World Cup 2010

Birding has taken a bit of a back seat for the last week or so as the World Cup enters the business end of the competition. England's heavy loss to Germany on Sunday was painful (particularly as I watched it with some German friends!) but I really can't understand all the fuss in the British media about England's failure. Did they really expect England to win the World Cup? On the evidence so far in this competition we are way behind most of the last 16. We are technically poor and the 100mph game we are used to in the Premiership might be great to watch (and it is) but it just isn't suited to tournament football where possession is key. We are an above average international side that probably hovers around the top 10 in the world. Quarter-finals is about our level and, if we had won the group (which we should have done, being drawn with teams much lower ranked than us) then we would have played, and probably beaten, Ghana in the second round and then we'd have had a good chance of reaching the semis in a match against Uruguay. As it was, we scraped through the group and, through finishing second, played Germany, a team consistently ranked higher than England and we lost. Am I surprised? No. Disappointed? A little. Is it a disaster? No!

Now, back to checking waders....