World Cup Games

Pretty sure this is the first World Cup where we've been without a draw in the first 9 games, beating the previous record of 8 (Italia 1990).

Edit: apparently not, according to the commentators (although I wouldn't be surprised if it's wrong with the amount of research they seem to have done so far) there was one at some point with no draws at all, 1950 or something I think.

Argentina game; good 2nd half made up for the dull 1st half. Brilliant play by Messi for his goal, lifted the whole team. Loved Di Maria's showboating pass too.

Decent enough game in the end up but it was great to see Messi finally get a goal. Hopefully he'll kick on now and have a great tournament. Juninho said in the post-match stuff he though Di Maria wasn't great, which I don't think could be further from the truth. He was probably the best player in the first half and played well in the second as well.

Almost hard to admit but I thought Neil Lennon was fantastic as a pundit. Alot better than the usual 'just-describing-what's-happening-on-screen' mob that the job seems to attract.

Neil Lennon is very decent as a pundit, always has been. There's no doubting he's an intelligent bloke who knows the game. If you haven't seen it already, have a look to see him getting wired into Samaras after the Greece game the other day.

Looking like an easy win for Germany. Pepe is a clown getting sent off.

Mueller hattrick, walk in the park now, 4-0.

2 decent games today.

Germany looked unbelievably good and a final between them and Holland could be something special. Müller looked deadly.

USA game ended up being pretty good with both teams really going for it in the last 20 minutes. It's just unfortunate that they have Portugal in their group who, despite today's result, you'd imagine will still go through.

Good chance of Muller being the highest goal scorer, prob only needs another 2 goals.

Yeah Germany and Holland are the two most exciting teams so far, not sure if the Dutch have it to keep playing at that level, the Germans are always steady enough to get to semi finals though. Still Germany for me but if Holland can keep it together than they wont be far away.

Argentina have the players to get there too, and if Messi gains confidence from his last performance then they'll be a team to watch.

Just don't feel Brazil are good enough, right now they'll be lucky to get to the semi's.

How Messi follows on from his goal could make or break Argentina's tournament for me. They have some great players, Di Maria looked pretty good, but they still played like they're a one man team at times against Bosnia. If Messi doesn't start to perform for 90 minutes, and Argentina continue to put as much as they can through him then teams better than Bosnia will have very little trouble beating them.

Looking at the potential route to the final, I think Argentina could manage to avoid Germany, Brazil, France and Spain until the final and Holland until the semi-finals.

Basing it on that I'd say a semi final appearance is the best Argentina can hope for with them being knocked out by Holland fairly easily, unless Messi really starts to perform.

An absolute peach from Cahill there, probably one of the best goals you'll see at this World Cup. Australia have actually looked pretty dangerous going forward so far.

Yeah. Personally, I think it's a nonsense that they had to move to Asian qualifying to have the chance to qualify without a play-off. Oceania should definitely have a guaranteed spot.

I think Australia are very, very unlucky to be on their way out of this World Cup. Playing the way they have today, and at times against Chile, I could have seen them giving a lot of the teams that you'd expect to finish second a run for their money. You can only really point to their defence as being a bit weak. Unfortunately for them their better players aren't going to be around next tournament, should they qualify. Cahill and Bresciano are both 34, Jedinak has played well at times but he's 29.

Leckie's played well aside from the awful chested pass to the 'keeper at 2-2, and he's young so maybe there is some hope for them.

Another cracking game involving Holland, shame Australia got nothing after their great performance.

Chile looked good too, very hard working team that were right on top of Spain all game. This world cup is the best for years, loving it.

Totally agree Liviforever. Even my girlfriend is interested this year. Would you say it's been the best competition this year? Often the Champions League is placed above it, but this World Cup surely must run it close.

Did anyone see the Cameroon Red Card. Could that be the 1st real no-doubter for a red card in a long time.

The Spanish deserved to go out, they were awful, it was like watching The Rangers.

Def better than the Champions league, usually just like the CL I can't really be bothered with the group stages and just want the cannon fodder out of the way, so you get the big teams involved against one another, but the WC group stages have been great.

Holland surprised me as I didn't think the had it in them to fight for a result like that, when it got difficult for them.

I think there'll be a few so called bigger Countries following Spain home in the next round, England may even follow them sooner.

I think England will win tonight. Uruguay are an overrated team (plus an unfit Suarez) and if England play like they did against Italy, they'll win.

Colombia up 2-0 against the Irory Coast, good counter attacking team, some of their long passes are amazing.

2-1 now, scored just as I posted, good game.

Adios England.




It's a kind of magic.

I think the ITV team have been a tad disingenuous to say they were beaten by a one man team. I thought Caceres and Muslera both had good games but for me Arevalo Rios was the best player on the park. Broke play down well in the middle and kept Rooney very quiet for large parts of the first half.

I have a feeling that England will be jammy enough to get through, unfortunately.

No chance, can see Italy resting up players against Uruguay if they beat Costa tonight and both Italy and Uruguay going through. Wouldn't surprise me if Costa get a draw against England too.

I think the Italy game tonight is going to be a really interesting one in terms of how good Costa Rica actually are. I don't think they'll win but if they push Italy then it might give them a lot of confidence going into the England game.

Deserved win for Costa Rica, and that's England out now.

Italy never looked like getting anything from that. Unfortunately Costa Rica will likely finish top. I say unfortunately because finishing second would have them probably playing Colombia and that could have been a great game.

England to finish with no points is a very possibility based on that performance.