Quarter Final 2006 (part 2)

What a magnificant day for football!

The French were sublime, graceful, powerful and convincing and they swept the Brazilians off the pitch tonight. I'm sure the Brazilians will find something to moan about but to my mind they can have little to say. Ronaldinho just didn't turn up, Ronaldo is too fat, sorry I mean, Ronaldo wasn't allowed to run, and Roberto Carlos was there somewhere I believe, I just didn't see much of him, and that is not a team that deserves to proceed to the semi finals. The French on the other hand showed us what real football looks like when it's played properly! Vierra played a blinder and as for Zidane, well what can I say, he's not finished yet despite everyone's predictions. However it was Henry that really surprised me, we are so used to not seeing him perform in big matches that when he does play it reminds us of just how special he is. I enjoyed this game immensely.

As for the previous game well it would appear that Wayne Rooney's foot has made yet more headlines. I've watched the pictures more than a few times at this stage and while initially I was convinced he had been hard done by and I really felt sorry for him, now I'm not so sure. I think that he must of known that his foot was hanging around Carvahlio's groin and he really shouldn't have dragged it back like that... However as our loveable pundits on RTE pointed out only Wayne Rooney can tell us if there was an intention to stamp or not. Regardless it was an unfortunate incident, but strangely not one that drastically changed the shape of the game. It was Beckham's removal from the game that made the best impact on the English. I'm not a fan of them as I'm sure you may have guessed, not because I'm particularly anti English, more because of the nonsense that goes on in the English media about 40 years of hurt and all that crap, so to see them go out is always a little sweet! However you're not going to fancy them in a penalty shoot out situation, not with their track record, and although they played better in the second half than in any other part of the competition, they remain as a team just not good enough. Granted I'll accept that they should be good enough, but it seems that the moral fibre to succeed under pressure is an element that they just don't have. It'll be very interesting to see what McClaren will do with them now that Sven Gormless is gone. I have wondered to myself how much influence McClaren has had on the team in this competition considering that Sven really had no reason to care, he was on the way out anyway, with 5 million in his pocket, why should he give a crap? Anyway only time will tell. What they really need is to have a major overhaul on the squad and the way they approach these competitions, but it's doubtful that that will actually happen.

All I hope now is that Germany doesn't win, only because they're in our group for the European qualifications and I don't fancy having to meet the World Cup Champions as we endeavour to rebuild our national team spirit... Role on the Semi Finals!