As we are now into the latter stages of the World Cup in South Africa, we thought we would put together a few thoughts on what we have witnessed so far. We have seen most of the games but not all, so if we have missed something please let us know by commenting below:
Team Most Likely To Win: A difficult choice as Brazil appeared to have clicked back to their measured but brilliant best with their win over Chile, Germany were as efficient as only Germans can be against England and Spain and Argentina have both played some good football although there are perhaps some concerns over Spain’s big match prowess. When pressed to make a choice we have to plump for Germany as we just have a sneaky suspicion that this will be their year.
Favourite Team: A toss up between that group of predominantly non-league footballers, the All Whites, Bafana Bafana and Slovakia perhaps as well due to their win over Italy. Probably the All Whites if push came to shove.
Most Disappointing Teams: A three way tie between Italy, France and England. Each of them hyped up in their own countries but by no one else.
Best Single Players Performance: The Kiwi goalie’s extraordinary shot stopping against Italy in their one all draw would get our vote. We’re sure there are others so let us know below.
Best Goal: Not sure about this one but Maicon’s goal for Brazil against North Korea was pretty special. We saw highlights for a pretty spectacular volley from a Dutch player early in the tournament which looked brilliant. Who was this player, can anyone tell us?
Most Irritating Player: Cristiano Ronaldo – no shadow of a doubt. We would hate to be playing on the same Portugese side as him only to watch him blaze 40 yard free kicks either high and wide or comfortably into the goalies arms. His repeated falling over at the slightest touch doesn’t help our affections towards him either.
Most Disappointing Player: Wayne Rooney – his touch seemed to desert him and never looked threatening.
Best Player: David Villa – doing everything Ronaldo was supposed to do himself.
Best Game: Probably England vs Germany (although obviously not from an Englishman’s perspective). Was high drama in a world cup strangely lacking it.
Most Entertaining Manager: Has to be Maradona for his press conferences and his flamboyant sideline celebrations. Would be akin in passion to Ian Wright managing the England team.
Overall Thoughts: To us this seems to be a slightly strange and disappointing experience so far and we can’t work out why. What does everyone else think – has it been underwhelming or is it just us here at the Compulsive Hooker? Now we’re into the business end of the competition hopefully this feeling will dissipate quickly.
The Compulsive Hooker 
I think controversies like the one about the Jabulani Ball, the slippery surface, horrible decisions by referees, etc. etc. are slightly irritating, and I don’t think these problems should creep up when there’s so much money at hand. The surface and the ball, make you think whether the players are playing freely or not.
It’s like when you see Cricket being played on a flat track with both teams scoring 500+, you tend to get a little bored. If one can make a whole stadium, why can’t one make a proper pitch.
In my view Sameer the whole thing has been underwhelming and perhaps the ball and these other things have come together to make that so. Hopefully the rest of the competition will be better!
As for cricket I have always been a firm believer in result pitches myself so agree with you. Perhaps the experiment they are trying this year in the county championship of no heavy rollers in between innings could be expanded. Apparently the pitches are livelier as a result.
Germans are ‘efficient’ shock.
I know! But really I thought it described them to a T!