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!

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!

Day 2 - Euro 2016 the ultimate 80s tournament

Fantastic free kick from Dier

We’ve been transported back in time to the 1980s for this year’s tournament! There are other British teams that have qualified (well done Wales, beating Slovakia, even if you messed my bet up); the tournament has 24 teams in it; and England fans are endearing themselves to the locals by smashing the place up and fighting anything that moves! Excellent!

I’m aware that Russian fans were as much to blame for some of yesterday’s scenes; and that innocent England fans were charged at by Russians at the end of our game. But if you’re a fan that goes to any game and causes trouble, especially with people that are just minding their own business, I think you’re a knuckle dragging moron! Sorry! Those days should be well behind us, why are people so retarded?! Just enjoy the football for f*ck sake!

Anyway. We drew. With a very average Russian side. I feel like even I may have been suckered into thinking England are better than they actually are this year!

Shout out to Albania, who look as good as I'd expected!

My thoughts on The "European World Cup Soccer Championship of America" Day 1

Can't wait to watch Brazil

A quick explanation re the post title. So I'm sitting at work and I'm forwarded an email from a friendly colleague who shall remain nameless; basically his team leader has decided that it would be a great morale boost for the team if they hold a Euro 2012 sweepstake, the email is titled, "The Written Communications European World Cup". My first impression is, that doesn't even sound right?!? Even if you don't give it much thought it's just a bit of a mouthful. Then you start to give it some logical thought... "European World Cup!" It sounds like the sort of thing you'd get an American saying, not one of those enlightened Americans that know what's going on in the World outside of the U S of A, one of these guys. I can just imagine them now, "We now have the latest news from The European World Cup Soccer Championship of America! Brazil have benched their goalscoring forward Paylay in place of the rookie Ney-Mar...!"

As for the tournament, I stuck £5 on the French to win on a recommendation from my other half who knows absolutely nothing about football. I thought to myself, every year I sit here weighing up qualifying records and looking at friendly results and injured players etc, and for all that "insight" I never pick the winner. So on this occasion I'm going to go with the opinion of someone who knows nothing about football. My girlfriend certainly fits that bill, in addition to that France had a good qualifying record and have looked decent in recent friendlies...

Day 1 Summary
I rushed home from work to see the last 10 mins of what looked like a pretty naff opening ceremony. Managed to catch the "Magician" who was trying (and failing miserably) to juggle a ball. At one stage I thought he was going to revert to good ol' fashioned one footed kick ups but then again I think he'd have struggled to do those.

I thought the opening game was fantastic, one of the best opening games I've seen to a football tournament, largely due to the technical frailties of both sides. What stuck me from the beginning was how much of an atmosphere the home crowd created, it must have been pretty intimidating for the referee and he certainly showed it with his performance. How an earth he managed to send off the Greek centre half I'll never know, hopefully it isn't a sign of things to come. Poland look terrible, it all started off so well for them, they were getting so much joy down the right hand side, Twitter was full of jokes relating to Poland having a strong right wing element (boom boom). At the same time the Greek defence was literally parting every time they attacked, leading to much talk of Greek instability (boom boom, I'm 'ere all week). I was not surprised at all when Poland scored early in the game, and wasn't too sure what the Greek keeper was trying to do at the time. I often get berated by my team members for opting to stay on my line for some crosses, if the Greek keeper had taken some lessons from Travis Newton he'd have been fine. Instead he went for a wonder and Ledw Lwed that fella from Dortmund that I put in my Dream Team (Lewandowski I know his name, I'm messing with you) scored a decent header. At that point I though it was going to be a massacre or even a... Greek Tragedy, you know one of the newspapers would have said that, but to their credit the Greeks shrugged off Poland's dominance in the first half along with some clear home team refereeing to come back well in the 2nd half. They were unlucky not to end up winning the game in my opinion.

The Greeks spurned many a chance, including a missed penalty

The second game was also a good one. I thought the Czechs started well but then Russia came to life and showed why they're clear favourites to win a very weak Group A. For some reason despite thinking Russia were better, I decided to go for a 1-1 draw in the office prediction competition, told ya I knew nothing about these things! In the end Russia were just way too good for them and the scoreline told this story. I do think that the Czech's may do well against the Poles and the Greeks though and more inportantly I have three Russians in my dream team!

A dream start for the Russians (see what I did there? Dream, as in Dream Team, I'm so clever)

Day 1:Hero
Dzagoev for Russia, he scored twice. Although he did miss a couple of sitters.

Villain

That Spanish ref in the Poland game. I'm not even bothering to Google his name, you know who I mean. He made some shocking decisions especially the Greek sending off. Somebody Tweeted that he has produced 16 red cards in 19 La Liga games this year, well he's already had two in one European Championship game. Why didn't the Spanish send the one who looks like Dracula (or is he Mexican? Well it is the European World Cup, he is eligible) 

Is Dracula Spanish or Mexican? Get him in!!

Bet of the day
Russia -2 would have been a good one but I doubt anyone would have realistically bet on that. I did however win £1.40 on there being under 3 goals in the opening game.

So there you have it, Euro 2012 is finally here and the first two games were quality. I can't wait for tomorrow's games, although now they'll probably be cagey and boring. They'd better not! Oh, and can people stop backing Ronaldo to do well, Portugal are dog poo, he doesn't have his Real Madrid team mates around him now.