I suppose I should write something about the final then. Spain versus Holland. English referee. Before the game, I was so wanting Holland to win the cup. They’ve been in the Final three times in the past and still never won it; so close and yet so far. However, I was pretty shocked by their style of play. Funny really, I thought the game was called “football”, not “studs chest” or “filthy tackle ball” or…(insert your own here)…! What a dirty, cheating match that one was. Fourteen yellow cards, mainly to the Dutch, with a double yellow for Heitinga in the extra time period. And that’s not all. Van Bommel was constantly sniping and fouling, despite being booked, and probably should have left the field at some point. Let’s not even mince words about De Jong; he was booked by the English ref for a flying thrust kick into Alonso’s chest that even Bruce Lee would have been proud of. Surely a straight red card, but no. That one incident set the scene for a scrappy, bad-tempered and generally viciously violent bloodbath of a game of soccer. My allegiance switched to Spain on account of the fact that they wanted to play football, rather than kicking hairy, bloodstained lumps out of the opposition.

And in the end, after a decidedly boring and defensive (irony!) game, extra time beckoned and Iniesta grabbed his chance almost at the death, of becoming a Spanish hero. 1-0 to Spain – job done. It was great that whoever won the game, they would have won the trophy for the first time ever. As it turned out, Spain got its first win, and also joined a very exclusive club of teams that have held both the World Cup and been European Champions at the same time; the other teams which have done this are Germany and France.

So that’s it. World Cup all packed away for another four years. Next stop, Euro 2012, and perhaps a totally new England team? Nah, they cling onto their “stars” from South Africa. All that remains to be said is “Well Done Spain! You weren’t too givey with the soccer goals, winning all but two of your games with a stingy 1-0 scoreline, but you put on a show and deserved it! Good on you! Viva España, and all that!”

On Tuesday evening, Holland played Uruguay in a game which featured an energetic Uruguay desperate to reach the final, and making the running early on. In comparison Holland were fairly lack lustre, and despite early chances failed to capitalise. To their credit, the underdogs Uruguay defended well and kept Holland out, until 18 minutes in. Out of nowhere van Bronckhorst picked up the ball on the left and 30 yards out and unleashed a strike that found its way into the net. Uruguay were stunned. But within sight of half time Forlan worked a little piece of magic, again completely out of nothing, first selling his marker a dummy before turning and curling a left-footed blinder into the Dutch net, the ball picking up a deflection on the way through.

Uruguay were the team with momentum as the second half kicked off, and looked to add to their equaliser early on. As has been the story for woe for many a team in this World Cup, the Uruguaians were caught off guard in the middle of the second period, and on the counter the Dutch stung them with two goals in the 70th and 73rd minutes, the scorers Sneijder and Robben. Holland began playing to run down the clock somewhat, and Uruguay desperately tried to pull the game back within their reach, finally breaking thtough with an injury time time consolation goal, but they were unable, despite peppering the Dutch goal in the remaining seconds, to get the equaliser that would have heralded anotherbout of extra time. The game ended 3-2 to Holland, which means the World Cup will be contested in an all European final this time round.

The second semi final was fought out between Spain and Germany and promised to be a thriller with European champions Spain in their first ever semis, and hoping to progress to the first final and pick up the trophy. Germany were hoping to continue their clinical run, and presumably play their usual and very successful strategy of annihilating their opponents on the counterattack.

The problem with counterattack strategies is that they necessarily require the other team to continually attack, and more importantly, for those attacks to break down and give away possession. What Spain did for large sections of the game was simply to keep possession. This gave them the opportunities to shoot at will. Very close misses and great saves from the German keeper kept the Spaniards out. The Germans had few chances and were not getting decisions from the referee either, in the hopes of getting a chance to test Spain from set pieces.

The second half continued in the same vein as the first, with Spain retaining much of the possession and liberally pebbledashing the German goal with shots. The Spaniards looked hungrier and on occasion took advantage of  sluggish defending, although they could not make their chances count. In the 73rd minute Puyol made space for himself from a corner to head a glorious goal that saw the German defenders fall to thier knees in disappointment. That’s another problem with a counterattack strategy; what if the other team scores first? Now Germany had to push forward to try and secure an equaliser and their continuation in the competition. Late in the half, they themselves got caught on the break, and Pedro could have put the game firmly out of reach, supported by Torres with only Friedrich in attendance. The Spaniard choked, and was dispossessed before he could either shoot or pass the through ball to torres.

