So who will win? That’s a tough question. My logical brain thinks the French are probably going to win the tournament. My emotional brain is cheering on the Italians. Either way I suspect we’re in for a humdinger of a match.

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Else where in the competion, Italy beat Ukraine 3-nil, which flattered the Italians more than they deserved. Germany were lucky to beat Argentina on penalties. Argentina looked the better team but the luck ran Germany’s way. As for Brazil versus France, well the French seem to be getting their act together and beginning to look like possible champions. They played with great skill and passion and made the Brazillians look like also rans. The Brazillians were the most disappointing team in the tournament as the final ten minutes of this game proved. Whneen the crunch came and they got serious about trying to score they looked magnificent but by that time it was too late.

So we have an all European pair of semis. I’m expecting we’ll see a Germany vs France final.

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As for Portugal vs Netherlands, what the heck was going on????????? They must have been on something ‘cos that game was a nightmare. Talk about out of control. Both team managers need to read the riot act to every player that was on the field. Get a grip guys, you’re professionals! Sheesh.

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In other strangeness, what is it with the Dutch strip? Those numbers look like a 1970s rehash. (Must say the numbers on the English second strip looked pretty freaky also.)

Let us all give thanks for TiVo. We watched both games in Group E today (Brasil vs Japan, Croatia vs Australia) thanks to this ingenious gadget. We’d swap back and forth as the games progressed and it was most wonderous. Very exciting games I must say.

Commiserations to all our Yankie friends but quite frankly the US team sucked even worse than England so their eviction from the tournament was not a surprise.

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Of course, they’re not going to fix it but I need even a false sense of hope if I am to survive the sheer awfulness of the commentating. One day, my friend, one day.

Actually, listening to Tommy Smith did it for me. He’s the one brief glimmer of light of English language football commentary over here and he’s originally from Ireland. Which probably gives you a clue where I’m headed. Also dropping in on the Spanish language coverage of the event gives us a clue too.

So my big revelation is: you need commentators that give a crap about the beautiful game.

It’s the passion, dude! Or the lack of it. The Americans they have commentating just couldn’t give a ‘how’s your father’ about the sport. They’re hacks being paid to do a job, they don’t love the game with every fibre of their being. And they sure don’t see to get how important this all is.

Life and death, man, life and death.

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As for the ESPN coverage, on the plus side, we got to hear the national anthems this time. On the downside, can we get rid of these commentators? It was painful listening to them prattle on and keep changing their minds about what was going on. England had most of the possession. The first time Trinadad had a shot on goal, the commentator mused that they were clearly the stronger team. The contrariness was really irritating. Also what is it with the continual putting down of David Beckham? Every chance they can they talk about how he’s clearly not the best player in the world, or quote some football official put him down and so on.

Let’s hope for improvement because it’s going to be a very long month otherwise.

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If England intend to get much further in the competition though they are going to have to play better than this. It’s the old story, back passing that allowed the pressure to ease and giving the ball away by kicking it into a general area and not to a person. It seems pretty straight forward to me. If you pass the ball to fellow team members in the opposition’s end of the pitch, they can’t score and you might. DUH! Sheesh, even I, a casual watcher, know that.

They all need a good kick up the backside or else it won’t matter whether or not Rooney’s foot is healed, they’ll be on the bus home, knocked out by a team with half the talent but 100% more passion.

In other World Cup news: Trinidad and Tobago scared the you know what out of the Swedes and Argentina were really lucky to win against the Ivory Coast. Personally I was cheering on the Africans, they were very unlucky not to get a point.

US English language commentary/analysis of matches so far: can we get some people who know what they are talking about? Loads of tripe is being spewed forth and it just frosts me. Spanish language coverage sounds a lot better even though I can’t understand a word they are saying plus they have enough respect for the games that they show the teams coming on to the pitch and the national anthems being played.

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Tomorrow is England’s first game. Keep your fingers crossed!

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Defeated by alcoholism, there will still only ever be one Georgie Best. RIP.

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This article gives you an idea of the current situation at Old Trafford.

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