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That was the week that was

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Well, I step away for five days (or a time period that is now commonly referred to as an "English world cup campaign") I now look back on an eventful first week in Brazil.

Goal of the week: Timmy Cahill's wonderful strike. A fine postscript on a great career. Messi's superlative injury time strike was so late that it qualifies (and will likely win) next week's competition.

Team of the week: Germany. Complete destruction of an abject Portugal.

Manager of the week: Jorge Sampaoli. Pure entertainment watching this guy walk about 10 miles a game in his technical area. Team isn't playing badly either. 

Tease of the week: England actually playing decently against Italy....after we'd successfully come to terms with the fact that we were at best, average. Even though we lost, a whole nation's expectations were immediately raised. 

Reality check of the week: Well, that didn't last long.

BBC / ITV miss of the week: Homesickness aplenty missing the expert analysis from back home. This week sees an honourable draw between Glenn Hoddle's camel toe http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/13/itv-glenn-hoddle--world-cup-camel-toe and the poor bloke who firstly is also called Phil Neville, and then secondly mistakenly took the abuse for what sounds like a woeful TV debut....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10905398/Wrong-Phil-Neville-receives-World-Cup-abuse-on-Twitter.html

Most pointless witch doctor spell of the week: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/04/cristiano-ronaldo-portugal-ghana-witch-doctor Just not needed when Portugal were so accomplished at imploding all by themselves.

Surprising goal fiends of the week. France. Completely missed both of their games so far, and they've  squeeked in 8 goals! Well played....

Most unsurprising 0-0:  Ironically, a draw. Iran v Nigeria, equalled by Greece v Japan.

School yard chuckle of the week: The delight of listening to South Korea v Russia on ESPN radio as I drove home from work. In attempting to generate some excitement at a foray forward by SK's left back, a scream of "Young! Suk-Young!!!" from the overexcited commentator.

Failed bet of the week: Admittedly, an insurance policy -as if this really did  happen, we'd have no chance signing  him this summer. Lukaku - top goalscorer. A juicy 28/1. Cue first game - hauled off after 59 minutes, registering ZERO touches of the ball in the opposition penalty area. 




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