Joke McConnell's rain dance obviously didn't work, the sun shone brightly on the Orangemen and the message to those who would ban our parades boomed out loud and clear. The phrase 'civil and religious liberty for all' may be alien to some but, on the evidence of Saturday's events at Johnstone and Glasgow Green, the Order is strong and getting stronger.
Due to having a wee walk (or was it a big walk?), I only caught glimpses of Portugal v England in various pubs but I made sure my arse was parked in front of the box at Chateau LBB for Brazil v France. The result was a wee bit of a disappointment but the quality of the fitba certainly wasn't. France's ageing musketeers, having got together for one last mission, are suddenly coming good, with Zinedine Zidane set on bowing out in style.
For all the talk of Ronaldo being overweight and past his sell-by date, the biggest disappointment in the Brazilian team has been Ronaldinho. Apart from a couple of tricks around the halfway line in the early games, his contribution to this campaign has been zilch. At least his tubby sidekick managed to grab a couple of goals. And at the back, with Cafu and Roberto Carlos invariably bombing upfield, they always look vulnerable.
All their defensive shortcomings were highlighted by Thierry Henry's 57th minute goal. Zidane curled a free-kick into the box, the movement of the French players had the Brazilians all over the shop and nobody picked up Henry who volleyed high into the net from point blank range. Of all the players in the box, he was surely the one who should have been tightly marked and goalkeeper Dida could have been sitting on my couch guzzling lager, for all the good he did between the posts.
Earlier in the tournament, the 'experts' made a big thing of Henry never having scored from a Zidane pass. Well, even if they never combine together again, you won't hear any Frenchmen making too big a deal of it. They couldn't have timed their first strike any better.
However, with more than a half-hour still to play, Brazil had every chance of clawing themselves back into it. But France were alive to the possibility of catching them out on the counterattack and had chances to increase their lead. At the other end, sub Robinho came close and a late Ronaldinho free-kick whistled over the top but it was not to be.
Knowing how things had panned out at Gelsenkirchen, I looked forward to catching up on the tape of the England game, if only to listen to John Motson's commentary. I actually thought England would win this one but, once it went to pens, you just knew there was no way they would do it. They can dress it up in all the hard luck stories they want but one goal out of four kicks just isn't good enough. End of.
There wasn't much between the teams but things started to go wrong for England when Beckham limped off early in the second half. Ten minutes later Rooney got involved in a tussle with Ricardo Carvalho, he caught the Chelsea man in the crown jewels but it looked accidental to me. The ref appeared to be of the same opinion, then Christiano Ronaldo appeared on the scene, Rooney shoved him away and out came the red card.
Players simply can't lift their hands but I felt it was a very harsh decision, one which left England pishing into the wind and could see a very interesting finale when Ronaldo and Rooney get together again for pre-season training. A big money bid from Real Madrid might just save Ronaldo from a very sore coupon.
As so often happens, England actually played better with ten men. Lennon was more effective than Beckham had been on the right and Crouch did a great job up front, holding things up and playing others into the game. They had a few chances, so did Portugal but, long before the end of the 90 minutes and the extra half-hour, this one had penalty shoot-out written all over it.
Regular diary readers will note that my tips to make the semi-finals - Germany, Ukraine, Brazil, England - have been some way off the mark. One out of four, like England on the penalty spot, just isn't good enough. But does anyone want to bet against a Germany v France final?
LITTLE BOY BLUE