Italy are through

but deary me, the ref had an alright game bar the two biggest decisions which he fucked up. Materazzi was definitely not a red, yellow at worst to be honest. And the penalty was just something else, even as an Italian supporter. Neill dived past the ball, Grosso delibrately tripped over the hapless Neill to win a penalty. Very unlucky for the Aussies, but Hiddink might have to take the blame for not going for it.

When Materazzi was sent off, Italy took off Toni, and left only the crap Iaquinta up front on his own, and the totally ineffective Del Piero behind him. Hiddink had the chance to get Aloisi and Kennedy on, but he gambled on extra time, only bringing on Aloisi with 10 minutes to go. Meanwhile Lippi correctly subbed the ineffective Del Piero for Totti, to take the game to the aussies, and sure enough they were hit by the classic Italian sucker punch, however undeserved that was. Totti despatched the penalty with brilliant poise after having to wait an awful long time for his spot kick.

Australia must be gutted, but I expected more from them after Italy went down to ten.

And so the English and Portuguese are through

Less said about England the better, as the scrambled home another win thanks to a Beckham free kick. As usual terrific game of free flowing football when England are playing, fast temp with a lot of interchange. Not.

The Portugal-Holland match was quite something else, due to the referee more than anything else. A brilliant 4 red cards and 16 yellows (shame he didn't beat the WC record of yellow cards at 18) issued by the one and only Valentin Ivanov, who looks uncannily like Ryan Stiles, the guy on Whose line is it anyway? The joker refereed Porto v United a couple seasons back at OT, and fell for the cheating scum that were Porto. Of course he and his linesman disallowed a perfectly legal goal from Scholes, which would almost certainly put us through, regardless of the late error by Howard, and the resulting goal by Costinha.

Enough of previous now, but the ref made the game a very funny game to watch, when he gone card happy towards the end it was like a countdown to each card being produced. His consistency was lacking - second yellow to Costinha for handball, yet he failed to give van der Vaart a yellow for the same infringement. Sending off a player just because it's the letter of the law and he committed an offence is retarded, refs should apply common sense so we won't see games fucking abandoned every week, and obviously this lad doesn't have any. He makes Graham Poll look like a saint really. Lost control of the game, and just resorted to pulling out the cards at every opportunity.

Oh well, Portugal reserves v England then, England get another lucky break and sneak through to the semis?

Graham Poll

Of course now everybody knows about it, 3 yellows = red in Mr Poll's rules.

Not a particularly good ref, denied United penalties down the years, and thinks he is a celebrity whereas good refs tend not to be noticed. His refereeing of Australia Croatia was downright shambolic, and rightly he will be punished heavily, possibly getting kicked out of the FIFA refs list, as well as being demoted in the Premier League.

Hopefully we won't see him as often next season in charge of big games now that Premier league officials have found out what a bumbling fool he is.

Review of Spain v Tunisia, as well as a preview to tonight's final round of games

Before the match, everyone quite rightly seemed to predict a Spain whitewash, after all this was the side that drawn against Saudi Arabia, who got beat by Ukraine 4-0 earlier, who in turn got beat by Spain 4-0. So we were set for a procession then, until Mnari had other ideas, tapping it in after Casillas had spilled an earlier shot. Uncharacteristic for the goalkeeper, but the Tunisians had something to defend on. Which they did very well for the rest of the half, and the game wasn't changed until two subsitutions at half time.

Enter Raul, talisman of Spain, as well as Cesc Fabregas, who at 18 looks to be a terrific prospect. Shame he's playing for arsenal. Fabregas especially turned the game in favour of the Spaniards, creating things for them, and testing the 40 year old Ali Boumnijel in goal. And it was his shot that Boumnijel failed to gather, and Raul prodded home from close range, to the relief of the Spaniards.

Then came an individual moment of brilliance, from none other than Fernando Torres, who had been playing quite poorly beforehand. He got the ball, Boumnijel went on walkabout, rounded him and with the outside of the boot, flicked it into the back of the unguarded net. Brilliant from the Atletico man, hopefully soon to be the Manchester United man.

