The Three Dads World Cup Wonderland

  As promised in my last post, I left the fawning over Messi to after the final. And just as he had done in EVERY knockout round of the tournament, Messi stood up to be counted, and delivered BIG TIME. Which was very considerate of him to make it very easy to write my final post of 2022 by waxing lyrically about the wonder that is Lionel Messi. Sport in general, and certainly football, is littered with examples of finals being played that struggle to meet the grand expectations bestowed upon it, where two teams nullify each other to the point of it becoming - a still intriguing contest - but more of a chess match. Cagey, tight. No pizzazz.  This was quite simply the best World Cup final of my lifetime. Involving the best player on the planet, playing to the best of his abilities. Dragging his team through to a glorious end. That it also involved his heir apparent who was likely the most miserable recipient of a souvenir match ball at a World Cup is just mind blowing.  It was almost an

 Well, it’s beginning to feel like the latter stages of the World Cup. England are home and Birchy is turning over in his sleep pondering the fate of Southgate. There’s a comfortable feeling to it that we can finally relax. I agree wholeheartedly, this feels different. No more reaching, no more backs to the wall defending. We went toe to toe with the world’s best and probably deserved to win or at least take the game to extra time. We didn’t. Ruining my extremely close prediction of a 3-2 win AET - had Kane not Waddle’d the pen, I’d say that was a likely outcome. But Brazil didn’t win their game vs Croatia. It happens. But flukey draw and being miles away from all the other teams in the semis (ie 2018) this was not.  Alas, the same outcome though. Home and no silverware. I’m not in England and am able to have pragmatic perspectives on Southgate. There isn’t a magical manager named Jose that could come in and be faultless. Is Southgate perfect? No. Has he been ridiculously more progress

 Ah, that time again. The round of the World Cup after  England have exited. Normally this is the period of the tournament I enjoy the most, as I'm able to enjoy the football without hoping the best teams fail to make our path easier. This time I'm not as excited. Maybe in part, it is an element of hipocrisy - it would be easier now to boycott the climax of the tainted tournament. Indeed this idea did momentarily fleet into my mind, before I realised the raw shit-housery masterclass potential of tonight's Argentina vs Croatia clash. But the bigger reason I'm less excited about this part of the tournament, this time, is because we've gone and blown it. In previous touraments, our national psyche and national press have over-hyped us to a point of frenzy. We usually toil away for a bit, manage to haul ourselves nervously into the knock-out stages, grow wild with enthusiasm before bowing out. That cycle always presents me relief that we can just crack on and watch the

Aaaaaaand breath. The most dramatic day of World Cup quarter final action since 1986 (the last time both games went to pens), has nudged me out of my blogging lull that had made it appear I had been strangled by a well drilled Moroccan defence. In reality, endless action, life and responsibilities & unwelcome time differences have made me prioritize actually catching the action versus the keyboard. So I’ve a lot to catch up & we’re going to have to do it in double quick time:  Group stage musings A wonderful collection of sparkling performances by the top teams with goals galore, underdog shocks aplenty and excessive drama on game 3 days where any and every eventuality seemed possible, epitomized by the 60 seconds of disbelief at the prospect of Costa Rica joining Japan in the round of 16, before being firmly shut down by an ultimately futile German resistance with the damage already done. I haven’t researched too much yet on the format for 2026, but with 48 teams I can’t help

 The round of 32 is marking a new phase in the tournament, and after the helter-skelter of the group stages, it is going very much to plan so far. With Netherlands, Argentina, France and England all winning in line with broad expectation, the round is looking like it is going to be one of whittling down. I am expecting all of the results to go the way of expectation, and leaving us with a very strong set of quarter finals.  That would see Croatia, Brazil, Spain and Portugal making up the rest of the quarter-finalists - which even without Belgium and Germany is a pretty mighty, mouth-watering prospect. I'd say Japan and Switzerland probably have the best chance of causing an upset, but I think their races are run now. I've already made my plans to go out into the world on Wednesday, when there's finally a day without a game, but certainly by the time football returns on Friday, I will be ready. In fact, thinking about it - maybe I'll use those two days to catch up on the

In a departure from previous tournaments, I've not been embracing the full multi-device set-up for these final group games. So far that is. The frantic experience of last night has changed that - as I hopped madly between channels to see whether Poland would pick up the 2 extra yellow cards that might see them get knocked out, or Mexico on the other channel to get an elusive third. It was compelling stuff for 20 minutes - and certainly enough for me to come prepared tonight, with telly showing the Costa Rica vs Germany game, Japan and Spain battling it out on the tablet, and phone close at hand for any mathemetical calculations or regulations look-ups that might be required along the way. I'll certainly miss having Mexico in the knockout stages, they normally provide good excitement before bowing out in the last 16, no such luck this time. That they have been edged out by the utterly coma-inducing Poland is a travesty. Despite their match against France being billed as a Mbappe

