I’m absolutely gutted for Darren Bent. It’s just been officially confirmed by the FA that Bent hasn’t made the 23-man England squad for the World Cup.

Despite the fact that Darren has scored 24 Premier League goals this season, playing in every one of Sunderland’s games, Fabio has opted to take Emile Heskey instead… a strange decision considering Mr Capello’s assertion that he “will pick players based on form”. I’m not sure how 3 league goals constitutes good form, but there you have it.

Darren tweeted this earlier:

Am gutted. But thank you for all your support this season.

I really hope Benty can overcome the disappointment and prove his doubters wrong (again) by banging more goals in for us next season. Keep your chin up DB.

Tags: Darren Bent,England,football,World Cup
Categories: Sport
No Comments »

Wow! England 14-9 France

Not the prettiest game, but England’s gutsy performance against France tonight had plenty of drama. After Josh Lewsey’s second minute try, we struggled a bit and went in 6-5 down at half time. There were a few nail-biting moments in the second half, the pick of the bunch being Joe Worsley’s last ditch tap-tackle that saved a certain try with just ten minutes to go.

Although he hadn’t had the best of games, it was that man again – Jonny Wilkinson – who made the difference in the last five minutes, firstly kicking a penalty to put England two points ahead, then kicking a lovely drop goal to put us within reach of the final. France had possession as the 80th minute ticked over and it was quite nerve-wracking watching those final couple of minutes. We held on though and will now face the winner of South Africa v Argentina in the final.

After losing 36-0 to South Africa in our opening game, most people had written us off. Australia had described us as “the worst Wrold Champions ever!”. However, after a superb win against the Aussies last week and tonight’s victory against the hosts in their own backyard, we have every chance of becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Cups. Come on England!

Tags: England,Jonny Wilkinson,rugby
Categories: Sport
No Comments »

Well, what to say… I’m absolutely gutted that England have been knocked out of the World Cup

We haven’t performed throughout the group games and again against Ecuador, but I always believed that our squad was/is the best we’ve had for about 16 years and that they’d come good. Unfortunately it was another laclustre performance against Portugal. That said, after Rooney was (stupidly) sent off, the players battled hard and put in a fantastic “backs to the wall” performance. I thought Peter Crouch was especially effective once he came on – he held the ball up well and put in 100% in what was a difficult role as a lone front man in a ten-man team. Owen Hargreaves also deserves a mention for the effort he put in.

It would be easy to blame Rooney for getting himself sent off; it was a very stupid thing to do, reminiscent of Beckham’s red card against Argentina in 1998. Maybe the sending off wouldn’t have happened if Cristiano Ronaldo hadn’t remonstrated with the referee? You could blame the penalty takers – Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher – as their penalties were fairly poor. What about Sven? I still can’t fathom out why we persisted with that 4-5-1 formation. At the end of the day though, it doesn’t do any good picking out individuals for blame. Portugal beat us and we are out of the 2006 World Cup at the quarter final stage. It’s very hard to take, but there you go.

I don’t want to be bitter, but I do hope either Brazil or France stuff Portugal in the semi final

My prediction: hosts Germany to win.

Tags: England,football,World Cup
Categories: Sport
2 Comments »

I got back from Hamburg yesterday – what a fantastic place!

The Germans have done an amazing job as World Cup hosts this year. Their “Fan Fest” in the St. Pauli area was great. As well as the huge screen that I watched the England match on, there was an artificial beach complete with palm trees and sun loungers, the biggest table football game I have ever seen (about 30ft long), a goal scoring competition and more bars than you can shake a big stick at. The goal scoring thing was like the Soccer A.M. “Fans of the Week” shooting competition. Even in my big brown boots I managed to score two out of six and won €5 – and it was a pretty small target! And yes Kev, I am still banging on about my shooting ability

The night life was superb, especially on the Reeperbahn. This is a long street in the St. Pauli district filled with bars, restaurants and more than the odd dodgy sex shop. One of the most famous side streets off the Reeperbahn is Große Freiheit, home to “Indra”, the first club that The Beatles played in Hamburg back in 1960. The residents and tourists were treated to some superb entertainment when Kev and I did a set in the nearby “Thai Vase” karaoke bar that John, Paul, George and Ringo themselves would have been proud of

I have added quite a few photos to my gallery, so feel free to have a look at those. There are a few small videos from the Argentina v Ivory Coast game too.

Tags: England,football,Germany,Hamburg,Kev,World Cup
Categories: Sport, Travel
No Comments »