Predictions For The Semi-Finals

So, we're down to the last four: Holland, Spain, Germany and Uruguay.

Frankly, I was expecting at least one other South American side to be here: most likely Brazil, but what do I know.

The thing is, though, that only one of these teams has shown any real consistency so far in the tournament and that is: Germany.

While, admittedly, they did lose their second match, Joachim Loew's side have shown what can be achieved when you build a team, rather than throwing the biggest eleven names in German football together and hoping they can bond.

The fact that Loew has kept faith with Klose and Podolski despite poor seasons is just one indication of this. The introduction of Ozil and Khedira from the Under 21 squad is another.

This, for me, makes them favourite to win the entire competition. Spain and Holland have struggled through. Both the Dutch and Spanish have been better than the teams they've come up against, but - Brazil aside - neither have really been challenged.

Even without Luis Suarez, I think Uruguay have the craft and determination to get past Holland, while Germany should win through against the stuttering Spanish.

Uruguay v Germany in the 2010 World Cup Final.

Reflections on Yesterdays Matches

Well, I guess I should start with England vs Algeria. But luckily - due to a winning combination of drunkeness and boredom - I really can't remember anything about it. I think there was the occasional pass that actually reached another England player, but I might have dreamt that. I do remember a forward run, but that could have been Algeria. Let's move on from the paucity of England's performance to the paucity of the refereeing in the Germany v Serbia match.

Referee Alberto Undiano's decision to send off Miroslav Klose for clipping Dejan Stankovic's heel was an absolute shocker and, in effect, turned the game for Serbia.

That is without even mentioning the 7 additional yellow cards he handed out for a variety of offences, including - I'm pretty certain - tackling another player, looking slightly scary and playing in defence.

Seriously, if Undiano gets to referee another match at this World Cup Finals, it would be a scandal. Almost as much as a scandal as England's appalling performance against Algeria. But luckily, I've repressed most of my memories of that one.

Ballack vs Boateng: It's All Too Silly

After Chelsea and Germany midfielder Michael Ballack was ruled out of the World Cup Finals, after a tackle by Pompey's Kevin Prince-Boateng, it has all kicked off.

There have been claims and counterclaims that Boateng set out to deliberately injury Ballack, with even Boateng's own father claiming that there is some 'history' between the two players dating back to when Boateng was playing for Hertha Berlin.

Despite Prince-Boateng now being public enemy number 1 right now back in his homeland of Germany (partly because the player has switched from Germany to Ghana for his international football), I'm not convinced the tackle was deliberately designed to injury Ballack.

Judge for yourself below (the tackle is at the 2:44 mark)

Provisional Squads So Far

OK, we're now getting down to the serious business of the World Cup with a number of nations announcing their provisional World Cup 2010 squads. To avoid the world's most tedious blog post, I'm just linking to news articles detailing who is in and who is out.

Germany Provisional Squad : No Hitzlesperger, no Kuranyi - full details here.

South Korea Provisional Squad : Park Ji Sung, that Bolton guy and full details here.

Ghana Provisional Squad : including Germany's Kevin Prince Boateng?! - full details here.

Holland Provisional Squad : Christ, they've got some good players - full details here.

Have To Hope This One Doesn't Backfire

Germany head coach Joachim Low has announced that Kevin Kuranyi will not be part of the 2010 Germany World Cup squad.

Although Low denies it, saying that there were "tactical" reasons for excluding the striker, it does look like revenge for Kuranyi walking out of the stadium in Dortmund before the final whistle after being omitted from the matchday squad for the qualifier against Russia in October 2008.

The thing is, Low's claims that "It would have been no problem for us to give him a new chance in the national team" but that "after consideration among our coaching staff we came to the conclusion that we had other ideas, tactically and personnel-wise, for the composition of the World Cup squad." ring very, very hollow when you look at how Kuranyi's fellow strikers have performed this season.

While Kuranyi scored 18 goals in the Bundesliga, Bayern's Miroslav Klose has got, well, just one goal. Lukas Podolski has done a lot better, though. He's got two. In twenty seven appearances.

Not very impressive, is it. Bayer Leverkusen's Stefan Kiessling does have 21 league goals this season, but he only has 3 caps at international level and no goals.

Looking at it from this perspective, it seems very clear why Kuranyi has been excluded. Because, if Low was picking form players, Kuranyi would be one of the first on the plane.

Let's hope this one doesn't backfire on Low.

Germany Will Win 2010 World Cup. Fact!

