Jul 3
Americans have fallen in love with the World Cup, and in a plot-twist the visiting football fans are falling in love with Americana. There’s a lesson or two there somewhere.
I’m here to talk about the football though, you can call it soccer if you want, but the 2026 version is proving to be one of the most entertaining.
Please click for moreWhat would we do without Harry Kane.
For 75 minutes we were going home. Those brilliant fans would’ve borne witness to one of the all time shocks and an embarrassed FA would’ve had no choice but to pack Thomas Tuchel back to the Hinterland.
Please click for moreAs English fans and players serenaded each other on the pitch after. It became pretty obvious that Jude Bellingham is England’s Wonderwall. Incredibly Thomas Tuchel had to convince himself that Bellingham was even worth a squad place. I’m not sure what we’d be watching without he and Harry Kane.
I’m warming to Tuchel like a cold beer in an ice bar. Not bringing along Trent Alexander-Arnold is looking an increasingly stubborn and stupid move.
Please click for moreRonaldo arrived, but England were stuck at the lights. Disappointing today against a stubborn and solid Ghana.
I’ve seen a lot of the games, and have been really enjoying the tournament 13 days in. We’ve seen a record goal count, and all of the stars have come out to play. The England game today was probably the worst I’ve seen.
Please click for moreThat was quite exciting wasn’t it. Croatia as per gave us a run for our money and it was a very good game.
1st half England were convincing going forward and unconvincing at the back. 2nd half made me realize how many good players we have at our disposal. The trick will be if the German can find a way to take us from plucky losers to an ingrained belief that victory is achievable.
Siegermentalität the Germans call it.
Please click for moreFeeling it? No, me neither.
The largest and longest ever World Cup Finals begins tomorrow in Mexico City and despite the fact it is on my doorstep I have felt strangely insouciant to it.
Of course when I say doorstop, this World Cup Finals transverses across an entire continent but you’d hardly know it was happening around my way.
Please click for moreA weekend away in Miami awaits with the family. We often drive across alligator alley and enjoy the aura Miami oozes from the more pedestrian pace of where we live on the Gulf Coast. We are booked into our favourite hotel and restaurant and have plans in case it rains, which is in the forecast.
We usually do this trip post school/ busy work period about a month later but hotel prices during the World Cup are extortionate, even although there are suspicions that large blocks of rooms that have been booked out will come back onto the market due to a very slow take up of tickets.
Please click for more“The goal is to try and win the World Cup and not be shy about it”
Only a German could say that, not an Englishman. Let’s hope Thomas Tuchel is right after the squad was picked today.
There are always major tournament squad picks that are up for debate among your mates down the pub, but Tuchel’s 26 looks to have a few more than others.
Please click for moreI am one of those rare Englishmen that likes to see other ‘home nations’ qualify for big tournaments, so that went well this past week.
You just know that Lloyd Jones would have won that header against Edin Džeko at that late corner!
Please click for moreIt wasn’t a surprise that Lyndon Dykes was called up this week for the Scotland squad, who play friendlies against Japan at Hampden Park on Saturday and then take on fellow World Cup qualifiers Ivory Coast at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium next Tuesday.
What wasn’t a surprise was the lack of a call up for Conor Coventry from Ireland and Lloyd Jones from Craig Bellamy of Wales as those two nations enter a huge week in the World Cup play-offs.
Please click for moreUnlike the Scots, wow that was an incredible match, the Jamaican’s failed to win last night and move into the Intercontinental World Cup play-off’s instead.
Jamaican drew 0-0 in Kingston with the 171 square-mile island of Curaçao and it will be them that go onto next year’s finals.
Please click for moreI think I am ununusual in wanting the home nations to join England at major tournament finals, so I found myself drawn to them this weekend where I actually watched a fair few of the qualifiers, and I will be tuning in tomorrow night to watch the Scots take on the Danes to see if they can qualify for their first World Cup since the Krankies were on our screens.