He got a third from the penalty, but not before being denied by Boumnijel on a one on one, where he did probably everything right, getting height in the shot, but the keeper was equal to it. The penalty itself was not the best, but it managed to squirm under the goalkeeper's body.

Thus, the Spaniards are through to the second round, will face one of the distinctly unimpressive sides in Group G.

---------------------------------------

Final round of matches

Group A
Nothing much to play for here, Germany and Ecuador are already through, and Costa Rica and Poland are pointless from 2 games. Germany and Ecuador will decide who faces England, and we will finally get a good chance to see how Ecuador performs against a half decent side, having seen them dispatch equally unimpressive Poland and Costa Rica. Those two will play for pride, and I fancy Poland to get their first points of this quite terrible campaign.

Group B
Slightly more to play for, as England will seal top spot of they avoid a defeat against the Swedes, who are not mathematically through yet. A 2-0 win for England, as well as a 1-0 win for Tnt, will leave both of those teams on equal footing on pretty much everything, goal difference, goals scored, head to head, as well as results against the other teams. So basically, Tnt need a win from anywhere to get them through, and hope Sweden lose by a big margin to England.

GOAL

for Ruuuuuuuuuuuud

First United player to score at the tournament

In light of the shit amtches today

I shall blog about yesterday's matches.

Spain were terrific against a very average Ukraine, who were very lacklustre. Their performance was excellent, and was by far the best performance by a favourite so far, and maybe this could be their year. But most probably they will fuck it up in the later stages, but if they continue to play good football and entertaining football, I am sure they will get far, tho they could have helped by giving Torres's great goal to Ukraine, and I would have won had $11 fall into my hands..

David Villa scored 2, as well as Xabi Alonso getting one from a header, and those two helped my fantasy team a fukload for sure, I was languishing until the intervention of those two.

Saudi Arabia and Tunisia was a better match than anybody expected, Saudi Arabia nearly got their first ever win in the World Cup, but they were denied by Rahdi Jaidi, the first Bolton player to score at a World Cup since 1954. Tunisia's first was a good goal tho, the lad caused Saudi Arabia problems in the match, and assisted Jaidi's goal.

Germany were dead lucky to score against Poland in the final minute, especially as if they didn't some people would have thrown away their hard earned money. Olivier Neuville finally getting the goal that they deserved, a minute after Ballack and another guy hit the bar twice improbably, as they were only about a yard out.

As for today, not much to look forward to, unless Spastic Sven brings Rooney on whjen he clearly hasn't had much practice yet. Preferably we wioll only see him in the second round, but I fear Sven will risk him against the hard tackling TnT.

Italy v Ghana

Quite an entertaining match, and the Azzurri deserved their 2 goal victory imo, as they created more chances than Ghana, though it has to be said Ghana's finishing was quite terrible.

Marcello Lippi has instilled an attacking intent into the squad, unlike previous Italian teams, most recently Giovanni Trapattoni's awful Italian side, who seemed to be content with a goal's lead.

And it showed, as Luca Toni smashed a terrific effort off the bar, after bamboozling the Ghana defender, and unleashing an unstoppable drive, which crashed off the bar (Mark Lawrenson of the BBC helpfully suggested that the shot was 'violent'.) Toni was quite impressive, as he led the Italian line alongside a virtually anonymous Alberto Gilardino, whose place in the team has been questioned, some people even preferring Pippo Inzaghi, who I must say has been in red hot form for Milan in the past season. Toni showed some good footwork for a big man (sorry Crouchy), and was a threat in the first half.

The goal came late in the first half, after a well worked corner to Pirlo, and the Ghanians did not close him down, and they were duly punished as Pirlo curled one into the far corner, the low shot somehow eluding the 15 odd bodies in the penalty area. One of the goals of the tournament so far for sure.

Second half as expected did not continue the pace of the first half, but a worry would be Totti cltuching his shin 5 mins into the second half. Totti, who went close in the first half with a terrific free kick from 35 yards out, had been stamped on the shin I think by Paintsil, and was immediately brought off for Cameronesi. It will be a worry for Lippi as Totti is the focal point of the Italian side, and I would think it is a precaution rather than anything else, that he was brought off. Meanwhile later in the game Iaquinta was also brought on, in place of the ineffective Gilardino.

