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The Yanks aren't my only pick to pull off a potential shock. Having seen Japan destroy Denmark with three great goals worthy of any World Cup, I feel the Blue Samurai could be a match for absolutely anyone in the competition and could claim a major scalp if underestimated. Let's look at the evidence: Two group stage wins and one very narrow and unfortunate defeat against a Holland side that are amongst the favourites to win the thing. Even that match may have ended differently had it not been for the curse of the Jabulani! Also, lest not forget their last warm up game against England, when they were only guilty of beating themselves (2 oggys remember) rather than being outclassed by a supposedly better team.
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Speaking of England, our boys finally got it together and put in a relatively decent performance (let's face it, they could hardly have played much worse than in the Algeria game could they?) to secure a win over Slovenia and qualification for the last 16 against Ze Germans! I'll leave it to the tabloids to get caught up in the xenophobic, offensive and embarrassing anti-German rhetoric and stick to talking about football. England certainly have the players to beat Germany and for me, go in as slight favourites. No, I'm not writing them off (NEVER write off the Germans!!!) but I feel that Wednesday's win ought to spark some life into the players and mean they should go out there with no fear. This isn't the best German side we've seen over the years and with arguably a better manager than them for once, they are there for the beating.
If it goes to penalties though, we're screwed. It's in our DNA not to win those damned things.
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It also turns out that England weren't the only ones to finally show up in their third game of the tournament. Take a bow Slovakia. Had they performed like that in the first two games, they would be the ones facing Japan rather than the prospect of a guaranteed loss against the Dutch next week.
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Some people seem to be rejoicing in the apparent demise of the Italian football team. Not me. While the French implosion was something of catastrophic genius, the image of one the greatest centre backs in a generation – Fabio Cannavaro – cutting a forlon figure and almost close to tears as he trudged off the pitch following what was to be his final ever international match was a sad sight. Many may rejoice in the Azzurri's poor showing at a tournament but as someone who grew up watching one of the best national sides of the last few decades and one of the strongest domestic leagues in the world (despite it's unfair stereotype of being labelled as 'boring'), I don't think I speak with hyperbole when I say that I feel as though a piece of my childhood has died seeing how poor Italian football has become both at club and international level.
Yeah, sure Inter are current European Champions but with such a scarcity of actual Italian players in their team, is it really a victory for Italian football? I for one am hoping that Lippi's replacement Cesare Prandelli Can go some way to helping restore the team's once lofty position on the world stage.
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Three points for New Zealand. Unreal. Hold your heads high my Kiwi brothers!
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Given their unconvincing performances during the group stages, you have to wonder if talk of Spain being favourites for this competition has been premature. Far from being the dominant force everyone expected them to be, they may have a fight on their hands if they are to add World Trophy to Euro Trophy in their trophy cabinet.
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Watching Brazil earlier, I have to say that seeing Julio Baptista coming into the team as Kaka's replacement rather than Ronaldhino killed me a little inside. Incidentally, a French idiom for orgasm is La Petite Mort – the 'little death'. However, what you get watching the aforementioned Baptista play must be what the exact opposite of an orgasm feels like.
What we're missing out on
Sticking with sexual response cycle metaphors, after all the hype ahead of the two most exciting football teams coming together (no pun intended), did that 90 minutes between Portugal and Brazil not represent the ultimate footballing anti-climax?
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While nobody involved in that game covered themselves in any glory whatsoever, not all of them are constantly being lauded as being the 'best player in the world'. Yes, Mr. Cristiano Ronaldo, I'm looking at you.
Once again, the Portuguese superstar fails to actually perform for Portugal. In fact, if you only watch international football, you wouldn't believe he was even the same player that has run both the Premier League and La Liga ragged in recent years and been spoken of in the same breath as the likes of Thierry Henry, Marco van Basten and his predecessor in the Portugal number 7 shirt, Luis Figo. On the evidence of his international games, such talk is nonsense. His scrappy and fortunate strike in his team's 7-0 thrashing of Korea DPR was his only goal in 15 games for his country and his first since February 2009.
CR7? CRap more like!
(Cue a tournament winning run of form and record number of goals from hereon in)
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