The Three Dads World Cup Wonderland

 So its been 72 matches played in the world cup so far. And that mighty surge of games has the net result of us whittling things down to 32 teams, the size of a normal World Cup! That said - the group stages, for me, did provide enough excitement and upset to render it not a disaster. As a lover of the World Cup, more World Cup is not a bad thing; but it is fair to say that I am far more excited about the remaining matches than what has gone before.  Since I last posted, Scotland have had their few days in hell - waiting to see if John McGinn's deflected strike to nick a 1-0 win vs Haiti was enough. It wasn't. Iran had 10 minutes of sheer torture whilst Austria and Algeria faced off and exchanged goals that alternated their qualification status back and forth. A real shame, we know we'd all have liked to see a World Cup matchup of USA vs Iran, with the latter deploying their Strait of Hormuz formation to ensure no USA players pass. England played again, and dominated again,...

 The past 3 days has seen a nation galvanised. A single united purpose. One nation with one voice. IT'S TOO FUCKING HOTTTTT is what this voice says.  St George's crosses replaced with marathon runner recovery suits plastered across the nation's windows. Schools closed, public transport in pieces, internet flakey, and every aircon provider in the land laughing evil villain laughs. It's been a busy week for me, combining childcare with work and a work summer BBQ last night, all that whilst being mainly motivated to lie on the tile floor in my kitchen, the only place that ever dips below 30 degrees. This combined with some awful nighttime scheduling has meant the last couple of days has whizzed past in a bit of a blur. I'll try to round things up. First there was England - 'frustrated by Ghana'. I'd already hit the off switch on the telly before they'd uttered the words "we need to reset our expectations". What I saw was a game we dominated ne...

 The additional fixtures thrown-up by the 48 team competition is making the group game part of the competition absolutely relentless. If memory serves, we'd normally have 3 games per day at this stage of the competition, rather than the 4 we are getting. And they'd normally be in fixed time slots. This expanded schedule basically means that anything beyond work/footie/sleep needs to give, with the day 100% accounted for by those three things. It is definitely a World Cup where I wish I was still a student. Since I last wrote, the tournament has been rolling along nicely. My early comments about "zero jeopardy in the group stages" looks to be fundamentally wrong, as some of the token teams are proving to be far more relevant than that. Curacao grabbed a [genuinely] thrilling point vs Ecuador, the Iranian goalkeeper went into beast mode to deny the Belgium onslaught and grab a point in what was a fascinating game; attack versus defence in large parts, but Iran not witho...

 As the UK enters its second heatwave of the year, things stateside are also hotting up.  Mexico got a good win against South Korea who huffed and puffed but couldn't get the goal. They are left on 3 points with one to go, vulnerable - but group A is screaming out for Mexico and South Korea to qualify and the other two (South Africa and Czechia) to be knocked out.  USA beat a woeful Australia  - it is very hard to gauge whether they are as good as the two wins from two suggests, some knockout football will be the judge of scruffbag Poch.  There was much excitement for the Scotland game, followed by much disappointment. It was a bit of a no-show, as they were second best vs an energetic Morocco. This leaves Scotland in a super precarious position, on 3 points, but with a game vs an increasingly competent looking Brazil team to come. I fancy that goal difference could be the decider for them - avoid 2+ goal defeat and they might be ok. That's a horrid way to go in...

Who knew that by the time I made my seasonal reappearance, two out of three hosts would have enjoyed absolute spankings of comically inept opposition, and even more surprisingly - Birchy would have developed genuine English enthusiasm! I am typing having just witnessed a cagey and uneventful 45 mins of goal-less “action” between Mexico & South Korea, ending in the Mexico fans roundly booing their team at the HT whistle. Cue a goalie clanger 5 mins in to the 2nd half to gift Mexico the lead and those same fans are going BANANAS & lauding their 11 heroes on the field. Love it. So here we are, one week into what is a 5 week extended format marathon, and as I finally shake off my disappointment of Gianni pricing me out of my dream of touring the country for a month (never mind the ticket prices, FIFA wouldn’t even have let the RV in the car park due to their “hospitality” stations), it’s time for a recap of the action so far from the host country: Americana While it could take the ...

 I'm just off the back of watching two of the worst sides in the tournament (South Africa and Czechia) playing out a 1-1 draw. The result keeps their final round of group games potentially interesting, but in truth, neither team deserves to progress.  Today's post is really all about England. The handbrake is officially off. What a game and what a performance. After a slightly cagey first half, where we edged ahead and then sat back and then did so again; we came out like lions in the second half. Three of them. Proper full on, high tempo, attacking. Shot raining in, arms swinging aloft to gee up the crowd. It was lovely stuff. Bellingham completely justified the nod he got over Rogers (even from my clearly biased perspective), Kane was good - he seems to have really upped his game, and does that dropping back thing that was such a mess when Rooney did it, but to great effect now that we have pace alongside him. Not just pace, but pace with permission. I have spent much of the...