Game 64

Game 64 of 64 is upon us. It's been an odd World Cup full of shocks; I for one never envisaged the Final being contested by these two sides. By 7pm UK time we will have new World Champions.

We've seen rampant hosts routing inept looking Saudis, while the leaders of the two nations sat straddled either side of Gianni Infantino fist bumping over every goal.

The Cristiano Ronaldo Show, in one of the most epic group stage clashes in recent memory.

VAR! Penalties awarded because of VAR. Penalties not awarded because of VAR. Plenty of penalties, well in the beginning anyway.

The holders rocked and sent home early for the 3rd tournament in a row. Surely an indication of the difference 4 years make in the football world, both tactically and physically.

Brazil doing a Brazil. Barring that little blip at the turn of the century  they have a habit of turning up at World Cups, looking like one of the front runners then somehow heading home before the Semi Finals come around. Ahhhhh Braaaaaasiw!

England reborn! Or were they? Panama may well be one of the worst sides I remember seeing at the World Cup and Tunisia weren't much cop either. Sweden made the Quarter Finals playing some pretty uninspiring stuff. And we basically came a cropper upon sight of the first half decent opponent. An improved side, or improved PR mixed with some good fortune?

Argentina showing that Messi can't do it on a wet Wednesday night in Sochi. Or at least he can't with absolutely no balance to the side that he plays in. Maradona enjoyed himself though!

Peru, Colombia and Mexico all dazzling playing high tempo football. But for all of the excitement and aesthetics none of them reached the Quarter Finals.

Africa's showing was disappointing. Salah was injured, rushed back and then unable to halt the tide of Russians sweeping over the Egyptians. Was it a case of, like Messi, one man can't polish a turd or drag a side with a number of clear deficiencies through to the later stages of a tournament? Not in 2018 anyway. In our global game where there are no mugs or easy games, except Panama. Senegal and Nigeria impressed at times. Musa won the most impressive foot race I've ever seen against an Icelandic, but they both went home early. Tunisia didn't provide much either, not the best tournament for Africa.

The knockout stages typical of every tournament I've seen with the exception of 1994. Too many penalty shoot outs, not many games that swung both ways, and not many goals in Extra Time. Kasper Schmeichel performed last minute heroics in vein; Akinfeev actually did something positive of note for once, enabling Russia to significantly exceed expectations; and we finally got that penalty shoot out monkey of our backs (only just) thanks to a piece of brilliance from Jordan Pickford.

Belgium and France provided us with two games where momentum swung in the knockout stages. Mbappe was too quick for Argentina and Japan fell apart upon the introduction of Felliani and Chadli.

The two Francophones were probably the best two teams at the this year's tournament. Hazard came to the party, Lukaku bullied on the "flat tracks" of the 1st round and De Bruyne had his moments, including one that sent Brazil home. Pogba actually looked like the Pogba that Juventus sold to Man United, causing everyone to lose a little more faith in Mourinho; and Mbappe stirred memories of a young Ronaldo (that's the real Ronaldo by the way).

Finally we have Croatia. Making the most of what quite possibly will be the last tournament where both Rakatic and Modric will be able to play together as a force. Rebic and Peresic have terrorised full backs (and Willy Caballero, what a howler); Lovren has looked OK at times, the 1st half against England not being one of those times; and Vida has looked like some kind of Sci-Fi villain who can shoot laser beams from his eyes.

Farewell Russia 2018! It's been a breathtaking month of rushing home from work (I almost said "Russian" as a poor joke), watching games while putting the kids to bed and "Football Coming Home". God knows what Qatar 2022 will be like with it scheduled to start the day before my 42nd birthday, and I'm still not convinced that the 48 team format in 2026 will work. It may well be the case that this is the last proper World Cup as we know it.

PS Bit disappointed with ITVs intro this year, massive step down from "Braaaaaasiw Braaaaaasiw!" and "Sing Sing Africa", but in my opinion ITV have trumped BBC and will be getting my attention for the Final!

What a start! Heat = Goals and Spain aren't done yet

It's here! The World Cup is here! If you're anything like me you'll have pinched yourself at some point in the last 48 hours just to make sure it's all real (I genuinely have, I always do). I managed to pull Nigeria in the office sweepstake and predicted a 2-0 win for Braaaaaaaaaziiil Braaaaaaaaaziiil in the company prediction competition that I'm running, great start what with Croatia taking a 1-0 lead after just 11 minutes.

As per that brief clip above I think ITV have once again trumped BBC in the opening credit stakes. Despite have the worst commentary/analysis team of the two, excluding Cannavaro and Viera (even if Cannavaro does at times struggle to keep up with the English chit chat), ITV tend to make up for it with their opening credits. In the last tournament it was close ITV came up with probably the best opening credits since Glory Land (ITV 1994) or the ITV 1990 theme. But BBC had, what I'd consider their best ever (even including the tournaments I didn't watch because I was too young or not even born).