The Irish had a tremenduous result, any football fan unless you were Hungarian had to have enjoyed that on Sunday. I loved seeing Conor Coventry leading the chase of Troy Parrott down the pitch.
Please click for moreSynesthesia. Today’s word.
Mixed senses of disappointment this weekend as we have no game, and not waking with that nervous excitement stomach churn of what lies ahead, but also quite thankful that the day will be more relaxing.
The sometimes-enigmatic-other-half will be happier that she won’t have to attempt to read my mood tonight before we go out for dinner!
Read moreA big night in Bermuda tomorrow as Charlton might have chartered their own airplane to bring Karoy Anderson, Tyreece Campbell, Kaheim Dixon and Amari Bell to the Atlantic outpost.
Bermuda host Jamaica at the Dame Flora Duffy National Sports Centre (photo) tomorrow evening in Group B of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifier.
Please click for moreA month from today this Blog celebrates its 20th birthday, for which I have a binary sense of immense pride as well as complete amazement.
I was 30 something when I started penning these pages in June 2004, living on my own in an apartment in Chicago, and England were about to have another ignominious exit from a major championship on penalties.
Please click for moreI think I got that maths right.
An herculean effort to get to the World Cup Final for the English Women’s team but they fell short today losing 1-0 to a much better Spain team.
Me and the dog got up at 6am to watch the game from Sydney. In all honesty I had only really been keeping an eye on the tournament scores and developments over the last month, mostly due to the time difference, although I did watch a big chunk of the Australia semi-final where it sounded as if England played their best game.
Please click for moreJust like for the final of The Euro’s I was once again on a (long-booked) flight during the majority of the World Cup Final yesterday. I landed just at the beginning of the 2nd half and with the result seemingly a formality, I escorted the family to the mall for a bit of Christmas shopping.
The mall in Miami was pretty sparse, but there were pockets of people crowded around phones and after the gasps that followed France’s incredulous comeback, the place erupted at the finale. Whether they were Argentinian, I’m not sure – it would seem odd an Argentinian would be out shopping at this time – but the considerable Latino populace in Miami clearly enjoyed it.
Please click for moreHeartbreaking.
We never seem to lose conventionally do we? There is always drama, agony and misgivings. I feel truly gutted for Harry Kane, he really is one of the good guys.
I thought, I think we all did, that France would be the roadblock to winning the tournament, yet the fact is beyond this round, this has to be the biggest opportunity ever to win the whole thing since 1966.
Please click for moreThat was quite comfortable in the end despite a rather tricky first half hour when Senegal should’ve or could’ve been ahead. Jordan Pickford’s one handed save was pivotal.
There was no better time to score that first, and Kane getting a second allowed us all to relax and enjoy a half-time cuppa.
Please click for moreYou have to love the World Cup. What an incredible day it was yesterday.
Group E had to be the easiest group to predict pre-tournament, yet for five minutes yesterday Japan and Costa Rica were headed to the knock-out stages in Qatar.
Please click for moreHappy Thanksgiving to my American friends.
There’s a lot to like about Thanksgiving – eating, drinking, the complete removal of pressures to buy gifts and sport, a lot of it, and this year the added bonus of World Cup soccer football.
They will be dancing in the streets of Newcastle Riyadh tonight. What an incredible and deserved win by Saudi Arabia. The tournament has properly started now.
Unofficial but if true devastating news from African sports journalist Gary Al-Smith that Joe Wollacott has fractured his finger and will miss the World Cup.
I mean we have some dreadful luck with injuries, but this takes the biscuit. Joe was expected to make Ghana’s final 26 and travel to their training camp on Monday.
Please click for moreLiam Millar came on as a 70th minute substitute and crossed for Wolves prospect Theo Corbeanu to finish the rout of Bermuda 5-1 in last night’s first Group B CONCACAF World Cup qualifier.
