Continental

Africa - 5 teams, 2 into 2nd round, 0-2 into Q/F
Asia 4 teams, 0 into 2nd round
Central/North America - 4 teams, 3 into 2nd round, 0-3 into Q/F
Europe - 13 teams, 6 into 2nd round, 0-6 into Q/F
South America - 6 teams, 5 into 2nd round, 2/3 into Q/F, 1/2 into S/F

If the favoured teams get through the semi finals should be
Brazil v Germany, Argentina v Holland with an all South American final?
Although a Greece v Algeria final is still possible, but I'm guessing the quality of players like Messi and Neymar and the dodgy refereeing at this tournament makes that very unlikely:)

World Cup Predictions (Part 4)

Still close in the table (and those still playing are doing better than the BBC man).
Here we go with the Second round, or Round of 16, or Eighth finals whatever it's called?
Four of the five South American teams meet on Saturday and no European team is guaranteed a quarter final space, so hopefully some good games to come :)

Brazil v Chile
Colombia v Uruguay
Netherlands v Mexico
Costa Rica v Greece
France v Nigeria
Germany v Algeria
Argentina v Switzerland
Belgium v USA

Good luck all :)

England v Costa Rica

A more typical England performance today, some good chances missed, a lot of misplaced passes and nobody looking comfortable with the ball at their feet.
Sturridge should have got a penalty but missed several good chances, Shaw and Lallana looked good and most of the others did OK.
Smalling was lucky he didn't have to face a top striker so came out unscathed, Jones had a safe game, Barkley was a bit of a disappointment, Lampard showed why he should think of retiring, Wilshere still doesn't look fit, and Milner was anonymous as usual.
Sterling, Rooney and Slippy came on late but we managed to hang on.

My Ratings - Foster 6, Jones 6, Shaw 7, Smalling 5, Cahill 6, Milner 4, Lampard 5, Barkley 5, Lallana 6, Sturridge 7. Subs - Sterling 4, Rooney 5, Gerrard 2

All the headlines will be about Mr Bitey's latest Italian meal, and he should get a long ban or at least not be allowed to play without a muzzle.

A bit disappointed with Chiellini who looks like an old style Italian defender, who you would have expected to solve the Suarez problem by removing his front teeth with his fist?

World Cup Predictions (Part 3)

For those still playing here's the 3rd matches in the group stages which start on Monday.
Maybe teams like England and Spain will go out with a bang or a whimper?
The last 16 matches kick off next Saturday and we will know the teams on Thursday night so I'll post that one then.
I've added the Beeb's resident predictor to the table so it would be great if we could all beat him :)
Maybe one of us will then get a big contract to spout drivel every week and post their predictions to the nation, although I suppose we'd have to pretend we used to play for Liverpool :(

Enough drivel, here's the matches

Australia v Spain
Netherlands v Chile
Cameroon v Brazil
Croatia v Mexico
Costa Rica v England
Italy v Uruguay
Greece v Ivory Coast
Japan v Colombia
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Iran
Nigeria v Argentina
Ecuador v France
Honduras v Switzerland
Portugal v Ghana
USA v Germany
Algeria v Russia
South Korea v Belgium

Shattered Dreams

The thing that comes to mind after the defeat last night is that we all pretend to want skillful and attacking football, but at the end of the day there is only one thing that matters ... winning.
If we had managed just 2 shots on target like Uruguay last night and been totally outplayed for 90 minutes but ended up winning these 2 games, the press, pundits and public would all have criticised our playing style but in 20, 30, 40 years time we would look back and say "what a great year it was" if we managed to get to the semi's or Final.

In 66 we narrowly beat France and Mexico and drew with the Uruguayans in the group stage, had one goal victories against the 10 men of Argentina and Portugal in the semi's and required extra time and 2 dodgy goals in the final to win (if the crowd were on the pitch the game should have been stopped), but we all bang on about that great team till this day.

