The Second Round, Not The Round of Bloody Sixteen

Just where has this World Cup gone? It's already 2/3s over in terms of games, over halfway in terms of days left and over half of the teams that started have gone home to vilification (France and Italy), jubilation (New Zealand) or torture chambers. (North Korea and possibly those dodgy Swiss)

Anywho, enough living in the past, onwards to the recent present and immediate future. Earlier today, Uruguay beat South Korea in a largely uninspiring game, save for that magnificent goal by Suazo, who got 49 goals in 50 games for Ajax last season, if you hadn't heard for the 1 millionth time! In other news, my new favourite team, Ghana, beat the US through two outstanding goals.

What I like about Ghana is they retain their identity, despite all the marketing and commercial bollocks the World Cup has now become, and are unafraid to show their raw emotions in victory or defeat. Note the running around with the Ghanaian flag at the end of today's game. Plus, this blogger's neighbour is Ghanaian and it's a joy to hear his celebrations at the final whistle. Although, on a sadder note, its disappointing to see the tactics of time wasting and feigning injury are present with the Black Stars.

Now, onto the big one tomorrow. I can't buy the optimism that surrounds the English media and the majority of fans right now. We squeezed through in a poor group, scoring only two goals and the team, albeit looked better in places on Wednesday, appear to have no confidence in their own belief that was so evident in the qualifiers. There are so many things that need to go our way; Rooney suddenly hitting form, Lampard showing up in a major, international competition for the first time since 2004, hoping Germany's inexperienced and young team are overawed and so on.

It's to say we don't have a chance but a lot of luck has to go our way and I personally will be going into the game tomorrow with a view that we will not be going further in this competition. Avoid disappointment by setting low goals ya see? I'll go a 2-1 win to the Germans and lots of xenophobic stereotypes in the red tops over the next three days.

Finally, my tips to win the thing, the ones that started badly but working their way to top gear: Spain who will play Brazil in the final in a match billed as the neutrals final but will descend into a farce full of diving and gamesmanship