A Russki World Cup

Russia were today voted to host the 2018 World Cup, ahead of bids from England, Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium.

The Russian bid. Courtesy of bbc.co.uk

England were rumoured to have gone out of the reckoning in the first round and their victors, Russia, will host the first World Cup in Eastern Europe, following the first one held in Africa.  The stadiums are not all built yet and the transport system not up to date but FIFA seem to think they have what it takes.  They will also have to remove the racism which is rife in Russian football today as the world comes to their doorstep.

England, however, failed for three reasons, in my opinion.

Media and history

The British media in the past few weeks have done nothing to show how worthy England is of this prize and England has a history of being overlooked because of this media aspect of the culture.  The bid in England would have been the most profitable but maybe FIFA would rather lower profits in order to avoid the British press.

A bit too prepared?

With the awarding of the World Cup Hosting privelage to South Africa  Brazil in succession, this trend of using the World Cup to help develop those countries less well off went against England.  As Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said this week in a TV interview: 'Why award it to a country which has the infrastructure there already?'.

Stadium choices

Of course Wembley, Old Trafford and the Emirates had to be in there but there were quite a few very surprising inclusions to the venue list.  Plymouth, Milton Keynes and Bristol were all proposed to build new developments for this bid, as well as multiple venues in London and Manchester.  Could the stadium spread have been wider and have included more developed cities and clubs?  Would that have helped?

The question remains, now, whether I will ever see a World Cup in England during my lifetime?  The earliest it could possibly be is now 2030 but even then, I can't see football coming home again.

World Cup Update 7

If you've not heard of Paul the Octopus, you should have!  He is the English octopus that lives in the Aquarium Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany and can predict the future!  Where the German football team is concerned anyway...

He has so far correctly predicted wins for Germany over Australia, Ghana, England and Argentina and even the defeat against Serbia.  Last week Germans were horrified to see Paul predict a win for Spain in the semi final and, sure enough, he was right once more.

After a tight first half and many many close chances, defender Puyol headed in a blinder to send the Spanish through.  This young German team has had a great run but I don't think it's their time just yet: in two years at Euro 2012 they will be a force to reckon with.  As will be the team to win their first ever World Cup on Sunday.  The final will now be contested by the two best teams never to win the competition and will be a joy to behold!

Again my heart says Holland but I really think Spain will be able to add the World Cup to their collection of current major championships...

Some of my favourite Paul the octopus puns: ten tackles; Paul wins punters a few squid; he's quite the clairbuoyant...

World Cup Update 6

I feel a tiny bit better about England's capitulation against Germany last week now.  At least we scored a goal (two in fact!)!  Argentina, my favourite for the tournament, were completely humiliated in a 4-0 loss against Germany in their quarter final tie during the week, making the Germans firm favourites on tournament form.

The current European champions, Spain, are meeting Germany in the other semi final tomorrow (7-7-10) after beating Paraguay 1-0 in a mostly boring match.  The semi final, however, will not be boring featuring many bookmakers' favourites pre-tournament against the tournament in-form team: this, in my opinion, should be the final but that's how football goes!

My heart's favourite, Holland, will meet the winners of the Germany/Spain match in the World Cup Final after beating Uruguay tonight 3-2.  This pleases me twice: the team I wanted to win after England's demise is still i with a shot and the cheating Uruguayans didn't make it the whole way.  The Dutch scored some amazing goals, well worth a look at the highlights.  Looking forward to them winning on Sunday!

Meanwhile, in the predictions I made earlier, at the second round point I was 69% correct.  By the quarter final stage my prediction score had stayed around the same, at 63% with 5 of the 8 remaining correct! At this moment I am quite pleased with myself, however only Spain remain in my semi-final predictions, 25% and then the teams I predicted for the final, England/Brazil, are both out.  Not too bad overall...

World Cup Update 5

Wow.  Half way through the quarter final stage and we have witnessed two pretty amazing matches.  The Netherlands have shocked one of the favourites by knocking out Brazil and Uruguay have broken African hearts by defeating Ghana by a penalty shoot-out.

