The Noise from Brazil: Pirlo was lacking ‘jizz’, a cracking Clint Dempsey photobomb and Japan try to get happy

ESPN’s Tommy Smyth taking a leaf from the Brian Kerr book of commentary.

We’re sure you are all familiar with arguably the most famous Irishman in America, ESPN soccer analyst Tommy Smyth. The Louth man has been on ESPN’s soccer coverage in one form or another for over two decades and thanks to ESPN’s arrival over here, we have been able to watch his work now too. It is safe to say that his style divides opinion on both sides of the Atlantic but when he comes out with stuff like this, you have to admire him. On ESPN Radio to discuss Italy’s shock defeat at the hands of Costa Rica, Smyth focussed on Andrea Pirlo and his somewhat lacklustre performance. Here’s what he said was the problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb7edSiGnc&feature=youtu.be The host was clearly stunned but as we know exactly what you mean Tommy. Keep up the good work. Thanks to Gerard Hayden for sending the clip our way Clint Dempsey catches Klinsi What do you do if your gaffer is getting a picture taken with some Brazilian police? Well, you jump in behind to perform a fairly heroic photobomb if you are Clint Dempsey.

Highlight from this morning: @clint_dempsey #PhotoBomb duing @J_Klinsmann photo with local police! pic.twitter.com/3wkMelpILo — U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) June 20, 2014

Not sure I would be sneaking up behind these lads mind… Japan get a visit from a crowd called Happy Science Things are pretty bleak for our boys JOEpan in Group C. They need to beat Colombia in their final game on Tuesday and hope that Greece can turn over Ivory Coast at the same time. It’s a tall order for our adopted country. In a bid to turn things around, a cult-like group from Japan known as the Science of Happiness, or Happy Science, visited the Japanese camp yesterday and left them a message outside on a big banner. The slogan read ‘Open The Way With Positive Thinking’. Not exactly ‘Put Em Under Pressure’ but if Japan do pull off qualification for the knockout phase, we expect that the Happy lads will try to take some credit.