Dark Munster

That's strange, in the game I watched the Spaniards were frustrated by the German tactics, the Germans set out to wear them down and perhaps nick a goal in extra time.

Not looking too clever at the moment? Oh yes it does, it looks brilliant. We're already 10 points better off than last year! Woo hoo!

I have been saying for ages it's unfair that the people on the DFB are much more intelligent than the twats running the FA. It's been giving the Germans an unfair advantage for years. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/8787109.stm

Nice job Andy Lombardi (and a special mention to "SAINTPHIL", "goaleycoach", "saintinuk", "3Thinker" and "moleman".) http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jul/03/soccer-mad-city-shut-out-mls/

At least some skates have a sense of humour: Cotterill: "That's difficult to do at the moment, because there are a lot of balls up in the air and we are waiting for a few to drop." Comment number 3: Waiting for balls to drop??? Just how young is our squad?

That's easy to say with 20-20 hindsight. I bet if Crouch had known, at the time, about ML he wouldn't have backed Pinnacle.

Compare this to the Sweet FA's approach to youth football: http://www.klikfc.com/article/139292:1/world-cup-2010-how-germany-planned-a-flair-revolution--paul-hayward Niersbach says that after his country's early exit from Euro 2000 "the German FA has invested an annual €20m [£16.5m] earmarked for talent promotion in the widest sense of the word. At grassroots level, a nationwide network of 366 training centres has been set up, mostly using the infrastructure of local clubs with above-average facilities, where 14,000 youngsters aged 11-14 receive extra tuition by way of a weekly two-hour training session imparted by a DFB-appointed coach. This is in addition to the training they do with their respective clubs. It is more than likely that some of them will feature in the German national team eight years from now. "Further up the line there are 46 club academies. Twenty-nine German further-education schools have been designated Elite Football Schools. Students receive a perfectly normal education, up to the Abitur granting university access, but also benefit from plenty of football as part of the curriculum. "Finally we have made sure that all the DFB's junior national teams, from U15 onwards, benefit from basically the same level of support, the backroom staff including a sports psychologist, a physical fitness coach, as well as first-rate doctors and physios. An extensive database has been set up, allowing our coaches to access information – medical data, physical test results, performance analyses, personal characteristics – for every player. Obviously, the underlying purpose of all of this is that no player with good potential shall be allowed to slip through the net."

If not, he almost certainly told that to the local organisers.

A local rag journalist is getting excited that a Premiership club is playing a friendly here in San Diego, and has 4 world cup players. I wonder who should break it to him that (a) they are no longer in the PL, and (b) they probably won't have any world cup players left by the time whatever remnants of their squad turn up? http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jul/03/soccer-mad-city-shut-out-mls/ Grasping this are Anthony Fernandez, CEO of Pazzo Sports, and Randy Phillips, president of FLIP Media and Whole Planet Media, who are bringing an unprecedented match between England’s Portsmouth and Mexico’s Club America to Qualcomm Stadium for a friendly on July 14. They hope to put on similar soccer events here twice a year. They get it. Portsmouth never has played in these parts, and Club America hardly is bush league. If you like the game, this is good stuff. “This is the first time an English premier team has come to San Diego, and Club America is one of Mexico’s storied franchises,” Fernandez says. “We have a capacity of 32,000 for this game, and we’re expecting at least 25,000. Portsmouth has four World Cup players representing various countries. We think we’ve found a niche.

Not just on the pitch, but off it too. Compare us to the Germans: who spent 6 months using the new ball in their league to get used to it? Who has perfected the art of taking penalties under pressure? Who takes a winter break to give players a chance to recover? Who learns from past mistakes? Not us.

You spelt "Emile Heskey" wrongly.

Schweinsteiger has been very good, but is playing in a good team. Forlan on the other hand has almost single-handedly taken a pretty average Uruguay team to the semis. So Forlan gets my vote for the player of the tournament (so far). WTF did Fergie do to him during his time at ManUre?

Well, if your other half is English, that half has no hope, so you might as well embrace the half that has at least a half a chance of winning.

Well, I don't think that's going to impress FIFA, who are considering extending the ban. If the Uruguayans had any sense, they'd at least pretend to show some remorse.

Being half-Dutch, I'm half offended by that. Come on you Oranje.

A bit late now. I think we can safely say that horse bolted the moment he left the FA to join Cheats FC.

It was quite depressing to see how many light years ahead of England Spain are.

Let him try. He'll be pissing in the wind.

Please go back to shooting ducks, Rupert.

Which makes me happy that he has moved: now I won't have mixed feelings if NP continues to do well.

Just a few days would have sufficed.

Yes indeed, forecasters are predicting that a huge storm will hit the P********* area on July 15th.

Heskey: 7 goals in 62 appearances. Crouch: 21 goals in 40 appearances.