Sneijder scores Holland's winner
Image: Telegraph

A dodgy own goal and a red card courtesy of Melo was enough to secure Holland's passage through to the semi-finals next week, as well as an excitable Sneijder heading in the second.  I said before that Holland were in my heart to win...it could still be on!  Unfortunately, that meant that South America's domination of this tournament had been given a blow and one of the four remaining were out.

Suarez saves last minute header
Image: Guardian

One of the others, Uruguay, made it through after a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Ghana.  However, the main talking point was Luis Suarez's reaction save in the last kick of the game to keep Ghana from making footballing history.  After a goal-line clearance, he went on to push the ball out of the way with the next shot.  Don't forget though that he is a striker!  As he went for his 'early' bath, he watched on as Asamoah Gyan went on to miss the resulting penalty and then Uruguay win on penalties.  Another horrible case of cheating in international football and, especially after his comments after the match, I hope he gets the discipline he deserves and misses both the semi and the potential final Uruguay take part in.

World Cup Update 4

Oh dear.  Abysmal.  Although I'm inclined to agree with Rio.  After a rubbish first half an hour from England they found themselves 2-0 down against bitter rivals Germany.  However, after a great headed goal from Matthew Upson, England were on the ascendancy and on their roll, Lampard hit a looping shot banging off the cross bar and a yard over the line before bouncing up onto the crossbar and out again.

Lampard's shot bounces in off the crossbar.

Jorge Larrionda, the Uruguayan referee, and his assistants decided that it wasn't a goal, deflating England and sending them in at half time dejected and cheated.  Ten minutes into the second half Frank hits another wonder, smashing off the crossbar, but that was it for England.  The last half an hour of the match was just as bad as the first and England's defence disappeared, leaving them to a 4-1 defeat.  Horrible.

Uruguay's defeat of South Korea and Ghana's silencing of the USA both prove to make an interesting Quarter Final, both will be happy to have missed a heavy weight in the draw.  Similarly Germany-Argentina will be an exciting showing of talent.  I think at the half way point of the competition, Argentina look to be my favourites but we shall see (my heart is on Holland to win).

If you can't tell how far over the line the ball is from the previous picture, take another look below.  Worst decision in World Cup history causes England's worst loss in World Cup history...

World Cup Update 3

The last group game for England last week against Slovenia was like watching another team play.  They were solid, they were tight, they were creative and they penetrated the opposition.  It was a wonder how it was the same team and they deservedly got a 1-0 win to put them into the second round of the World Cup.  Thanks to a 93rd minute American winner, however, they face the only enemy Germany in the last 16 this Sunday which will be very interesting.  Both teams have ranked up their penalty training already...

Jermaine Defoe score the winner against Slovenia

Other moments of note are the capitulation of the French (desrved?  I think maybe...) and also the first ever holders to go out in the first round.  Portugal pretty much secured their passage to the next round with a 7-0 destruction of the North Koreans even if they did embarrassingly draw out a bore-draw with Brazil afterwards.  Unfortunately the Germans made it through, although their next match will be exciting, as did the Spanish.  

  No other giants left the competition but some honourable mentions go to South Korea and Japan, consistent Asian teams, Ghana, the only African team left, and Slovakia, through to the last 16 in their first World Cup by knocking out Italy.  It's getting a bit more exciting than it has been, only Sunday afternoon will tell!

On another note, now all the groups have finished I can confirm that I got a total of 11 out of 16 teams right in my predictions previously.  Not too bad I don't think!

Cheat!

Don't you just hate cheating?!  I was reminded today of Brazil's Rivaldo in the 2002 World Cup when he dropped, holding his face, following a ball hitting his leg and managed to get a Turkish player sent off.  It seems like a just return today, then, when Ivorian Keita dropped, holding his face, after running into Kaka's shoulder with his chest.  Not the same but completely innocent on Kaka's part and completely cheating on Ketia's part.  Let's hope Keita gets punished as he should do.

