So did Henry. Appiah is class, I'd love him to run our midfield.

The best team won. France are improving and are solid at the back, not including Barthez. Spain are fuming at Henry the cheat (in their eyes). It's a bit rich coming from a team that got a dodgy penalty. Spain aren't as bad as the Portuguese but they do tend to dive a lot. Why don't Spain concentrate on thinking why they are worse than us when it comes to major tournament bottling. I do believe that they view club play to be superior than playing for Spain. I think the English suffer from that syndrome too, maybe because of media pressure. You could view the result as Karma for Aragones after his comments toward Henry.

ESPN 360 are showing games online. I think it's a promotion before they start charging for it. How nice of them to do it now.

Kewell went off after 20 mins in the 2005 CL final, injured in the 2006 FA cup final, didn't play v. Italy. Does he get nervous, consequently is too tight and gets injured? I read an article when he signed for Liverpool saying that he signed for them intead of Man U because he couldn't handle the pressure of taking Giggs' place so took the easy option.

The Aussies were unlucky. I too am also surprised at Hiddink. A very talented coach lets the Italians sit back and do what they are good at instead of taking the game to them. Probably wasn't a sending off, and probably wasn't a pen. What was Neill doing though? Just think, if the first defender had manhandled Grosso instead of letting him go. Harry Kewell, why in every big game does he go missing?

You are dead right. The number of times I've had people ask me if I'm a hooligan just because I'm English and like football. There is nothing better than having a few drinks and a chat with likeminded fans from different countries. Mind you, brainless idiots would probably say the same about fighting. Why was Waggy "surrounded" by 20 Germans?

Tommy Smythe is a total and utter fool and has been for the whole time I've been here. The bloke has no idea, unless you are talking whisky (sorry whiskey for him). Balboa doesn't really know his ar$e from his elbow but he's OK. John Harkes is the best. The coverage has been good, far better than 2002. All the games have been on live and there has been a decent amount of media attention. I like Wynalda (minus his odd idiotic comment) and Lalas, they tell it as it is, unilike fawning British pundits. ESPN has too many graphics, it's like watching a film at the cinema with somone always in your way. ABC is shocking though. My picture quality is bad, the crowd noise is turned down too much, it is about 10 seconds behind and my local station decides to have a quarter of the screen devoted to telling everyone that there is a thunderstorm warning for an outlying county for the whole game. Univision is great, the picture is ace. I'm even learning a bit of Spanish.

1-0. Hot weather. Quarter final hear we come. I keep seeing boring performances, but we keep advancing and I'll take that. Part of the boredom is the fact than Sven coached in Italy for years and has adopted that style of play, contrary to English cravings. These players are good enough to do it. I also think we will play better against better opposition. Ecuador were surprising in that they were so defensive. In the group games they looked very adventurous but yesterday nothing. Did we stifle them? Robinson - booked for time wasting. He'd better not get another one. Hargreaves - did well, would be a shame if he was dropped as has done well. Terry - bad game, not his usual self. Ferdinand - class. Keeps things organised. Cole A. - MOTM. Saving tackle and didn't give them a sniff. Beckham - tired. Can we just bring him on for free kicks? Carrick. Very tidy, kept the play ticking over. Would also be a shame if he lost his place. Lampard - awful. Nothing new from the latter day David Platt. Drop him for wasting space. He's had more shots than anyone at the tournament; including the Germans who had shooting practice against Sweden. Gerrard - getting there. More space and he'll do better. Cole J. - subdued. Not up to his group game standards. Rooney - pleased. First half quiet but came into it late on showing his fitness is there. Will be much better next game. I do think England suffers from the same club syndrome as Spain; players seem to perform better for them instead of their national team. Everyone is having a laugh at Emerton's world class performances why do our lads not up their game? England must be optimistic about facing Portugal this time around. The game is not on Portugese soil, they will have no Deco or Costinha. Ronaldo is iffy right now, but should be fit, and there are no agents sniffing around trying to engineer big money moves. They do need to watch out for Portugal, they were up to allsorts of dirty tricks yesterday, we'd better not get involved. Their keeper did the same thing he did to us at Euro 2004; he came out flapping for a cross, missed it and flopped around like a fish out of water to get a free kick. The game should be more open as they like attacking. Us v. Holland would have been a sleep fest. Roy, Mexico had one decent performance, against the Argies, and got beat. Their group play was crap, they just had easy opposition. Where are you going to study Stateside?

