Are you people going crazy? Where is the World Cup discussion in this place? Where are all the footie fans? We were full of it 4 years ago. Direct me to them! I have to say, certainly where I am in the world, there is a massive amount of hype about it the moment. This is mainly reflected in the number of flags you an see driving around (obviously attached to cars, don't be silly). It's a shame actually to have read articles on the internet of people who resent all the support for England. Let's face it, they have a point - there's no chance in hell of getting anywhere. We are condemned as a nation when it comes to the World Cup! We can be safe in knowing that we won't be playing portugal in the quarter finals this year. Though we mustn't speak too soon, we haven't played a game yet! I'm certainly getting in the World Cup 'mood' after all the hype... I wonder how long it will last! And what with Wimbledon coming up, it should be a good few weeks of sport to come!

Come on England!

I doubt England will win but there's always hope. I think they'll probably get as far as the quarter finals, they should get pasted the group stages at least anyway, but we'll see. It depends who they are up against. You never know, 2010 might be the year for England.

That's not the reason I resent the support for the England team. I resent the support because I can't walk down the street right now without seeing cheap, tacky, tawdry flags stuck on bits of plastic and attached to cars, or draped out of people's bedroom windows obscuring the view. I can't even buy a Mars Bar without its white wrapper suggesting that I should be getting bored to death watching a bunch of people kicking at each others legs in a South African field. The sooner the English team gets knocked out of this competition thing, the sooner we can all go back to normal.

I would actually want the English team to do well if it weren't for all that.

Well yes I agree, some people take it too far. This morning in the paper there was a couple who had a flag the size of their house, covering all windows and doors. Absolutely ridiculous. Obviously companies like Mars will be cashing in on the event - I think they're the official sponsor. From their perspective this is great use of marketing. I see nothing wrong with being patriotic about the event but I agree people can take things a little overboard. I certainly won't be dangling the St. George's Cross this year, but hats off to the nutters that have the courage (and money) to put cover their houses in red and white.

Anyway, very boring game from France and Uruguay! I hope England vs USA proves to be eventful. I notice some of the headlines are relating it to the BP fiasco!

No wonder this place has gone to the dogs...we're in real danger of not progressing past the group stages! A ruthless performance against Slovenia is an absolute must now!

We're going home, We're going home, We're going! England's going home!

Absolutely awful. We've had it, and even though the media will blame Fabio - it's not his fault. Having said that i hope he puts Joe Cole on this Wednesday. We need it!

Oh you're just saying that coz he'll probably end up at White Hart Lane! but yes he needs to start!

Dawson to play alongside Terry though, dangerous as Dawson lacks the experience but we're so thin for centre backs for this match with Carragher suspended

Portugal blew North Korea out of the water this afternoon. 7-0! Go Portugal!

They make England look weak, and let's be honest they are at the moment. Unless they up their game and score some goals against Slovenia on Wednesday they won't even pass the group stages. I hope Fabio Capello puts Robert Green back in goal to give him a chance to redeem himself and hopefully make some good saves, or otherwise the only thing he'll be remembered for in this World Cup is that awful goal.

I can see one of two things happening: another dismal performance or a goal glut...it's going to be one of those extreme matches!

woohoo! england beat slovenia

was a pretty tense match yesterday lol...

Well England are out of the World Cup after Germany slaughtered them 4-1.

I can't believe they disallowed that goal from Lampard, it was so over the line! How could the ref not see it?! The fact Germany scored another two goals makes it more legitimate I suppose but still doesn't make it right. It should have been allowed, and I would still say the same if it was Germany who scored. They have this goal-line technology so why don't they use it?

To be fair though, England's defence were *beep* and Germany were the better, much better side so kudos to them, they deserved to go through.

I think I want Germany to win now because then if they win at least we can say we were beaten by the best haha!

Its been great to see the germans and the french both have their world cup efforts turn to dust after henri's "hand of god" against the irish and englands goal that was dis-allowed against germany.To top it off i have picked holland in the sweepstake at work so will be watchin the final, beer in hand shoutin come on u dutch!!!
lets be honest england have not been a side worth watching since Gazza n garry lineker stopped playin for em so no point gettin upset that we got turned over again.

Congratulations to Spain: European Champions, and now World Champions!

Well, at least it didn't go to penalties!

A pretty close final that could have gone either way, both teams had their moments - Spain probably had more though, I think.

Hats off to the Dutch player who gave the corner directly to the goalkeeper, not very often you see that kind of gentlemanly behaviour on the pitch these days. Could have lost them an opportunity to score though.

Anyway, here's to Spain! And here's to the next World Cup 2014! Woohoo!

Yeah that was definitely very sporting!

Iker Casillas wept like a girl, but who can blame him: over 100 caps for his country and now he's a World Cup winning captain!

Yes, well done Spain, I think the best team over the course of the tournament on balance, so a deserved victory!

They were saying on commentary it was the first time EVER that a team had won the World Cup after LOSING their opening match (1-0 against Switzerland), but they of course improved considerably as it went on, and kept a tight defence and solid passing movement between the team (which is more than can be said for some... )

So, Iniesta's Goal was the 145th of the tournament, and there were 64 matches, so... 2-and-a-quarter goals per match, which is reasonable, but this World Cup will probably be more remembered for refereeing gaffes and controversies than necessarily great quality (although that was in evidence in patches, don't get me wrong).

Although, best goal of the tournament for me would have to be Van Bronkhurst's - such a sweet hit!

Holland were an utter disgrace last night - Spain deserved to win simply for trying to play football, rather than kicking lumps out of the opposition.