Cornish Steve

It takes special ability. Whenever I've watched England games in any sport, one of three things happen: 1) England look to be cruising to an easy win and throw it all away. 2) England start disastrously, bravely fight back, but lose anyway. 3) England lose on penalties.

A couple of things really bother me on this topic. Diving. Nani against the US was the perfect example. He deliberately ran into the penalty area and then dramatically fell over. He should have received a yellow care right there but didn't. In this case, and maybe for other forms of cheating, maybe a fourth official can review incidents post-game. Should it become clear that a player cheated, then they receive a retroactive yellow or red card. Time-wasting. A couple of teams have players fall over every few seconds in added time simply to wind down the clock. Their opponents were trying so hard to move forward but had little option but to kick the ball out. Maybe, for such incidents in added time, two minutes plus the new injury time are added to the clock. In other words, penalize the teams doing this instead of letting them get away with it.

Here are the standings after the first day of Round 3. Congratulations to Geth for getting a perfect score on the Spain-Australia game. For this round, and overall, verreauxi has the lead.

Apologies in advance. This week, I have a lot of business travel planned, including some long flights. I'll be posting updates at the end of each day and not after each match.

So why chase Boney? He'll be off to ACON, too. At this point, I'd start looking at strikers from another region of the world.

Australia (1)1 Spain (0)2 Netherlands (1)2 Chile (0)1 Cameroon (0)0 Brazil (2)3 Croatia (2)3 Mexico (0)2 Costa Rica (1)3 England (1)2 Italy (1)1 Uruguay (1)3 Greece (0)0 Ivory Coast (0)1 Japan (1)1 Colombia (2)4 Bosnia H (1)1 Iran (0)1 Nigeria (0)0 Argentina (0)2 Ecuador (0)0 France (1)3 Honduras (1)1 Switzerland (1)2 Portugal (0)1 Ghana (1)3 USA (0)0 Germany (2)3 Algeria (1)2 Russia (0)1 S Korea (0)1 Belgium (2)3

On this, I agree with Nikica. Ghana really do deserve to go through, and there has to be a decent chance they will. If Germany beat the US, Ghana beat Portugal, and the swing is 3 or more goals, Ghana go through. If they fail to beat Portugal, however, of the US manage a draw against Germany, then the US go through. It's going to be interesting to watch. If Ghana do end up going through, tonight's goal from Portugal will end up being a real heart-breaker.

Wow - what a finish to the USA-Portugal match! It means that four people tied for first as we finish the second round. Congratulations to all - and to verreauxi for retaining a 10-point lead overall. Note: all predictions for the third round must be posted before the first matches kick off.

Hey, it works all ways. When I lived in England, we lived on a council estate but I wore a suit every day as I took the train to London to work. No one on the train or platform would speak to me because of where I lived (raw snobbery), but no one on the estate would talk to us because I wore a suit to work (raw inverse snobbery). Whether it's snobbery or inverse snobbery, we should stand up against it. During that time, we couldn't afford a car, so I cycled every day to the railway station. When it was chucking it down with rain, I took a bus. On one such occasion, I sat next to a white guy whom I had seen before but didn't really know. At the next stop, a West Indian lady got on the bus. The guy smiled and said "hello" to her and then leaned over to me and called her "a filthy n****r". I got off the bus in disgust and walked to the station in the rain. In retrospect, maybe I should have shamed him by loudly saying something. I'm sure, like me, you can recall many incidents along these lines. The point is that discrimination, bigotry, and snobbery come in many shapes and sizes. It's found across all social groups, so it's wrong to suggest it "depends what background you're from". Unfortunately, it's part of human nature, so we're all guilty of it in one form or another as well as subject to it. I couldn't give a toss a person's background: When something is wrong, it's wrong, and we should take a personal stand against it. Honestly, in this case I think the reaction to the fan's comments were a bit OTT. They should have been firm, yes, but a lifetime ban is extreme. Again, though, I would stress that those reading his tweet should have confronted him, no matter how much of a bully he might be. I've done this a few times, and you'd be surprised how quick some people are to back down and apologize. PS - I reread the post, and it's a season-long ban. That's much more appropriate.

4-2. An entertaining game.

This is the point I tried to make earlier. In a sense, we're cowards when we don't stand up against things that are wrong, and it does get to your conscience later. And screw the above comments against "do-gooders". While there are holier-than-thou types around, it takes guts to stand up for some things.

Miguel, all you've done in the last couple of weeks is slam Leighton Baines, slam Phil Jagielka, slam most names mentioned in transfer rumours, and most recently criticize comments made by Roberto Martinez. During the season, you moaned about James McCarthy and others. I can't remember when you actually praised someone on the Everton team. Can you not understand why some get frustrated? If you support the team, why the constant putting down of our players? We just came off the most successful season in years, but you'd never know it from your attitude.

verreauxi extends his lead overall, winning three points for this game. The race to win the second round is getting very close with just one game remaining.

Congratulations to Alguna Vez Tonelada, doc_bump, and NyarkosLeftToe for scoring three points this game. With two games to go, there remains a tie for this round. verreauxi still tops the overall leaderboard.

It seems that FIFA, unable to actually believe that Costa Rica could beat both Uruguay and Italy, have broken with their usual protocol and demanded that most of the CR team submit to urine tests to prove they didn't enhance their performance with banned drugs. Maybe I should wait for the results to come back, but this is just ridiculous.

Was it in the first game against Arsenal that he threw caution to the wind, bringing on Deulofeu in place of Baines? It depends on the game, the opponents, the momentum, and whether we're talking a season-long league or a knockout tournament.

Well done to Matt and TonkaRoost for scoring three points this game. Congrats to Geth for now jointly leading the second round with only three games to go. Needless to say, verreauxi still tops the overall leaderboard by 10 points.

Here's the template for round 3 predictions, for those who'd like to get a headstart. Australia x(x) Spain (x)x Netherlands x(x) Chile x(x) Cameroon x(x) Brazil x(x) Croatia x(x) Mexico x(x) Costa Rica x(x) England x(x) Italy x(x) Uruguay x(x) Greece x(x) Ivory Coast x(x) Japan x(x) Colombia x(x) Bosnia H x(x) Iran x(x) Nigeria x(x) Argentina x(x) Ecuador x(x) France x(x) Honduras x(x) Switzerland x(x) Portugal x(x) Ghana x(x) USA x(x) Germany x(x) Algeria x(x) Russia x(x) S Korea x(x) Belgium x(x)

First, find a duck...

Ghana can still qualify, and they deserve to.

Only one person predicted that Ghana would achieve a draw against Germany, and he's just extended his overall lead!

Yes, I have thought about that. Maybe, in a future content, we get 2 points for an exact score and one point for being just one goal off when the result is correct.

From the 'Boring James Milner' blog. (I'm so glad someone provided a link to this a few weeks ago because it's very funny.) "I said to Gerrard It was just like watching Liverpool when you set up Suarez. He said This really isn't the time for Jokes, James. I said Ok"

Everyone who made a prediction scored two points. We all believed Argentina would win, but none of us thought it would be that close. PS - apologies to doc_bump. I mistyped something when generating the results. You did score two points, not one. I've corrected the problem now, and your scores will be correct on the next summary sheet. Sorry about that!