It was a home game for the Canucks, but the game was held in Orlando due to Covid restrictions in Canada. It did not stop Canada’s best players travelling to Florida including Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies and 7 others that play in Europe incluidng Millar, Cardiff’s Junior Joilett and hat trick hero Cyle Larin, who plays for Besiktas.
I was up early this morning like a lot of Englishmen, women and children west of the Atlantic Ocean to watch more sporting disappointment in a major event. It makes how Ben Stokes and England won the Cricket World Cup even more mysterious.
The best day on the couch. Ever!
A severe case of RSI tonight flicking between channels like a mad person as both the ICC World Cup Cricket Final and the Wimbledon Men’s Final concluded within minutes of each other.
The first few weeks after a football season always feel a bit empty as I adjust my schedule and attempt to find things to fill the void. A little bit different this year as I’m still singing myself to sleep though with a smile as wide as the Wembley Arch.
It is an adjustment though but there’s normally something to occupy me, and oddly I always get a bit miffed when the whole pre-season circus starts. Clubs who moan the loudest about too many games appearing in pedestrian exhibition games in far flung places. You know who you are.
A World Cup Final to bless the best month of football in my lifetime. I felt for Croatia, and my mate out in Moscow, but after three exhausting games their continued chasing of the ball when they were out of possession and their lust to get forward and make chances when they had it was extraordinary. The Croats were admirable finalists.
But the best team should win it, and they did. As in the semi-final, France seem content to sit and counter, and they do it with such pace and effectiveness. This team is young as well, and have many good players on the bench and in reserve. Whilst Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Italy all lick their wounds and plan for the future, France already have the future and a superstar in Kylian Mbappe.
A traditional 3rd Place humdrum affair yesterday. In truth both sides put out strong sides and it was reasonably fast paced, but Belgium are irresistible on the break, and we failed again to make the most of our possession around their penalty box, specifically in the second half.
Oh well.. still, it was a very enjoyable journey and there is plenty of hope for the future with youngsters like Joe Gomez, Ryan Sessegnon, Jadon Sancho and Phil Foden amongst others still to come. Loftus-Cheek and Eric Dier were good today, and Trippier, Pickford, Maguire, Stones and Henderson all return home with their stock high. Kane appeared to try too hard after the group games, but it is hard to knock a Golden Boot winner, which he is sure to be. Lukaku got no closer to him yesterday.
That was tough to swallow last night wasn’t it? In the end the experience and brilliance of Modric and Rakitic, and canniness of Mandzukic was too great for our young lions. If Kane or Lingard had got a second, and Kane should have, then that might have been too much for a tired Croat side to come back from.
There was Trippier’s perfect free kick to get us going, yet Croatia led by Modric, rallied in the 2nd half and started to dominate the midfield, and as we started to lose momentum, Croatia grabbed the initiative and made the kill with just 11 minutes of ET left.
Another way to exit a big tournament game, and I think we will for a while all feel that after over half a century we missed such an opportunity to contest a World Cup Final. Nonetheless like millions of other Englishmen and women this group of young men representing us has made their way into my heart.
My brother and I have just got off the phone, we have worked out the visa system and have looked into hotels and flights. Problem is I’m talking about the Final, he is talking about the Semi, and to do that I have to seriously ditch some long planned work stuff this week. We will see.
Today’s game was as I had hoped more straight forward than the Colombia game, and was like watching a Premier League match at times. We always looked better, and should have long put the game to bed, Sterling culpable but he was a constant handful for the Swedish defence.
Just to make sure I never dreamt it, I woke and overdosed on video clips of delirious Englishmen and women this morning. It happened didn’t it. It’s coming home.
Our office is shut today, it’s Independence Day somewhere, so bleary eyed I put the TV on, and the American news shows talked that whilst the English lost 242 years ago, we won a World Cup match last night. Sorry, American friends, it is much more than that.
This World Cup just keeps on giving, and I’m loving it. Two outstanding games of football yesterday, and whilst today’s 2nd Round matches lacked the same quality, the excitement was palpable as both games went the full distance and were settled by penalties.
