They Think It's All Over

Come on Italy

2006-07-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

Who should I support at this point? France, and in particular Zidane, took me to a different in Saturday's quarter final. They played the beautiful game as a team. Germany has impressed me with their attacking style, though I thought they were much more defensive and lucky against Argentina. The rather ordinary Portugal defeated my beloved England and have benefited from great organisation from Scolari. Who will I support? For me it's the Azzuri. Ok, Italy have not set the viewing world on fire yet. But they've gotten better throughout the tournament. Totti is getting back to his old self. And they're a generally handsome bunch with a fine cuisine. Come on Italia!!!!!

It's over, it's all over

2006-07-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's been two days. More than 48 hours. In truth England never deserved anything at this world cup. The truth is hard to swallow when the tournament comes around every four years and you've dreamed since childhood of seeing an English captain raising that trophy aloft. Fuck the past, I never lived in 66. Still, if you ever want a humorous return to reality, check out Baddiel and Skinner's podcast. If you want to continue with the doom and gloom listen to the Pet Shop Boy's `Numb` from their `Fundamental` album. Apparently Match of the Day's musical choise for England's curtain closing. Either choice is fantastic.

Vote for your magic moment of the world cup so far

2006-06-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

BBC Sport are running a poll on your favourite world cup moment so far. They have selected their ten candidates. I voted for Argentina's 24 pass wonder goal. It seemed weird jumping out of my seat wildly celebrating an Argentina goal, but it was a goal of such beauty. And it seems like a lot of people so far agree on that- it's in the lead at 28.8% when i voted. Still, I'm desperately hoping my magic moment to be replaced by England beating Portugal on Saturday. I already have pre-game nerves.

Vomiting and football: a perfect pair

2006-06-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

Beckham 's vomiting on the field against Ecuador has brought some spotlight to a dark and mostly left unsaid topic. But us distinctly amateur "here for the beer" footballers know it only too well. Most of us don't have the same valid excuse Becks had, but we'd do anything except blame it on the beer. Must have been something we ate.

Goodbye La Furia, I'll miss you

2006-06-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

Spain played some great football in this world cup. Fast (furious?), attacking, skilful. I don't know for sure what proved their undoing. They had a lot of possession against France but didn't create enough clear cut chances on goal for all that. Spain's offside trap was worrying me, it looked ready to be sprung. I wish they'd gone further but they lost to a very good French team who have finally woken up.

I will also miss Ghana. It was a shame Essien had to miss their big day.

Final 4 predictions

2006-06-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

My picks:

Germany
Italy
Brazil
England

I'm licking my lips in anticipation !!!

This said, I do think Argentina can beat Germany. Technically they are better, but buth teams are beatable at the back and I just think with home support and their really strong attack that Germany will nick it.

Italy are in a similar situation to England in some ways. They haven't set the world on fire wirth their football but they're winning. It's a good habit.And i think they have some genuinely world class players in their team and they've found their confidence again. Could go all the way.

Brazil - France could be a cracker. Depends if France shows up. Spain outplayed them most of the 1st half imo. But Zidane, Henry, and Riberry , and even Viera, can turn the game in no time. I just think Brazil will be a bit too good for them.

England - Portugal. Of course we'll bloody well win man. We're English !! :-) Tim, warning, If it goes to penalties i'm smashing your place up :-)

So England-Brazil and Ger-Ita semi. I hate to predict those (though i think Germany will reach the final.) If we're to beat Brazil we have to play to maximum ability on the day, 4 years ago was depressing to watch rolling over against 10 men and losing to them.

Come on refs, use your common sense

2006-06-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

My opinion. I think things reached a real low in the Portugal vs Netherlands game. Admittedly, this was always going to be a physical game, a tough one to referee. But the referee really lost the plot. You can't dish cards out like that. Have to give warnings. Some of these cards are for things like tripping. People will be scared of trying to tackle it's getting so bad. I've talked this over with friends. Not everyone agrees.

Musings on the England team

2006-06-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Owen Hargreaves has made me eat my words the last couple of games. He's proved a really solid defensive midfielder and right back. Good speed, stamina, positioning, and tackling. I though Carrick did well in the holding role yesterday, good passing. He needs more movement going on in front of him to turn good passes into clinically cut breakaways. I'll be the first to admit Beckham is not the player he was between 5-10 years ago. He doesn't have the speed to go past people now. But yesterday he showed he's still one of the best free kick specialists in the game, and worked his socks off for the team in a lot of unglamorous chasing back and defending.

Rooney seems to be finding his touch again. He looked out of sorts for an hour against Ecuador but better the longer the game went on. I reckon he'll play a blinder in the quarter final.

John Terry has made only one mistake this world cup. Ecuador could have punished it badly. Ashley Cole rescued us with THE best defensive play of the tournament so far. Overall I'm mhappy with our defense, it's mostly solid and reliable, ignoring for one moment the debacle of Swedish set piece defending, which I only hope will never resurface.

