The Three Dads World Cup Wonderland

The only thing taking the shine off a genuinely sumptuous set of quarter-final matches (I'm giving England vs Sweden a pass here on the basis that it is a match containing England) is the fact that they are not being played on Saturday and Sunday (to enable working folk to drink them all in) - or alternatively to be spread over 4 days, with just evening matches, for the same reasons. Sure, we'd end up with one or two teams being unduly fatigued and disadvantaged by having less rest between matches, but it'd be more convenient for me. Consider that to be a recommendation for Qatar please, Mr Infantino. Tomorrow definitely presents the greatest threat to radio silence so far. But I have my plans in place and I will be leaving directly from my afternoon meetings, blindfolded and with headphones on, avoiding eye contact with the whole of Bristol before I get home. The two fixtures tomorrow are as exciting as any World Cup day  I can remember. A France team, flickering to life...

It’s not quite anarchy just yet in the England camp, but after a cathartic shootout victory, Gareth’s tie was very much askew. We’re on our way. Where to start? Well, let’s start with the positives: Aside from 10 seconds of panic at having to deal with a last minute corner, the England team were well organized and more impressively disciplined in the face of a rampaging Colombian team who looked like they had snuck into the alley behind the Russian team hotel and scored some discarded chemical waste. Make no mistake, their pre-match preparation had been watching endless replays of Beckham and Rooney receiving petulance-induced red cards. Hell, they probably threw in footage of Ray Wilkins throwing the ball at the ref in ‘86. The English lose their cool more frequently than Neymar changes his hairstyle. Just wind them up and they will implode. But we didn’t. Quite the opposite. We met the South American needle with a bit of our own while staying mostly within the rules of the ga...

Whilst we mostly expected Sweden and Switzerland to claw their way, in a battle of attrition, through their round of 16 tie, I don't think even the most damaged England fans really expected the 2.5 hours of utter torture that ensued last night. With Sweden the prize for progression to the Quarters, England and Columbia faced off last night, in a game I expected to be quite flowing and fun. How very wrong I was. After a bright start, with England bossing possession and looking generally threatening from set pieces, Jose Peckerman seemed to make a "99 call" and all hell broke loose. Refereeing leniency hit an all time high as Barios first got away with his double headbutt on Henderson and then later managed to do a two-footed stamp with no recourse. Falcao was at his angsty best, and tempers boiled over all over the place. In years gone by Scholes, Beckham, Gerard would all have lost their heads and places on the pitch, but the becalmed England team took it in their str...

It's half-time in the Sweden-Switzerland game, and so far it's met all of the expectations ahead of time. The world cup's equivalent of a Bournemouth v Watford. The prize at stake, a potential quarter-final match versus an easy English team. As apparently, that's how we're supposed to be thinking these days - how easy is the game after next? The last two weeks have apparently taught us nothing. Try asking Germany, Spain, Argentina, Portugal how easy their next game will be at the world cup.... Even the remaining teams have a cautionary tale to tell - Croatia crept past a fantastic performance by Schmeichel. Full of passion, fist bumps and paternal pride.... his son also had a good game. And then Belgium.... I almost had my diatribe on Roberto's coaching failings fully written like a BBC pundit on VAR, only to be weirdly outdone by an Everton alumni show. Bobby Brown Shoes made two influential substitutions, proving that while nobody likes the big haired wond...

The tournament has excitingly evolved over the weekend and there’s three main themes that have emerged enough to get my attention today. 1) First is the emergence of a two-tier competition. There is a real competition and a ‘plate’ going on simultaneously now. The “easy side of the draw” theory has reached a pinnacle of truth now that Spain have exited the competition, and there’s a genuine feeling now that England have a cracking chance of being losing finalists, as do the rest of the teams on their side of the draw. Did Southgate know he was essentially buying a Betamax when selecting his team for the Belgium game? I think we have truly got a great chance now of progressing all the way to the final. I’m not getting all silly about it – I am fully aware that we might be looking at vegetable-based photoshops of Southgate in the papers on Wednesday; but my feeling is that we can and will progress deep into the competition now. This creates its own dilemma for me personally. Do I ...

It’s fair to say, and not down to being lost in the hyperbole of the moment, the group stage of this World Cup has been one of the best ever. As evidenced by the pure fact we saw more people flipping the bird than we did 0-0 draws. Superb stuff. It would be remiss however to not briefly dwell on the slow and unnecessary encore towards the end of the show on Thursday. First you had Japan and Poland pretend to want to play an actual match the same way Mrs C has pretended to be interested in all things World Cup. It’s maybe well intentioned with an admirable end goal, but it’s not remotely convincing. It’s hard to see Japan look any more interested when chasing Belgian shadows in the next game either. Then there was Engerlund. Fair to say, Birchy yet again has called it 100%. A complete warm up game, and an almost perfect game of poker before Gareth played his Welbeck card when down 1-0. A complete tell that the England staff were already watching Columbia videos in the dugout. It a...