The two keepers were unbelievable in the Denmark v Croatia game. After a dramatic start the game lacked quality. The Croats were nowhere near as good as they were in the groups and I felt Denmark had the upper hand as the game meandered into extra time. The competition will be worse off without Kasper Schmeichal’s passion and ability, but it was Subasic that won it for Croatia saving three pens. Modric showed nerves of steel to get back up to the spot to score in the shoot-out after missing a last minute penalty. Anyone know why the final defender wasn’t send off for the foul?
Is it safe to come out behind the sofa yet? Is the ref playing until the Germans score three?
How an earth did that happen? The mental fortitude of the Germans finally exploding into a million pieces, that 95th minute Kroos goal against Sweden on Saturday meaning nothing as South Korea gloriously beat the four-times winners 2-0 today to send Joachim Low and his haircut home. That 2nd goal with Manuel Neuer out on the left-wing will cheer me from miserable days for a long, long time.
Don’t know about you but I’m becoming besotted by this World Cup. So much to see and enjoy, and the noise and the colour in the stadiums brings back for me childhood memories of Mexico ‘86 and Italia ‘90. There’s been goals, not one 0-0 draw in 32 games, a desire to win games and not lose them, drama, excitement, shocks, VAR nonsense, good and bad and bloody England scored five first half goals. In one game.
Yes Panama played like a hungover Sunday league side but they did beat the might of Trumpy and the free world to make it to Russia, and we have hardly breezed by this standard of nation before in competitions.
For some reason I didn’t feel the typical England malaise during the 2nd half last night. I don’t know about you but I felt more attached to this team. There is a spirit and a bond that was rarely apparent during the golden generation, and I felt more forgiving when they lost their way a little in the 2nd half as the Tunisians clung onto their dubious equalizer.
Like him or loathe him, Ronaldo was sensational yesterday as the 2018 World Cup burst into life in Sochi after two underwhelming earlier games. It was all there. The petulance, the berating, the dedication, the brilliance. That was Ronaldo’s 51st career hatrick, which I find unfathomable. Ronaldo is one of the best ever, possibly the best. Let’s see how Messi, in a much better team, responds next.
The first proper day of the World Cup. The do not disturb sign is hanging around my neck.
As suspected the Bermuda TV coverage is worst than terrible. Not sure where they stole the pictures from, but sounds as if the commentator is doing it from his sofa, and there is no pre or post game punditry and the half-time show consists of crowd scenes interrupted by adverts from local companies who have each thrown in about a hundred bucks to ‘sponsor’ it. Please don’t let me hear you moan about Martin Keown and Glenn Hoddle..
Also, during the game the screen has no score or time on it, which is a very disconcerting and a nightmare if I need a wee. Who knows what the score is and how long is left, doubt if the commentator knows either.
Hold tight because football’s coming home on Thursday. Well, not unless your home is a non-ethical racist cesspit. It was seven and a half years ago when those nefarious egomaniacs at FIFA had us all shaking our collective heads over breakfast when they awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia, and then used their top trump to select human rights dinosaurs Qatar for 2022. We’ve been shaking our heads ever since.
We could all boycott it of course, you know a football fan’s every Christmas and birthday rolled into a month, 64 matches to be glued to, but that’s plain silly. Yet it is hard to see the month will pass without any incident.
Who remembers Up The Creek? I had many a good night there, although didn’t it used to be at the Woolwich Tramshed or was that another comedy club. Anyways my mind is wandering, today I’m off to another Creek, possibly about as dissimilar to the one in Greenwich as you can get, this one is Beaver Creek, a ski resort in Colorado.
I first was in Beaver Creek just over 10 years ago and I reckon this is the x time I stayed at this hotel, which is beautifully set at the foot of Bachelor Gulch, one of the four mountains that makes up the resort.
I gave up watching the national team a long time ago, save for that first week or so at a major finals before they are headed to the airport and home.
