I was glad when Germany got beat but not just for the obvious reasons you’d expect from ein Englander. Since they hammered Australia, everyone’s been sucking their teeth and shaking their heads worryingly in anticipation of another German surge to glory. Their record is something to envy, mind. Appearing in 5 out of the last 8 finals and with a couple of 3rd-place finishes along the way, they just know how to put it together in major tournaments. They did look convincing winners and it was clear their players, many of whom have underperformed for their clubs this season, are able to gel in the national set-up but it was only one game- against ten Aussies, remember– but still, national newspaper Bild were compelled to boom: “We’re going to blow you all away” and even Danny Baker appeared on a BBC panel spouting; ‘I can’t see Germany conceding as much as a corner on their way to the final’.
All that changed when Klose was- quite unjustly- sent off for accidental trips resulting from two innocuous attempts to win back the ball. Not long after, Serbia went ahead after Krasic chased a perfectly-weighted ball down the line, lobbed over a cross which proved impossible to defend against and once Jigic cushioned his header intelligently into new Liverpool signing, Jovanovic’s path, he had a real job on to miss from 3 yards.
The Germans pressed and went close several times but even when Vidic conceded a penalty for another daft handball (as in Serbia’s first game against Ghana), Podolksi’s lame saved effort affirmed that this wasn’t going to be Germany’s day. For a nice change. Good to see them get their arses kicked anyway, for the good of the tournament, not just for my sense of shadenfraude.

Podolski’s was the first penalty they’ve missed in the World Cup, either in a shoot-out or open play, since Uli Stielike missed in the ’82 semi-final (which they won 5-4 on penalties anyway, so it didn’t even matter!)
A classic game, always worth a watch if you have time…

Classy shirt the Yanks are rocking these days. A long way from their awful ‘faded-denim effect with white stars’ abomination they wore when hosting it in ’94

You don’t see many diagonally-striped shirts these days, although Man City did a fine job of resurrecting an old ’70s favourite last year.

Here’s two other fine diagonal-stripe shirts, Sheffield United away ’75-’76 and Crystal Palace home ’77-’80 (pictured left). Nice, eh?

I expected the States to win this easily so it was a shock to see Slovenia lead 2-0 at half-time. Valter Birsa hit a wonderfully-struck 25-yard opener then a second came when the US defence was carved open up the middle with 2 simple passes, Ljubijankic slotting the ball under Howard.

After the break, the Americans did a fabulous job of pulling their fingers out and getting back into the game. Landan Donovan was set free down the right, entered the penalty area and smashed one into the roof of the net from an acute angle. A great goal and typical of the US skipper, who impressed during his short stay with Everton this year. He’s a clever, quick-thinking player who often receives the ball not looking like he quite knows what to do with it, before suddenly sparking into action and having the ability to pull off what he’s opted to do.

USA got their just reward when the coach’s son, Michael Bradley ran onto an Altidore knock down to prod in an equaliser and there was absolutely nothing wrong with Edu’s late disallowed goal; nobody was offside and it was the USA players who were being wrestled and tugged. Snatching a winner may have been unfair on the Slovenians, however and a draw was probably a fair result, certainly a more palatable one for England.
Ah, yes…. England are up next…