Peninsular wars in Group B while Group A is done and dusted and another instant review of EnGerLand

I have just finished watching EnGerLand demolish the hapless Panamanians six goals to one. I tweeted out during the game (@leedssheepwiggi if you want to follow me) that I had to keep on pinching myself to actually believe what I was seeing and that the important thing to remember was that this was only against Panama.

Given that, it is still very impressive to beat any team six one in a competitive match, it is not supposed to happen these days where all the teams at this level can at least usually defend.

I remember in 1974 when the now defunct Yugoslavia beat the now defunct Zaire nine nil, I kid you not. In those days African football was still a joke as can be seen in this famous clip from the Brazil v Zaire game. Note at the end of the clip the mention of a third now defunct nation. How the world changes.

What was he thinking

Anyway back to EnGerLand, how are the management going to keep the expectations from this team shooting through the roof ? I am sure that at this very moment, people up and down the length of Albion are allowing themselves to dream the dream, think the impossible can happen. Well they should not ! As the famous chant by a well known London team goes in relation to blowing bubbles.
"They fly so high, nearly reach the sky, then like my dreams they fade and die"

On the other hand, this young squad is not tainted with the ghost of past failures and it is important that they do believe they can beat anybody. It is only we, the fans who have to be careful.

One last thought, a lot of babies were sired last night as the young men of EnGerLand all thought they were Harry Kane and could score at will, obviously only after the Colombia Poland game had finished, one must know ones priorities after all. Imagine the baby boom if EnGerLand go on to win.

Obviously we will preview the England game against those Brussels sprouts later this week and in the meantime here is one of the six goals, so you can keep on rubbing your eyes in disbelief.

Not the most amazing, but training coming to fruition

In group A, the two teams who will move on to the next stage have already been decided. Uruguay and surprisingly in one way at least Russia, and they will play each other to see who wins the group. The other game is between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with the only thing to play for being the bragging rights in the Arab world.

In the preview for this group, we wrote that the only reason Russia had a chance of moving onto the next stage was because they had conveniently been drawn with two very weak teams. Surprise, surprise, they now stand top of the group with two victories and a plus seven goal difference meaning that barring defeat against Uruguay they will win the group. If you hear in the next month or so, of an arms deal with Egypt or Russian pressure on Iran over Syria, do not be too surprised.

Uruguay will be a different proposition for the Russians, they have laboured to two one nil victories over the Arab counties as they have ensured their progress with less panache than the Russians. However as a Uruguayan colleague of mine pointed out to me, Uruguay have only allowed two shots on target in those games, so not so pleasing to the eye, but highly effective.

I have to go with Uruguay for this game, despite all the Russian excitement over their performances so far, Russia are just not very good.

The Egyptian star Mo Salah, has been awarded honorary Chechen citizenship, why does this matter ? To be honest it doesn't, but the Chechen leader, one Ramzan Kadyrov has an incredibly poor record on human rights especially towards the gay community in his country. By accepting this award, Salah has scored an own goal in publicity terms, or maybe not depending on who he is trying to impress.

This game pits the spiritual leader of the Arab world , the Saudis, home to Mecca and Medina, against the more secular leaning leaders of the Arab world Egypt. The Egyptians with their history dating back to the pharaohs consider themselves better than an upstart family of camel herders who happened to be lucky that their newly created country was sitting on the largest oil reserves in the world. There is no love lost between these two nations and it should prove to be a fiery battle which interests no one except themselves and that is a shame.

The teams Russia and Uruguay will face will come from Group B where all is still to play for. In this group, Iran face Portugal whilst Spain will play Morocco.

The fact that Iran even have a chance to advance is an achievement in itself. In their game against Spain they displayed a certain naivety in that, they tried to play for a draw and only once they went behind did they try and play football and score, which they came very close to doing. If they had shown the same belief as the Ayatollahs, the outcome could have been different.

Tonight they are up against Ronaldo and the bell ends, that well known doo wop band. It is not hard to imagine Ronaldo as the lead singer of such a band singing the hit song the Wanderer,  "and when they ask me, which one I love the best, I tear open my shirt and show them Ronaldo on my chest"

Portugal through Ronaldo always seem to find a way to do just enough and while it may be a hard slog, that will probably be what happens tonight.

Morocco are already out of the competition which is probably actually in their favour as they can play freely with no pressure on them and the chance of beating the mighty Spain beckons.

Historically Spain and Morocco have not had the best of relations, dating back to the end of Arab rule in Spain in 1492, with a number of small wars being fought between the two, but today bi-lateral relations are good.

As in the other game, in the end Spain will have too much for Morocco to cope with, but it would be funny if either of the fancied teams came a cropper.

Tomorrow we will look at the finales of Group C and of course the Argies chances in group D