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With the World Cup coming to an end this weekend, plenty of pundits have been giving their thoughts on how to improve on the beautiful game. I thought this guy from the Guardian has some good ideas, as well as plenty of other good options in the comments.

At my last meeting with the INS I was told that my new card could take “6 weeks or 6 months” to arrive, and to my amazement it came over the weekend. Even more impressively, it is valid for 10 years from the date they mailed it not 10 years from my first approval back in 2004. So I have a shiny new card to show the Border Patrol on my weekly commute and don’t need a new one until 2016. Although, there is a very good chance I’ll be applying for citizenship in October.

2234Today’s paper has the headline that Sanders is leading the competition. Yes, by some miracle I am currently in first place in the newspaper’s Beat the Press competition, with 33 points. There is certainly no way I can win as the only points available to me are if Germany make the final, all other results get me nothing. Now, if its an Italy v Portugal final then maybe I could still win the $100… but its fun to see my name in the headlines out on top.

It took being down to 10 men for England to finally show how well they can play and, as many had said they would, Lennon and Crouch were the guys leading the charge. If they could have played like that throughout the competition I think they’d be in the semis and one of the favourites. It does allow us to indulge our national pasttime – berating the coach and players in the press, I am sure we will see coach Erikkson and Wayne Rooney get a good roasting.

I think my Beat The Press entry is down the toilet although I doubt many had Portugal in the last 4. Perhaps if its a Germany Brazil final I might bring off an upset.

And in the meantime, England gets a new coach and the preparations start for qualifying for Euro 2008.

Some sad news from home in Brawley, Erin’s bird died today. I “inherited” Melanie when I moved into the house 4 years ago and although she was very much Erin’s pet I made sure she got fed, watered and some small amount of attention. I often referred to her as “the forgotten pet” as she’d just sit in her cage quietly most of the time being ignored. She’d come to life when Erin was around, talk and sqawk like crazy for her attention. We had a spell where I thought she was sick a couple of years ago but recently she seemed full of beans so I am quite surprised. She may not have provided the attention and affection that our dogs bring but she enriched our lives in her small way.

No football today, and none tomorrow, suddenly my day seems a whole lot longer. What am I going to do when the tournament is over?! Anyway, this lull allows me to slip in a single of the week. Upcoming British star, Keisha White, performs a cover of Joan Armatrading’s The Weakness of Me. Just gorgeous.

I took this sex i.d. test from the BBC which tries to determine your brain’s gender. It takes about 15 minutes, and you’ll need a ruler but the results are somewhat interesting.

My brain came out as “50% male” which apparantly is the score that the average man gets when taking the test, and one of the tasks revealed that I strongly prefer masculine faces. No, it doesn’t say if that includes beards.

A cracking game between Spain and France brings the round of 16 to a close. I correctly predicted 6 of the last 8 teams so I now have 25 points going into the quarter finals. My original final four prediction was Germany, England, Brazil and France but the group positions have put Brazil and France together so that isn’t going to happen. I’m guaranteed one team in the semi final but will be on the edge of the seat for the Germany and England games, very hard to predict how those will go. Argentina are playing great and England, well, England is England. Hopefully there will be a points update in the newspaper tomorrow to see how I am doing.

In my previous post I wrote that I had 13 points (out of 16) from the World Cup first round. In Saturday’s edition, the newspaper revealed that the leader (a veteran of Beat the Press sports competitions apparantly) had 14 points so I am currently in joint second place.

I got the winners of the first three knockout matches correct (along with everyone else I bet) so I am still in contention. Today’s other match might see that change, I bet I am in the minority for picking Portugal over Holland. But if they win I’ll be moving on ahead for the $100.

The group stage is over, time for sudden death knockout – finally something the USA audience can understand! No more ties, from hereon the game will continue for an extra 30 minutes if the score is level after 90 minutes and then with a penalty shoot-out if still no result.

Going over my entries in my local paper’s Beat The Press competition, I see that I correctly predicted 13 of the 16 teams in the second round, missing Ghana, Ecuador and Australia. That gives me 13 points going forward. I missed seeing what the editor had picked so I don’t know how well they are doing but I doubt many people picked more than one of those. I think I am still in the running for the $100.