Totally unbiased and only coincidentally German, a man called Metin Tolan has devised a formula proving that Germany will win the 2010 World Cup Final. The other 31 teams shouldn't even bother to turn up.

Tolan, who is a physics professor so surely should know better, explained his formula thus:

"The last time we won the World Cup was back in 1990 and there have been four tournaments since. The average finishing place of the Germany team is 3.7 and the German team wins the title every fourth or fifth World Cup."

"Nobody can beat us this year and you can already put the champagne on ice."

Words fail me. I pity any student at the University of Dortmund who is taught by Professor Tolan.

I also truly hope that Germany don't win the 2010 World Cup Finals or this post is going to come back to haunt me.

Hiddink Turns Up At Turkey

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of Guus Hiddink. Mainly, because I've always backed his teams with cold hard cash and until Russia's failure to qualify for World Cup 2010, he has never let me down.

Indeed, I decided against starting at Euro 2008 blog because I was so confident that England weren't going to qualify because they were in the same group as Hiddink's Russia and the - at the time - superior Croatia. That blog is here.

Anyway, it looks like the rumours suggesting Hiddink would be managing Nigeria at the World Cup Finals were wrong, as the Dutchman has taken over the role of national team coach of Turkey.

Turkey, like Russia, failed to qualify for the World Cup Finals, but were impressive at Euro 2008, so the raw materials are definitely there.

A few pundits have questioned why Hiddink would want to take over Turkey but to me, it's a good move. Their Euro 2012 qualifying group includes Germany, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan (aren't some of those countries in Asia?) and you would back Hiddink to get a well organised Turkey to get through that Group. In fact, that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Do The German FA Not Want To Win The World Cup

If you remember the 2006 World Cup, you may recall that relations between then coach Jurgen Klinsmann and the German Football Association were frosty, to say the least. In fact, despite leading Germany to third place in the Finals, Klinsmann choose not to renew his contract and he walked away.

Well, it appears that history is repeating itself. The DFB (German Football Association) have apparently given current coach Joachim Low a 48 hour deadline to agree a new contract.

Needless to say, Low is livid and, speaking to ZDF TV, said:

"I am the national team coach and I will not be given any ultimatum. It is our right to make demands and whoever knows us knows that we are not hungry for power or money.

"We are interested in other things like the development of the team."

And so it looks like the German Football Association's hardball tactics have back-fired once again and - just like in 2006 - they will go into the World Cup Finals with a coach whose contract expires at the end of the tournament. The DFB should really put the interests of the German national team ahead of trying to assert their authority over a very capable manager. If it ain't broke, don't break it.

No One Is Actually Going to the 2010 World Cup

Some of Europe's more football loving nations, including Germany and England, have announced figures regarding how many tickets for the 2010 World Cup they have managed to sell so far.

The English F.A have said they have had to send back 6,000 of their 29,000 ticket allocation, while the German F.A have apparently sold only 1,916 of 21,000 tickets.

Predictably, and - on the surface - understandably, this has lead to the usual media hysteria about safety in South African 2010.

Even usually canny commentators, like Martin Samuel, have been in on the act. However, closer inspection reveals a very different picture.

Take the fact that England have returned 6,000 tickets to FIFA as exhibit one, so to speak. What has been strangely underreported is that half of these were for a potential 3rd v 4th place play-off match.

And, oh yes, the Round of 16 match is oversubscribed and the English FA are hoping to get more tickets. These two things, unfortunately, don't fit into the type of story that the media want to write, so they get ignored.

As for the - on the surface - very low sales by the German FA, well, here's Wolfgang Niersbach - head of the German Soccer Federation - to put it in perspective:

"Sales are normal and similar to the 2002 World Cup, and the comparison with 2002 offers itself because of the similar distance and the resulting costs."

And that '1,916' figure that seems to be quoted everywhere? Well, that's not accurate either. In fact, over 25,000 Germans have ordered tickets for ALL the World Cup 2010 matches.

So, it's not going too badly, is it?

It's Time To Reorganise Qualifiers

This week, three days before the Scottish Premier League season started, Scotland had to play a World Cup 2010 qualifying match against Norway. They got hammered. 4-0 to Norway.

Also in World Cup Qualifying action were France, Croatia and Germany, not to mention San Marino. I said : not to mention San Marino.

The leagues in France and German started the week before, while the new Croatian season had started three weeks previously.

Norway? Their season started in March and while I accept that a number of their top players play outside of the country, this still gives them a significant advantage.

Surely, FIFA can organise important international matches that don't start a week or two into the new season or even, in Scotland's case, before the season has even started. At international level, there needs to be a level playing field. This isn't it.