So, therefore I didn’t watch last night but it sounded truly diabolical with fans resorting to throwing paper airplanes at each other. Only Kane and Rashford showing any kind of hope for next year’s finals. Hope and those two alone will not get us very far.
Aged 7, the 1974 World Cup appeared in my life like a thunderbolt. My head already turned by the 1973 FA Cup Final when Bob Stokoe ran across Wembley’s perfect turf and the year after when Keegan and Heighway defeated Newcastle. I sat for an entire month watching pictures on our little telly from West Germany. I was enthralled.
The orange-shirted Haan, Neeskens, Krol, Jansen, Rensenbrink, Rep, the Van Der Kerkhof brothers and my idol Johan Cruyff were responsible for my falling in love with Charlton. It wasn’t as complicated as it sounds. For a whole year after the 1974 World Cup I nagged my Dad to take me to football, to see close up this game that had captivated me. Total football, the Cruyff Turn, the Arie Haan thunderbolt. My Dad finally caved and took me to the only ground that he was ever going to take me to, The Valley. The rest as they say, is history.
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I have written on many occasions of my admiration and love for Johan Cruyff and how he and that great 70’s Dutch national team take all of the credit for me falling irrevocably in love with the game of football.
I dedicated my Ten Year Blogging anniversary to the 1974 World Cup tournament with Le Oranje and their talisman Johan Cruyff at the heart of every memory I cherish of it 41 years on.
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He’s back, world cup hero, mercenary, domestic superstar, lightweight, match winner. Whatever he is Roland thinks he has an investment that needs realizing. Our owner got paid for Reza’s loans in Kuwait and Qatar, although probably not as well as Reza, and now he is back under Guy Luzon’s wing, who saw less in him whilst head coach of Standard Liege than Roland obviously did.
The World Cup was a shining moment for Reza, and rightly he wanted to maximize that. However he chose cash over career and now he is back in SE7. I am sure Jacko and Solly are rolling their eyes, but fortunately for Reza most of the rest of the players don’t have a clue who he is, unless they continuously watch highlights of Iran’s Brazil 2014 games.
Whether Reza eats some humble pie and gets his head down and at the prime age of 27 really makes a go of his career in the cut, thrust and globally recognised Championship or he cries off for another lucrative loan spell in India or somewhere, who the hell knows. I’ll guess we’ll see over the next month or so.
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The 2018 World Cup may or may not take place in Russia, but wherever it is Bermuda won’t be there as the island’s 2018 World Cup dream ended 3-years prematurely last night after losing to Guatemala at home 0-1 to go out on aggregate after holding the Central American’s to an away goalless draw Friday night.
Without the still injured Nahki Wells, who in all honesty is probably the only player that would get into Guatemala’s team, Bermuda struggled to make chances and Guatemala after taking a lead in the 27th minute through Stefano Giordano, were comfortable winners. The goal was well taken but Bermuda’s defence and goalkeeper Dale Eve, who is on the books of Stoke City, did little to prevent it.
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Bermuda’s 2018 World Cup journey continued last night in Guatemala with the 2nd Round of qualification, and without star Nahki Wells the Gombey Warriors grabbed a meaningful 0-0 draw with the home leg to come on Monday night.
The game in Guatemala City was suspended with 5 minutes to go due to a power blackout but was restarted after 20 minutes. Bermuda saw out the game thanks to some heroics from goalkeeper Freddy Wells, who played last season in England for AFC Telford but was recently released. The 30-year old once had a trial with Charlton.
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A 7,000 sell out crowd at Bermuda’s National Stadium yesterday afternoon watched a bit of a dull game, although when you are 5-0 up from the 1st leg, that tends to happen, at least until the final 10 minutes when the Gombey Warriors hit three late goals to beat the Bahamas 3-0, and therefore 8-0 on aggregate in the CONCACAF 1st Round 2018 World Cup qualifier.
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Bermuda strolled to a 5-0 1st leg victory in the Bahamas last night, making the 2nd leg on Sunday here on the rock almost redundant.
