Geordie Boot Boy

Well, Alonso subbed and 3 minutes left of normal time. I think it's safe to say I've lost my second and third bets of this World Cup.

Actually, scratch that. For a game involving Spain, it's been quite entertaining.

I think, for a 0-0, it's been quite entertaining tbh.

I've got a fiver on 1-1 and a speculative fiver on Xabi Alonso to score first. Fully expect to lose both.

Has Shearer ever disagreed with Hansen?

Bookies will still pay out if you have any of the 4, it will just be 1/4 of the original odds. Technically, it'd be settled as a dead heat so quarter of your stake would be settled as having won at the original odds. Slightly different to quarter the odds (which would guarantee that you weren't returned less than you put on for instance).

Schweinsteiger really is a class player.

It's a victory for inspiration over perspiration.

As if the likes of Uruguay, Spain or Holland wouldn't do a party of the same quality. Have you ever tried Dutch or Spanish beer? There's good Spanish beer, just not the mainstream brands. Amstel's areet imo. Streets ahead of Heineken. Why are the popular beers always s****? It doesn't make any sense. It's not like they're cheaper than good beers. I don't really know, except that I proper love Heineken. Me too. Probably my favourite drink TBH, ever since I went to Amsterdam and drank nothing else.

I'd agree. Carragher is tough and street wise and wouldn't have allowed himself to be muscled off the ball like that. He's also an organiser who's not afraid to open his mouth. Capello fell to the temptation of picking an unchanged side after a win. Carragher was the better option and should have been restored to the team. Aye, it's exactly the kind of decision you expect a manager as good as Capello to get right. I just wonder if, like every England manager before him seems to have done, he had one eye on how it would play in the press. If you change a winning team and the guy you put in makes a costly error, you'll get torn to bits in the papers.

Times podcast link? Do you need to be a subscriber? No, just get it through iTunes. It's called the Game. They've been doing it every day of the World Cup. The comment I mentioned was from a few days ago.

Actually think Paraguay would have given the Germans a better game! Spain play like Argentina and look vulnerable on the counter, just what this German side will love. I was thinking a similar thing. I'm actually not sure though. Ironically, because Spain aren't attacking as fluently as you might expect, they might not commit men forward quite so much and won't be so vulnerable on the counter. Plus, Germany have shown what they're about, so I doubt they'll be daft enough to play that way anyway.

Fuck fuck fuck. Villa is in every other fucker's dream team. I gambled and left him out.

One of the journalists on The Times' podcast suggested that Carragher would have fouled Klose in a way which made it look like he was the one being fouled. He may have a point TBH.

yeah but it's should only really be encroachment by the attcking side that the ref pulls up, otherwise the defending sid could run in everytime they attempt to take the pen. I don't think that's actually true. I think the deterrent is supposed to be booking repeat offenders.

What's surprising as well is it gave the ref a chance to make up for his stupid decision. I bet when he made him take it again, he was thinking "Don't miss. Don't miss. Don't miss. Aw, shit!"

My only problem with him is the way he's crowed about it since the game. For me, that's bringing the game into disrepute. I'd definitely extend the ban to keep him out of the final (or 3rd place play off).

The encroachment on the Paraguay penalty!

Ridiculous decision. What do you mean? He's a canny player. He's got me a few points so far. ...

The encroachment looked minimal on the replay. Surely, you only call that when it's obvious encroachment?! Alonso's in my fantasy team. Fuck!

Awful decision that like.

Unbelievable

Had a strong feeling he wouldn't score that.

Have you forgotten what happened here? Owen is awful now. He hasn't even been good for Man U. You are saying that based purely on reputation which is most of the reason we got so badly f***ed over by him. Reputations matter. If the defences of the group stage teams feared him, Rooney may have been given more space as the defences dropped off. He might not have done much of it or maybe he would've been more successful at playing clever passes in behind the defence. And I don't think he's awful now. He's not as good as he was but his eye for goal is still there. He was awful for us because he didn't really give a shit whereas he would for England. I think there's a fair chance his presence in the team would have improved our results. I certainly don't think it's so overwhelmingly obvious that he wouldn't that there should be as strong a consensus against him as there seems to be on here. That's really the point of my posting anything about this at all. And, as I said, I'd have backed him to have scored any of those chances (Heskey's, Wright-Phillips' and certainly Defoe's chance after half time). Considering the narrowest of margins by which we finished second, a single extra goal in any of the games could've made a huge difference.

I don't have an adopted team. I have no legitimate reason to adopt one so it'd be artificial to just decide to start supporting a team other than Newcastle and England now. I generally favour teams with my favourite players, which used to be any team containing Zidane (and Henry in his pomp). I wouldn't say I ever adopted France or Real though (or Arsenal).