In 90 we scraped draws against Ireland and Holland and beat the mighty Egyptians 1-0 to get through the group, needed a last minute winner to beat Belgium after being outplayed, scraped through against Cameroon with 2 penalties then lost to Germany.
But I admit to saying what a great competition that was.

In 82 we played some fine football winning all 3 group games and holding the Germans and Spanish in the 2nd group and going out of the tournament without losing a game despite missing our 2 best players (Keegan and Brooking) for all but the last half hour. But nobody ever brings that year up because we came home early.

Even if we had bored our way to 2 goalless draws this time, the World cup would still be alive for me and I would be watching every match, but with us virtually out the thought of sitting through Honduras v Ecuador and Nigeria v Bosnia has lost all the appeal and I'll be avoiding the box for the majority of games from now on :(

England v Uruguay

Bollocks!!
We played reasonably well again, but the same result :(
Suarez took his chances and we didn't, Rooney played well and was unlucky not to have grabbed more than his one goal, but star turns from the first game Sterling and Sturridge were well shackled.
Gerrard played better than the first game but spoiled it with the assist for Suarez's 2nd goal, Cahill was impressive at the back but Jagielka looked shaky.
It might have been different if the Uruguayan ref had sent off Godin in the first half as he should have done but despite not getting anything from the officials we should have been able to get a draw at least.
We're not out yet but it will need a miracle to stay in now :(

My Ratings - Hart 5, Johnson 7, Baines 6, Jagielka 4, Cahill 8, Gerrard 6, Henderson 5, Wellbeck 5, Sterling 5, Rooney 8, Sturridge 7. Subs - Barkley 4, Lallana 5, Lambert 0

England v Italy

Mixed emotions from that one? absolutely gutted we lost but it was probably one of the best England performances in years, there was hardly any of the usual long balls to nobody, and the usual going backwards every time we get in a good position.
Hopefully the "no fear" attitude will continue in the next match which is now a must win game.
Also hoping Gerrard puts country before club by taking out Suarez with one of his trademark leg breaking challenges :)

My Ratings - Hart 5, Johnson 5, Baines 5, Jagielka 6, Cahill 7, Gerrard 4, Henderson 6, Wellbeck 7, Sterling 8, Rooney 5, Sturridge 8. Subs - Barkley 6, Wilshere 4, Lallana 7

World Cup Predictions (Part 2)

Second matches start on Tuesday with the Brazil v Mexico game, not sure if the extra Brazilian Refereeinho will be playing :)

Brazil v Mexico
Australia v Netherlands
Spain v Chile
Cameroon v Croatia
Colombia v Ivory Coast
Uruguay v England
Japan v Greece
Italy v Costa Rica
Switzerland v France
Honduras v Ecuador
Argentina v Iran
Germany v Ghana
Nigeria v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Belgium v Russia
South Korea v Algeria
USA v Portugal

World Cup So Far

The World Cup has got off to a mixed start, the opening ceremony was a bit naff with the walking broccoli and the stage malfunction the bright spot of the Pitbull and Lopez song which was barely audible.
Brazil made a nightmare start with the own goal but went on to win thanks to a dodgy keeper and a even dodgier referee, Fred's dive wasn't even a good dive but the Japanese official fell for it.
I don't think Cameroon have the big money to buy a ref but he seemed to hate the Mexicans disallowing 2 good goals in the first half and allowing 2 red card tackles from Cameroon to go unpunished while only booking a Mexican after the Cameroon player ran into him.
Luckily the Mexicans finally scored one he couldn't rule out.

The tournament took a real upturn with the Spain Holland game, things didn't look good when Sneijder missed a sitter and Diego Costa bought a penalty for Spain to give them the lead, but Van Persie's stunning header brought them back level, the rain started falling in the second half and Arjen Robben tore the Spanish apart. 5-1 didn't flatter Holland who should have scored even more.
Ramos is one of the world's great full backs but was out of his depth at centre back and Casillias looks a bit past it now and should step down. Torres came on and managed to miss a chance that was easier to score which will be familiar to Chelsea fans :)
Chile looked capable of running up a cricket score at the start but Australia came back well and were a bit unlucky to lose.

