Is it James or Ham-es?

Well, around four hours ago my blog was going to be about the somewhat disappointing (certainly long!) Round of 16 matches that we’ve had – with lots of slow, stalemate football (although some good, dramatic) and more than enough extra time; but I’ve just seen the most exhilarating thirty minutes of the World Cup so far (the extra time drama between Belgium and USA of course) which has re-invigorated me about football and this World Cup!  What an amazing fightback and effort from the U.S.A. team that looked completely down and out at half-time of extra time and almost, almost, did enough to force another penalty shootout.  It was certainly right up there with the best games of the tournament and it certainly re-asserted the old adage in football that there are nil-nils and there are nil-nils.  How there wasn’t a goal in normal time I don’t know (well I do: Tim Howard) but even so, just for their fighting spirit alone, not many people would’ve begrudged the Americans a late equaliser.

Ham-es Rodriguez

So what did we learn from the other second round games?  I learnt that Brazil still don’t really look all that.  They played a decent game but they look too open to me and some of their lackadaisical passing out from defence is surely going to cost them against a real quality side (not that Chile weren’t excellent – I thought Alexis Sanchez was outstanding in this game, my man of the match.)  We’ve learned (if we hadn’t already) that James Rodriguez really is some player.  And what a goal by the way!  You know the one… (and is it pronounced James or Ham-es?  The BBC insist it’s the latter, which I would go along with, but Clive Tyldesley on ITV certainly couldn’t be bothered with that against Brazil).  He (Ham-es, not Tyldesley) could be the key to Brazil’s chances of progressing, for surely if he plays up to that level again, the hosts won’t have enough to contain him.  It should be a fascinating encounter.

Girls, girls and more girls!

But enough about football – let’s talk about girls!  Have you noticed how the cameraman (or TV director or whoever is responsible for these things) has been constantly picking out young, attractive girls at nearly every match so far?  Not that I’m complaining - far from it - but is he (i'm presuming, of course, that it's a he) in the stadium hours before kick-off, picking them out as they take their seats?  And why do so called ‘fans’ do that ludicrous thing, where they’re sulking (and rightly) because their team is 2-0 down and going out of the World Cup, but then when they see themselves on the big screen, break out into a big smile and wave their arms around like a mental person?  Honestly, what is all that about??

Just a quick note about the Round of 16 victors here – nice to see all 8 group winners get through to the Quarter-Finals, giving us some mouth-watering ties to look forward to.  Last time I blogged I predicted that the tournament may have still been ‘bubbling up’ and that we were going to see at least one real ‘humdinger’ in the Round of 16.  On the whole, perhaps the round has been a little disappointing, so this time I’m going to stay quiet!