'Pick it up', 'time out' etc

Shearman & Sterling's impeccable timing was brought into question on that historic Friday at the beginning of June. Yes, in its infinite wisdom, the firm's global antitrust department - which is made up in the main of Americans - decided to hold a retreat in Oxford on Friday 7 June.
Normally, that would not be so bad, but a bunch of English partners were obviously more interested in watching England trounce Argentina 1-0 than discussing antitrust. Tulkinghorn wonders just how interested a bunch of Americans were in watching two hours of 'soccer' and spending the rest of the day discussing the pros and (mainly) cons of long hair on footballers.