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Diamonds in the rough

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So, where were we? Since I last posted (whilst France recovered from their early setback to maul Australia), I have been assaulted by a mountain of work. 2 consecutive days of back to back video calls for the first 5 hours of the working day would typically have left me very cross indeed about the shocking and unacceptable work/football balance. Luckily though, I seem to have missed the majority of the dross. Basically game after game of nil nil tedium seem to have been played out silently on my tablet whilst I've been doing my very best to be a hard working honest human. 

That first paragraph is all the analysis you'll get from me on Morocco v Croatia (0-0), Uruguay v South Korea (0-0) or Switzerland v Cameroon (1-0).  I'm going to reserve judgement on all 6 of those teams until after the second set of games. 

The games I emerged for seem to have been much better - which does spark a bit of a chicken or egg debate in my mind. Fortuitious? Or was there an imperceptible priority shift in my head, drawing me inexorably to the telly when I could sense drama?

The Germany vs Japan game was something else. From the initial intrigue of their team actually taking some sort of visible stance against the FIFA corruption and general ills of this World Cup, to the German kit (fantastic - Newcastle kit designers take note), to the game itself and the amazing yet subtle shift in dominance from Germany to Japan, leading to that rousing finish and all the pundits shouting about Germany's right back. And what a game it sets up with Spain on Sunday. Real shit or bust stuff for the Mannshaft.

Belgium v Canada last night was a real treat too. I'd assumed I'd be tuning in to a Spain v Costa Rica type affair. One way traffic and no real way of telling how good the winning team actually are - because of the feebleness of opposition - but how wrong I was. Canada were ace. Vibrant, pacey, committed. They took the game to Belgium and were unlucky not to get something from it. Davies taking that penalty certainly shat his pants though.

Portugal against Ghana was god-awful for 60 minutes before coming to life and delivering 30 minutes of mayhem, I'm still a bit cross about it if I'm honest as I'd carefully organised myself to be watching the first 20 mins, racing to collect the kids and get them to swimming (whilst listening on radio), then watching on an iPad whilst they swam before a mirror image setup on the way home. It worked well but the Portuguese messed my plans by scoring the two decisive goals as I walked less than 50m to the car - the ONLY blind-spot of my coverage. Ronaldo made history by scoring at his 5th World Cup too. However much of a prick we think he is, he has done rather well, career wise, so fair play.

I'm going to get back to the telly now, as I expect Brazil will do some things that are worth seeing. If you watch it all, you get to see the diamonds as well as the rough.

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