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Sit back and relax

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48 hours on from the gut wrenching exit in Atlanta, and still no word from Birchy. It appears he has dropped deep into the blogosphere darkness à la Harry Kane. Two things gave me real joy this summer: (1) residing in a country hosting a World Cup and (2) residing in a country 3,000 miles away from the recriminations. I said it before the tournament, Tuchel was on a hiding to nothing. Tasked with being the “winner” that Southgate could never be, he was only going to be deemed a success if he literally won the World Cup. There is no higher bar.  But before we face the reality that as the (at best) fourth best team in the tournament we will inevitably finish err fourth, let’s dissect the game where it all ended. In a pang of self pity, I found myself watching back the 2nd half of the game - without the heartache and anxiety. I didn’t watch the first half, no need. Argentina had prepared for the game by watching videos of Becks and Rooney losing their cool. Easy win - just wind them u...
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Are you not entertained?

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 A quick post in between both semi finals. After boringly ploughing through the tournament, Spain spectacularly came to the boil at the right time in a tournament and produced an amazing commanding performance over France. Yes, that same team that looked frankly unbeatable all month and nobody could see losing, I had a feeling that they could come unstuck here.  Spain simply took the ball and barely gave it back, demonstrating great composure and control throughout, anchored by the man mountain of Rodri in the middle of everything. All of a sudden, it became a simple game where Lucas Digne was asked to mark Yamal, and the outcome was quite predictable. Which takes me to England and my increasing nerves. After lots of talk about Argentina being beatable, comes the glaring realization we’re coming up against the greatest ever player in a World Cup semi final. Oh my. This will need to be done the hard way. Put aside his walking, the FIFA and refereeing love-in, etc, - great playe...
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Have a word with him

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 It's crunch time. And we are involved. The nation is expectant. Scouts is cancelled. The kids can go to school wearing red and white. Whilst this is, of course, a text-book set-up for them to feel the crushing disappointments that the rest of us have endured for, well, our whole lives - this time it IS different. We have a resilience, and to a degree, some humble-ness. The game against Norway was a strange one. We started exactly how I hoped we would, in control, patient, conserving energy. But somewhere along the line it all went weird and we pretty much thrashed around, waiting for Bellingham to do something awesome. I've been really confident about England's chances - I thought we were set up to perform as a sum of our parts, but it hasn't quite clicked properly yet. But there is time, and our game against Argentina is going to be epic I am sure. They, with us, are on the 'scraping by' side of the draw; whilst attention tonight is upon the 'brushing ever...
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Whoa, we’re (more than) half-way there!

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Well, something hasn’t sat well with me today. I’ve been productive at work, I don’t feel exhausted and I haven’t been aggravated by VAR related reels invading my headspace (& instead appear to have been replaced with quite amusing Count Binface snippets)…. Yes, after 96 matches crammed into a month long frenzy, today was a blank day. So a perfect opportunity to take stock of recent events. Most notably, and a blog first I believe - a first hand report of one of the games as I had the privilege to attend the France vs Paraguay game. Thank you FIFA for graciously accepting my credit card details. The prior week I had endured and survived the English heatwave with a quick trip home. Little did I know, but this would actually prove to be perfect endurance training to prepare me for this game. 102 degree F heat in Philadelphia, with 70,000 of my closest friends, this proved to be the hottest conditions across all 96 games played to date. Lovely.  Thankfully I was able to have all m...
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The evening after the morning before

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 I am so tired. Like presumably everyone else, I was crushed when the England game KO moved from 1am, to 2am. Originally the whole staying up thing was very much do-able, a full 4 hours between the likely conclusion and the kids getting up. Then that number became 3 and the nerves set in. I was chatting about the relative merits of booze or coffee to help stay awake the extra hour, when someone helpfully recommended food as a third option. So there I was, 1.35am, eating a nice spicy chicken pizza, washed down with some neck oil, awake, and blissfully unaware of the mayhem that was to follow.  I'd not seen a whole lot of Mexico, their games I presumably normally being in the night-time, so highlights aside, where they'd looked fluid and fun, I didn't really know much about them. But things became quickly clear, we were in for a game. Not in a Congo kind of way, where I felt comfortable we'd come out on top. This one was a genuine backs-to-the-wall effort. There's som...
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Heroes do wear Capes

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At every tournament, there’s always one. A game that comes along and unexpectedly smacks you in the face with stupendous drama and pulls you firmly into the tournament frenzy and loving the beautiful game.  Was I concerned about going to bed last night not knowing if Switzerland were going to maintain their lead over Algeria?  Nope, I was not. Could I probably take care of packing for our trip to Philadelphia while listening to Argentina”s routine win vs Cape Verde? Probably. How wrong could I be! (And I’m not talking about Switzerland!). Matched up against the world champs, Cape Verde simply didn’t care. They went toe to toe with Messi and co, coming back from a goal down TWICE, the second time with the goal of the tournament from Sidney Lopes Cabral. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough, but having represented the smallest nation at the tournament, they recorded draws with Spain, Uruguay and Argentina. One of the underdog stories of World Cup history and everyone watching around the...
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Dr Who?

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Well. It’s the morning after the Kane rocket that sent England through to the Rd of 16, and a time to take a breath. Which is welcome, as we’re about 70 games in already and I’ve produced just one blog entry. Possibly the lowest xB score of these World Cup finals…..Hats off to Birchy for his Rice-like energy levels to continue to produce his insights at a much more reliable tempo! So with a LOT to catch up on, let’s get started with the England. While not perfect by any stretch, England has been getting it done, consistently, and has real world class stars in Bellingham and Kane. I can’t agree more with Birchy’s observation at our tendency to focus on the negatives and bring the team down - maybe it’s our maturing years (& many blogs at this stage) that helps provide a more reasonable perspective. Could I now take the next 10 paragraphs to bemoan poor Djed Spence and an Everton level hesitance to have anyone who actually plays right back? Yes, yes I could. But I can also choose to ...
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