Kazakhstan tangles with England in World Cup qualifier

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LONDON -- To those lingering viewers of the 2006 hit film ‘Borat’ who just might still presume mythical his alleged homeland of Kazakhstan, opposing proof comes this weekend when the real, actual, bona fide Kazakhstan will play England in a World Cup qualifier at Wembley Stadium.

This gives Western people the chance to learn Kazakhstan factoids such as ‘ninth-largest country on Earth,’ ‘largest landlocked country on Earth,’ ‘sprawls across Central Asia’ and ‘slightly less than four times larger than Texas’ (but sorely lacking the Texas-Oklahoma game). Other tidbits might include ‘has lots of oil’ and ‘not necessarily susceptible to financial meltdown ongoing in certain other places.’

It also might make curious people look up the FIFA World Ranking of the 17-year-old country of Kazakhstan: No. 131, 117 places behind England, one behind Hong Kong and six behind the country with the greatest country name on the planet, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

And it gave the wagering service Paddy Power the chance to think up a bet entitled ‘’Borat’ Cliche Said By ITV Commentators,’ ITV being a British TV network. As of last evening in Europe, ‘Very Nice’ sat at 4-1, with ‘Jagshhmesh’ at 10-1, ‘Is Nice’ at 25-1 and ‘Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’ at 33-1.

And these TV commentators took on a lot of power.

-- Chuck Culpepper