On paper Germany could have been expected to win this one, but have lost out to Spain several times in recent meetings. Spain win 1-0 and progress further into unknown territory, to reach their first ever World Cup final. Their opponents, Holand are also new to this heady stage of this particular competition, so the one thing we all know right now is that a brand new name will be going onto the cup by the end of play next Sunday!

First up, Argentina versus Germany. This was a game I was expecting to be a little closer (or should that be Klose?) than it actually turned out to be. Argentina was my pick for winning this battle before the game, and they came out all guns blazing from the first whistle. However, very rapidly – within the first three minutes – they lost possession and Germany caught them on the break. Now there is a pattern emerging with Germany here; they played an overwhelmingly awesome counterattack strategy against England and got a fistful of goals. Well, today’s game was set up to be no different. Breaking out in the third minute, Podolsky was fouled on the left wing, which led to a perfect free kick into the Argentinian penalty area. Muller connected with the slightest of glancing headers, and scored the first goal off the keeper’s shin.

The South Americans didn’t give up, launching attack after attack, all of which were neutralised with surgical precision. The first half finished without further goals. The second half continued with Argentina desperate to get back into the game, and repeatedly getting caught on the counter, with the Germans mounting multiple attacks, and it was only a matter of time before they struck again. Schweinsteiger had a storming game and his clinical passing first saw Klose score into an empty net, the last defender and the keeper busy elsewhere; and then a completely unchallenged run allowed Schweinsteiger to get to the touchline and clip the ball back to Friedrich, who scored his first ever international goal for Germany. 3-0. As the fight sapped out of the Argentinians, Germany rubbed salt into their wounds, with a lightning fast break from their own half, which tugged the defenders away left, allowing Ozil to float in a perfectly weighted cross for Klose to score his second of the game, and put the match out of reach. Klose now equals the German goal scoring record in World Cups of Gerd Muller, and I think he may surpass that during the next game or two. Germany 4, Argentina 0. A complete drubbing, and something both to give a little heart to England (yeah, clutching at straws to find something positive!) but also to set the seeds of doubt into their next opponents. It is three games during this championship that the Germans have fired 4 past their opponents.

A lot of teams in this World Cup have had outstanding players in average teams; for example, think about Rooney and Messi, and there are undoubtedly other players of renown who have seriously underperformed and those teams are now gone. Germany doesn’t really have outstanding players; it has great players, but not outstanding ones. What it does have, unlike most others, is an outstanding team. So they are in the semis.

Next game: Spain versus Paraguay. This was a good game. It lived up to the expectation that Spain would win it, even though they could have fallen foul of nerves as they had never reached a World Cup semi-final before, often being stopped in their tracks in the quarters. The outstanding Spanish striker David Villa scored the only goal of the game, and so it was 1-0 to Spain and they go through to the semis to meet Germany.

The main talking point of the game was failed penalties; a game of two missed penalties rather than a game of two halves. During a Paraguay corner, the Spaniard Pique went in for a spot of sumo wrestling with Cardozo, winning himself a yellow card and the Paraguay team a penalty. They missed due to a great save from Casillas. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Under a minute later Spain had a penalty of their own which Alonso slotted past the keeper without any trouble; unfortunately for him, the referee disallowed the goal for encroachment, as five or so players made it well into the box before the ball was struck. The retaken penalty was saved by Villar, who then completely took out Fabregas during the scramble for the rebound. If the ref had seen it, it would undoubtedly have led to another (third) penalty! So that’s the end of that chapter. The Quarter Finals are done, and the Semi Finals looks like this:

Uruguay vs Holland and Germany vs Spain.

Who’d have thought the only South American team left by this stage would be Uruguay? Amazing tournament. I am thinking the final may end up being one of the biggest rivalries in Europe, Holland vs Germany, but what do I know? A week ago, I was putting Argentina and Brazil into the semis!

Everything started okay and in the first half, Brazil took the lead thanks to a strike by Robinho which is how things stayed until after the break. The second half saw the Dutch fightback, and an equaliser courtesy of a Melo own goal. Somehow the Brazilian defence became more disorganised as the game progressed and by the time Sneijder scored a headed winner, they were all over the place. In fact Sneijder was probably the smallest man on the pitch and was allowed what was tantamount to a free header to take the score to 2-1. By the end, Brazil were sadly a spent force and down to ten men after Melo’s sending off for violent conduct, after stamping on Robben. It is nice to see Holland get through to the semis, but sad at the same time to see the classy Brazil going home at this stage.

