MARK SET HIGH: HOW TO CLEAR IT?

A well-dressed gentleman, angrily: "There you have it! We could've scored and we didn't! And there were chances during the games that just shouldn't have been missed. We were leading and we bungled it again! What a shame!"

Another gentleman accompanying the above-quoted one, skeptically:

"So what did you expect? With the kind of Cabinet and Parliament we have, did you really expect our soccer team to be any better? Remember the old one about a man who goes into a barber shop? He wants a shave, but there is no hot water and the cutthroat razor is rusty and dull. The man is outraged. He wants to see the manager, on the double. So the manager comes. 'Hello, I was told that there is something you don't like, is there?' he asks. 'What do you mean something? There is nothing I like, anywhere!' the man shouts. 'Oh, I see,' the manager says. 'Then why start with my barber' shop?'"

A very serious-looking gentleman:

"I have weighed all the pros and cons and I can assure you that the domestic championships won't work unless we can start a competition from within. Let's face it. Our best soccer players don't know how to dodge 'em when dog-fighting, if you know what I mean. Now the blunders made by the defense make me sick. Remember: Juventus, Sparta, Russia's national, Panatinaikos, and Lance, for Heaven's sake! What else do we stand to lose?"

A sober-minded man:

"Let's be reasonable. Naturally, we are not happy about our team not winning this game. But just think: tying with the French soccer champion is regarded as a failure in Ukraine. It means that the bar has been raised a few notches for Kyiv Dynamo and they can clear if they set their mind on it".