France through then. Oh, the irony

Everyone (myself included) optimistically said that England playing shit the first few games was a good omen (team playing bad but still winning and all that), and that France were on their way home after their terrible showing in the first group games.

Oops.

I still don’t rate this France team though, honestly. Zidane is obviously pure class, but the rest leave me cold. Henry scored in a big game today (well done you), but in fairness David May would have put that one away. Plus he was offside.

Brazil just believed their own hype and waltzed into the game thinking they were going to walk all over them. A bigger letdown than England (for the neutral) given the expectations of them. Definite similarities with us though… where was Ronaldinho? Kaka? Robinho? Lots of big stars failing to perform.

The only real positive for me was Ronaldo, who defied his critics (me included) to become the highest scorer in World Cup history. The goal that broke the record was pure class, too… cheeky little shimmy to send the keeper the wrong way. I’ve always liked his approach: usually has a smile on his face, definitely has the right attitude. Only opposition player I’ve ever seen get a standing ovation at Old Trafford. Fair play.

Both Brazil & England clearly deserved to go out, for different reasons. A real shame, as I was very much looking forward to playing the samba boys in the semi.

Such is life.

Another Poor England Performance

Rooney lost us that game, but you have to say we got what we deserved, really. We’ve been shit all tournament. Needed to step it up today and just failed to do so. Beckham shouldn’t even be in the team anymore nevermind be captain, and even my relentless positivity on here couldn’t force the right result.

The sad thing is that when Rooney lost his temper, we were starting to take control of the game (after a truly dire first half). Lennon was excellent, and needs to start from now on. We really could have won that: Lennon was starting to have his way down the right, and with half an hour of feeding it through to Rooney, you have to like our chances. Rooney’s a great, great player, but he has to sort his temper out.

Such a shame Lennon didn’t get more playing time… his half hour today is one of the few positives England can take from the whole tournament. Cheerio DB.

Blessing in disguise, really: Brazil would have absolutely ripped us to pieces. At least this way we can have somewhat of a sense of injustice, rather than the complete humiliation a decent team would have dished out.

http://kaimac.wordpress.com/2006/07/03/how-do-germany-beat-italy/

Ok, so we’ll start slowly then.

I may need to revise my earlier prediction.

Beckham looks lost, Lampard is invisible, Rooney’s getting marked out of the game.  The best player in and England shirt so far has been Owen Hargreaves.

Owen Hargreaves. 

Portugal Here We Come

Big game kicks off in a little over six hours. I really should go to bed.

Luis Figo is too old to be any good tomorrow, right? It’ll be his fifth game in a couple of weeks. No way he can perform again.  Who’s with me?

I took a look at the tealeaves and they said Rooney’s going to score & England are going to win 3-1.

Word.