A tale of two captains

The first of the two semi-finals is underway and it's no surprise that the early pressure comes from Netherlands as Uruguay rely on counter attacks to push upfield.

The first half had four interesting incidents. The first was an attack deep into the Dutch right back position. As the ball approached the goal line, it was stopped but the momentum of the attacker and defender carried them over the goal line, where they both fell to the ground. As the defender tried to get up and back on to the field of play, the attacker held him, so the referee stopped play and awarded a direct free kick to the defender. The ball was originally positioned about one yard upfield from the goal line but was then pushed 5 yards before the kick was taken. I wonder if the offence had been the other way around, would the referee have given a direct free kick to the attack, if necessary, awarding a kick from the penalty mark???

Shortly after this an overhead kick by a Careces of Uruguay, close to the edge of the Dutch penalty area, saw him kick De Zeeuw hard on the jaw. There was a brief coming together of players from both sides but it dissipated within a handful of seconds. A couple of cautions later, the game settled back into its intriguing contest.

We then had one of the finest goals of the tournament as Von Bronckhorst moved in from the left wing, from an amazing 41 yards from goal and let fly with a vicious shot which the goalkeeper could only stroke with his fingertips as the ball flew into the top corner of his goal (actually striking the inside of the goalpost on the way in).

This rocked Uruguay back on their heels for a few minutes and then they gathered themselves. Diego Forlan, who already had 3 goals from previous games picked up the ball around 30 yards out and hit a dipping, curling drive which deceived the Dutch goalkeeper, who was wrong footed, and he only managed to flap a hand at the ball before it crashed into the goal. So the game is well balanced and we might see more of the same in the second half.

A brief mention of the coverage of the game by ITV ... Adrian Chiles is an absolute gift to ITV and seems to have a cheery quip for every situation, not least when footage was shown of the crowds in Amsterdam and Montevideo celebrating the goals by their respective teams and some large bass drums appeared from nowhere in the middle of the Uruguayan fans. Fantastic to see ... roll on part two.

The second half took a little while to get going but then another four exciting incidents. The first was a through ball which drew the Dutch goalkeeper out of his penalty area meaning his goal was untended when Uruguay took their shot on goal. Fortunately Von Bronckhorst headed the ball clear.

A Forlan free kick was battered away by the Dutch goalkeeper before Netherlands swept back upfield. A clever interchange of passes saw a good attempt on the Uruguayan goal but then a moment of debate ...

Sneijder took control of the ball on the edge of the Uruguayan penalty area and his shot took a deflection from a defender's shin on the way through. It then passed very (and I mean very) close to the foot of Robin Van Persie, who was standing just about in an offside position when Sneijder took his shot. The assistant didn't adjudge him as interfering with an opponent and I tend to agree with that considering how far out from goal he was (about 8 yards), so he wasn't obscuring the goalkeeper's line of sight. The referee was right behind the shot as well so could also make a good call on that.

Then we had the killer blow for Netherlands as just 3 minutes after Sneijder's goal, a cross from the left was met by a cushioned header by Arjen Robben, which saw the ball spin away from the Uruguayan goalkeeper, stroke the base of the goalpost and nestle gently in the back of the net. So at 3-1 you would expect the Dutch to hold the ball and sit back but no, with just 4 minutes of normal time to play, Arjen Robben has just outrun the Uruguayan defence only to hook the ball into the outstretched hands of the goalkeeper from a couple of yards out.

Hmmm, could we have some excitement at the death? In the second minute of three added minutes, Maxi Perreira has just slipped a low left footed shot through a crowded penalty area to take the score to 3-2 and then we had another couple of minutes added by the referee. We had a period of pinball in and around the Dutch penalty area before the referee, Ravshan Irmatov blew the final whistle.

And there we go, we have the first of the finalists as Netherlands

Return to civilisation

I spent 5 days last week at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset England. The beard continued to be cultivated ...

While I was there England sneaked into the Round of 16 before being humiliated by Germany at the World Cup. I also managed to see quite a few bands and caught a couple of halves of other games at various venues around the site.

As the quarter finals have kicked off today, there's been a couple of shocks. The first came as Brazil were knocked out by Holland. As things stand at the moment (one hour played), Ghana are taking the game to Uruguay with the score at 1-1 after Muntari put Ghana ahead on the stroke of half time with a wonder strike from 35 yards, before Diego Forlan equalised with a sublime free kick.

My new season is shaping up nicely with a spot booked for me to deliver some training at the 7-6 promotion seminar at County HQ on July 22 followed by the RA-FA Meeting on August 9 at the same venue. Some of my friends have completed their PGMO fitness tests today, so well done to Bob, Andy, Ricky and Ross.

Some of the other lads have had their Supply Leagues confirmed for them and I have to admit, I'm beginning to miss being out on the green bit again. I'm sure pre-season training (starting on July 12) will knock that out of me!

Work gets in the way

I've done my best to keep up with the coverage of the World Cup by listening to the commentaries on Radio Five Live.

It's not been easy as I have to work at the same time and falling asleep is disapproved of. The games have hardly set the world alight. Yesterday, Holland eased their way past a difficult opponent in the form of Denmark. The Danes had taken the game to the Dutch for much of the first half but when they came out for the second half they conceded twice with no reply. A calamitous own goal by Daniel Agger right at the start of the half was joined by a poacher's goal by Dirk Kuyt, following up a rebound off a goal post.

Cameroon, the African team expected to make the biggest impact in tournament, fell to a goal just before half time from Honda. It was his birthday on Sunday and this was probably a great, late present.

Normal service was resumed in the evening as another draw was played out between Paraguay and Italy. Paraguay scored a well crafted goal in the first half but then a disastrous attempt by their goalkeeper to collect a cross, saw the ball fly over his head and poked in by De Rossi with a little over 5 minutes left.

And so to today ... in the lunchtime kick off Slovakia's lead was cancelled out by a New Zealand goal in added time at the end of the second half. This meant that New Zealand earned their first ever World Cup Finals point.

This brought us to the much anticipated clash between Ivory Coast and Portugal. With the prospect of Ronaldo and Drogba on the same field, it seemed that goals might flow. As things turned out, Ronaldo could do no more than hit the post and Drogba, suffering from a broken wrist, did not join the fray until late in the second half. The game then stuttered through to another 0-0 draw.

Tonight's game sees the highest ranked team playing the lowest ranked, as Brazil meet North Korea. This game should see goals, so I'll be settling down for this one in 15 minutes.