Catching Up

So, real life has got in the way and, though I have managed to watch most of all the games, I've not really been able to write about them...Here's some thoughts...

1-0 is not a defendable lead. Someone should have told Thierry and co that...

The Czech Republic make England's striker crisis look like a cake walk - they looked really toothless against the super impressive Ghana (whose second goal I celebrated more enthusiastically than any non-england goal of the tournament.)

Ghana may well regret that chance where they got themselves caught offside unecessarily and had a goal ruled out, because goal difference could well be a factor in that group.

They also may regret missing that penalty, in which case they should sue that Argentinian referee who caused a massive delay by taking three weeks to send off the Czech defender. The booking to Gyan was disgraceful as well - as if he was taking that first penalty to timewaste! It was the worst bit of refereeing so far.

That whole group is really proving that football might just be a funny old game after all - the Czechs and Italy looked so impressive in their first games and so the USA so profoundly unimpressive in theirs, but in the second batch of games it all changed round. This gives us all hope, in that Argentina might not continue to play like that.

The sending off of Mastroani of the US was the most blatant bit of levelling the playing field by a ref who had sent someone off and wasn't sure of himself of the world cup so far.

I hereby boldly predict that the ironically impressive in defeat Aussies will go through in second from that group.

The BBC's red button service, offering five live commentary is well worth using, except maybe for Jonathan Pearce games.

There's a South Korean player, who may be number 17 I think who can genuinely pull off a mullet without looking stupid.

Angola asked Mourinho for advice before the tournament because his wife was born there. He obliged and it seems to be working.

Brazil, it turns out, are not that good after all...(does that sound like famous last words to anyone else?) Ronaldo looked a tiny bit more up for it against the Aussies than he had against Croatia, but only a tiny bit.