FOOTBALL: GO SPANISH ARMADA!

Spain 4-0 Ukraine!

Cool result man! The biggest winning margin from the first round of matches in the group stages. They are much better than my expectations. Unfortunately, I gone out with a friend and missed the match. At least the Spanish still perform under the tremendous heat. This is probably because they are closer to the mediterranean zone than Ukraine so they were more accustomed to the heat. I hope they keep up their performance and improve further to give the tournament more things to cheer for! This definitely helps to forget the lousy French and Brazilian matches the day before.

I am glad Raul was dropped for the Villa-Torres partnership! It is time Brazil have the same courage to drop Ronaldo and put in a more deserving player like Robinho. Those two are really pathetic in form for the past 3 years. Raul especially probably is as miserable as Crouch for his 18 matches no goal record. To me, it is simple. A striker who cannot score goals is not doing his job and is not worthy of a place in the team. If they are not performing, they should be substituted as soon as possible.

I am glad Fabregas was given some part to play in the match but grow tremendously sad that Joaquin was discarded on the bench. I guess the Spanish has many good choices in the midfield area so I cannot blame the coach. There is still Albelda, Reyes and Iniesta apart from Joaquin. The team has a good balance of choices with Reina and Canizares as worthy subs for Casillas. They are probably just short at the defence and attack departments.

As for the England team, I read about the remarks of the Trinidad & Tobago coach. Leo Beenhakker insists England are little more than a dead-ball team.

'On paper England have more talent than us,' said Beenhakker.

'But in the last two matches England played they scored six times against Jamaica and once against Paraguay and five of those goals were from dead balls.'

'It's part of the game but it means they are struggling at beating opponents at playing football and creating chances.'

Germany managed a late goal from Oliver Neuville (haven't seen him for ages!) to get a win and qualify for the knock-out stages. Let's have more high scoring matches! Now comes the next few predictions:

Ecuador VS. Costa Rica 1-1
England VS. Trinidad & Tobago 1-0
Sweden VS. Paraguay 1-0
Argentina VS. Serbia & Montenegro 2-0
Netherlands VS. Ivory Coast 1-0
Mexico VS. Angola 1-0