OK, my earlier cynicism has changed to hopeful expectation. A hard-fought 1-0 win over the guinea-pig eaters has secured a quarter-final tussle against either Portugal or the orange inferno, Holland.
I can hardly wait!
(Following the battle of Nuremberg this evening, a depleted Portugal will take on Sven's boys)
It really does beggar belief doesn't it. The crocked Michael Owen has now returned home and we are left with the dubious aerial power of Peter Crouch, Wayne Rooney and an untried kid called Walcott. At home there's Andy Johnston, Jermaine Defoe and one or two others who are tried and tested goalscorers. And yet somehow we are expected to believe that we can power past Ecuador then either Portugal or Holland in the quarter-finals with the abovementioned trio.
Lady luck - are you there?
Not what you're thinking...........right!!
A sign alongside various mountain streams in the Pyrenees does not say "Controllled fishing, do it and we'll kill you!"
Rather, it actually says in Catalan, well loosely translated anyway............."Fish here, but please throw them back"
More on my break in France and the Spanish Pyrenees later...........
Ok, so we beat Paraguay 1-0. All very well but the second-half performance was, to say the least, a bit quiet. Heat, that terrible natural phenomenon, was responsible for the slovenely manner in which certain players went about their business. Play it in November I say.
OK, 29 degrees of heat in the cauldron of the Waldstadion in Frankfurt may not have been the best playing conditions but really...............Trinidad & Tobago next, a mouthwatering prospect that is. I shall be watching it from the luxury of my Pyrennean hotel room.
Come on England
England 2 West Germany 3 - an awful result. Too much for a young Jeremy to cope with!! Since then, every World Cup campaign has been littered with disappointment. Thank heavens I was alive in 1966, and saw, albeit in black & white, Geoff Hurst thunder home that left foot shot in extra time at Wembley.
Having suffered that 1970 humiliation (all Peter Bonetti's fault) we then had the Polish "clown" Jan Tomaszewski. He stopped everything that the England forward line could throw at him - including the kitchen sink! Our exit from the 1974 finals at the qualifying stage meant further depression for a young Jeremy and for the country at large. Mind you Margate did lift the Kent Senior Cup for the first time since the 30's a few months later. Hardly consolation.
So Scotland carried the hopes of the British Isles in Germany in 1974. They managed a 0-0 draw aginst Brazil but failed to score an adequate number of goals against Zaire and were eliminated. Scotland eliminated. That sounds so good!
The pundits tell us that the assembled English squad for Germany 2006 has a great chance of lifting the World Cup. I don't think so for a variety of reasons. I'll highlight them upon our certain demise at the quarter-final stage.
Pessimistic, moi. Never.