On the football side of things I've been thoroughly entertained so far. There's been plenty of drama from the word "go" and the lowest scoring game has been a 1-0 for Mexico over Cameroon. I have a theory with the number of goals we have had so far in the tournament, I could be proved wrong as there are another 60 games to go, but here it is.

Now that you've been equipped with the history of the World Cup thanks to my comprehensive guide (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) you'll know that the best and most entertaining tournaments were Mexico 70, Spain 82, Mexico 86 & USA 94. I confess that at no point do I actually say this in my previous posts. This is solely based on my opinion, which has been formed, watching some of these tournaments, either at the time or through clips and reading about them and what others have thought. There's a constant theme with all of the above tournaments though, sunshine. Sunshine (well heat actually) and goals.

Sure let him down!

Anybody as well versed in this World Cup malarkey will argue that statistically 1986 had a comparatively low goals per game ratio and that 2002 also had games played in the sapping heat (just ask, then Spain manager Jose Camacho). But my counter argument for that is 1986 saw some of the World Cup's great topsy turvy goalfests. Italy v South Korea and Denmark v Uruguay in the groups; Denmark v Spain and Belgium v USSR in the 2nd round; and the Final itself where Germany came back from 2-0 down to level the game, only for Argentina to snatch a winner near the end.

If you don't believe me I have further evidence. The 2 most open and attacking World Cup's since everybody (rather cynically) realised you stood a better chance winning in football if you defended well, somewhere in the 1970's? have been 1982 and 1994. 82 has the highest goal ratio of a "modern" tournament and Spain was pretty hot the last time I checked.

If you think of all of the big (colour TV) goalfests in the history of the tournament they can be traced back to these tournaments. Italy 4 West Germany 3 & England 2 West Germany 3 (70); Braaaaaaaaaziiil Braaaaaaaaaziiil 2 Italy 3 & West Germany 3 France 3 (82); Romania 3 Argentina 2, Germany 3 Belgium 2, Holland 2 Braaaaaaaaaziiil Braaaaaaaaaziiil 3 & Romania 2 Sweden 2 (94). I rest my case.

As players get hot and tired they get slacker, especially defensively, and they start to take risks like hitting long balls (oh god, watch out for England tonight then) or long shots. Add in the fact that once a team goes behind in a game they sometimes have to abandon their game plan and open up a little and you'll get goals. My thought was that the early games wouldn't see so much of this as teams would rather stay compact and see out a slow 0-0 draw (that could still well happen, were only four games in) and that as the tournament went on and players got more tired, due to the affects of playing twice a week in the stifling heat, the goals would start raining in. Let's see, I could be totally wrong and we could be in for 4 weeks of 1-0 wins from this point onwards...

He does look like a child soldier. The moustache doesn't help!

The story so far sees Braaaaaaaaaziiil Braaaaaaaaaziiil beating Croatia in there opening game, coming from behind with the aid of some questionable refereeing decisions, but then this is why host nations always do well (unless you're South Africa), referees are influenced by the noise the crowd makes when there is a contentious decision. We are too. When was the last time you saw a player go down, not much of a fuss made by the crowd and you thought, "That's a definite foul!" They're human. That main thing I took from that game was that the Braaaaaaaaaziiil Braaaaaaaaaziiil fans can't give Diego Costa too hard a time for playing for Spain (instead of Braaaaaaaaaziiil Braaaaaaaaaziiil, his country of birth), they've got Paulinho and Luiz Gustavo who are clearly Sri Lankan and Rwandan. Gustavo looks like one of those 11 year old child soldiers that you see in documentaries, with a cigarette in his mouth and an AK-47 in his hands (can I just say, as I'm aware that's a bit close to the mark, I'm not making light of the plight of these kids, what happens to them which forces them to be party of these rebel "armies" is actually shocking).

He's probably got one eye on this week's 1st Test at Lords

It's not the first time Braaaaaaaaaziiil Braaaaaaaaaziiil have had Sri Lankans in their squad , remember Emerson?

Elsewhere, lazy pundits are now writing Spain off because of their 5-1 defeat to the Dutch. As a result I've just put and eachway bet on Spain to win the tournament, their odds are now, stupidly, out at 11/1 (based on my previous form with bets that's probably the kiss of death). Let me straighten things out right now though. I don't think Spain will win the tournament, yes because they've aged (and you need young legs to play in the sun), but not because of last night. Last night they were the more threatening team up until the point at which Holland went 2-1 up (remember Silva had a great chance to extend the lead when it was 1-0). Once they went 2-1 down they had to come forward with more urgency and leave gaps at the back, that coupled with the heat... Goals!

The European World Cup Day 3, 4-6-0??