The evening match had all the hallmarks of a game destined to be a display of monotony, with Ghana taking on Uruguay. The South Americans started swiftly enough, with Ghana seeming to take 20 minutes to get going. This game offered two of the best goals of the world cup so far, with Muntari putting Ghana a goal to the good in injury time at the end of the first half, with a deceptively curling power blaster of a strike from 35 yards out.

This set the stage for what became a riveting game of soccer. Uruguay struck back on the 55 minute mark with a beautifully taken free kick by Forlan, bent around the wall and wrong footing Ghana’s keeper, who desperately backtracked to no avail. The second half continued at a frenetic pace with chances for both sides, and as the players’ energy levels started to drop, the match became even more open. No further goals were forthcoming though, and the clash moved into extra time.

End to end stuff probably best describes the entire 30 minutes of extra time, and the most notable chances for a winner went to Ghana, but they were unable to capitalise. And then the moment that made monkeys out of everyone interested in fairness in football. Sustained pressure from Ghana and a goal mouth scramble saw multiple shots pepper the Uruguay goal line. The first couple were cleared out only to reach the head of Adiyah whose header was on target, but was cynically punched out of the goal by the Uruguay striker Suarez.

The rules are clear, and luckily it was not Uruguaian officials in charge of this match; the deliberate handball was spotted, and Suarez was immediately shown the red card. Unfortunately, the rules do not state that a goal should be awarded – I think this would be a great revision of the rules for such a cynical handball. Instead a penalty kick was given, and under immense pressure, with the last kick of the extra time period Gyan blasted his shot high, hitting the crossbar and launching the ball into the stands.

The ultimate insulting irony is that the inevitable penalty shootout saw Uruguay beat Ghana 4-2, dumping the last African team out of the cup, and with that, football died a little this evening. The phrase should be “Cheats always prosper”; Suarez will miss the semi-final but if they can beat Holland, he gets to play in the final. Sorry but that’s just wrong, and I feel a certain kinsmanship with Ghana from today onwards, because that entire nation have now become victims of their own “Hand of God” injustice.

So it’s Uruguay vs Holland in the first semi-final clash. The other is yet to be decided.

Elsewhere, the results were a little more in line with expectations. Uruguay beat South Korea to progress to the next stage with 2-1 win. The USA v Ghana match was a hard one to call, and was the first game to go into extra time. Ghana ended up snatching the winning goal early in the first half of extra time to win 2-1.  That leaves Uruguay versus Ghana in the first Quarter Final.

The second match in England’s section was Argentina v Mexico. Predictably it ended with an Argenina win by 3 goals to 1. There was also a little controversy with the Argentinian’s first goal, as the player was clearly offside. For a sport with so much money riding on it, it’s abysmal how crooked the game is sometimes; there should be technology all over the pitch and inside the ball, along with instant replays to assist with decisions on goals, diving and off-the-ball incidents. But there ain’t, and it doesn’t look like FIFA want fair play to prevail. But I digress. The second Quarter Final will be between Argentina and Germany.

Again, totally predictably, Holland beat Slovakia 2-1 (the Slovakians getting a last minute penalty for a dive that should have seen the Slovakian forward receive a yellow card. Meh). And Brazil, of course, beat Chile 3-0. So Holland versus Brazil in the Quarters.

The last section saw Paraguay and Japan locked at stalemate throughout the game and after 30 minutes of extra time, the score of 0-0 taking the game into the first penalty shootout of the tournament. What a shame. It was Paraguay who came out on top, in a shootout that was almost perfect. Paraguay scored all 5 of their spotkicks, with just a single wayward strike by one of the Japanese, which clipped the crossbar and went up instead of down and in. It’s a pity to see Japan go out at this stage. Finally, and as expected, Spain beat Portugal 1-0. Spain were by far the better team and deserved the win, in a game where they constantly pushed on to score, where the Portuguese seemed only to interest themselves in trying to defend the game until a much hoped for penalty shootout. They didn’t have a plan B when the Spanish broke through, and that, as they say, was that! So the final Quarter Final will be between Paraguay and Spain.

There are some good looking games in the mix now. A few rest days for the teams before heading into the advanced stages of this tournament. The Quarters take place on Friday and Saturday.

Some commemtators have said that the USA, with their injury time goal, effectively knocked England out of the World Cup. The route for England to reach the final is now a minefield of arch enemies, starting with Germany. If – and it’s a big if – they do beat Germany, the following match is likely to be an on form (but rather insipid) Argentina. I haven’t bothered to look at semi-final possibilities, but a World Cup final showdown will probably end up including Brazil, unless any more shockers materialise.

