Quarter Final Reflections

Well having been in London for the weekend I've had time to watch and reflect on the Quarter Finals. I got some of my predictions right as you can see, Portugal, France, Italy and Germany were the teams I said would get through although I didn't necessarily want France to make it and obviously hoped that Portugal wouldn't. Straight after Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty in Gelsenkirchen I text Janis with the two word message "Oh Bugger," to which she replied, "Shall we take the flags down now?" I burst out laughing at that and it will be one of the more personal images of this World Cup I carry with me.

I watched the Argentina v Germany quarter final in the Town of Ramsgate pub, it was quite an experience especially when a group of German tourists arrived to watch the extra time and penalties. It was a strange atmosphere being in an East End pub where everybody wanted Germany to win, even the old men wanted them to win, it turned out that this wasn't a sudden urge to support the old enemy but part of an agenda which involved both England and Germany getting to the final and then 1966 being repeated again.

Peckerman made a dreadful mistake with his substitutions and had to resign on Friday night as a result. Why he didn't press home the 1-0 advantage only he will know but taking off Riquelme gave the initiative to the hosts and subsequently Germany had the better of midfield but I don't think they will be able to dominate the Italian's as easily.

The after match punch-up meant that the three players who dominated the headlines over the weekend all play for Man.Utd - Heinze, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, I've tried but I can't find any Chelsea connection other than Rooney's metatarsal.





German players celebrate the
penalty shootout win.













Italy's 3-0 victory over Ukraine was the perfect example of how intelligent foreign players are compared to those born in England (but more of that later). They controlled the game against probably the worst Quarter finalists since Peru reached the equivalent stage back in 1978. They said before the tournament began that reaching the Round of 16 was their goal and they played this match as if it interfered with their travel arrangements back to Kiev. Buffon, Zambrotta, Pirlo and Gattuso have been superb throughout the tournament and I can't wait for Tuesday night to watch them against Ballack, Frings and co.

And so to the big one...................................











Carvalho tries inserting his penis between the blades of Rooney's boots whilst Wayne is still wearing them.

Okay you can blame Rooney, you can blame Sven, you can blame Tony Blair but one thing that shouted loud and clear from this tournament and especially this game is that, whilst we are told week in week out by those with a vested interest that we have four or five World class players in the team, we don't have any chance in major competitions until we become more flexible in our tactics. Our top players either can't or don't want to play anything other than a 4-4-2 system, unlike the Italians who have evolved from the famous catanaccio through zonal marking to the present 3-5-1-1.

For people like Six, Rev Shed and others (including myself as argued on 606 and 5News Board) this match was the vindication of two things, firstly Owen Hargreaves was a good choice and secondly why Jenas and why no Bent? Sven obviously didn't trust Walcott, doesn't believe that Crouch is good enough and couldn't get Lampard and Gerrard into the same set-up. In future Rooney must play behind Dean Ashton or Darren Bent, preferably Deano because he is better than Bent at bringing players into the game.

We should be playing 3-1-4-1-1 with Terry, Ferdinand and Dawson at the back, Hargreaves or Carrick in the holding role, Gerrard and Ashley Cole as wing backs, with Lampard and Joe Cole in the central roles and then Rooney behind the main striker. You can argue that 4-4-2 is tried and tested and that England are happy with it but we don't win playing that way, have a look at how the four semi finalists line-up, each one has a holding player and a player in the hole behind the front player.

You can't fault the England players for their effort either, although for Frank Lampard this was a tournament to forget and I don't think that Peter Crouch, Rio Ferdinand or John Terry had a good competition either, it also struck me that Paul Robinson's handling was a little suspect at times. We played badly at the start and didn't get better. On the plus side Ashley Cole, Stevie G, Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole all had a good World Cup and Aaron Lennon looked promising whenever he came on. Gary Neville was Gary Neville and both Michael Carrick and Jamie Carragher looked like a good Premiership players rather than World Cup quality. David Beckham, David James and Sol Campbell have probably played their last International games and the jury is still out on Stewart Downing.



And what's your name son?







In 1996 I had a client who was involved with the England set-up and he came back one day from being a guest of the FA raving about this 17 year-old who wasn't part of the squad but who was somebody Terry Venables had brought to training before the opening match. This player, who I knew about from the West Ham Youth team had made just one league appearance at the time, kept the senior players entertained with his ball skills and his general attitude about learning from players like Tony Adams and Gareth Southgate. He's now made five appearances in his second World Cup, making a total of 52 caps - I just wonder if Theo Walcott will develop in the same way as Rio Ferdinand did. The season after Euro 96 Rio was loaned out to Bournemouth for 10 games before coming back to West Ham where he played in 50 of the next 65 games. Given that Arsenal have paid £7 million for Tomas Rosicky I think Theo Walcott needs to go somewhere on loan next season otherwise his football development will be stunted before it's had the chance to grow.


And the old men go marching on............................

Well I said I wanted Brazil to win but I also said that I had a horrible feeling France would win (okay they can't beat Ukraine on pens in the final) and I have to say that France wanted this more than their opponents.

I can't forgive Henry for what he did against Spain but he was superb in this match and his movement, speed of thought and interplay with Ribery and Zidane was the best football of the competition so far. There was one passage of play just after France scored where you just had to applaud it - it was thebeautifull game at its most beautiful.

At this rate I might even have to get my France football shirt out and wear it for the first time (I have this strange hobby of collecting football shirts on my travels or getting people to buy them for me but not wearing them).

And what of Brazil? Well it's goodbye to Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Juninho and Gilberto Silva and possibly big Ronnie. Still when you have Cicinho, Robinho and Fred to come in the future is bright and yellow. And what happened to Kaka and Ronaldinho?