Pasta La Vista

After a relatively slow start the world cup is shaping up nicely, already the last world cups finalists are on the way home and today the pre tournament favourites Spain could be joining them, though I don’t realistically expect Spain to lose to Chile but who knows.

Italy and France deserved what they got both sides performed terribly France with a fractured camp and the Italians with an ageing squad, so its pasta la vista to the Italians and Bonsoir to the frogs.

This opens up the tournament beautifully for Brazil or so it would appear but Brazil have not been firing on all cylinders yet  either,  they have played fantastic football in parts but not nearly consistently enough.

My pre tournament fancy Argentina still look the team to beat though my heart is with England, as expected they got past Slovenia the score flattering the opposition, England were better value than just 1-0 but it made for an exciting final 10 minutes.

If or should I say when England send the Germans packing it will set up a mouth watering clash with Argentina, we have waited a long time to settle the score with Maradonna and his” hand of god goal” 24 years to be exact but July 3rd could be when we get our revenge.

COME ON ENGLAND

DurdensView Tags: Italy, France, Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany

Come On England

What a shambles the qualifying stage has become for England it looks pretty bleak, but a closer examination of what has gone wrong reveals to me that we have really only had one bad result and that was the Algeria game.

I think the problem goes back to when the draw was made, when the opposition was announced it almost looked like a bye for England, after all it was only Algeria and Slovenia to get by for an easy 6 points and maybe 9  and easy qualification.

That’s where I see the problem the England squad have gone into the first stages complacent, not in a competitive mood,  in their minds they were already thinking of the knockout stages, in truth they did not play that badly against the USA who incidentally are only two places behind them in the world rankings.

Nobody really turned up for the Algeria game because they expected to stroll through it what a shock when Algeria started to come at them, even then England should have been able to turn things around but Capello when it mattered failed to inspire with his substitutions, we lacked a plan B.

When it became obvious that we would not get things our own way we should have switched tactics and Capello didn’t, his substitutions were really just like for like, and why on earth did he not throw on Joe Cole I am not his biggest fan but why take him if you are not going to use him.

I see a different England coming out against Slovenia this Wednesday, after all this is the same squad that won nine out of ten qualifying matches they have not become rubbish overnight, now that the pressure is on us to get a result I believe we will, I see a comfy 3-0 maybe 3-1 result and then on to knockouts and who knows.

I still think Argentina will be the eventual champions but what’s life without a dream so COME ON ENGLAND.

DurdensView Tags: Capello, England, World cup

Vuvuzela

What a shame that the World cup though it isn’t firing on all cylinders yet is being ruined by the “Vuvuzela” it’s a kind of trumpet that emits an irritating sound when blown, apparently very popular in Africa.

This though it may be acceptable in Africa is not elsewhere and is ruining the premier football tournament for everyone else, there is a simple solution, cancel out crowd noise and let the viewer  only hear the commentary. Problem solved.

It has also been suggested that the games have been below par because the players are being put of by this sound to, I would not be surprised if this were true.

By the way I stick by my pre tournament tip that Argentina will win the tournament, so called favourites Spain were humbled by Switzerland yesterday and Brazil were very pedestrian in their opening match against the North Koreans, I am sure there are many twists and turns still to come but for now Maradona’s boys look to be the ones, though my heart still says England my brain says otherwise.

DurdensView Tags: Vuvuzela, World Cup. Spain, Argentina, Brazil, England