It was nice to see an African team – Ghana – get through to the second round, along with a couple of the Asian nations, South Korea and Japan. And now there are some tasty games on the agenda: England v Germany is always a good one (pity England always lose them in World Cup competitions!); Spain v Portugal; and Argentina v Mexico. Should be fun.

FIFA’s Official World Cup Site has a summary of positions after the Group Stages.

And the fixtures for round 2 are as follows:

Uruguay v South Korea
USA v Ghana
England v Germany
Argentina v Mexico
Holland v Slovakia
Brazil v Chile
Paraguay v Japan
Spain v Portugal

Hopefully, the soccer goals will come thick and fast – and in England’s game will all be scored by England! How’s that for impartiality! I somehow don’t think that will come to pass however, and expect a very nervy and tense game.

To see a storming game and a fistful of goals, the next match saw the USA face Slovenia, and by half time it was looking like Slovenia had booked their ticket into the second round, leading the Americans by two goals to nil. In a thrilling comeback, after a couple of half time substitutions, the USA levelled the scores in the 82nd minute after cracking strikes from Landon Donavon and Michael Bradley. The Americans were, quite reasonably, incandescent with rage just minutes before the close of play after having a decisive third goal disallowed for a minor (and possibly non-existent) infraction. I have a feeling they were robbed blind by the ref in that game, although at that point in time, a draw certainly seemed to be the best result for England, who were expected to put their first disappointing show behind them with a top-drawer performance against Algeria.

However, the England vs Algeria game was not only a disappointing 0-0 draw. It was also quite possibly the most boring 90 minutes of football I have ever witnessed, with both keepers suspending hammocks from their goalposts and having a snooze, while nothing of note happened elsewhere on the pitch. Neither keeper was significantly tested in a match that was played entirely at one speed, and with no sense of urgency.

So Group C is another wide open group with Slovenia on 4 points, England and the USA on 2 points each and Algeria on 1 point. Basically all four teams must turn up to their final games hungry for a win; Slovenia can probably get away with a draw against England – which would see England making the trip home – but it is essentially do or die now.

Everybody and his dog has their own take on what needs to happen with England to improve things, but for me, it looks like Rooney is still carrying an injury; he is marked and neutralised often by two opposing players, and this can be an advantage for England if Rooney drags these two players away from the action and leaves a hole for Gerrard or Lampard to make space and shoot. Maybe it is time to see Joe Cole have a run out in the final game, to inject some much needed pace into the game, and also some variations of pace. If they carry on playing in a pedestrian way, that’s the end of that chapter though – game over. If I was a betting man, I’d like to think England will come good and scrape an untidy win against Slovenia on Wednesday. I’d also reckon on the USA beating Algeria based on their last gutsy performance.

So England and USA through to round 2 – maybe I’ll end up glad I’m not a betting man! To find out, tune in on Wednesday.

One of the tournament favorites, Spain, could not muster up a goal in their match against underdogs Switzerland, and were severely punished for this by a rather ugly-looking goal scooped into the net amidst a goal mouth scramble. But ugly or not, they all count. Although a bit of shocker, it is still fairly likely Spain will proceed to the second round, their remaining games against Chile and Honduras.

As for the French soccer team, the question has to be asked whether they can qualify for the second round having been comprehensively beaten in their second match by Mexico. This game was very entertaining, not only on the pitch itself, but also because it is the first match I have heard any of the fans chanting – the Mexicans! It was a very pleasant change to hear that instead of the vuvuzela chorus, loved and loathed in equal numbers by football fans and pundits. Nevertheless, France got beaten 2-0 and after a rather underwhelming first match draw, the French will now need to pull out a great escape against South Africa. That game (on June 22nd) should be a storming encounter with both teams playing for pride, South Africa hoping not to get into the record books as the first host team to get knocked out in the group stages; and France hoping to preserve some dignity, and not to be seen a spent force in world soccer.

In other news, Argentina predictably became the first team definitely to qualify for the second round with a merciless 4-1 victory over South Korea, and Greece pulled of a little shock of their own, coming back from a goal down to beat Nigeria 2-1.

As for England, they play their second game this evening, with a must win clash against Algeria. For the English side, the priority must be to top the group by the end of round 1, otherwise there is the unsavory threat of a second round grudge match against Germany, and those showdowns always get over-hyped and leads to unnecessary pressure….which of course always leads to penalty shootouts and England taking a plane trip!

