Plenty to debate after our weekend dip into the knock out round waters. Forget disallowed goals and almost penalties the most important question from that Brazil game, is who dresses Phil Scolari? If he is such bessie mates with Neymar then could the young sprite, with his unsanctioned underpants not given him some fashion tips? For once Mr TLF joined me for a whole game and he was particularly horrified by the overly tight polo shirt and the really badly cut trousers. I know you have a whole nation’s expectations to manage Phil but there must be a mirror in your hotel room? Use it!
Mr TLF’s presence on the Chez TLF terraces (the sofa) might of course have had something to do with his financial speculation on the outcome of the game. I suppose I should be grateful as I wasn’t sure whether there was going to be any embracing at all of the global fiesta on Saturday morning when my cheery, “its ok, the football is back today,” was greeted with a grunt that translated to, “leave me alone. It is ridiculously early and I know that if you are not reading about football, or sticking stickers in your sticker book, you will be watching football. ALL weekend.”
Of course once we were in the bookies, it seemed rude not to have a small wager, especially when the odds on Chile were so good and Mr TLF had bet on Brazil. Of course any regular reader will know that me betting on a team is generally the kiss of death and so it proved (sorry boys). Although I was sorry to see my stake go up in smoke…no there wasn’t a BBQ (BOOM!) it was still a great match to watch. Chile put up a fantastic challenge with goalkeeper Bravo patrolling his goal brilliantly (I’m not sure if his sister Juliet was there as well -that’s one for the older reader…) and Sanchez frequently unnerved the Brazilian defence. Although not as much as the state of his shorts unnerved me – I really hope that ‘hitch your right leg(?) of your shorts as high up as you can’ look doesn’t catch on. Howard Webb certainly wasn’t unnerved and in some ways it is probably best that Brazil did win, otherwise he would have needed smuggling out of the country. The penalty shoot out was heart-breaking. For once a pundit got it right when Mr Hansen talked about the chasm between joy and despair.
The ITV pundits were certainly getting it wrong yesterday with their on the beach look being even more worrisome than the aforementioned shorts malarkey. The standout disaster was undoubtedly Mr Chiles’s khaki ensemble with the classic shorts n socks crime. Fortunately our attention was diverted from that and his sweaty pits by Martin O’Neill’s slightly apoplectic, hugely entertaining and not unjustified response to the slightly fawning feature on tactical genius Louis van Gaal (copyright Louis van Gaal).
Whatever you or indeed Martin may think about Louis he certainly got his tactics right, with the change in formation and substitutions. And yes you can analyse that Robben fall/dive that won the penalty from 452 different angles but that is still 451 more than the ref has. Even though I don’t have their shirt, I did feel for Mexico though. The sixth time they have missed out on the quarter-finals in the last 6 World Cups. That sucks in 32 different ways.
We saw our first cooling breaks yesterday as temperatures in the stadium went over 38 degrees. It is clear that the coaches did use this for tactical advice, but to hear Glenda Hoddle banging on about how teams have played in hot weather for years was a bit tedious. I think if the fans aren’t taking their seats in an effort to escape the sun then it’s a bit of clue regarding conditions. It’s called PROGRESS Glen.
I’m afraid the two 9pm games were beyond me and so I had to wait for the highlights to see J-Rod’s wonder strike for Colombia. Their game against Brazil should be a cracker. Penalty heart break for Greece – yet another team who were made to rue a spurned last minute opportunity. Still, it is lovely to see that the expected ‘whipping boys’ of Group D have made it to the quarter finals.
Evidence for TLF that heart should never rule head, with only two out of four of my ‘heart predictions’ made it and I’m down to one shirt…well technically two as I have got the home and away colours of Holland. Today sees a bit of an African-European axis going on and to be honest I don’t mind who wins. I’d just like NO penalties because I am not sure the blood pressure can take it.
Robbin’ Fox
WEEKEND RESULTS
Brazil 1 Chile 1 aet Brazil win 3-2 on penalties
Colombia 2 Uruguay 0
Holland 2 Mexico 1
Costa Rica 1 Greece 1 aet Costa Rica win 5-3 on penalties
TODAY’S FIXTURES
5pm
France v Nigeria
9pm
Germany v Algeria
For one week only – Dr Pam
No recipes this week. Instead let’s welcome Dr Pam, self-help expert from The Sun, who has come up with a series of tips to help ensure that your relationship doesn’t suffer during the World Cup. They are, as you can imagine very imaginative and helpful and so I feel duty bound to share:
Try scoring
“If you haven’t had any attention for a long time, take a hot shower, parade in front of your transfixed partner allowing your towel to drop accidentally. You might find the action moves to the bedroom.”
Phrase of the day – Spanish
NóQue solo tenia diez hombres
We only had ten men
Site of the day – I commend to you this blog about football and World War 1..Tres topical
http://thefootballhistoryboys.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/footballers-at-war-world-war-i.html