Good Start!

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!

Last night - Brazil vs Germany

So last light was pretty special eh?

How many of you predicted that was going to happen? It'll probably never happen again. It definitley won't happen in the final. I have to say, I was shocked. If you're not sure what I'm on about i.e. you've been living under a rock. Just to inform you, last night in the Semi Final of the 2014 World Cup, the hosts Braaaaaaaaasiiil Braaaaaaaaasiiil played Germany for the 2nd time ever in the World Cup. The two most successful World Cup nations of all time* going toe to toe for a place in the Final. And the game didn't disappoint did it. Why? Well because Dracula was refereeing!

I'm not messing about by the way. Check out who last night's referee was. I'm just surprised he was given the game, in the past I had got the impression that Dracula (Marco Antonio Rodríguez) wasn't a great referee, also he was the referee who, earlier in the tournament, missed the Luis Suarez bite on Georgio Chiellini. Oh the irony! A player biting an opponent (near his neck) when the ref was Dracula!! And getting away with it!!! He probably thought that was normal behaviour.

Didn't miss Marchisio's foul did you Dracula?!?

Just so you all know, that wasn't the only time a vampire has been involved in football this season. Anyone who follows me on Twitter (@ntrav99) may have seen my tweet from a few months ago when I saw a vampire lurking at an Athletic Bilbao game...

Eyeing up Susaeta's neck...

 Obviously I'm messing about re last night's game and there was a much bigger talking point that I'm leading on to. The biggest shock for me last night, and I'd suspect for many others who watched the game, was that Germany were playing in their away kit and it WAS NOT GREEN! What the hell? What is going on with football kit's nowadays? Tradition seems to be continually forsaken in the name of making Nike, Puma and Adidas a quick buck. Add to this that Sepp Blatter has already expressed a wish for teams to play in simpler kits as he feels it makes the referee's job easier.

This is THE German away kit! End of!

Screw that Sepp! We survived for over a hundred years with it the way it was and nobody ever complained of not being able to make two teams out (except for that time when Alex Ferguson made Man U change at half time because they were getting pummelled by Southampton).

Here's the deal, the following kit combinations should be kept to at all times, I expect this to be enforced in the next World Cup (in fact I might start one of those online petitions, I see petitions for anything these days).

England should play in white shirts, blue shorts and white socks. In the event that they play a team who predominately wears white they should switch to red shirts, white shorts and red socks. None of this all white rubbish! The same goes for France, where the hell have the white shorts gone?? Sometimes they don't even have red socks (sacrilege)!

Spain! Where the hell have the blue/navy/black shorts gone?!? You guys got too big for your boots, that's why you crashed out in the first round! Fix those shorts! We've already touched on Germany, but just to reiterate. Black shorts on the home kit. Green shirts, white shorts and green socks for the away kit. Don't make me have to write to Adidas!

They're barely red

Argentina, like Spain, need to bring back the black/navy shorts. Don't think I haven't noticed you trying to sneak white in instead! Mexico have tried a similar manoeuvre with their socks, this years socks are barely passable as red, they're more white! RED!

All I'm saying is all hell is gonna break loose in the Newton household if I ever ever ever watch Peru play and they don't have the red sash. I dare them to remove it!

I suppose I should probably talk about last night's result. Germany thrashed Braaaaaaaaasiiil Braaaaaaaaasiiil 7-1, which is now the new record score for a World Cup semi final (surpassing the two 6-1s in 1930). Braaaaaaaaasiiil Braaaaaaaaasiiil were diabolical, I mean I said they were bad, and they are, but last night they were particularly bad. I suppose it was coming though. In my opinion Braaaaaaaaasiiil Braaaaaaaaasiiil have had one decent game and that was against Cameroon, who we all know thought they were WWF (ha ha I said "F" again, World Wildlife Federation you can't sensor me!) wrestlers.

If you think about it Brazil were fortunate against Croatia, held by Mexico, almost knocked out by Chile (even though the Chileans didn't have their greatest game) and could only beat Colombia by kicking the cr*p out of "Hamez" Rodriguez (and had the cheek to try and make out like Zuniga meant to hurt Neymar).

So you know what, good riddance Braaaaaaaaasiiil Braaaaaaaaasiiil, that's what you get for leaving Kaka at home!

And that's all I have to say.

*In terms of games won, goals scored and finals reached, Italy have won more actual World Cups than Germany.