Missing in Germany: Frank Lampard

2006-06-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

What's happened to Frank's shooting boots? He's not having a good world cup up to now. Lampard and Gerrard do not really seem to be clicking in midfield. We went into this tournament boasting about having the strongest midfield in the world. It's time for Lampard and Gerrard to step up. Ok, Gerrard has scored a couple of goals. But there's not enough creativity coming out of this pair. And as a team we're not getting them involved enough in the attack.

The World Cup from Minneapolis

2006-06-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

First, Minneapolis is CST, 6 hours behind Germany. The game time slots for us are 8am, 11am, and 2pm. In no way work friendly. It's been a weird cocktail of watching half of the first game of the day before leaving for work, recording all the games of the day (thank some digital higher power for DVR!!), and sneaking off work for a few hours for the unmissable games (unmissable for me anyway, like today's England-Trinidad & Tobago game.) A group of us from the Minneapolis Brits yahoo group have gotten together for both England games. With two kids, I don't get to the recorded games until after 9pm. "The missus" puts up with this shambles once every gour years. Four to five hours of games means getting to bed well after midnight then getting up for work. Who said being an armchair fan was easy ?

During the day at work I do everything I can to avoid finding out the result. I avoid news web sites, blogs, and I'm even becoming nervous of checking email. Some of my friends have been told the score of the games of the day by work colleagues. Is murder understandable in some cases?

ESPN simply don't know how to broadcast soccer. They run news tickers across the bottom of the tv screen that display the results of the games from earlier that day, so if you watch games out of sequence you're done for. They also have annoying "tv pop ups", little segments of the screen that tell you statistics or publicise some other upcoming sports event. If the play is taking place underneath those pop ups you're done for. Then there's the annoyingly bad commentary team. The studio panel of ex- USA players providing half time and full time analysis could be ok if they were given more time. They're competing with relentless half-time advertisements, and tv ads rule here in the US. On the plus side, it's a lot better than it was 10 years ago.

Can the US rescue their world cup?

2006-06-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

Being English, living in the US, married to an American and with two kids, the USA is my second team in this world cup. The Czech Republic game was without doubt a disaster. This was always going to be a tough group. Make that a really tough group. Second only to Group C in my opinion. Now the game against Italy is almost certainly a MUST win. Italy looked good overall against Ghana. They looked good on the break, and their back four is solid. If there's a glimmer of hope, I don't think this Italian team has their traditional defensive midfield strength. There will be opportunities to attack them in the space between their midfield and defence. And that's where the US could win. Landon Donavon and Marcus Beasley have great speed in attack when they are given license to do. Make some change down the left hand side, as between Convey and Lewis there's no reliable defensive player, and Italy will exploit that weakness. The USA's central defence is a big concern to me, but there's not much they can do about it now. I'm not sure they need to make any other player changes. Lose the fear, give the attacking players license to attack, and see what happens.

Best player of the world cup so far

2006-06-15T18:07:00.000-07:00

It's an incredibly subjective topic. But for me it's Pavel Nedved. He played an incredible game against the US. Up and down the field, immaculate passing, running with the ball. Almost everything. I say almost because he didn't score. Other contenders: Tomas Rosicky, Juan Riquelme, and Arjen Robben. And for his two late goals for Australia, Tim Cahill. There are plenty more games to come, and I'm sure my favourite players will change, but that's it for now.

It's a hard knock life for some

2006-06-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

As exciting as these last minute wins are, you have to feel something for the teams that lose out. Poland battled as hard as they could to get something out of the game with Germany, and while the better team won, a 91st minute goal is hard to take. Same today, Sweden beating Paraguay with a goal in the 87th minute. And with both these teams, all chance of making it to the 2nd round gone.

Live: Holland vs Serbia Montenegro

2006-06-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Seventy minutes in. Cracking game so far. High tempo, two attacking teams. Robben had a brilliant first hour, Holland deservedly 1-0 up. Van Nistelroy was just subbed. It looks like the Dutch might be getting tired, they have played a very high tempo and high pressure game. Serbia are starting to get more space and create some problems, and Robben is seeing less of the ball.

Yahoo Fantasy World Cup Team

2006-06-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

I also got my yahoo fantasy team lineup sorted out for the next few days. I had originally included Riquelme in my squad but dropped him out at the last minute. After today I wish i'd kept him :-)

