The Three Dads World Cup Wonderland

 I've sat, laying low, hoping (successfully) that Stevie would take up the slack and give a measured view of the semi-final. He did that with spades. Thank you Stevie for another fantastic tournament of blogging, made all the sweeter by you actually being there! I'll be honest, I'm a bit stunned. I bought a bottle of bubbles intended for the Norway game. I didn't open it, as I was sure we'd progress. And so it waited, on ice, for Argentina. But as I came to open it on Wednesday, I decided against it. I was sure there was more to come. It was on ice for the final. The sorry, sorry tale of my bubbles.  Now, I should set things straight.  1) I love the World Cup 2) I am fine But, I am really disappointed. I sincerely believed this time, something I rarely get drawn into. I thought Tuchel was different. However, the warning signs that appeared (playing Rice despite him being bedridden for 3 days before the QF, playing Kane for 90 mins over and over despite his work bein...

48 hours on from the gut wrenching exit in Atlanta, and still no word from Birchy. It appears he has dropped deep into the blogosphere darkness à la Harry Kane. Two things gave me real joy this summer: (1) residing in a country hosting a World Cup and (2) residing in a country 3,000 miles away from the recriminations. I said it before the tournament, Tuchel was on a hiding to nothing. Tasked with being the “winner” that Southgate could never be, he was only going to be deemed a success if he literally won the World Cup. There is no higher bar.  But before we face the reality that as the (at best) fourth best team in the tournament we will inevitably finish err fourth, let’s dissect the game where it all ended. In a pang of self pity, I found myself watching back the 2nd half of the game - without the heartache and anxiety. I didn’t watch the first half, no need. Argentina had prepared for the game by watching videos of Becks and Rooney losing their cool. Easy win - just wind them u...

 A quick post in between both semi finals. After boringly ploughing through the tournament, Spain spectacularly came to the boil at the right time in a tournament and produced an amazing commanding performance over France. Yes, that same team that looked frankly unbeatable all month and nobody could see losing, I had a feeling that they could come unstuck here.  Spain simply took the ball and barely gave it back, demonstrating great composure and control throughout, anchored by the man mountain of Rodri in the middle of everything. All of a sudden, it became a simple game where Lucas Digne was asked to mark Yamal, and the outcome was quite predictable. Which takes me to England and my increasing nerves. After lots of talk about Argentina being beatable, comes the glaring realization we’re coming up against the greatest ever player in a World Cup semi final. Oh my. This will need to be done the hard way. Put aside his walking, the FIFA and refereeing love-in, etc, - great playe...

 It's crunch time. And we are involved. The nation is expectant. Scouts is cancelled. The kids can go to school wearing red and white. Whilst this is, of course, a text-book set-up for them to feel the crushing disappointments that the rest of us have endured for, well, our whole lives - this time it IS different. We have a resilience, and to a degree, some humble-ness. The game against Norway was a strange one. We started exactly how I hoped we would, in control, patient, conserving energy. But somewhere along the line it all went weird and we pretty much thrashed around, waiting for Bellingham to do something awesome. I've been really confident about England's chances - I thought we were set up to perform as a sum of our parts, but it hasn't quite clicked properly yet. But there is time, and our game against Argentina is going to be epic I am sure. They, with us, are on the 'scraping by' side of the draw; whilst attention tonight is upon the 'brushing ever...