World Cup Predictions (Part 1)

The World Cup has sneaked up on me and there is only a day to go!!
So a bit late with this year's World Cup predictions competition.

Usual predictions rules - 3 Points for a correct score, 1 Point for a correct result.
Overall winner will be decided on the total points at the end of the competition (64 Games).

I've thought long and hard about the knockout stages and had to come up with some different rules to avoid confusion later.
Predict a winner and points awarded after either 90 or 120 minutes, but if anyone predicts a draw in the later stages they must pick a winner on penalties to have a chance of points.
Example - if I say "Brazil 1 England 1, England on pens" and the game ends 1-1 and Brazil win on pens I get nothing, if England win on pens I'd get 3 points, if the game ended up 0-0 and England won on pens I would get 1 point, no points if you don't pick a penalty winner.
Hopefully that makes sense :)

Also hoping a few of you will join in, plenty of time to catch up if you miss a few. 

Here's a list of the first round of games in the 2014 tournament.
Will post the rest a few days before they are played.

Brazil v Croatia
Mexico v Cameroon
Spain v Netherlands
Chile v Australia
Colombia v Greece
Uruguay v Costa Rica
England v Italy
Ivory Coast v Japan
Switzerland v Ecuador
France v Honduras
Argentina v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Germany v Portugal
Iran v Nigeria
Ghana v USA
Belgium v Algeria
Russia v South Korea

Good luck all :)

Commercial Break

I do like the big budget commercials being put out by the likes of Nike and Adidas before the World Cup, mainly due to the fact that one of my sons works as an editor for the company that puts the footage together and delivers up the finished product we see on the box.
I have pointed out to him that Ibrahimovic and Ribery won't be in the finals, and that Tim Howard is not the first name you think of when picking the greatest keeper but Nike call the shots :)

Sadly this is my current favourite which is one of the few he didn't have a hand in :)

England Songs

I've just endured a couple of hours of this year's England World Cup songs. and it's been hard work this time :(
A small handful of tunes you might listen to twice and the rest the usual big pile of shite.
None of them are a patch on the Rik Mayall tune, but these are probably worth a listen.
Was gonna post the best 20, but I could only bring myself to list these 8.
Still got a few hundred to listen to so might have missed some gems?

Madfish - England
1 Eye - England
Macarooney - Do The Macarooney
Skatoons - The World Cups Waiting For You 2014
Dion Dublin And The Establishment - Winner In You
World Cup Buster - We'll Do It Again (....It's For Charity)
Roy Chubby Brown And Journey South - Hopes Of A Thousand Men
Neil Brophy Band - Football Rock And Roll

Cheesiest one, a bit catchy :)

World Cup 2014

The World Cup starts in about 72 hours, so probably time I posted something :)

So standby for a flood of useless info, opinions and crummy footie songs.
If anyone is interested I'll post a predictions competition (with complicated rules) to cover the whole tournament.

I'm really starting to look forward to it, England have a mainly young team who might freeze on the big ocassion, or might just play without fear and shock us all :)
As the tournament is in South America most people will rightly expect one of the big teams from that continent to win, and it's hard to see past Brazil and Argentina with only Spain and Germany to give them trouble from Europe.
Personally I think anyone is beatable, Brazil have the home support and will probably get favourable refereeing but they have failed to show they are a class above anyone. Argentina obviously have a collection of world class players but also a few weak links. Spain are nearing the end of their golden generation, the Germans have lost a couple of top stars and might have to rely on a few oldies to get them through.
Portugal, Belgium and Switzerland all seem a bit overrated as do Uruguay, so I reckon England could do well (hopefully).

Anyway here's a Footie song :)
Sad to hear about Rik Mayall's unexpected death today, RIP Rik :(
He did this England song in 2010 and it's not too bad.