The Three Dads World Cup Wonderland

Right, this is where it all begins. Knock-out football. Win or die. And what a cracker to start - Chile and Brazil. Certainly a great way to get back "on it" after a day off yesterday. I found myself at the end of work getting myself ready for the habitual power-walk home to get on Tivo, only to realise I, for once, had no hurry. So with Germany, USA, Belgium and Algeria all tucked safely into the tournament proper, I toddled up to Birmingham to see family and have a night-off from the telly-box. All very nice, but my head is back in the game and after a truly rousing Brazilian anthem, I am going to switch off the laptop and watch the game.

Two great games today - a real South American affair. I really like Chile (and have money on them to get to the semi finals), but I was hoping they'd avoid Brazil at this stage. Almost an England v Germany mental block  - Brazil has beaten them every time they've met in the finals.  Think Chile will score, but a nervy (maybe even needing extra time) Brazil to win 2-1. As for the second game, 2-0 Colombia against the siege mentality of the Uruguayans. Feeling bad for the lunatic who likes to eat people doesn't detract from the fact they were undone by Costa. Rica when last without Chewy Luis. Liking the look of Colombia - could be a cracking quarter final vs Brazil

I made a classic World Cup faux-pas this morning, in an attempt to reassure and comfort an ever-patient wife that the purgatory (5 weeks of constant football) of the World Cup was easing. Me :  Good news love, tonight is the last night where there would be back-to-back fixtures of an evening! Wife : Oh, really?  That got me thinking Me :  hmm, I wonder if the round of 16 is in fact 2 games per night. Let me quickly check of the wallchart. Oh, yes sorry - actually the round of 16 is doubled up too, so that takes us to next Tuesday.. Wife : Riiight. Me : crap, maybe the Quarters are like that too? Let me check. Oh, ok. Sweetheart there's 2 x games on in the evenings right through until, and including Sat 5th July. Wife : You're an idiot.

Yet again I have managed to prove that my prediction powers are poor. I thought that in my neutral state of 'supporting football' rather than any particular team that my predictions for the tournament would be super accurate, unclouded by partisan-ship. So confident was I that I had a clever accumulator on the basis that I would get 7 of 8 group winners correct. By the time the third group finished (my first of 6 opportunities to lose the bet) I had lost the bet. I still have Argentina down to win; and either Giroud (often a sub for France) or Higuain (utterly overshadowed by the brilliant Messi) to be tournament top scorers. Since I last posted, Greece surprised me completely. Not just by winning their crunch match with Ivory Coast - but by doing so in seemingly cavalier style. They were raining shots in from all distances and seem to have had a genuine shift in style and attitude - one that reflects the overall feel of the tournament; which is that "defences are ...

Not much difference in the reports and reaction over here Birchy. Just sheer disbelief at the fact he's done it again. I also am still rolling back the years playing (high level) suburban over 30's "soccer" and we have two blokes from Uruguay on the team. Apart from being a great opportunity to make the obvious jokes as we got started in our game, I was able to gauge the mood of the natives which was no different to the masses, and it was clearly something for them that completely took the shine away from qualifying through the "difficult"group.... However, being on a bit of a delay, I now know we should have waited for the official Uruguay response before jumping to conclusions..... Turns out, we had it wrong - today we had claims of photoshopped teeth marks (not sure how you do that with live video feed, but hey, I'm no expert ); "an inconsequential event" according to the skipper and a simple global media witch hunt for everyone's favour...

That thing I mentioned a couple of hours ago about exiting the World Cup in style. England failed, with their drab 0-0 the epitome of a team that would rather be resting before an important Premier League season, but meanwhile; step up Luis Suarez. Wow! I didn't think he had it in him to be so utterly idiotic...AGAIN. He really is quite something, and as Adrian Chiles said on ITV, "he's probably not doing himself many favour there, holding his teeth". Amazing stuff. That is the way to wave goodbye to a World Cup. I expect a 10 game or more ban; or as one excellent tweet said; "Fifa will review the incident, and award it to Qatar". The next 24 hours should be interesting. Now onto Ivory Coast vs Greece...

Aha, so Brazil are slowly awakening. Their defence still looks atrocious, but that Neymar chap is quite a player. I'd not seen a lot of him before the tournament and so was wondering what all the fuss was about. That sumptuous first goal showed exactly what he is about. Brazil ramped things up to the point when even Fred (aka 'the statue') scored. The prize for football is that now Brazil play Chile - which if ever a game had 5-5 written all over it, is the one! Both team have questionable/non-existent defences and a potent strike force, so I am looking forward to the clash on Saturday. Mexico also progressed, beating my tip Croatia into second place, and deservedly so. Their manager is a legend. He went ballistic when they scored and was hugging people so hard that he was falling over in his suit and all sorts. Great scenes. They always seem to make it to the round of 16 and then bomb out and I think it will be no different this time around. I'm at home now, rue-...

To my surprise, South Korea vs Algeria turned out to be an absolute belter. Algeria (or France B, as they should be called) seemed to have a squad personality transplant; shifting from dour defensive outfit into rampant attacking machine. They scored more goals in 12 minutes than they had in the 28 preceding years of World Cup finals. Granted they were up against a woeful S.Korea team, but a great performance nonetheless, for a 4-2 victory.  Then another treat in the late game with USA just seconds away from a mammoth win against a rejuvenated Portugal team. They were so unlucky to concede a potential tournament ending equaliser after a truly heroic performance. This evening has seen Spain salvage some pride against Australia and Holland taking advantage of Chile in a game where neither team looked too bothered.  The rest of the qualifying group deciders should be far more interesting as there is so much to play for, not least for Brazil...

Whilst South Korea vs Algeria represents an excellent chance to have a rest from the football tv marathon, it is not something I'd consider for a single minute. Tonight, after all is the final serving of 3 matches back to back. Tomorrow things get more complicated as the groups round off their games and we are into the realms of simulcast. Yes - picture it now. TVs, laptops, iPads all over the place, showing live coverage, league tables and calculators to work out potential qualification scenarios. Excellent. The downside though is that from tomorrow we only get 3 hours of football per day  instead of the now customary 4.5.) Since I last posted, I've seen Ghana's epic performance against Germany, proving that no team is going to be untouchable. Nigeria beat Bosnia & Herzogovina too, which whilst a surprise to me, was thoroughly deserved. And this afternoon, Belgium staked their claim to be the new Switzerland - very dull and uninspiring, but they snatched a 1-0 at the...