It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

Excellent imo - albeit not the result played for

Hopefully will help focus the minds (of the rested first team) - this is your chance

England have an excellent chance of progressing to the latter stages of the competition.....perhaps.....just perhaps …..this time round the team might be enjoying a little bit of luck that's been missing in previous tournaments....and that is a big plus !.....Come on the Lads !.....

Coming back to the "diables rouges" game....:...(did not see the game),.. but from the reports that I have read : it was the B team match !.....in the aftermath everybody was talking about Belgium having perhaps more strength in depth than England : I'd like to point out and I think it has been missed is the fact that it's not the reserves that play at the knockout stage : it's the regulars and I reckon that we have not a bad first eleven with a good few subs...and the games from now on will be like so....it's only eleven players per side on the field not 22....
A lot of major football nations now bumping into each other !....and I just have to mention this : when did England last go further than Germany in a major tournament ? (excluding the confederations precursor that was the tournament of france in 97...invites only that year) ...yes you've guessed it : world cup 66...(saw the final on tv that year with a lot of other people....could not understand why as a kid nobody wanted to watch children's hour on the other channel....what's the fuss ? I wondered...?...very angry people around when I switched channels....)…..anyway ...let's hope there are no penalties this time round....
Also that year guess who were Champions of Europe ?...yep !...Real Madrid !...(with Gento and company...)…..a good omen ?...fingers crossed and let's dream on …..

Superb game between France and Argentina....the best so far.....I'd say on that performance that France are now favourites.....

Can I assume that you have no bets on England RF?

I have one or two each time they play Stan (no bet against Belgium though...thought that one might be tricky...).....reasonable of course.....Colombia might be difficult but I would expect us to win.....with the goalscoring power we have....

France and Brazil are the two best playing teams I've seen thus far.

It's strange in these knockout stages how a team which looked so good in one game , doesn't perform in the next , I think by the time they get to the final they'll be pretty knackered all of them and the Final may suffer , anyway what a cheating little fecker Suarez is , every chance to get a foul he takes .

They don't call it 'cheating', they call it 'gamesmanship'. They also hope the referee(s) don't see it.

Thinks.....

It's now halfway through 'extra time'. At 1-1, will Spain v Russia be the first match to go to penalties?

It does.

Spain deservedly lose with two pathetic soft kick penalty takes. Serves them right, really.

1 - 1, 3/5 - 4/4 on penalties

Just watched Brasil-Mexico......really very unimpressed with the Brasilians….if Belgium get to the quarters (should do)…...they will make mincemeat of the cariocas defence.....

Belgium v Japan what a cracking game really surprised how good the Japanese were from start to finish, the class of Belgium came through in the end though. Really enjoying this WC.

Unbelievable - I gave up on the Belgium game thinking that this was going to be so so predictable

Turn over at 2-0 then two seconds later the drama began (for me)

Great World Cup

That defence has only conceded 5 goals in more than 20 games rf. We'll see. I wish Neymar would cut out the histrionics, even if he is targeted. Willian has been the star for me. Great motor. By the way, carioca is a name for a person from Rio. Happens that both Neymar and Willian are from Sao Paulo state. Now you wouldn't call the England team mackems just because Henderson is from Sunderland would you? :)
This world cup team has been called the least Brazilian team ever, with only Fagner of Corinthians, Geromel of Gremio and Rodrigo Caio of Sao Paulo (note none from Rio) actually playing in Brasil presently.

The Brazilians are not good at the back to me.....that's the bottom line.....Mexico with a little more adventurous play could have scored.....still favour Belgium to get through....

I'll be gutted if we don't win tonight.....nerve-racking watching England at times....prefer to watch the other nations play.....

Uraguay v France could be a cracker , i think VAR will need to be on form for that one though . The only thing England got is a finisher , if he puts his faith in Sterling it could turn out bad , he isn't World class .

Hey...Sterling is wonderful at running at defences creating openings for others....

OK Gareth .