 Some cracking games the last few days. I'm not going to recap them this evening as I'm getting my game face on for England vs Wales, so thought I'd share my pre-match thoughts. This post therefore has a very short shelf-life and I'll likely look foolish pretty much right after I've hit the publish button. Team selection: not too much to disagree with here. I'm rarely excited about seeing Henderson alongside Rice in our midfield, but I understand why its happened. I'm not massively excited about Stones and Macguire as a CB partnership, but given their form together in the two games so far, I understand why its happened. Swapping out the set-piece threat of Trippier for lockdown punter Walker doesn't massively excite me, but I understand why its happened. The whole selection is a microcosm of the Southgate pragmatism. Its all based in sound logic, but just isn't exciting. Just as with Grealish last tournament, he seems to have begrudgingly come around

This morning's blog post comes as Japan and Costa Rica face-off in the seismic Group E. Germans everywhere will be praying for a Costa Rica win, which would potentially leave them in a place where they might still be able to qualify, even with a second defeat, against Spain tonight. (I think). Its actually a pretty good game. I love the Japan team for their positivity and pace; and its nice to see Costa Rica dust themselves down after their schooling by Spain the other day. The past couple of days have been fun. Brazil did Brazil things and Richarlison, whilst a hateful (and in my view wildly overrated) player domestically, put on a good display of flair. Friday was decent I thought. The Wales v Iran game was pulsating, and Iran well worth their win. The result made England's opening game result look all the better. Qatar confirmed that they are indeed probably the worst quality hosts of all time, and in doing so set up a nice 3 way fight for Group A, with Netherlands and Ecuad

So, where were we? Since I last posted (whilst France recovered from their early setback to maul Australia), I have been assaulted by a mountain of work. 2 consecutive days of back to back video calls for the first 5 hours of the working day would typically have left me very cross indeed about the shocking and unacceptable work/football balance. Luckily though, I seem to have missed the majority of the dross. Basically game after game of nil nil tedium seem to have been played out silently on my tablet whilst I've been doing my very best to be a hard working honest human.  That first paragraph is all the analysis you'll get from me on Morocco v Croatia (0-0), Uruguay v South Korea (0-0) or Switzerland v Cameroon (1-0).  I'm going to reserve judgement on all 6 of those teams until after the second set of games.  The games I emerged for seem to have been much better - which does spark a bit of a chicken or egg debate in my mind. Fortuitious? Or was there an imperceptible prio

My post this evening comes from, unsurprisingly, in front of the telly. I'm watching football. Whilst that is not entirely surprising, I have actually had a bit of a struggle with it today. I had an office-day. The horror unfolded as I went into a 90 minute meeting with Argentina leading 1-0 and seemingly coasting to victory. They'd got their goal and were cutting through the Saudis with ease, having one or two [correctly] disallowed for offside. I gave myself the pep-talk - "it's fine Birchy, work is work and this is a foregone conclusion anyway. Watch the highlights and grow up a bit" . The rest, as they say is history. I saw the drama unfolding with a couple of phone checks, and returned from the meeting to the barrage of WhatsApps, declaring it a fantastic match, a true spectacle and probably one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history.  I'm fine about it. Really.  More meetings interrupted the Denmark v Tunisia game - which looked better than the nil-

 I feel tense, on edge, braced for something awful. Yet at the same time there's a glimmer of excitement. This World Cup is definitely like no other.  From the [still preposterous to me] 3rd minute VAR decision that saved Qatar from the score-line humiliation that their meek performance deserved, to the capitulation of the England camp to FIFA's captain's armband edict - things don't look right. The glorious shiny stadium that hosted the opening game was largely empty by the end and the stadium atmosphere at England's game at the moment has a hollow feeling about it. Part of my apprehension of course is that it would just be SO ENGLAND to go and win this particular tournament; and then we as a country wouldn't quite know what to do about it, our country name indelibly engraved in oil, blood and essence-of-intolerance upon on the Jules Rimet trophy.   As I write now I am watching on slight delay, after inexplicably agreeing to do an interview for a new staff memb

Here we go again! The quadrennial celebration of all things football that unites the world. A beacon of all things great in the world where billions of people excitedly gather to watch sporting history.  Sadly this time around, the only thing the world is united on is a feeling of meh. There’s no debate to be had, this stinks. The corruption, the sportswashing, the human rights. It stinks for the players - what should be their crowning professional achievement and all they’re hearing is they’re either saying too much or not doing enough. It’s a no win situation. And in that vein, I finish the final episode of FIFA uncovered on Netflix and take 3 showers and hunker down to try to just focus on the football. After all, this is what it’s supposed to be about, so let’s make a start on this blog to take our game back! It’s been an eventful 4 years since last time. Certainly the last host venue didn’t age well….dang, focus on the footie… let’s talk Gareth. This might be a continuation of the

Seemingly without build-up, the World Cup is upon us, and despite being a symbol of both football's corruption and the ills of humanity, I just can't help myself from being excited. The tournament has every chance of being, in footballing terms, one of the best yet. Players in peak fitness, form and rhythm, in-tournament travel virtually non-existent (remember the last Euros, 'sponsored by travel sores'), mild but not absurd weather and presumably very shiny facilities. We already know it's had a lot of money thrown at it (in all the wrong ways) and we can safely assume it will have everything thrown at ensuring it is presented positively. From a footballing perspective, its mouth watering. I love football too much to boycott the tournament as a viewer or a blogger, but I am also mindful that others will look at me and people who share my views with disdain - blinkered, insensitive to the bigger issues at play, and generally being the gullible detergent in the spor