Scott7

I like the two new CBs - the old ones would have lost at least one goal. Tav didn’t go to summer school defenders’ classes. Morelos a shadow of the player he was at the start of last season, he obviously jouked the target practice. By the middle of the second half he was hiding out on the wings leaving an empty penalty box. Ejaria knows how to play. Middleton looks like a Rangers player.

Excellent statement by the OO. Wonder who their PR guy is.

Great sde to watch in their V neck jerseys. The style of the shirt you posted is just the style Rangers should be wearing.

Iniesta, Modric and de Bruyne + any eight others.

I remember an old guy on the ‘bus after the game saying five breakaways. He was a communist from Greenock btw who had studied at Ballioll College Oxford and was working as a University librarian. Not many like that at the fitbaw. Best memory of Gilzean is him leaping high above fellow Hotspur, Maurice Norman, to head the winning goal, Hampden 1964.

Pete #1299 above is spot on but I think Defoe would be an exception. His head isn’t as big as the others’.

The 1-5 game was agony. Gilzean was a terrific centre forward in two cracking teams, Dundee at that time actually better than the Hotspurs. As for the Wolves final, why yes, I remember it well. Wanted Wolves and Derek Dougan to win it.

Reminiscent of celtic’s triumphal march to some final or other in Lisbon, I think it was. But I hope England win it, not for the tv-watching, pizza-eating, lager-swilling, sofa-sitting girlies and their gloopy blokes who’ve never climbed a terrace in December in their lives and not for the studio blabberers but for the thousands who every weekend travel from Sunderland to Bournemouth, from Dover to Wrexham to watch unfancied teams and for the players themselves. They seem to be a decent enough lot. No Beckhams or other Fauntleroys. The football purist would say Belgium deserve it.

They play quite good football, though, do they not? By that I mean proficient at control of the ball and passing it to a chap in the same side with a philosophy of trying to attack the opposition goal rather than spoiling and waiting for something to turn up. I don’t know about their tactical flexibility, pitch geography awareness, nor the strength of their sports psychology but no team with Modric and Rakitic in it is poor.

Belgium 2-1 Brazil. Old fashioned, exciting football especialy when the Belgians tired after seventy minutes and Brazil came on to a game. Belgium have scored the two best goals of the tournament, the winner against Japan and the second tonight.

At last, a proper game of football.

Fixed that. This afternoon’s game a waste of a couple of hours.

Nothing wrong with British Racing Green.

My recent cars have been white, black, black and silver. I would have agreed with Pete until Gaffer put us right.

Heard it was Neil Lennon, Martin O’Neil and Henrik Larsen. 2-1 majority decision, apparently.

Impressed by Uruguay and Croatia, disappointed by Argentina and Germany.

Croatia v Denmark started well but it’s fallen away to mediocrity. Some matches haven’t achieved even mediocrity.

Spain v Russian never a penalty. Might liven up a borefest.

At the end of the Today programme this morning on R4 I tried to switch to R5 for the football news but being a doddering old goat I poked the wrong button and got Radio Porridge instead. By the time I realised what I’d done I was committed to other activity and couldn’t switch back immediately so I heard some domestic trivia then a report about the Annapolis shooting. Nothing strange about that except it was delivered by a RTE reporter. This morning and yesterday I had already heard reports from BBC and US reporters. Why did PQ chose an RTE journo one wonders? Did they have to pay the broadcast equivalent of lineage? I’m sure they could have got the London stuff free.

Were the players not moaning early last season that Pedro’s training made them tired?

Has he gone yet? What are they talking about if they’re still speaking?

Germany out. They were dreadful. No plan or if there was one, nobody knew how to execute it. No speed of thought or movement. In fairness, no luck either. A Rangers-like performance. And another thing, if your hairstyle is immaculate after an hour you’ve not done enough.

I’ve said it before. The only man who could have strengthened the Iron Curtain. Scorer of a thunderbolt goal in November glaur and mirk at Ibrox to make it 2-2 after championship contenders,Hearts, had led 0-2. (Johnny Hubbard scored the first goal in a 5-3 victory. Make sure you read his book.

Perhaps the SFA will import Dublin counsel to chair the tribunal. Actually, I wish they would. We’d be more likely to get an impartial disposal.

Who wrote that rubbish? England thundering into the next round and on form like that could win the whole thing. Slaughtering diddies is a sign of a good team and nobody else is managing it except maybe Russia.