So let’s wait and see what kind of show we get later today.

And so to Portugal versus Ivory Coast; a Portugal walk-over in most people’s minds, I would have thought. But no – in fact, it turned out to be, um, a draw, um, again. What a surprise! A drawn game in this World Cup competition. Oh well, and no goals either; some very close calls and ricochets off the crossbar, but no cigars. Quite a shocker of a game in terms of the result.

Then onto the Brazil versus North Korea game. My expectation was something along the lines of a 7-0 annihilation by the number 1 seeded team against the 125th team in the rankings. And yet another surprise of a match, for several reasons. Firstly, it was anything but a walk in the park for Brazil, with the score at a 0-0 stalemate by half time. The North Koreans played a very cagey, defensive game with a flat back five and a bunch of defensive midfielders, which swamped the Koreans’ half and stifled Brazil’s stars from playing any meaningful football.

As the clock ticked on, the pressure was undoubtedly on Brazil to produce a result in this mismatched fixture, and early in the second half, almost out of nowhere, Brazil and Inter Milan defender Maicon broke the deadlock with a fantastic goal from an almost impossible angle on the touchline – a goal reminiscent of something Roberto Carlos might have pulled off!

Later in the second half Elano doubled the advantage with a perfectly executed goal, from an inch perfect through ball. Exactly what might be expected from a talented Brazilian team, and it looked like the floodgates might open as time marched on and the North Koreans tired from the relentless onslaught. But there was another shock to come. The Koreans decided to hit back, and to be fair to them, they looked very dangerous on the break throughout the game. It was no surprise when they pulled a goal back; the only surprise was the quality of the strike under pressure, and Ji Yun Nam floated his first ever World Cup goal over a sprawling keeper to give a well deserved portion of pride back to the North Koreans who, in the event, gave a very satisfactory showing against a team expected to make them look foolish. So well done to North Korea – even though they lost the game!

Unfortunately for North Korea, they are in the “Group of Death” and it is probably unwise to assume anything other than Brazil and Portugal being the teams to continue to the next phase. Just don’t underestimate the Koreans. They are a tidy defensive unit, and on today’s evidence look extremely difficult to break down – so Portugal beware! This evening’s game was possibly the best of the tournament so far. And who knows what tomorrow’s games will have in store – draws probably.

The tale of the World Cup so far is a story of the mundane. Really boring games, with very little to write home about, except the age-old excuses used by goalkeepers about the shape of the balls and how they do all manner of dodgy acrobatics when kicked towards the goal. So after a few drawn games where the excitement of the tournament sort of drained away, it was time to watch my own team England play against the USA in their opening to the 2010 World Cup campaign. The England team had some unexpected inclusions and omissions. There was no place for Joe Cole, with Michael Carrick in the starting line up, who was replaced by Shawn Wright-Phillips later on. Great goal by Gerrard early doors, assisted by Heskey and things seemed to be on track.

Minutes before half time, the usual collywobbles appeared with perhaps the most ludicrous goalkeeping gaffe in World Cup history, as Rob Green fumbled a fairly tame strike which saw the USA equalise – and which one of the Sunday papers described amusingly as the “Hand of Clod”. Maybe he can be forgiven just once as this was Green’s World Cup debut, and he was not the only keeper to make a serious error over the weekend, with Algeria’s goalie misjudging the bounce on a similarly lame shot from Slovenia. On balance, with a defence seriously short of pace, England were perhaps lucky to escape with the draw, and their report card should read, “Must do better.”

The games continued in the usual fashion of soul-destroying draws and overly defensive encounters until the Germans took on Australia. Never expected to provide entertaining football, Germany set fire to the tournament with a decisive 4-0 drubbing of their antipodean opponents, in a game with an almost surreal – not to mention unfair – sending off of Australia’s top man Cahill. It was a straight red card for a challenge which looked far worse than it actually was, with no contact being made with the German defender. That’s probably Australia done for now. At least there were some excellent goals in the game, Klose’s in particular. So thanks for that Deutschland!

Roll on Brazil! A game that might see more than just a few goals; we’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, on the England front, Ledley King got mullered with a groin strain which will see him unfit for duty for three weeks; he’s out basically, gone! Next defender please! They’ll need to make a few decent selection choices now to get wins against Algeria and Slovenia; anything less will certainly put England in a very precarious position. Next game Friday against Algeria at 8.30 South African time (or 7.30 in the UK).