All too often referees seem bereft of any common sense whatsoever, they seem incapable of waving play on, keeping their cards in their pocket or in these examples below, correctly observe the events that unfold before them. It’s impossible to truly know what the impact of these judgments might have had on the outcome of the game, whether they would have inspired a comeback or merely existed as a consolation goal but as we can all appreciate, it’s the ‘what ifs’ in football that hurt the most.

Click on Clive Allen to see the 11 goals that were ridiculously ruled out

 Got a favourite? Let me know on Twitter @theunusedsub

The right back was left out of the Portuguese squad to face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Euro 2012 qualifying playoffs, as the trainer admitted his doubts over the Stamford Bridge man’s attitude.

Despite this, Bosingwa has slated the international coach, stating that he has no confidence in Bento’s abilities to led the country to the tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

“I feel offended and disrespected by his remarks,” Bosingwa is reported to have said in Mirror Football.

“I won’t return to play for Portugal as long as he is in charge. He lacks the mental and emotional capacity to lead a team.

“I’ve had an immaculate record, in contrast to him. He left a lot to be desired during Euro 2000,” Bosingwa concluded.

Bosingwa’s retirement is the second high profile player to quit the national team in recent times, as Ricardo Carvalho also opted to end his international career last month following a bust-up with Bento.

By Gareth McKnight

The likes of Ronaldo, Robinho, David Silva, Carlos Tevez and Fernando Torres have graced the Premier League in recent years and that has turned the English game into the best in the world. Here is a list of players in Europe that are targets for Premier League clubs and could be seen here in the near future. Who would you like at your club?

Click on Ricardo Montolivo to unveil the top 10

“Some people think football is a matter of life or death… I can assure them, it is much more serious than that.”

For many, Bill Shankly’s sentiments have permeated almost every facet of their lives, from John Westwood, who legally inserted ‘Portsmouth Football Club’ between his first and surname in addition to his 60+ Pompey-related tattoos (including the PFC engraved in his teeth), to more than 35 divorce cases which have cited the Football Manager video game series as a significant factor in relationship disintegration.

That any individual can commit themself to a computer game to such an extent is a point which barely requires consideration, but the fact that Portsmouth have assiduously flirted with extinction over the past 18 months illustrates a broader concern for football fans, whose dedication to the sport is critically disproportionate to what they receive in return. Following a team usually proves to be an expensive undertaking, with season tickets/match-day entrance an account-destroying alternative to forking out for a Sky subscription on top of the costly merchandise and travel expenditure required to be considered a ‘true fan.’

In various scenarios that repeatedly emerge in each and every football calendar, a fans’ firmly held opinions alter and allegiances shift. For example, one fan may opine that their supported club is better than others within its country of origin based on several criteria, then later suggest that the entire league of that country is better than others that exist within the continent, and then support their national side which will almost always contain players from rival clubs that they spend 90% of the year criticising, and 10% selling their car to afford the fee to watch play.

Supporter standards aside, perhaps the most damaging cost to all lovers of the beautiful game is the absence of organised competition which regularly exhibits the globe’s finest talents. In reality, there are roughly between 100 and 150 exceptional footballers on the planet, and although certain players’ statuses are elevated due to completing poignant landmarks for their clubs, – such as loyalty in terms of appearances or scoring a goal which provided the difference between survival and relegation, winning a trophy and being a runner-up etc. – in every generation only a select few can legitimately be regarded as exemplary athletes within their field.

The UEFA Champions League is generally interpreted as the most esteemed stage a footballer can perform on (other than the FIFA World Cup), and its seeding process dictates a top category of eight teams who qualify based on their European performances over the previous five seasons. If we take that each squad contains about 10 world-class players at most, and that a small number of teams containing world-class players will always be just outside the top 8 seeds every year, then we are left with the 100-150 players I referred to earlier. For example, Manchester United – finalists in three out of the past four competitions – have the quality of Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra, but also the capable, but far from world-class standard, individuals such as John O’Shea, Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick.

The same could be said for every team: Arsenal – Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie/Denilson, Abou Diaby and Laurent Koscielny; Bayern Munich – Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger/Mario Gomez, Holger Badstuber and Daniel van Buyten; Chelsea – Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres and John Terry/Paolo Ferreira, Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel; AC Milan – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexandre Pato and Antonio Cassano/Kevin Prince-Boateng, Mathieu Flamini and Ignazio Abate. The list goes on, but you get the picture.