1,500 were present at the impressive Bahamas national stadium in Nassau, gifted to the people by the Chinese. China is big in Nassau, as they are also behind the $3.5bn brand new Baha Mar resort.
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The 2018 World Cup Finals kicks off in 1,209 days time, but for the island of Bermuda and others in the Caribbean the road to Russia starts tomorrow.
Bermuda are ranked 169th in the FIFA rankings and have to begin their qualifying in the CONCACAF 1st Round and have been drawn against 194th ranked Bahamas. The tie is two legs with the first game in Nassau and the return in Bermuda in four days time.
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2014 wasn’t the smoothest of years. At home we had to come through some personal anguish, my other half also lost her job and I attended a funeral of someone close that came all too suddenly. Work is never easy and will continue to be challenging and not in a revolutionary way.
On the flip side I went to a couple of great weddings, headlined by my brothers, where he and his now wife pulled off a glorious day in the middle of a forest. My daughter started primary school and is absolutely flourishing and my son continues to make great strides at his school in Kent as he approaches his GSCE’s head on.
I got to cross off more places to visit on my long list and we were lucky to have a couple of fabulous holidays.
Charlton Athletic of course continue to be both the ying and the yang of one’s frame of mind, but that is why we love them and undoubtedly the Addicks sit in a better place today than they did 12 months ago, although the sacking of Chris Powell wasn’t one of my year’s most endearing moments.
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Watching England has for the longest time been akin to watching paint dry, but I really did enjoy last night’s 3-1 victory over Scotland and it made me question why our national team insist on changing their game to attempt to match-up with the opposition.
Why Roy Hodgson can’t get England to play with the same intensity and pace when they play against Spain, Germany, France, Estonia and others I don’t know. Why do we insist in trying to play like Spain against Spain or like a South American team against a South American team? You can’t tell me that if we played with the same speed and fearlessness against Uruguay in Brazil we would have seen the same outcome.
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Probably the only time this season I have been disappointed in a result yesterday. In all of the other 10 games, at the end of the match it was hard not be happy with the outcome. Yesterday after a start that packed a real punch and an early goal, it was a real shame not not go on and win the game. Whether this was a lack of quality, ambition, fitness or just by design I don’t know.
However not unlike every other team we have drawn against so far this season, the Blues deserved their point by all accounts.
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The club have announced that Reza has moved on a season-long loan to Al Kuwait, one of the Arab state’s biggest clubs.
That makes good business sense for RD because he keeps the asset as part of the network, but moves an unhappy punter of his payroll. Reza has clearly been unsettled for a while ever since his move to Standard two years ago.
Not unpredictably the Iranian has exploited his success in the World Cup, and I understand Reza wanted a permanent move but Duchâtelet vetoed it. I think it is disappointing that he didn’t want to prove himself in a better league, a little bit easy street if you ask me, with a tax-free lifestyle thrown in for good measure.
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Unsubstantiated rumours are building on whether Roland Duchâtelet has sold World Cup star Reza Ghoochannejhad. The club said that Reza was to meet up with the squad in Spain after an extended break following Iran’s World Cup exit. However he wasn’t in Spain and now all Addick eyes will be on Sparrows Lane tomorrow to see if he starts pre-season with Charlton or in fact has been moved on.
Reza signed a two and a half year contract in January, but struggled with the pace and physicality of The Championship despite some obvious skill and talent. He started just 10 games, 7 in which he was substituted and scored just once, albeit it was this cracking and decisive goal at Elland Road in April.
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I’m on way to Chicago today, mostly for work stuff, principally a licensing exam, but I have built in some down time too. Shamefully I haven’t been to the Windy City for almost two years, and I’m looking forward to catching up with some mates and doing plenty of eating.
I am also on a mission to find out if the World Cup has had a lasting affect on Americans. Chicago is one of the more ‘soccer-centric’ cities mostly driven by a large immigrant population, but the American preoccupation with Brazil 2014 interests me, and I watched news programmes portray it with a mixture of delectation and awkwardness.
