Colin Randall 
After all the gloom about the dearth of exciting, high quality football, could it be that things are looking up at the World Cup?
The end of the second round of games has seen a marked improvement in the tournament, although, sadly, the same can not be said of the refereeing.
Kaka’s sending off was harsh. You could argue that he lifted his elbow, but the response of Keita was disappointing and I am not sure that the referee actually saw it.
Bill Taylor reports with laptop and lens from his temporary second home, the Little Italy quarter of Toronto. Is he really watching three games a day, as his stream of comments to Salut! Sunderland suggests, and will it make him go blind? …
Also: Join the debate on Kaka’s invisible assault
I learned something during the Brazil-Cote d’Ivoire game – that TV sports commentators don’t ALWAYS talk drivel.
During the later stages of the game – before it almost deteriorated into a gang rumble beyond the referee’s control – the guy doing commentary for CBC said something to the effect of: “Leaving aside their own supporters, Brazil is pretty much every soccer fan’s second-choice team.”
Did anyone out there see something I didn’t?
Did Kaka, under no pressure, somehow manage to strike the Cote d’Ivoire player Kader Keïta in the face without actually presenting any limb, or any other part of his body, anywhere near said face? Thereby justifying a second yellow card, and consequently a red?
Maybe the best expression of the entente cordiale is England and France agreeing to do as badly as each other out in South Africa. Jeremy Robson tries to make some sense of the goings-on in the camps of two national teams seemingly going nowhere, except home …
Within the next few days, both the English and French national sides both face expulsion rather earlier than expected from the 2010 World Cup.
The French team is in disarray, a bunch of millionaire tosspots refusing now to train to add farce and heaven knows what else to the disgrace of Nicolas Anelka and his yobbish verbal assault on the admittedly hopeless Raymond Domenech.
There was another night when England had an important match, and I found myself enjoying a non-football night out in France instead.
It was only a week or two before September 11. England away to Germany in a World Cup qualifier. I was tucking into a great meal in the pretty Normandy town of Honfleur, not far from the distinctly unpretty city of Le Havre. Such was the depth, then, of my eternal club-before-country feeling that I’d briefly forgotten about the game in Munich.
Were you disappointed with last night’s performance? Did you expect better? Pete Sixsmith invokes the spirit of Ambridge to try to get our gallant lads back on track
As older readers would know this was Walter Gabriel’s response whenever anything went wrong in Ambridge in the 50s and 60s. Walter was not a football fan, being more interested in ploughing matches and pig breeding, but I have a feeling that:
a) he could have picked a better side than Don Capello
b) he could have played better than Wayne Rooney
c) he could have offered more insights than the lamentable Andy Townsend on ITV
What a shocking performance from a bunch of players who showed exactly why Franz Beckenbauer’s criticism was absolutely spot on. In fact, they could not even play kick and rush effectively as crosses and long balls were just ballooned into the sky.
Where are Kenneth Wolstenholme and George Taylor when you most need them? Luke Harvey spent months looking forward to the World Cup only to find it marred (so far) by indifferent football and (probably for the duration) poor punditry.Of course, Ken and Goerge did the commentary and the punditry without help …
Imagine the scene: George Osborne – Chancellor of the Exchequer and a man whose stiff upper lip is matched by his even stiffer looking hair – is on Question Time about to face a fierce interrogation from the fearsome Jeremy Paxman.
Paxman strikes first, quickly questioning Osborne on the proposed budget cuts and if they truly are feasible. Osborne reclines in his seat, clasps his hands together and with a smirk and a chuckle pronounces: “I don’t really know much about the numbers side of things, to be honest.”
Everyone has guilty secrets.
From our own correspondent in a corner of London that is forever Paraguay. A little later than expected, Rob Hutchison …