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The working week vs 15 football matches

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On Friday lunchtime I left the office saying to my workmates that I'd "be watching 20 hours of footy then turning round and coming back". Having done the maths, I've watched 10 games, at 95 minutes a pop - thus totalling a glorious 950 minutes and weighing in at just short of 16 hours. Somewhere in amongst this I have also ironed 7 shirts, visited a farm, cooked (and eaten) food, slept a bit and put a few odds and ends in the loft. All in all a decent effort - and special thanks must go out to Mrs Birch, for not throwing a big mard during this important time.

Since I last signed off:

  • Iceland held out to Argentina, and got their deserved draw. They are in a tough group, but are a decent and likeable team, definitely more twists and turns to come in Group D - certainly Croatia vs Argentina in the second round of game becomes a big big game (Thursday 7pm).
  • Peru, love them [see here for why], put in the performance of the tournament, with a display for pacey and gung-ho footy that we all just love. Denmark picked off a rare breakaway chance to shatter Peru's dreams and leave their hopes looking slim, which is a shame as they look like they could grace the tournament. 
  • Croatia beat a virtually non-existent Nigeria team 2-0. Nigeria looked like they were doing a 90 minute charade of the word 'lethargy'
  • Serbia (with a lot of recognisable names in their squad) beat Costa Rica in a relatively dull but kinda even encounter. 
  • Germany lost a game. Mexico were sublime, and played in a way not disimilar to Peru - gutsy and positive. I've been scouring the wall-chart and I think this situation gives England a chance to avoid Germany all the way to the final (assuming we win our group, someone else wins Germany's group and both teams were to progress!). Ok, too many if's but we can but dream.
  • Brazil flattered to deceive and basically announced themselves as this tournament's Liverpool. 

Tomorrow the real battle starts, trying to maintain a state of "latest score ignorance" in an office full of the best part of two hundred 25-45 year old [predominantly] men. Noise cancelling earphones anyone?

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