World Cup Blog

And so, once again it was penalties that did us in.

A series of below par performances were only overturned when we went down to 10 men and really had to fight, but it was too little, too late.

Brazil went out too, leaving 4 teams left, all European, to fight it out in the semi finals.

The smart money has to be on Germany to lift the cup - efficient football with a home advantage seemingly the magic formula for World Cup success.

Right, i'm off to drown my sorrow at Will Hill's football betting site for a quick punt on tonight's matches...

And then there were eight.

And to be honest, not many surprises in the last eight either. Spain failed to perform when it mattered, losing to a rejuvinated France. Brazil continued their run of playing fairly mediocre football but still winning, and England did the same.

The next round sees some juicy pairing - Germany play Argentina, Italy face Ukraine, Brazil will be up against rivals France, and England will hope to finally beat Scolari's Portugal.

Full fixtures:

Friday, 30 June 2006

Germany v Argentina, 16:00Italy v Ukraine, 20:00

Saturday, 01 July 2006

Brazil v France, 20:00England v Portugal, 16:00

A few technical problems have meant no updates for a while, so here's a bumper post of World Cup goodness, group by group.

Group A, and Germany and Ecuador went through with few problems, the hosts winning all three games, despite a few stutters early on.

Group B, and England qualified top, desptie a few unconvincing performances and losing Michael Owen to injury. They failed to beat fellow qualifiers Sweden however having now not done so for 123,000,034 years.

In Group C, Argentina and Holland qualified as expected. Argentina scored the best goal in the world, ever against a Serbian team who apparently had taken a vow not to tackle. Or run. The much hyped but meaningless Argentina - Holland match failed to impress, ending 0-0.

Group D saw Portugal and Mexico qualify at the expense of Angola and Iran My tip for the golden boot, Pauletta scored a grand total of 1 solitary goal in the process.

Two games are being played as I type in Group E with any team able to qualify. At the moment it's Italy and Ghana who will go through, but anything can, and probably will happen in the second halves.

Groups F, G and H are yet to be decided and only Togo can't reach the last 16...

Right, i'm off to watch the rest of the Italy - Czech Republic and Ghana - USA matches. I suggest you do the same.

Go on, be off with you.

Yesterday saw the appearance of two of the tournament's big guns, but all in all they were largely disappointing outings for both teams.

France extended their barron spell in front of goal, drawing 0-0 with Switzerland with a performance that fell on the wrong side of dire. Henry was isolated up front, Zidane was bickering with his own team and it was only the inability of the Swiss to take their numerous chances in front of goal which saved France from defeat. Incidentally, it was the first time the Swiss have ever kept a clean sheet in the World Cup. That's how bad the French were.

Meanwhile in Berlin, Brazil scraped a 1-0 win over Croatia thanks to a sublime curling shot from Kaka but they were far from convincing.

Ronaldo was largely anonymous throughout and was finally put out of his misery in the 69th minute when he was substituted for Robinho, 10 minutes after his first shot.

If Croatia had been more convincig in front of goal, it could have been a different story entirely...

In Frankfurt South Korea came from behind to beat 10 man Togo 2-1. Despite not knowing who their manager would be when they started the match and being in the midst of a wage dispute Togo posed a threat, even after Jean-Paul Yaovi Abalo Dosseh was sent off after bringing down Park Ji-Sung.

Today sees Germany face Poland in what promises to be a tense match, and the first games of Group H played.

Wednesday, 14 June 2006

Germany v Poland, 20:00

Spain v Ukraine, 14:00

Tunisia v Saudi Arabia, 17:00

Some great football was on display in all three matches yesterday, and were lucky enough to see 9 games in 3 matches. Quite a contrast to all the 1-0 scorelines over the weekend.

Evertone's Tim Cahill came on as sub in Australia's match against Japan and scored the Socceroos' first ever World Cup finals goal.

Japan had taken the lead in the first half when Australian keeper Mark Shwarzer appeared to be fouled by a Japanese defender, letting Shunsuke Nakamura's sail over his head and into the net. However Cahill equilised in the 84th minute with a lovely 20 yard strike when Japan's keeper went AWOL - cue much jubilation from the Aussie crowd.

The action didn't stop there though. Five minutes later an Cahill did it again - scoring off the inside of the post, only for John Aloisi to tear through the Japanese defence and slot home a third a few minutes later, confirming Australia's remarkable win.

The Czech Republic put on a great display against the USA, the highlight being Rosicky's 30 yard strike nine minutes before half time, and the lowlight being the injury to Jan Koller (although the injury wasn't as serious as it looked )

Finally, Italy took their first 3 points after a deserved win over Ghana in Hanover. The Italians dominated throughout, running out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Pirlo and Iaquinta.

Monday's Results

Australia 3-1 Japan

Italy 2-0 Ghana

USA 0-3 Czech Republic

So we're now on day 4 of the World Cup, and so far there haven't been too many surprises.

Portugal, Mexico, Holland, Argentina, England and Germany all won as expected, some not as well as expected.

There were shocks for Sweden who were held to a draw again Trinidad in an epic match and Poland who were stunned by Ecuador , losing 2-0 despite doing most of the pressing early on.

England's performance was 'far from convincing' or 'a good three points' depending on who you ask, but at the end of the day the team finished the match top of the group with no injuries from the game, all of this in spite of some dodgy substitutions by Sven.

So, next up for England is Trinidad, and the rumours are that Rooney could play a part in the game - he rather cleverly managed to knobble Walcott in training and could come on as a substitute against the Soca Warriors.

The results so far then:

Sunday 11th June

Angola 0 - 1 Portugal
Mexico 3 - 1 Iran
Serbia & Montenegro 0 - 1 Holland

Saturday 10th June

Argentina 2 - 1 Ivory Coast
England 1 - 0 Paraguay
Trinidad and Tobago 0 - 0 Sweden

Friday 9th June

Germany 4 - 2 Costa Rica
Poland 0 - 2 Ecuador

Today's matches:

2:00pm - Australia vs. Japan5:00pm - United States vs. Czech Republic
8:00pm - Italy vs. Ghana

world+cup , rooney , england , football

Less than an hour until kick off and the big news is Ballack won't be playing for Germany and has been replaced by Tim Borowski

Full line ups:

Germany: Lehmann, Friedrich, Mertesacker, Metzelder, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Frings, Borowski, Schneider, Podolski, Klose.Subs: Asamoah, Ballack, Hildebrand, Hitzlsperger, Huth, Jansen, Kahn, Kehl, Neuville, Nowotny, Odonkor.

Costa Rica: Porras, Marin, Umana, Gonzalez, Martinez, Fonseca, Solis, Centeno, Sequeira, Gomez, Wanchope.Subs: Alfaro, Azofeifa, Badilla, Bernard, Bolanos, Drummond, Hernandez, Mesen, Nunez, Rodriguez, Saborio, Wallace.

And incidentally, if anyone's watching the opening ceremony, were there just a load of teenage boys humping cowbells or have I just had too much sun?

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/sport...

D-Day is upon us, and in less than 7 hours half of the World will be positioned in front of TV sets to watch the first game of the 2006 World Cup.

'So, what's the latest goings on in Germany this morning then?' I hear you cry.

Well, Ballack has decided he is fit after all , Gerrard is 50/50 to start against Paraguay tomorrow, and Kewel should be ok to play against Japan .In other news, a very honest German found 800 World Cup tickets and handed them in to lost property, and the BBC has a great team-by-team analysis of the mood each country's camp, including the great quote from Germany: "We're worried about everything to do with the team and our World Cup!".

Nice.

world+cup , england , football , injury