The Three Dads World Cup Wonderland

So, another tournament passes, and Germany are the winners. That's four times now, making England's paltry effort in '66 look like a fluke, an aberration. This tourney was a joy though. Goals galore, kamikaze football and defences that only discovered themselves from the QF and beyond (except for Brazil). The final was entertaining and I am glad not settled by penalties. There was not too much simulation, and no great signs of fan violence either - so hats off to the hosts and the fans. (Definitely an argument for hosting the tournament out of reach of discount flight operators). So many highlights but my favourite bits, in no kind of order, were: -Excellent world time-zones allowing full viewing  -the bite (just bizarre) -Van Persie's header  -dancing around like a maniac celebrating Sterling's goal v Italy, only to be told it was snagged in side-netting -Neymar and Messi being pivotal to their teams -Spain getting a lesson in football -Awesome stadia -The Mexican ...

So another World Cup is coming to a close, and while recriminations, inquests and debriefs will continue - the distraction will stop and life goes on. Sometimes, almost guaranteed, that means dealing with heartbreak along the way. I for one hope Mr and Mrs Birchy have had their share and, the future has in store many more good times to balance out the tough. Wishing you both strength at this tough time. There's no great segue to get us back to the footie, but I talked about distraction and here is my distracting run down on all things Brazil, team by team, with omissions of those that didn't leave an impression :  Africa: Algeria weren't bad at all. Great game v Sth Korea and gave the Germans a run for their money. The rest made the squabbles for win bonuses the height of irony... Asia: Sth  Korea: pelted with toffees upon arrival home. Need I say more. I've forgotten what Japan did United States of Australia: plucky effort team, sum of parts blah blah..., could run all...

I'm sat watching the world's most meaningless football match, the World Cup 3rd place playoff - two teams who just want to go home, forced instead to play out a dead rubber. Even the Community Shield had more meaning. This time around, however, we have the morbid excitement and voyeurism of watching Brazil's very public meltdown. They are an object lesson in falling apart once things start to go against them, like the Newcastle of international football. As things stand they are two goals down and there's no chance I'm switching off as they could easily fold and become a laughing stock, just as they could suddenly find form and claw things back. Tomorrow sees the final and a surprising amount of people rooting for Germany, probably because they look the best team by some margin. I'm gunning for Argentina (a) because I'd win £50 if they win (b) because I predicted on this blog that they'd win and (c) because I want to see Messi lift that trophy. He's ...

As the cameraman panned through the Brazilian crowd picking out the shocked and the grieving during their 7-1 defeat to Germany, I was shedding tears of my own, for different reasons. (And this explains the blog tailing off in the past few days). Yesterday I saw my baby daughter, Evie Hope, still born. Sorry for the shock, those of you reading for a bit of light-hearted punditry probably didn't sign up for that. You may be thinking "why the f*ck is he posting on his blog the day after that"; and the answer is that life really must go on. I was sat yesterday in the hospital, after everything had unfolded with my day, and I found myself put in a room, with a telly, at 8:30pm. I had a choice. Sit there and be sad, or wham on the footy and watch what was the most shocking semi-final in living memory. Incredible game and Brazil, as I and many feared might happen, were found out against organised opposition. Germany were just brilliant, playing disciplined and simple footba...

.....

Well the last couple of nights have been highly unnerving. Last night I had a normal evening in. The night before I took the missus out. All highly regular and not a marathon football-fest in sight. Luckily, normal service is resumed this evening. As France and Germany played out the early part of their game I was on a boat drinking a few beers with a crowd of Germans. This was inevitably a very real threat to my immaculate 100% media silence record in the tournament to date. As the whoops and cheers rang across the deck, I knew of course that Germany had scored - and so it proved once I'd raced home and got the TiVo into action, Hummels glancing a very nice header, which of course sunk the French. I was disappointed with their efforts, their campaign ending in a whimper after such an explosive start. In truth the game was dull. The entertainment was seemingly all saved for the late game, which I am watching now. Two South American teams doing what they do best - gung-ho attack...

Consecutive nights of extra time, coupled with the natural build up of the TV viewer's equivalent of lactic acid have meant that I'm feeling slightly fatigued at the moment. Don't get me wrong, the football is just brilliant, but even I am looking forward to the 2 day break later in the week, and again on Sunday and Monday. The tournament catches me out like this every time with group stages and round of 16 both being massively intense; followed by a short break and all of a suddenly it is all over. This second round has been brilliant. When I left you in the last blog post, Mexico were looking good and were robbed at the death by two late goals, first by Sneijder (with an absolute thunderbolt) and then a cajunas penalty from the greatest player who never reached proper fame, Jan-Klaas Hunterlaar. He is such a clinical and consistent centre forward - just gutted not to have seen him in the Premier League. Costa Rica then played Greece and amazingly made the Quarter Fina...