It seems unfair, despite the multifarious reasons such as insurance, employment contacts and sponsorship arrangements, that in every generation of great footballers we are denied the opportunity to see the best in the sport compete with each other, devoid of unequalled influences. The unremitting universal media coverage prior to the recent European Cup Final between Manchester United and Barcelona implied that the globe’s best two teams were battling for the club game’s most prestigious honour. But the hidden rhetoric suggested that the fixture was merely the closest we could get this year to seeing the best players on the same pitch at the same time, an emphasis that was arguably more relaxed than the reportage before each of the five Barcelona v Real Madrid Clasicos last term.

Although the Catalans succeeded emphatically at the expense of their rivals – disregarding Madrid’s narrow extra-time triumph in the Copa del Rey – they also possessed the highest concentration of world-class talent. In no way am I arguing that great players make a great team, as numerous Bernabeu Galactico projects evince in addition to Liverpool’s sub-standard 2005 Champions League winning side, but that a regularly held competition with only the very best participants represented by only the very best management would provide football lovers with an unrivalled spectacle that transcends club-based supporter enmity.

Surely I’m not the only one curious about how Cristiano Ronaldo AND Lionel Messi would perform in the same team, much like a team with Zinedine Zidane and Francesco Totti at their peaks would be like, or Diego Maradona and Michael Laudrup, Pele and George Best, Paolo Maldini and Carles Puyol etc. etc. The merits of the club game are unquestionable; the transfer auctions, local derbies, league and cup honours and fan devotion, but what if every two years we could enjoy a summer tournament of purely exceptional quality without supporter bias, where the audience attended for the sake of enjoyment rather than enduring customary stress and inevitable heartache?

Continued on Page TWO

Stamford Bridge in March last year offered its regular exhibition of Champions’ League knockout football as Chelsea welcomed back Jose Mourinho, who slipped away at the end of an expertly masterminded Inter victory without celebrating, as promised, in view of the fans who once worshipped him and would undoubtedly love the chance to do so again. Despite the customary Mourinho sub-plot escalation, the global audience wasn’t salivating at the Portuguese coach’s wisdom in its entirety, as over 4,000 miles away in East Africa, Kenya’s burgeoning legion of football followers were patiently anticipating a far more poignant appearance.

With five minutes remaining, and a 3-1 Inter lead seemingly enough to send the Italians through to the quarter-finals, Mourinho removed Wesley Sneijder, and replaced the Dutch forward with Nairobi-born Macdonald Mariga, the first Kenyan representative in the history of the Champions’ League. Mariga’s story isn’t all together unfamiliar, although it has been revealed this year that the midfielder earns $1.3million a year, the most of any East African player by a distance. But what encouraged Mariga’s journey from his agricultural background in Nakuru, playing in front of a diminutive crowd for Kenya’s national military team, to securing the attention of hundreds of millions of spectators from all corners of the globe, not to mention sharing occupational residency with Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba?

The aforementioned experienced contrasting emotions that night not least due to the result, but also since Drogba was dismissed for an unnecessary assault on Thiago Motta following Eto’o’s match-winner. Nevertheless, both had already cemented their statuses in their home continent as both athletic and political icons long before Mariga confirmed his place amongst his country’s most admired sporting paladins. The strikers are hailed as much for their charitable endowments as for their celebrity, with Drogba immortalized in the Ivory Coast for effectively ending five years of civil war, but how did either achieve such influential prominence having emerged from the humblest of beginnings? Youth academies have naturally played a significant role in exporting the continent’s precocious talents for the opportunities of greater exposure playing in Europe’s wealthier leagues, but their structure and organization is far more complex than the development facilities Premier League fans are used to. On the surface, this process appears to assist young Africans in the pursuit of their footballing ambitions, but the reality is far more brutal, and the coordination of several academies is only serving to harm the future of football in Africa.

Since the turn of the millennium, European fans, and particularly those who follow Premier League clubs, have witnessed a sudden infiltration of Ivorian talent, principally attributed to the MimoSifcom Academy near the country’s largest city, Abidjan. MimoSifcom is the official development facility of ASEC Mimosas, perhaps the Ivory Coast’s most famous footballing institution, and represents one of the few academies which demonstrate an authentically-African philosophy. The academy was one of the first structures of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa when founded in 1994, and its extant values mirror those of its European counterparts in that MimoSifcom provide hopeful thirteen to 17 year-olds with an academic as well as footballing education. The idea, as with any academy of this nature, is to promote promising candidates in to the Mimosas first-team, but with the mid-term intention to export the most gifted individuals to Europe in order to recover the costs of training young players and to sustain a steady flow of replacements for the successful graduates.

