World Cup so far

I've been eager to post my views on the 2006 World Cup for quite sometime but the late night matches have caused me serious sleep deficiency, resulting in work piling up, etc.

Well, how has it been so far?

The neutral me have enjoyed some of the matches but there were equally as many which were extremely boring, especially those involving England. I wished they have been booted out earlier for providing such lousy entertainment to the world, despite all the HYPE!!! So who is it to blame on England's exit? I think both players and the manager should share the blame - Eriksson for sticking to the disfunctional formation; the players for under performing.

First, Eriksson has made a serious mistake in the choice of strikers. Taking two unfit strikers and one teenager who has not even started a game in Premier League is a recipe for disaster. That leaves Crouch as the only fit striker. Considering Crouchy has not scored a single goal for Liverpool in the first half of the EPL season and his lack of striker's instinct, that leaves England with no reliable striker. That was the biggest mistake by Eriksson. How do we expect England to win without scoring goals? In the end it has been proven as England had only scored a handful of goals and none of them coming from Owen or Rooney. Walcott did not even made it to the pitch, what a waste for including him in the team.

Then Eriksson has chosen to stick with an overcrowded midfield made up of big names even though most have significantly underperformed. I still remember how Downing and Lennon changed the flow of the game between England and Paraguay when they came on as substitutes.

Frank Lampard has more than 20 shots on goal but scored none. It was a highly unusual statistics considering that he scored so frequently for Chelsea. Perhaps he was not wearing a blue jersey? His penalty against Portugal was poorly taken as well.

Steven Gerrard has only managed a few sparks throughout the whole tournament, scoring two goals but otherwise disappointing.

David Beckham, in my opinion, has been very disappointing despite scoring a decisive free kick against Ecuador. I think he made a wise decision of quitting as England captain.

The only thing I could remember about Rooney is his sending off in the game against Portugal. I thought he has managed to keep his head after numerous warnings and advice from Fergie, but apparently he is still as hot headed as he used to be.

Despite all these, Aaron Lennon and Owen Hargreaves have been impressive.

As for Portugal, I thought they deserved the win over England as England has yet again proven themselves to be awful at penalties. Ricardo dived in the right direction in all four occassions. Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher has shown little confidence in their penalty kicks and deserved to lose the game for England.

I am quite worried about Christiano Ronaldo's future with Manchester United after Rooney's red card incident. I hope MU fans will put their club's interest before their nation as MU needs a great player like Ronaldo. He has had a great World Cup so far and it will be a pity for MU to lose such a great player in this manner.

Enough of the over-hyped England, let me move on to Brazil.

I think they deserve to lose against France. Brazil had look out of sorts this time around. Ronaldinho looked ordinary against his "Best Footballer of the Year" award. I hope Zidane will continue his wizardry on the field and give Portugal a run for their money.

As for Germany vs. Argentina, I felt for Argentina as they are such a good team. What a pity both teams have to meet as early as quarter final. The game could have gone either way as Germany has been very impressive in this tournament thus far. I guess Pekerman lost it for the Argies through his lousy substitutions. As for Klinsmann, he seems to have the Midas touch in making substitutions. All of them have managed to transform the game and deliver the results.

Italy vs. Germany? Well Italy is Italy. It is a hard game to call, but I think Germany has the home advantage.

It's going to be Euro from now onwards.

I'll be watching the Final from Sydney on the 9th. Hope it'll be a cracking game whichever teams are playing.