Rivaldo dives.
Image: The Sun

Similarly, Thierry Henry's cheating handball to knock Ireland out of the World Cup a few months ago.  He even admitted it: "I played it, the ref allowed it".  Anger hey?  Why can't players be more genuine like Emmanuel Adebayor who I've just watch talk about the horrific incident he experienced on tour with the Togo international team.  What a lovely guy (let's just forget his sprint when playing Arsenal hey?)!

World Cup Update 2

Since I last posted we've had a week of almost constant football in the World Cup in South Africa.  I think the country has done itself proud this month so far, there has been little to no crime or danger to fans, the stadiums and fan villages have been top notch: the only thing that has been and still is getting on people's nerves are the vuvuzelas.  No longer are football matches filled with the noise of joyful fans, witty chants and the musical bands of various cultures but with monotonous air horns.  And air horns alone.  There have only been two times I have heard a noise over these horrible horns.

Image: Reuters

The first was the two times South Africa themselves have played a match, the first a 1-1 draw with Mexico and the second a 3-0 drubbing by Uruguay.  Whenever South Africa have conceded there has been a very poignant silence falling over the blaring vuvuzelas which, although you can't help but want Bafana Bafana to do well, is quite funny!  The second time has been during England's matches: the amazing English fan base singing and playing  but also after the disappointing 0-0 draw with Algeria, the boos.

Wayne Rooney lashes out at a camera in response to English boos
Images: teamtalk.com

Now I know that all of England was disappointed but I really don't like boos: I think they're no way to show your disapprovement of any team, no matter what kind of performance is put in.  It's certainly not going to help matters, especially with an England team which is in such low morale as it is now.  If anything, we should be encouraging England, they could be doing a lot worse...

The two matches I looked forward to were disappointing, although I loved the passion in Jong Tae-Se as he blubbered at the North Korean national anthem and I was very impressed as Argentina thrashed South Korea 4-1.  Other matches of note were an exciting Chile, dominant Paraguay and the World Cup favourites losing to Switzerland.  Other to lose were France and Germany whilst Italy only managed two draws, like England.  It's turning out to be a wash out for the big European countries, and with Brazil beating Cote d'Ivoire today, could it be another year for the South Americans...?

World Cup Update 1

The World Cup is three days old and I have mixed feelings so far.  It's been great to have almost 24/7 football at my figner tips (on television or the internet) and highlights every night.  The matches have been kind of nervous so far, single goals per team, if that.  

Maybe they should be with the amount of yellow and red cards already (including a shocker for Tim Cahill today, pretty much ruling the Ozzies out of the tournament).  I was impressed with South Korea, previous semi-finalists, in their 2-0 win over Greece and have been very much with Germany in their 4-0 eclipse of Australia but not a lot more has been too exciting.  Included in this statement is England in their first group match against the USA, a one-one draw.

A great start included a Gerrard pass in past Everton goalkeeper Howard but rest of the game could be typified by Robert Green's fumble of an easy pick up into the back of the net.  Although the fumble was disastrous, the performance wasn't and although I, and most of England, will be expecting better, I still think we'll qualify as winners.  At least an addition to the list of England goalkeeping cock-ups hey?

Looking forward to a central European derby tomorrow between Denmark and Holland and a mouth watering tie in the group of death with Cote d'Ivoire playing Portugal...

World Cup on Leicester's BIG SCREEN!

I've found out today that certain big screens which live in city centres are to show the World Cup this year for a city wide atmosphere.  

Leicester's new big screen is one of those selected and is showing all the group matches at least, including all three of England's group matches!  I'm very excited, see you there?

World Cup 2010 predictions

I'm very excited for this year's World Cup!  Can't wait to have world class football at hand pretty much all day for four weeks, it's going to be amazing!  I'm not so much looking forward to inevitably being disappointed by England but, actually more from a footballing point of view, it's going to be excellent.  As with most big footballling events I like to predict (usually badly) and I've found an amazing little website to help with it: BBC Sport's World Cup Predictor.

This is my prediction, set out in a lovely festival animation.  Have a look and have a go yourself: I have England-Brazil and Argentina-Spain in the semis but wouldn't like to guess from there onwards...we can only wait and find out.