Well, the Football (soccer to those who will insist on calling it such... ) World Cup finals are once more well underway, and tonight England play the USA.

I'm sure that it has all passed most of you folks in North America by, but for much of the rest of the world, it's very much a big deal! Here in England, the St George's cross is flying all over the place (a rarity- the flag has been 'hijacked' in a way by race hate groups- sadly the flag is often linked with nationalism rather than patriotism. This makes it sound much worse than it is, but people are slowly reclaiming the flag, and this is at no time more obvious than when England are playing footie- it gets hung out in force and it's good to see!), and most people are looking forward to the kick off this evening.

I'm hoping we'll win- the US team has been getting better over the years, and our results of late have been somewhat lacklustre- I hope we can step up to the occasion and kick some butt! England expects, as the old saying goes....

Looks like the June 12th match of England vs. USA resulted in a tie, huh?

Yeah, we played a fairly lacklustre game. A lot of people want our goalie's head on a spike at the Tower of London at the moment after his cock up let in the equaliser. Me? I'm a little more level headed and am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt!

We often start our World Cup campaigns badly. If we don't get through to the next round though, there will be hell to pay, I'm sure. Neither the fans or the press will go easy, and all will look for some poor soul to blame!

It gets worse. A dire performance by England led to a goalless draw against Algeria. The fans are now screaming for blood, and I can't blame them. The team showed no sign of 'wanting' it.

We now have to win against Slovenia on Wednesday to get through to the knockout stages. My boss is letting us off work early so we can watch it, but I suspect it may be a painful experience...

The USA team had a draw too, and also need to win to get through.

Oh wow, sounds like the USA and England need to pick it up!

I have some friends who have a dual citizenship in England and they are also soccer players so I bet this is not good news to them.

Well, whaddya know?

We won our match, and the US, with a last minute goal, won theirs too! This puts the US at the top of the group ahead of England due to goal difference.

As we came second, it means we now face our traditional football enemy Germany in the next round on Sunday afternoon. If England had pulled their finger out earlier, we could have been playing a much easier fixture against Ghana- you guys have them instead...

On Wednesday, the whole country ground to a near standstill- streets empty, motorways empty. I suspect it will be much the same this Sunday...

I know, I saw this on the news!

I also saw that the defending champions Italy are already out of the competition. I have a Italian twin friends and I'm pretty sure they are not happy about this.

Sadly. the USA lost to Ghana this evening and are now out.

I just hope England can beat Germany tomorrow.

I'm fairly sure that the gravitas of this match, and my nation's passion for it is completely lost on you folks on the other side of the pond...

And now England have crashed and burned too.

We were 2-0 down and clawed one back, then about 90 seconds later, in went another and we were all level. The the linesman decided it wasn't a goal and we stayed at 2-1.

Here's the goal he disallowed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtfznngtELU&feature=related

Clearly a goal (more than obvious), but due to FIFA's refusal to use goal line technology, or to allow video replays, it's now the goal that never was.

Germany went on to demolish us 4-1. In truth, they were the better team, but if that goal had been allowed, then it would have perhaps been a very different game. We might not have won, but at least we'd have had a fighting chance...

Well, looks like Spain took the title for the first time ever this year! Congrats to them!

I only saw a little of the final. I was camping in Wales, and caught the last half hour or so in a pub. My Dad has told me that he was sitting at home, and started off wanting the Dutch to win, but they were playing dirty and he switched allegiances. He was glad Spain won in the end, and it sounds as if justice was served!