The View from the Spaghetti Factory

FINAL: Italy 1 – 1 France(Italy win 5-3 on penalties) World Cup finals rarely live up to the full-blooded attacking abandon of the earlier rounds, because there’s just so much at stake. Both France and Italy had demonstrated their full potential in earlier rounds (against Brazil and Germany, respectively) but played much more cautiously in [...]

[Read more →]

Third place play-off: Germany 3 – 1 Portugal I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering whether there’s really any need for a third place play-off match at all. Both teams are beaten semi-finalists, physically spent and in mental anguish over what might have been. The penultimate match of the World Cup mini-season often seems like [...]

[Read more →]

Semi-final: Portugal 0 – 1 France Do you mind if I just dispense with any attempt to be impartial for this one? I’ve been a good boy so far, don’t you think? I haven’t said “C’MONYOUINGERLUN!” once, have I? I know some English people still have a bizarre animosity towards the French (I mean, come [...]

[Read more →]

Semi-final: Germany 0 – 2 Italy Classic. Less than three weeks ago, Germany were plodding unconvincingly through their first two group games, while Italy were showing off their self-destructive tendencies in spectacular fashion against the USA. But now look at them… both teams combining their traditional solid defensive play with some tasty attacking football. For [...]

[Read more →]

Brazil 0 – 1 France The resurrection of Les Bleus is fast becoming *the* story of the tournament. They looked good against Spain, but tonight’s performance against Brazil looked even tighter and more organised. Zidane, who looked forlorn and frustrated against Switzerland, is on cracking form, firing passes to every corner of the pitch and [...]

[Read more →]

England 0 – 0 Portugal (Portugal win 3-1 on penalties) Rubbish. Yes, I know this is where we’re all supposed to talk of heroism in the face of defeat and didn’t the plucky lads try hard, but that’s just not what happened. Twenty minutes of frantic, full-blooded effort does not constitute a world-class performance. England [...]

[Read more →]

Germany 1 – 1 Argentina (Germany win 4-2 on penalties) Plenty of people were looking forward to this being the match of the tournament, but it never really lived up to the hype. The quality of football was still pretty impressive, but both teams had replaced some of their full-blooded attacking spirit with an element [...]

[Read more →]

Just musing idly on the latest FIFA rankings, compiled in May. Here are the top 20 countries, along with their progress (where appropriate) in the World Cup… 1. Brazil — quarter finals 2. Czech Republic — group stage 3. Netherlands — second round 4. Mexico — second round 5= USA — group stage 5= Spain [...]

[Read more →]

Brazil 3 – 0 Ghana Apparently, when the Brazilians went on to the pitch to warm up before the match, the Ghanaian players stopped their own warm-up session to gaze admiringly at the football legends on display. I don’t know whether that indicated an excessive sense of humility among the Ghana players or not, but [...]

[Read more →]

Italy 1 – 0 Australia While yesterday ended in silent-era slapstick farce (or a Vietnam war movie, perhaps?) today’s play started with full-on soap opera tragedy. The match was no classic, and the Italians spent most of the first half maintaining the status quo, unhurriedly passing the ball about while keeping an eye out for [...]

[Read more →]