A mammoth day of sport saw global disappoint for England fans, but at least the demolition wasn’t on the level Wales suffered in the rugby!

So to the World Cup, one which is already shaping up to be a classic. Nearly all the games have seen each team going out to win, playing positive football and goals galore.

In the first game of the day Columbia cantered over the winning line with Greece offering very little – amazing how they qualified, but Group G did look s bit soft in the qualifiers.

In the second game, the first genuine shock of the tournament arrived, but it probably was just a reality check. Uruguay without a world class striker look toothless. The camera kept panning to the anxious goofy Suarez, but he remained on the bench. If he was anywhere near being fit I would expect him to have come on – so for England I doubt that he will be to full strength – shades of Rooney in previous World Cups. But fair play to Costa Rica – quality goals, especially the third. On balance though, who are the minnows? Costa Rica’s population is 1.2m more than Uruguay.

In the third game, whilst the result was not what we wanted, the approach and style of play of England was excellent – best I’ve seen in years. England played English football but came up against a quality Italy team who took their chances. The match exposed the severe issues England face in defence – Glenn Johnson isn’t a defender and offers very little going forward. The second goal was caused by his complete lack of positional awareness.

The Sturridge goal was a thing of beauty and something to give hope for the next two games. Pirlo gave a master class, but was matched by my man of the match Rahiem Sterling. I don’t understand why Pirlo wasn’t marked out of the game – you could have predicted exactly how they would approach the game and England let them play it.

Rooney looked a frustrated soul for most of the game and apart from the superb cross offered very little – I would make the case for leaving him out of the game. On form he isn’t good enough and Hodgson is struggling to fit him into his system of play. England didn’t take their chances and seemed to lose their shape with the changes. England have to hope that Italy win all their games. Glad I wasn’t down the pub this evening!!!

In the fourth game I have to leave the report from DrewyHD, son number two, who valiantly stayed up to watch it (he would have been up anyway!). I watched the first half hour and Japan looked very dangerous, but apparently the introduction of Drogba changed the game and Japan seemed overawed by his presence. Must watch the highlights of that one.

In the competition, courtesy of the only person of predicting 3-0 in the Columbia game I took a three point lead, but my misplaced loyalty to the three lions pushed me back into second with Dean Goodway edging the leaderboard on 10.75. Equally amazing is Byron’s score of 0.75 – which is just as impressive as he would have done better if he ad forgotten to pick and taken the limited number of default picks. Stick to the rugby fella!

Leaderboard as follows:

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