And boy did he make an impact, scoring a good goal after a terrible backpass by Samuel Kuffour, formerly of Bayern Munich. He rounded the keeper and tucked it away very well, 2-0. Kuffour's reaction was interesting, as it was similar to the reaction he had after a particular goal in the 92nd minute of the match, on 26th May 1999.

And so full time it was 2-0, good start for the Azzurri, and they will have to get their finger out to get a positive result against the Czechs, who were very impressive against a lacklustre team USA, by far the most fluid side so far. Of course most probably the second placed team in this group will have to play Brazil, so it is imperative the Italians get a good results against the Czechs.

TONIGHT:
South Korea v Togo 9pm
France v Switzerland 12am
Brazil v Croatia 3am

I am not expecting anything special from Togo against South Korea, especially after the shenanigans that have surrounded their manager, so I would think South Korea would get a solid 2-0 win against a distinctly average Togo.

Switzerland are my tip for the surprise of today, I think they will be able to get a draw out of France, whom they also drew twice in the qualifiers. France are an aging team, while the Swiss are completely the opposite, the up and coming nation of Europe, and they are coming along nicely to host the Euro 2008 tournament.

We've waited a long time for Brazil, and tonight is the night that the likes of Adriano, Ronaldinho, Kaka, and of course Ronaldo who will be bidding to score in his 3rd World Cup, as well as trying to equal Gerd Muller's long standing record of the highest total goals of 14. Ronaldo currently has 12. Expect Brazil to get their campaign off to a good start, and join Australia at the top of Group F.

For all United fans

http://media.putfile.com/MASSIVE-


Oh City are a massive club

http://media.putfile.com/we-all-follow-Man-United


We're gonna win the FA Cup!

http://media.putfile.com/Memories-16


Best one yet, brilliant medley of songs

http://media.putfile.com/Manchester-United---Glory-Glory-Man-Utd-99


Glory glory Man United

http://media.putfile.com/Calypson

Calypso

Got it off Fredthered on caf, credits to him.

Anyway short report on the first game

The highest scoring opening game of the World Cup ever, it was a terrific start for Germany as Phillipp Lahm curled in a spectacular goal, beyond the reaches of the dodgyCosta Rican keeper. Pesronally I thought it would be the first of many, but former Manchester shitty striker Paulo Wanchope equalised totally against the run of play, breaking through the terrible German offside trap. Klinsmann needs tos ort that one out, but first Miroslav Klose scored the first of his goals. Was raining goals atm, but it got scrap[py towards the end.

Half time 2-1 Germany.

Germany didn't play the same tempo as they did first half, but they got the third after a defensive mix up by Costa Rica, Klose scoring his seocnd. However Costa Rica just refused to lie down, and pulled one back again by Wanchope. Mertesacker and Metezelder had a mix up at the back, both covering the same player, leaving Wanchope to score again. Goal of the tournament possible coming up, Torsten Frings had an absolute screamer p ast the Costa Rica keeper. The ball moved and swerved, almost Roberto Carlos like, definitely a problem for keepers in matches to come.

So therefore full time it was Germany 4-2 Costa Rica, good start for the krauts, but Klinsmann needs to think about the defense, or not we're gonna see it terribly exposed in the latter stages. Good ens tho Lemon has an ankle injury, tho how serious it is we don't know yet.

Giggs video

One of United's true legends.

Brilliant player

Some videos on the Wolrd Cup

Couple of videos on preview of the World Cup tho the music is crap, but just awtch it anyway.

I've just been

outwitted by a cockroach.

Kinell I was just coming back from a toilet break when I saw a cockroach trying to creep under the storeroom door, and I didn't get any newspapers as I wanted to watch the cockroach make an arse of itself trying to crawl underneath that miniscule gap between the door and the floor.

But I forgot that those fuking cockroaches have the ability to compress themselves or summat, and it went through the gap. So that's one living cockroach that's still in the house. Fuck.