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Germany were rightful World Champions after beating Argentina 1-0 last night, and for once I was happy to see them win and particularly pleased for Philipp Lahm, whose glittering career now includes lifting the most famous trophy in sports.
The game if not a classic was still enthralling as both sides attempted to unlock each other to score the all important goal. It was Mario Götze who was to be the hero, Mendonca-esque controlling the ball on his chest and sweeping it past Romero in one movement to prevent, gladly, a penalty shoot-out deciding the World Cup winners.
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Well, this is it then, World Cup Final day. It seems like an age ago when I watched the opening game with some mates in a pub in Sidcup, but a month later, the fútbol de carnaval journey is almost over, and whilst the words ‘best ever’ have been on every fan, journalist and pundit’s lips every day since, the Brazilians may never recover!
Proclaiming anything the ‘best ever’ until it has ended is a little premature, so the world waits to see if today’s final can provide us with a fitting finale to what has been an extraordinary World Cup in more ways than one.
So, as I sit here this morning like a kid on Christmas Eve and wondering what is going to fill my head until August 9th, I have compiled one, actually two, of my Chicago Addick Top 5’s.
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I knew I would miss the first half an hour tonight as I was taking my daughter to a swim lesson. No worries I thought, this game could go the whole 120 minutes plus penalty heartbreak…. if only Brazilian hearts were to stay in one piece that long.
Half an hour. 5-0. And I missed it. A record busting game and a footballing night of great magnitude that has left all of us with a certain perception of Brazilian football and footballers in a mind boggling daze.
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Has this been the best World Cup ever? Although I have a childhood fondness for 1974 and 1978, in my lifetime it is Spain ’82 that I hold up there as my favourite World Cup.
The curtain will be drawn on Brazil 2014 on Sunday and after the sumptuous openness of the Group Stages and late drama in many of the 2nd Round matches, the Quarter’s became a lot more cagey and defensive.
If it is to be the best ever World Cup then I think we need one big game out of the three that are left. One to have us drooling in front of the telly and one that will stick in the memory forever.
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I saw David Moyes on Friday night sat in a bar in Bermuda with a couple of mates on a golfing holiday. A penny for his thoughts when Louis Van Gaal brought on Tim Krul in the final minute of extra time for the Netherlands penalty shoot out against Costa Rica.
It was a breathless finale to last night’s last quarter final and I was off my seat as the attacks swung one end to the other with both teams looking to avoid the dreaded penalties.
The Dutch’s penalty heartbreak is only second to England’s, but Van Gaal’s decision to bring on Rob Elliot’s teammate Krul was a masterstroke.
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The 2nd week has now passed at the Brazil World Cup and my life seems empty that there are no games today. If this was in America there would be some made up All Star game or something, at least to fill the gap for the television networks.
Talking of America, the USA! USA! USA! made it through and people in the States seem genuinely excited. Of course they think they are going to blow the little waffle makers away next week, but sadly I expect after Tuesday the sport named soccer will be put back in the box for four years as Americans revert back to type.
England of course have been fortunate that Luis Suarez was hungry at the same time we embarrasingly left the tournament on Tuesday, and since, all forms of media have had their attention diverted. In my mind 4 months and 9 International games is not enough. Suarez may be unhinged and need help, but the love, attention and care he got from Liverpool and the PFA last time hasn’t made one jot of difference to his character flaws.
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Or more pertinently 8 years.
8 years of cultivation, schooling and coaching dedication. All for what? Maybe half a million quid. The complete opposite scenario of why Roland Duchâtelet wants to develop the academy.
Even though I had resigned myself to Poyet leaving, it was still a kick in the knackers yesterday when the club put out the statement on their website. Another year wouldn’t have hurt would it, but that’s gratitude for you. Me and you are the only thing loyal about football clubs.
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Siesta Key, Florida
