeria vs Argentina