Continued on Page TWO

The decision by the BBC was roundly criticised by the England 2018 bid team which labelled the broadcasting corporation “unpatriotic”. Prime Minister, David Cameron, stated “Is it frustrating that Panorama’s doing this programme a few days before? Of course it is.” Whilst other involved in the England bid are keen to distance themselves from the programme with bid President David Dein writing a letter to FIFA’s 22-man Executive committee doing exactly that. Fans could be right to feel aggrieved by a move that could have played a major role in ending England’s hopes of hosting the World Cup. Indeed one of the FIFA members targeted prominently by the investigation, Jack Warner, has claimed it was “deliberately designed to negatively impact on England’s chances.” While other senior FIFA members have said that they feel persecuted by the British Media. In light of the Russian victory, perhaps these FIFA executives found common ground with a Russian government also under media scrutiny for corruption after documents were released by the whistle blowing website wikileaks describing the country as a “mafia state.”

Certainly some will believe it is far from coincidental that the two successful bids were from the two biggest spending. Russia has promised £3.8billion on football infrastructure alone with more guaranteed on developing transport. Where as Qatar has promised £2.5billion on building new stadia and a further £25billion on developing the infrastructure and building fans to ensure the country is cool enough to play football, a typical June day in Qatar averages 41C.With all this money being thrown around maybe serious questions should be asked about if it was all done ethically and above board. Compared to such lavish bids it is no wonder that the environmentally conscious Netherlands/Belgium bids from England and the Spain/Portugal, countries that required little to no work to be ready for a World Cup, were unsuccessful. It is here where the real injustice of the vote lie, whereas Russia can point to the lasting legacy having the World Cup will have on the infrastructure of the country and FIFA can cite opening up remote Russian cities to the world targeting a new market for football to really have an impact and, something England certainly cannot offer. Qatar’s selection is nothing short of ridiculous. A country that has no great sporting, let alone football tradition or heritage, a population of just 1.3million and just 4,000 sq miles of territory and in June possibly has the lease desirable football condition imaginable should not in my opinion be considered to host the World Cup when compared to the rejected bids from Europe.

Yet the allegations levied by the programme against FIFA are only now be talked about by the FA and those surrounding the England bid team. The hypocritical England bid team was more than happy to bend over backwards for FIFA and ignore its corruption before Thursday’s vote. Now in an ironic twist, this same corruption that the BBC spoke of and England went out of their way to ignore and disassociate themselves with has defeated the England bid. And all of a sudden there is moral outrage. Well I’m afraid it’s too little to late, you can’t grow a conscience when it best suits you. But due to the power that FIFA hold the England bid team was tripping over itself to accommodate them and place blame on the BBC. When in reality it should be FIFA who were under scrutiny then for how their business is conducted, as opposed to being acquiesced by the England 2018 bid team and the wider private media. The Daily Mail went as far to report that the Panorama investigation was naïve and served only to anger FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, as if that were some kind of reprehensible sin. It showed how far the England bid team, along with rival bids, were prepared to ignore any wrongdoing for the sake of pursuing the carrot of hosting a World Cup.

Certainly any other approach by the bid team will have resulted in irreversible damage being done to the bid. As the appeasement attempts toward FIFA initiated by the team at first appeared to have averted any knee-jerk anger against the England bid that could have arisen from the investigation. The man at the centre of the scandal, Jack Warner, stated that in his mind the actions of the BBC and the England 2018 bid were completely separate. Whilst Blatter has supposedly been reassured by Beckham and Cameron, resulting in little lasting damage being done to the England World Cup bid. But in the end it was fruitless grovelling by the Prime Minister and the rest of the team at an organisation that is not worth it. Questions remain over the morality of those involved, afraid to do any more than back away drastically from legitimate concerns over the running of football’s top organisation.

Perhaps when our government appears afraid of standing up to corruption, when it means risking something like the opportunity to host the World Cup, we should be proud that we have a public media that is not so easily swayed. And is prepared to investigate and publish claims of wrong doing and corruption by an organisation that is so big and evidently powerful. And maybe when the dust settles on deciding who will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups world leaders will feel less required to appease FIFA and could begin to act on the unfair way it bullies host nations over taxation and insist on a thorough investigation from an independent source into the possibility of corruption.

