WORLD CUP FEVER - June 15

Group G

	England		Tunisia
	Romania		Colombia

Group F

Germany

USA

The time for quibbles and sniping is over.Hoddle's made his choice and if he thinks Darren Anderton is ready to shine on the world stage, then who are we mere tellywatchers to disagree? We have the much-vaunted 'backbone' in place - Seaman, Adams, Ince and Shearer - now let's see how it holds up.

Used the morning of my day off to rush around performing a variety of displacement activities. The kitchen looks great, the fridge is full, the laundry is being laundered. And I am off to the pub, the Mornington Arms, in fact, in Mornington Street, near... oh yes... Mornington Crescent tube. I don't feel capable of drinking anything more than a coke until half-time, when England are 1-0 up courtesy of Alan Shearer. A half-time leak is timed to perfection at 44 mins, a half-time pint secured at 46 mins. And what is this... a free buffet! Oh, the Mornington Arms is spoiling us. Witness an unruly dash for platters full of sausages and sandwiches.

Take up my place for the second half, relaxed but by no means happy. England really should score again. And there are a couple of goons standing in the way feeding money into a Trivial Pursuit slot machine. Are they unaware of the tumult that surrounds them. They glance briefly at the screen whenever there is a close shot, or a yellow card, but seem content to block people's view. Pubs are inevitably full of twats, it's part of their function, and the football-associated twat is someone I'll just have to deal with a little bit better, I think to myself. They're entitled to their moronic opinions, they're entitled to shout obscenities, block my view and spill my pint aren't they? Of course.

Calm down... I really want England to score another goal. And they do - because I wanted it. Paul Scholes with a terrific shot in the final minutes. Beer is drunk, cheers are cheered, and the pub soon empties. Some fans were dancing in the street I tell you; dancing, on this grey, drizzly day!

An excellent start and I feel strangely benevolent towards Jimmy Hill and his 'flag of St George bow tie' for the first time in my life. Most of the other so-called pundits are chronic irritants and Jimmy, by virtue of having been around for 200 years, has accumulated a perverse glamour a la the revisionist rehabilitation of crap 70s comedians and game-show hosts.

The other games could only be an anti-climax. Returned to the pub for Romania v Colombia. Ilie looks impressive, and the Colombians have some great skills without looking too dangerous. Qualification for England shouldn't be a struggle, to be realistic.

And so to the Germans. Looked good, Klinsmann scoring in his third World Cup. I fear, I mean feel, we haven't heard the last of these chaps. They've been rather overlooked in all the talk of World Cup favourites. Their route to the next stage doesn't look too taxing, either. Mark my words. Go on, mark them!

Results:

England (1) 2	Tunisia (0) 0
Shearer 42 Scholes 89

Romania (1) 1	Colombia (0) 0
Ilie 45

Germany (1) 2	USA (0) 0
Moeller 9 Klinsmann 66

Shots off target:

Re: bloke in pub and spread betting... the average number of goals per match in the qualifying games was 2.99, but that included a higher proportion of one-sided games than we'll see in the finals.

Yellow card: Chumbawamba. Useless, patronising wasters. Give anarchists a bad name.

(Not necessarily the World Cup but I've got a lot of them) Football Quote of the Day:
'It was a game we should have won. We lost it because we thought we were going to win it. But then again, I thought that there was no way we were going to get a result there.' Jack Charlton