Over-hyped and underperforming – that’s the consensus on England. Moving on, Holland and Brazil are in action on Monday, and Paddy can’t see anything but wins for the two favourites.
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Robbed we woz! Robbed of the delusion that England were ever serious challengers that is. The use of goal-line technology would have seen England tie things up at 2-2 just before half-time but since there’s no technology which could give John Terry, Matthew Upson and Gareth Barry an extra five yards of pace or make Steven Gerrard play like he actually enjoys football, there can be few complaints from England fans. The only time I remember seeing Gareth Barry was when he was hopelessly trying to hack down Ozil as the German cruised past him to set up Germany’s fourth goal.
Over-hyped and underperforming was the general consensus of the pundits on both sides of the water. Germany did look good, though I can’t help remembering how good England made Algeria look. Ozil in particular has impressed and if he continues to shine, then who knows how far Germany can go.
They face Argentina next, a tough but far from impossible task. I may have gotten the England game all wrong but my 3-1 on Argentina made it a profitable day after all. Messi still hasn’t scored, in fact he looked out of sorts after receiving more close attention from Mexico but he wasn’t needed to shine. When his side need him I think he’ll come good. The defence is still suspect but who cares if you concede one as long as you can score three? Germany look like they could score more than just the one though.
Today’s action looks pretty straightforward but that’s not to say it will be.
Holland are about right at 4/9 to win in 90 minutes and if the cameo we saw from Robben at the end of the Cameroon win is a sign of things to come from him, then Holland -1 goal at 11/10 will be a very good bet. This hasn’t exactly been the World Cup of consistency though. Slovakia are game but limited and their only real chance in this one is if the men in orange fail to show up. The return of Robben should inject enough life into the Dutch attack for them to ease in to the quarter-finals.
Dirk Kuyt (right) may not be the most elegant player they have in their squad but he has a habit of coming up with important goals. At 15/8 to score anytime you could buy a few Babyruths with your winnings.
Who will Holland face though? That’s the question. Brazil. That’s the answer. Chile are a side I’ve fancied as something of a dark horse from the start but Brazil are the team to beat for me. With the return of Kaka, amongst others, to the line-up, the lacklustre display against Portugal will be forgotten about and Dunga can go back to modelling another shocking coat. He’s no Mourinho in the fashion stakes, that’s for certain.
Dodgy clobber aside, Dunga will be confident of negotiating his way past his fellow South Americans. I don’t see this one ending scoreless, in fact I fancy both sides to hit the net. Luis Fabiano is 7/2 to score first, Kaka is 12/5 to score in 90 minutes and over 2.5 goals is evens.
Another day of entertaining action awaits, let’s hope a few winners do too.
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