World cup days one and two

2006-06-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

My excitement now under control, I have already enjoyed plenty good football. The opening game was very good, Germany came out really positive and Costa Rica kept the game interesting with their main threat from Wanchope. Klose often looks awkward and slow but is a clinical finisher in the pantly box, reminds me of some past German centre forwards like Rummenige in that regard. This morning I woke up at 6.30am, way too early on a Saturday for me, hurriedly got the kids dressed, and drove up to my friend Tim's house for the England vs Paraguay game in hi-def. A small group of us from the Minneapolis Brits watched the game together. England played well enough in the first half, controlling possession without creating many opportunities. The early goal helped settle nerves. What happens at half time when we are a goal up mystifies me. It's a recurring pattern over the years under Sven, we go into an unadventorous defensive shell and let the opposition dictate play. Paraguay were very limited, a better side will punish us. Michael Owen looks out of form, but taking him off and putting on Downing really puzzled us. The best that can be said of the second half is that it finished and we won 1-0. I stayed at Tim's and watched Sweden vs Trinidad and Tobago and really enjoyed that game. We were hoping for a draw, thinking it would suit England best. It was great to see Trinidad work so hard to get a point, especially after having a man sent off early in the second half. That tackle looked like he won the ball to me, admittedly with some follow through, though I think it was unavoidable as his body turned. Maybe it was a bit over aggressive, unlucky to go off for it. Argentina looked good in spells today, particularly when they were playing through Riquelme. His free kick that led to the first goal was brilliantly delivered. His pass for the second goal was pure class. I think Ivory Coast will need to take their chances much better if they are to get through the group. In contrast, Argentina were clinical with the chances they had.

I can't wait for more games!!!

History of Baden Baden

2006-06-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

Nice little wikipedia on Baden Baden, England's world cup site.

History of Baden Baden

2006-06-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Nice little wikipedia on Baden Baden, England's world cup site.

In 2010 I'll have to take a month off work

2006-06-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

The stress of figuring out how I'll watch all the games from here in the US and keep myself employed is too much. All the game times are during the work day. Recording the games means five hours of footie to watch each night. What's wrong with that you might say? Next time round I will take a month off work. What are you doing to balance family, work, and world cup?

Daily web show from Germany at ussoccer

2006-06-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

The USSoccer web site are running a daily web show called Studio 90. Looks good.

Which underdogs will surprise us this world cup?

2006-06-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

In Italia 90, and arguably also in Spain '82, it was Cameroon. In Mexico '86 Morocco topped the group with England, Poland, and Portugal. Nigeria had a fantastic group phase and then took Italy all the way through extra time in their last 16 game in USA '94. In 1950 the USA stunned the footballing world by beating an England team who had not even bothered to turn up for previous world cups. Who will be unfancied minnows that surprise us this time around? The article World Cup Debutants might give some food for thought. Of course, it's a stretch to list the Czech Republic and Ukraine as debutants just because they are technically playing their first world cup as those nations (the USSR team of 1986 was filled primarily with players from Dinamo Kiev of the Ukraine.) If they'd been drawn in any other group I'd have given the Ivory Coast a chance, as they have some really talented players. But that said, Argentina have stumbled against African teams in past world cups, and whose to say it can't happen again. Ghana have also been pulled in a really tough group. They would need the Czech Republic or Italy to under perform, and still need to overcome an experienced and solid US team to make it through. What about Australia? Sure, it's also a tough group with Brazil, Croatia, and Japan, but with the Aussie fighting spirit, some premiership quality players, and a bit of luck, I'm tipping them to be the surprise team.

The not so magic magyars

2006-05-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

There was a day when Puskas and co. arrived on English soil and gave us a footballing lesson. I'm not so sure that will happen in England's latest world cup warm up game but let's hope they prove a decent test. To be honest I don't know much about them. Their qualifying group was arguably tougher than England's, but they didn't fare too well. I'm reading the BBC live game report. Surprised to see Carragher in as a holding midfielder, but Carrick had an awful time in the Belarus game. I do hope Carrick gets more of an opportunity, he's had a very impressive Premiership season.

Vote for your classic world cup match

2006-05-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

BBC Sport are running a poll on favourite classic world cup matches.

I voted #7. A snapshot of the poll results are:

VOTE RESULTS
England 4-2 W Germany
24.43%
Brazil 4-1 Italy
22.87%
Germany 2-1 Holland
1.56%
Scotland 3-2 Holland
8.76%
Italy 3-2 Brazil
13.62%
France 1-1 Brazil
4.24%
England 1-1 Germany
4.17%
Brazil 3-2 Holland
4.75%
England 2-2 Argentina
8.78%
Holland 2-1 Argentina
6.82%
21004 Votes Cast

Based on the current #1, I would guess a large # of the votes are from England fans :-) I remember staying up past midnight as a kid watching an absolute class USSR vs. Belgium game in Mexico 1986. I think it was a last 16 playoff. All out attack with Belgium winning 403 in extra time. Shame it didn't make the list.

Less than 2 weeks to go

2006-05-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

To World Cup Germany 2006. I've been watching clips from past world cup and can't wait for the big event to start. Being English and born after 1966, world cup disappointment has been sewn into my fabric from an early age, and nothing was as disappointing as the semi-final loss to Germany in Italia 90. My biggest memory from that world cup was Paul Gascoigne's moments of brilliance, folly, and emotions. Yes, Gazza crying his eyes out. So I've decided my theme for this world cup is for England to win it for Gazza. Yes, I'm prepared to be disappointed yet again. But there's no harm in dreaming.

This one page printable world cup wallchart (pdf) is quite good. I'm also thinking of entering Fantasy League's classic fantasy world cup game. I play their premiership league every season and it's great fun.