Good day everyone. I start this post with a tinge of regret. You see, I had a choice last night. Wake up to watch the England game, or sleep through to ensure I function for the rest of the day. I woke up at 1am (when the game was scheduled in the UK) and saw the game was delayed. Went back to sleep. Woke at 2.30am and looked at the score with no context. 0-0. In my head I made the assumption the game would be boring and would go to penalties to determine a winner (see my predictions below). So I went back to sleep.
I woke up this morning to headlines saying this was the best England game since 1966 or something. And now I feel gutted I missed out.
Watching the highlights, I really do feel I would have enjoyed that live. The goals were great – lots of end to end stuff, spectacular saves… all that jazz. But the main thing I missed out: Henderson breaking his arm celebrating. I mean that guy. Has he played much/at all this World Cup? There were other options to take to the World Cup. And then he goes and breaks his arm trying to mimic a scene from Shaun of the Dead.
Then there was Kane’s post match interview. Having lost his voice he proceeded to be interviewed with his best impression of the scene involving Steve Carell in the newsroom in Bruce Almighty. Do people still get that reference? It’s not that old a movie is it? Blimey – 2003! 23 years ago. Maybe that reference is too old. Well here’s the link to the video if you want to see what I’m rambling about.
But yeah, jokes aside – it seemed like a great win for England. And despite my general pessimism I think I’m starting to believe England “may” be able to do something special.
The real reason for this is because the team I had predicted to win the World Cup, Brazil, had been knocked out earlier in the day by Norway. I was pretty conflicted during the game. On the one side I wanted to cling on to my credibility by Brazil going all the way. On the other, I’m liking what I’m seeing of Norway this World Cup. From the initial Viking photoshoot, to the post-game celebrations – to MY captain Odegaard leading the charge.
I’m even developing a soft spot for Haaland. He’s quite a character off the pitch and I’ve always enjoyed that part of his personality. It was only when he became the humble-police that the resentment truly started.
So yeah, I hate him. And I sort of like him. I’m conflicted.
Despite being open to Norway beating Brazil, the one thing I didn’t want – was for Big Gabi to allow Haaland to get one on him. He did. Hopefully he’s got that out his system now and Big Gabi continues to shine for Arsenal – never allowing Haaland to ever score past him again.
I must say though – for Haaland to score the way he did against arguably the best defence in the World Cup – I do fear for England a bit in the Quarter Finals.
As for my predictions from last week. The round of 32 outcomes look a bit like this in the ugly table below. Pale green represents guessing the correct team going through. Darker green means correct result predicted. Red means I was wrong. Just wrong.
| Round of 32 | Actual Score | Prediction |
|---|---|---|
| South Africa v Canada | 0 – 1 | 1 – 2 |
| Netherlands v Morocco | 1 – 1 (pens) | 2 – 0 |
| Germany v Paraguay | 1 – 1 (pens) | 3 – 1 |
| France v Sweden | 3 – 0 | 4 – 1 |
| Belgium v Senegal | 3 – 2 | 1 – 1 (pens) |
| USA v Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2 – 0 | 3 – 0 |
| Spain v Austria | 3 – 0 | 2 – 0 |
| Portugal v Croatia | 2 – 1 | 2 – 2 (pens) |
| Brazil v Japan | 2 – 1 | 2 – 1 |
| Ivory Coast v Norway | 1 – 2 | 1 – 2 |
| Mexico v Ecuador | 2 – 0 | 0 – 0 (pens) |
| England v DR Congo | 2 – 1 | 5 – 1 |
| Switzerland v Algeria | 2 – 0 | 1 – 0 |
| Columbia v Ghana | 1 – 0 | 2 – 0 |
| Australia v Egypt | 1 – 1 (pens) | 1 – 0 |
| Argentina v Cape Verde | 3 – 2 | 7 – 0 |
To be fair – if you take away the predicted thrashings and some of the shock results – I did pretty well… for the round of 32.
75% outcomes predicted correctly. And of those I had score success percentage of 16.67%.
That’s right – I’m a bit of mathmatican.
As for the results of the Last 16 – I’m not faring as well. Of the 4 games played I only correctly guessed the outcome twice. And with Brazil out, my race is run so I’ll let the pro’s continue to do their job. No threat here.
Finally – if you’ve made it this far through this post – check out my new illustration section on the blog: the OddSketch. This first series of illustrations involves the mentality monster that is Declan Rice. It’s only done when he says it’s done.
