The Day Ghana Restored World Cup love into English Hearts

Sometimes a second half  can be so intoxicating from start to finish that you are left spinning and confused by the experience. The second half between Ghana and Germany was such a half! Spiritual in its intensity, its rare that at the end of a game all the players collapse with exhaustion and you empathize with all 22 players. That moment the final whistle blew and every player crashed to their knees, they could regain consciousness and realize they had taken part in a moment of grace. Oh and there were two other great games...

Match of A Sentence: Argentina 1 Iran 0

Imagine sweating blood, legs dead, breathing beyond exhaustion, reliving a missed headed chance, being robbed of a penalty,  and defending for 92 minutes against the best attacking team in the world only for Messie to score an exceptional goal with the last kick.

Match of A Sentence: Germany 2 Germany 2

One of the best second halves in World Cup history;words cannot do this game justice, only screaming, shouting, jumping and the occasional dance. 

Match of A Sentence: Nigeria 1 Bosnia Herzegovina

Forget passing the ball around and having a great technique; Nigeria just bully a goal, bully a victory and bully all the critics who had written them off. 

Don't Give Up being Omega Theta, Pi.. The German Team are 80s frat-boy villains.

I really like the German side, they play great passing football and I don't want to reinforce negative stereotypes of the ancestors of the Nazis but they have creepy similarity to Animal House frat boy villains, Omega Theta, Pi. The camaraderie amongst Muller, Ozil, Gotze and Shweinsteiger when discussing a free kick was so visible it was frightening. The shared slick north European appearance (with the exception of Ozil, who is the immigrant kid who got a colleague scholarship) makes them look scarily self assured. The fact they did not lose their heads when the entire crowd was against them was applaudable and detestable at the same time. It feels predictable and tragic that this team with so much talent and poise are to be cast as the enemy to Brazil or Argentina winning the World Cup. If only they appeared less clearly suited to winning they might win some hearts.  

Man Crush of the Day: Kwadwo Asamoah

It would be easy to praise the fearless running and positive football of Assamoah Gyan, Andrew Ayew and Christina Atsu, but the unsung hero of this Ghana team and the Ghanaian team that reached the quarter finals four years ago is Kwadwo Asamoah. Kwadwo's great positional sense and accurate passing are not the playing attributes associated with African football but they are so good he has been playing for Juventus's champion winning midfield with Pirlo, Pogba and Vidal.  He does not conform to the racist stereotypes that commentators unintentionally use around African teams. If anything commentators have criticized him for lacking pace like any commentator would level that accusation at an Italian midfielder. When a player is this underrated you start to form an ownership over him. No one knows why I love Asamoah but when everyone does open their eyes to how beautiful a player he is they will be forever jealous of not realizing sooner.

World Cup Predictor

There has been a lot of love on the field during this world cup. Its very possible that this love has come from so many teams' desire to attack. Its a lot easier to congratulate a player at the end of the game or give him a helping hug to his feet if you have not been kicking the shit out him. My favorite hug of the tournament so far has been between Spain's Andre Iniesta and Chile's goal scorer Charles Araguiz, despite Spain being two nill down and about to face early elimination. Sadly I could not find a poll for the biggest huggers in the world but I do have my own experiences.


Belgium (Ranked 6 ) VS Russia (Ranked 4)
I have never hugged a Belgium but Russians are always been fairly stiff and mannered in their sharing of bodily warmth; however any hug is better than no hug.
Belgium 0 Russia 1

South Korea (Ranked 3 ) VS  Algeria (Ranked 5 )
South Koreans know how to do a polite hug - the arms are always just high below the shoulders but never intruding around the stomach in contrast to the one angry Algerian I met who may have benefited from a hug but was not forthcoming.
South Korea 3 Algeria 0


Portugal (Ranked 2 ) VS USA (Ranked 1)
Both are great casual huggers and will happily hug a stranger after a short conversation.The Americans edge it because they also like giving you a good pat on the back in the process. 

Let's just hope the hugging continues...