Holy Crap – its live fantasy football!

Become part of the Blackpool v Man United match on Saturday and play Picklive for FREE

Watch and bet live – spices up any game!

Most Arsenal fans agree that replacing their under-fire goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, who seems nervous between the sticks and has been prone to mistakes.

Eduardo was earmarked as a potential replacement after impressing for Portugal in the World Cup as they only conceded the one goal, which was against eventual world champions Spain when David Villa slotted home in the second half of their second round match…and even then many Portugal fans argued it should have been ruled offside.

Despite Wenger’s interest in the player he went from Sporting Braga to Genoa for just £4 million, which is hardly a king’s ransom and in keeping with the club’s financial policy which has been fairly strict over the last decade.

The Portuguese keeper’s agent Joe Donkor had this to say in regards to Arsenal’s interest in the player:

“It is flattering to know of Arsenal’s interest, but Genoa made it plain they really, really wanted Eduardo and he is delighted to have signed for them.”

Was the failure to act the reason why Arsenal missed out on this player, surely he would have chosen the Emirate over Genoa (no disrespect to them) if he was given the chance to?

In any case the manager must act fast as I believe the goalkeeping position is Arsenal’s most pressing concern and has to be treated as the utmost priority.

However, it is not all bad as Mark Schwarzer looks likely to sign for the north London outfit for around £3.5 million and it is a deal that Wenger should look to get done as soon as possible now that the World Cup is over and clubs’ business will start to take priority for the remainder of the summer.

The veteran keeper may be an underwhelming signing to many of Arsenal’s fans but he is definitely a better player than Almunia, who was at fault for one too many of the goals Arsenal conceded for Le Prof.

It does seem something of a short term fix, but a necessary one as promising Polish starlet Wojciech Szczęsny is still only 20-years-old and needs time to develop if he is to become a future #1 for the club.

Alternatively to Schwarzer, Wenger may keep an eye on the situation at Manchester City as Joe Hart’s return from loan to Birmingham will most likely lead to either himself or Shay Given being given the cold shoulder by the Eastlands club and could possibly open the door for a club like Arsenal to take advantage.

The Arsenal goalkeeping situation has been neglected for far too long and cannot go unaddressed yet again, but what do the Arsenal fans think the club should do and does Arsene Wenger need to act quicker to resolve the issue than he has done previously?

Follow me on Twitter: ajwilliams1987

Get the latest Arsenal news on Twitter

Click on image below to see the SPANISH babes at the World Cup

5. Claudio Marchisio

Italy manager Marcello Lippi said before the tournament that the Juventus midfielder would be Italy’s playmaker. A lot was expected of him given Andrea Pirlo’s injury that kept sidelined for the Azzurri’s first two games, it was believed that he could be a key player for his side and really make a name for himself in the tournament. However this didn’t prove to be the case, he started Italy’s opening games against Paraguay and New Zealand, firstly playing behind the strikers in the first game and then out on the left hand side in the second, however he just could not get a foothold in either game and was substitued in the second half of both matches. As a result of his two awful performances he didn’t start Italy’s final World Cup match against Slovakia and with the form that he was showing wouldn’t have made the slightest difference.

4. Kaka

The Brazilian midfielder is regarded as one of the best players in the world yet found it hard to breathe any life into the Brazil side. Robinho and Elano turned out to be the Selecao’s most creative outlets, and although Kaka did show some glimpses of his quality it just wasn’t enough from a player of his standards. He didn’t have a great season for Real Madrid and found himself in and out of the side, although hit may seem unconceivable from such a player her may have lost some confidence due to his poor first season. But that still isn’t an excuse for him not to play to his best for his country; and a player who should be lighting up a tournament with his skill and great goals is going to be best remembered in the tournament for getting harshly sent off against the Ivory Coast.