Goooal!! Italy's Prolific Pensioner opens the scoring

The biggest talking point for everybody yesterday was of Spain's decision to start their opening European World Cup game against Italy with no strikers. Some said it was cocky, others said it was disrespectful to Italy, personally I think it was foolhardy. As much as Spain do pass the ball well, and do have SO MUCH midfield talent at their disposal, and did score while they were playing the now infamous 4-6-0, that will never work in my opinion. One of the things that a lot of people seem to be losing sight of is the fact that throughout these last 4 years of their international dominance in addition to having the greatest midfield in the galaxy in the history of mankind (well that's what everybody's saying right), they've had a prolific goalscorer in the form of David Villa, who they're currently missing. This was one of the reasons why I felt they would not successfully defend their crown this year. At the end of the day it doesn't matter how much pretty "Tika-Taka" (you have to do a shot) you play, you need someone, even if it's just one person, to be the focal point of your attack.

Anyway, that kind of talk is far too technical for my likening, on to those magnificent beasts, the Italians. I'm a big fan of Italian football, and as a result it mean's I'm privileged enough to watch, and more importantly understand it. A lot of people in England just don't get it, they call Italian football negative and defensive (that's another shot), which is pretty much as tired and old as stereotypes get. For example did you know that in 2006 , when they won the World Cup (not the European one, how long am I gonna keep this up), Italy took more strikers to the tournament than any of the other big contenders (The took five: Totti, Del Piero aka God, Iaquinta, Gilardino (shouldn't he be Brazillian?) and Luca Toni ) and every one of them played and scored. Not very defensive is it! Yesterday we were treated to a show in terms of Italian football as they tactically out thought the Spanish and showed that they weren't impregnable. I totally get that if Fernando Torres couldn hit a barn door Spain may have still won the match, but I think anyone who saw the game will agree Italy looked very good especially when on the ball. England could learn a thing or two from the Italians who at times just had to watch the Spaniards pass it around for what seemed like an eternity but then when they were in possession refused to be rushed and were very incisive in their passing. I'm doing it again, I'm going all technical aren't I? Apologies to those who read this and aren't massive football fans (I know that sounds like a crazy concept, but some people read this just because they strangely find me amusing). OK so for you guys the Italians look aesthetically good (see the team photo below), barring Balotelli's ridiculous haircut that is, they're all about designer beards/stubble and Buffon's slicked over Mediterranean hair... now I just sound gay, I'm not gay, I'm just saying they looked the part as well as playing it.

PS can you even write brackets within brackets?? See Gilardino above.

Makes you wanna grow a beard doesn't it...

One team who most certainly don't look the part is Ireland, unfortunately. I had my doubts as to whether they'd be able to hold their own against the elite of the European World and they struggled yesterday. A goal down after 2 minutes, then conceding trying to play offside when they themselves had knocked the ball through then conceding 2 minutes into the second half, tells me one thing, they'll be all but home this time next week. Because it doesn't get any easier for them, they'll be playing both Italy and Spain... And who the hell is Simon Cox? I mean I'm not pro-footballer so he's already got one up on me but when I saw Aiden McGeedy trotting off to make way for a sub that was hopefully going to get the Irish back in the game I did not expect Cox to be his replacement. No disrespect to Cox, but it's rare that I'll watch a nation like Ireland at a major international tournament and shout, "Who?!?" at the TV when one of their players names flash up.  Then again that is probably testament to the job that Trapattoni has done for them.

Day 3 Summary

Look at that beard, the shaven faced Iniesta can't keep up

Hero(s)
There were two heros yesterday. Caesar Preandelli, the Italian manager, for switching to a "risky" 3-5-2 and using De Rossi as a sweeper to nullify the ridiculously beefed up Spanish midfield. And Daniele De Rossi for being an absolute beast at sweeper (sweeper?!? when was the last time you saw one of those?) and sporting a very rugged and stylish beard.

See!! No alcohol!

Villain(s)
There were three villains yesterday. Vicente Del Bosque for believing he could actually start without striker (bet he doesn't do that again); Fernando Torres, wow just when you thought things couldn't get worse for the guy, first they decide having no striker is better than playing Torres (they did score when they had no striker), then when he comes on he proceeds to spurn numerous chances to win the game for Spain and prove he's still a good player (he is still a good player by the way, he was never a prolific goalscorer, except at Liverpool); and ITV (and I suspect BBC too) for turning the Irish fans in the modern day Scottish Fans. Don't patronise them, they're not just here to drink and jig while their team gets pummelled game after game. That's the impression I got from ITV, they did the classic, "Let's talk to some fans who are just happy to be here! They'll party whatever the result..." and did an interview with three, pint in hand, Irish blokes before the game. I wouldn't be surprised if they bought them the pints as props.

Day 4 today and I'm off to watch England...