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Tshalabalalalala

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Martin Tyler had some kind of seizure this afternoon Stateside as he disappointingly tried to spring into a song as he announced one of the more memorable opening goals of a world cup finals....... I agree Birchy, not quite Cameroon v Argentina, but lets not burden the lowest ranked hosts ever with such lofty standards......

It does seem that we've both been watching the same games today, and I'm in agreement with a lot of your observations...

South Africa:

  • The most nervous and apprehensive start to a football game since Graham told Carlton not to do that

  • Brilliant opening goal

  • Less than sublime offside trap and the appearance that they had never defended a set piece in their lives

  • Khune the goalie - I can't make my mind up. He treated the football as if it was made of molten lava, yet his hasty distribution would turn out to be the best defence splitting pass of the day

  • Stevie P very quiet. Maybe that puts him closer to signing that Everton contract.
Mexico:

  • A very dodgy keeper

  • Lots of nice passing but not a lot of substance

  • Mr Blanco - you beat me to it Birchy, this was spectacular. An inspiration to ageing immobile would be footballers the world over....
Uruguay:

  • Commentators Ian Darke and Ally McCoist (is there anyone left in England covering the games?!!?!) mentioning a million times that Suarez scored a bucketload this season..... this was not the best advertisement for the Dutch league.... he was terrible

  • Diego Forlan.... should have buried that 2nd half chance, and thus filling my pockets at 33/1 to be first goalscorer and Uruguay winning 1-0

  • A South American team playing to their stereotype

France:


  • Four words. Franck. Ribery. High. Definition. I may not sleep tonight.

Ok, Mr Lalas is telling me that England are "ripe for the picking"..... I must go.

One last thing though.... with the benefit of the US sports coverage, we were able to cut straight to the World Championship of Basketball, where I caught a vision of Timmy Cahill's corner flag celebration, with a twist.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjgK6YHse-o

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