3. Fernando Torres

Liverpool’s number 9 has found the World Cup very tough, he hasn’t a scored a single goal in the tournament and has looked like he couldn’t hit a cow’s backside with a banjo in front of goal. Had it not been for David Villa shouldering the team’s attacking responsibilities then Spain could well have crashed out by now. Apart from Spain’s opening group game Torres has started every single one of their games, and you would have thought that a great striker like him would have hit the back of the net at least once by now. Torres was injured at the end of Liverpool’s season last year so it could be that he was rushed back too quickly to play for Spain, whatever his condition though El Nino has definitely disappointed at this World Cup.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo

The most expensive player in the world failed to live up to his reputation in the World Cup and was very lacklustre, scoring only one goal in the tournament in Portugal’s 7-0 mauling of North Korea. Ronaldo had a great debut season for Real Madrid scoring 33 goals in 35 games for the club and for the past few season has been a fantastic player both at Madrid and for Manchester United. However he wasn’t able to take that form to South Africa, and with his ability really should have been one of the players of the tournament. What makes his underperformance worse is that manager Carlos Queiroz entrusted him with the captain’s armband, yet a no point during the tournament did he ever look like a leader out on the pitch. Love him or hate him, everybody surely wanted to see him have a good World Cup as he is fantastic to watch and Ronaldo really disappointed with his performances.

1. Wayne Rooney

The man who was to shoulder England’s World Cup responsibilities was the biggest flop at the World Cup by far. Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that the pressure got to Rooney, but he should know as well as anybody that a great player like him should thrive under the pressure and not become overwhelmed by it. Also it’s not as though he was unlucky in the tournament or simply didn’t play well but he looked like he couldn’t be bothered and wasn’t trying. Whether or not that’s a case of burnout from playing too many games in the season is unknown, but you would think that he would give that bit extra for his country and at least try.

Who do you think flopped at the World Cup?

Message me on Twitter with your thoughts

Get the latest World Cup 2010 news on Twitter

**

Click on image below to see the Argentinean babes at the World Cup

Wayne Rooney aside (who genuinely looked unhappy in South Africa), the top players have had a tough time. ‘Kaka Stinks!’ bemoaned the New York Post, Kevin Garside of the Telegraph wrote with palpable schadenfreude at Ronaldo’s anonymous outing against Portugal’s Iberian neighbours in the round of 16, and the masses still seem perplexed that Messi hasn’t dribbled past eight players and finished off one of the finest goals in World Cup history. Given a little context we can see that for the likes of Fernando Torres and Kaka the World Cup has come at the end of a frustrating season; we can’t expect Torres to finish as clinically as Premier League fans are accustomed to in a different team, playing a different style, with himself playing a slightly different role (at Liverpool there’s Gerrard playing off the striker immediately looking for Torres’ runs but for Spain, Villa’s imperative is directness at goal leaving Torres primarily as a decoy to occupy central defences. Of course this doesn’t absolve the player from complete culpability but it should provide a degree of understanding). And Kaka’s year long struggle against groin and thigh injuries should really leave expectations a little lower but instead, as he said himself, the ‘expectations are always sky-high in Brazil’.

The real shame though comes when hearing tube passengers all too swiftly throw the phrase ‘bottling it’ in the ‘big matches’ when discussing Messi’s showing versus Germany. It doesn’t seem to matter that this is historically and factually incorrect (goals in the Champions League final in Rome last year and the crucial el clasico this year coupled with a truly stupefying sustained free scoring record in the past two seasons goes some way in dispelling the myth). The marker of his ability is perhaps better gauged on the days where he doesn’t steal all the plaudits; as Jonathan Wilson wrote back in March after he failed to score an unprecedented third consecutive hat trick in La Liga against Osasuna, ‘not-brilliance has become a bigger story than brilliance.’

Against Germany he was actually quite good but (similar to the problem Ronaldo faced, though not nearly as accented) there was a marked lack of service. Germany, as a team, defeated Argentina, who relied on only four players to attack (three of whom with no defensive duties at all: Messi, Tevez, Higuain). Khedira stole Messi’s space and Mueller/Podolski were both disciplined defensively on the flanks even though Otamendi and Heinze rarely looked to advance. Schweinsteiger and Khedira worked very well in tandem to ensure at any given moment in attack Messi was marshalled. Couple this with Tevez playing far too close to Messi and we see why he was forced deeper and deeper to collect the ball, rendering him less and less threatening.

