Spoke too soon

It's taken me a couple of days to recover from the abject performance by England against Algeria on Friday. It was truly one of the worst team performances I have seen. Things need to change if they are to beat Slovenia on Wednesday and progress to the next stage of the competition.

Other games have been more exciting, whether it was the defeat of Germany by Serbia after Klose was sent off, the battling display by USA to gain a draw after being 2-0 down against Slovenia or the strong defence by Australia against Ghana after Kewell was sent off, it seems that the competition has finally come alive.

We also have the first team to be eliminated from the competition as Cameroon's defeat against Denmark, after they took an early lead as well, means they cannot qualify for the Round of 16.

I'm now signing off for a few days as I prepare for a trip to the 40th anniversary of Glastonbury. I've not been before, although I have attended other festivals. So it's mud, music, beer and baby wipes from Wednesday onwards ... they also have a 40ft screen on which to show the England game on Wednesday afternoon :-)

And that makes three

Lukovic picks up the tournament's third dismissal in Serbia's defeat to Ghana.

His first caution came after the referee, Hector Baldrassi of Argentina, played a good advantage for Ghana in the 54th minute before going back to caution Lukovic. His second caution came in the 74th minute when he held a Ghanian attacker in midfield and the referee didn't hestitate is showing the 2nd yellow card followed by the red card.

Ghana had already been the better team and on pressing the 10 men of Serbia, they forced a stupid handball by Kuzmanovic in his own penalty area. The resultant kick from the mark was struck firmly down the middle of the goal by Gyan and Ghana were on course for registering an African nation's first win of the tournament.

Germany and Australia coming up!!!