Shaking In Their Shoes, England Or Germany? - Little Boy Blue's World Cup Diary

And as these infuriating mouthpieces keep telling us "You've got to be in it to win it". Get real, guys!   Later events put a dampener on English euphoria, although the message out of the studio continues to be that England have nothing to fear but, as far as I can see, they still have work to do to convince themselves, never mind the viewers.   Over the next day or so we will be bored witless by all the 'traditional rivalry' nonsense.  We'll get 1966, 1970, Italia90, Euro96, bla-bla-bla!  Just don't mention the war!!!   As those who know me will confirm, I am not a big fan of English TV commentators.  Kenneth Wolstenholme, David Coleman, John Motson, Barry Davies, Clive Tyldesley, Jonathan Pearce and many more have sparked a wee sweary word or two from me from time to time with their banal comments and arrogant assumption that everybody in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northen Ireland shares their obsession with all things English.  Add another name of the roll of dishonour, Guy Mowbray (does he have a relative called Tony?).  This absolute eejit really took the biscuit as he talked us through events in Port Elizabeth.   He took great delight in pointing out that many of the Slovenian players were not plying their trade in the top leagues of Europe and that ski-ing, ice hockey and basketball are ahead of football in the list of the country's most popular sports.  "This really is the Premier League against the Second Division," he smirked.  Really?  If it was such a mismatch, why did he need to be so blatantly biased in his coverage of the game?  'Lampard barged to the ground', 'Novakovic has balance issues', 'Birsa goes down easily', 'Poor challenge on Gerrard' were just some of his clearly slanted observations when, in truth, there wasn't a bad foul in the game.  And right at the end he was virtually purring over Joe Cole and James Milner keeping the ball in the corner for three minutes.  Would a Premier League side need to do that against Second Division opposition?    Don't get me wrong, England thoroughly deserved to win but I'm a bit puzzled by all the superlatives being heaped on the performance.  Yes, they were a bit better than against USA or Algeria but, c'mon, there was plenty of room for improvement.  I don't think they would have bossed the game quite so comfortably against a better side, which brought a smile to my face when news of Landon Donovan's 92nd minute winner for USA against Algeria was relayed back from Pretroria.  It was a goal which won the group for the Americans and, no matter how vehemently they might deny it, it was a bitter blow to the English who were intent on avoiding the Germans so early in the competition.   While the game in Pretoria stayed at 0-0, England and Slovenia would have qualified and that would have been a hard one to take for Mo Edu and company.  Edu have a perfectly good goal disallowed late in the 2-2 draw with Slovenia and Clint Dempsey also had a first half strike against Algeria harshly chalked off for offside.  A lesser team might have lost heart, leaving England (as group winners) to meet Ghana and Slovenia facing the Germans.  But with Bill Clinton cheering them on (I'll bet the atmosphere resembled the switching on of the Christman light at Belfast City Hall, eh Bill?), the Yanks kept at it and, despite a valiant attempt by the immense Madjid Bougherra to get in a goal-line block, Donovan pounced to snatch the winner.   Of course, at that part of the afternoon, the shake-up in Group D was still up in the air.  Germany, Ghana, Serbia and Australia all had possibilities to qualify but the odds were always in favour of the Germans and A.N.Other.  Clive Tyldesley betrayed English fear just as the teams prepared to come on to the pitch when he said: "Hands up all those who want to see the Germans knocked out at this stage."  Aye, you wish!!!   Mezut Ozil was very impressive in Germany's 4-0 slaughter of the Aussies last Sunday but less prominent when they lost to Serbia on Friday so, knowing only the defeat of Ghana would guarantee German qualification, I paid particularly close attention to his contribution at Soccer City.  The guy was outstanding in a game where as many as three or four players from either side put in man-of-the-match performances.  Ozil settled the issue with a superb shot from the edge of the box after an hour and the Ghaneans must have been sweating over their World Cup future.   While the Aussies and the Serbs were stuck at 0-0, it was fine for the Africans but, if Serbia had managed to nose in front, they would have been in the qualifying place.  Goals from Tim Cahill and Brett Holman eased their worries, only for a late strike from Marko Pantelic to have Ghana's hopes again hanging in the balance.  A late penalty claim was controversially denied by Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda to infuriate the Serbs.  A 2-2 draw would have taken them through, level on points and goal difference with Ghana, but ahead by virtue of scoring one goal more.  I understand a few pleasantries were exchanged between the Serbs and the match officials before they switched off the floodlights.   It was, however, good to see at least one African team survive the group stages and, with the odds stacked against Ivory Coast on Friday, it looks like Ghana will be the Dark Continent's sole representatives.  They certainly play the game in the right manner, sticking with the flair which once set African sides apart before European coaches like Eriksson, Le Guen and Lagerback drummed it out of them.  Ghana's meeting with the USA on Saturday will be well worth seeing and, while I will be backing Mo Edu and Beasley, I find the outcome hard to call.   I have no such reservations over England v Germany.  The Germans look to me like the far better team and, while England might have developed into a more powerful unit the longer the tournament progressed, this clash and come too soon for them and their shortcomings may well be about to be exposed on Sunday.  Failing that, there are always penalties!!!   Tomorrow: Italy v Slovakia, Paraguay v New Zealand, Holland v Cameroon, Denmark v Japan.