We're underway!
The day I dreamt of for the last 23 months has come and gone, and we're 3 days into a World Cup!
There's been drama. And goals, quite a few late ones too (no 0-0s so far). We've seen half of this year's qualifiers and I've already seen enough to have formed, or even solidified, some prejudices.
The opening game was a big surprise, World Cup openers tend to be fairly lean on goals. I think the scoreline was more of an indication of how terrible the Saudis are than the Russians are good. The ITV commentator was doing my head in a bit when he kept referring to the game as "Opening Night". Give it a rest, you're not adding to the drama, you don't need to!
Also ITV's (and BBC's too) opening credits were a bit of a disappointment. Yes even little things like that are important to me! After Sing Sing Africa and Braaaaaasiw Braaaaaasiw I had high hopes. For ITV that is, despite having the best commentary team and overall presentation, I'm always disappointed with BBC's opening credits (other than the Euro 2004 Basement Jaxx ones).
Spain and Portugal served up the best World Cup match I've seen in literally decades. You have to go back to the summer of 94 and clashes between Brazil & Holland, Argentina & Romania and Italy & Spain to find as entertaining spectacles in my eyes.
France and Argentina have both put in performances that reinforced my opinion that they are massively overhyped, in terms of the output that each team produces. A lot of people, who obviously haven't seen them in qualifying, look at the squads and assume that they'll both sweep all before them. This is not going to happen, mark my words! Argentina are woefully imbalanced and have been for about a decade; and France lack the cohesion to beat anyone half decent or even beat dross like Australia convincingly.
Don't even get me started on Nigeria. I didn't see their friendly with England, I was busy with my wife who was in the middle of giving birth to our twins (yeah they're making the football watching challenging); but the post match word was that Nigeria looked decent in the second half. Before tonight's game with Croatia there was talk of them being on the up. This is a lie! For a start they've got John Obi Mikel playing with the number 10 on his back. Forget whether he's actually playing as their creative player, surely they somebody else half decent who would've wanted that number? What about Moses? For me it's nearly as bad as Asamoah Gyan wearing number 3 and not playing anywhere near Leftback.
Finally there's Peru! Ahhhhh Peru I love you! Forget the red sash, I mean their's is a great kit, but look at the football. They remind me of Colombia and Chile from the last World Cup. Energetic, open and slightly naive. I'm afraid today's defeat to Denmark may have put them in an impossible position in terms of qualification from the group. Saying that they do have to play the same France side I've just rubbished!
Bring on Father's Day, which is essentially Brazil and Germany! I can't wait!