The German defensive unit highlights the challenge facing players like Ronaldo and Messi; teams are the best they’ve probably ever been at collectively shutting down the most dangerous individuals (which is why Messi working as a decoy so often for Barcelona is a success. But, in a national team setup, it is a little too much to expect similar results on the proactive attacking front considering club team discipline and understanding is highly systematised over a very long period of time). Portugal’s ineffective use of Ronaldo was truly puzzling; I don’t expect consummate understanding between forward players in national teams but I do expect a basic idea of how to involve your most dangerous weapon. For all the rear guard action of the Portuguese their lack of guile and ability to involve Ronaldo, on the simplest of levels, is either an indicator of poor management or terrible implementation. I tend toward the former given the substitutions made in the Spain game. Yet despite the close attention and tactical dissection, it means nothing without a little bit of luck; Ronaldo sent an exocet of a shot against the post in the Ivory Coast game and a spectacularly struck drive against the bar against North Korea. A few inches make the difference between a swift and underwhelming exit from the World Cup and a three-goal imprimatur of class and execution.

Earlier this week Wesley Sneijder made a frank and underplayed admission when asked about Holland’s idealistic past in comparison to the solid victories that this World Cup has been witness to:

“Beautiful football is difficult against teams who don’t give you an inch of space.”

Whilst I agree that the best should always find a way, and Messi and Ronaldo monotonously remind us why they are the two best at club level, I don’t think the argument is as simple as ‘they didn’t turn up’ or ‘they bottled it’. It remains, as with everything, far easier to destroy than to create. These players spend years building reputations and constantly ‘proving’ themselves yet it takes only one World Cup, irrespective of circumstance, to leave many of us questioning the truth.

If you enjoyed this, you can follow me on Twitter

1. Highest scoring game

Portugal absolutely slaughtered North Korea yesterday, by bagging 7 goals in 90 minutes, making it the highest scoring game of the World Cup so far. Portugal were poor against the Ivory Coast in their opening group G game last week, but showed the world what they are truly capable of in their second group game. Ok, North Korea are not the best team in the tournament by any stretch of the imagination, nevertheless the Portuguese had to beat what was in front of them, and beat them they did. Goals from Raul Meireles, Simao, Hugo Almeida, Liedson, Cristiano Ronaldo, and two from Tiago sealed an emphatic victory and all but settled qualification into the next round.

2. Ronaldo makes his mark

Cristiano Ronaldo finally made his mark on the world stage this summer in South Africa by guiding Portugal to their first win in the World Cup. The Portuguese captain performed brilliantly against North Korea and showed why he is one of the worlds greatest. The Real Madrid man was simply on his game and showed superb flashes of flair, his abundance of pace and also proved once again that he is a clinical finisher as well. Ronaldo got himself an assist and his first goal of the tournament against North Korea yesterday and if he manages to keep up this standard then surely he will produce more of the same. Ronaldo has arrived, take note.

3. Chile love to attack, attack, attack!

Chile have impressed me with their football style, which is simply attack, attack, attack. The Chileans don’t seem to know anything else other than push forward and grab as many goals as possible; they simply have no fear, which is great to see as a football fan. Chile only managed to beat 10 men Switzerland 1-0 yesterday but even when they took the lead, the Chileans still committed a number of men forward. At times it felt as if Chile were the ones that were losing with the number of men they had in the opposing penalty area. They now lead group H and deservedly so with the football they play, let’s hope they keep it up.

4. Fabregas still can’t start

For the second game in a row, the Arsenal captain has not been able to start for his country. Fabregas did not come off the bench in Spain’s first match against Switzerland, but did manage to get some playing time last night when they met Honduras in the Ells Park stadium in Johannesburg. With his first touch of the ball the 23-year-old midfielder nearly bagged himself a World Cup goal by rounding the Honduran goalkeeper and placed a low shot destined for the back of the net, unfortunately for Cesc it was cleared off the line. Fabregas came on for Xavi in the 65 minute, and showed some great skill and touches for the remainder of the time (no wonder Barcelona are interested in acquiring his services). However, despite his 25 minute contribution last night, it seems that the creative Spaniard looks all but certain to be taking his regular place for his country…on the bench. Will he ever start for Spain in this World Cup? Surely he will.

5. All one-sided games

The three matches yesterday were easy to predict before even a ball was kicked. It was obvious that Portugal were going to win, ok maybe not 7-0 but a win nonetheless. Chile were going to grab all 3 points because of the style of football they play and evidently they did. it was all Chile even before Behrami got sent off in the first-half. Finally, Spain v Honduras? Please, it was one-way traffic for 90 minutes…Spain battered them. All three games were by far one-sided.

Follow me on Twitter – http://twitter.com/TMer4kl1

Get the latest World Cup 2010 news on Twitter