The best game so far was Aussies v Croatia. Argies demolition of the Serbs ranks good as a technical game. I've like the WC so far, the good games will start on Saturday as they are playing to stay. How may penalty shootouts will we see?

In the cold light of day I beleive that the USA don't deserve to go through. They are a team that I watch and look out for their result, I have been a part of US soccer on some level since I've been here and as long as I'm a fan of football I want the US to do well as it can only bring the game more popularity over here. Lets look at what happened to them: They came out flat against the Czech's and got a pasting. This made everyone sit up and say that the Czech's were one of the best team's in it. 2 losses later and they are gone (yes, we all know Koller got injured). They played their ba!!s off against Italy, had no shots and scraped a creditable draw. Against Ghana an error from their skipper and a very debatable penalty cost them twice. They huffed and puffed but couldn't find it. Fans all over the place have talked about being done by the ref's in two games. Both sendings off in the Italy game were deserved (Mastroeni's a tad harsh) and today's penalty was a bad one. But these excuses mask what was a very ineffective US team. They hardly got into the box in all three of their games and some of their players weren't up to it. I think Arena (the coach) has a lot to answer for. He should walk, or be pushed. Tactically the USA were miles behind and although many will feel sorry for them they weren't good enough to progress.

Half time post. Never a penalty. If a decision like that costs them the game it is very harsh. FIFA need to address players dropping like flies every time someone touches them. Not just this game but all of them, even England do it; Beckham especially.

USA: Keller, Onyewu, Conrad, Cherundolo, Bocanegra, Dempsey, Reyna, Lewis, Beasley, Donovan, McBride. Interesting USA line up. Beasley floating? I don't know enough about Ghana to post theirs.

Sven earns £4 million. Lagerbeck earns £100,000. £76,000+ per week so not true, but not far off.

Good first half, usual serving of dross in the second. However we played this bad and still won the group. I'll take crap and wins any day over style and losses. Their first goal started not from Hargreaves, but John Terry arsing about with the ball instead of hoofing it. It caused a loss of possession leading to the corner. On the corner we had our worst header of a ball, Beckham, marking a striker. Goal. Then Beckham goes walkabout again for one to hit the bar. The second was criminal defending from Terry letting the ball bounce. Robinson is not a bad keeper. I don't know where this is coming from. You'll see a difference if James comes on. Hargreaves played well and I think deserves the nod against Ecuador. You cannot have two world class keepers playing at the same time, why have 2 midfielders playing for one position? Counter to that is that they are both brilliant they should be able to share the duties. Eriksson's subs were again confusing. "Gerrard and Crouch will be rested because they are on jellow cards" said the Swede, so 2 mins in on comes Lurch. 20 mins to go here comes the second. Sense? Rooney did well, but needs more space. Walcott could give us that as defenders will have to play deeper to accommodate his speed but all signs point to the the same system that limped around against Paraguay; Crouch up top with Rooney supporting and the divorced couple of Gerrard and Lampard in the middle.

The USA were unlucky. They played quite well. The only sending off I would question is Mastroeni. A straight red would have been harsh, I thought he'd already been booked, if so he had to go for his second yellow. The ref was stood right next to him when he tackled and I reckon that from where the ref was it looked like a two footed lunge. The question has to be asked; what was he doing putting in a tackle like that with 1 minute to half time near the opposition box? For Pope to get the same ban as De Rossi is not on, De Rossi should get at least 2 games.

I agree Eddie, Zidane's ban will ignite the French. They can now play to Henry rather than the ageing maestro. Malouda looked very good, who does he play for?

Flopsy you are on one here. I don't know what you are on about. It seems that you are having a go at the Germans and holding a grudge for something that happened a while ago and you have no recollection of as you were not around. I don't think forgiving has anything to do with forgetting. Think before you write, you are making yourself look stupid.

I'm not going to get into a cultural debate but Serbs aren't suited to the Premier League. Some time ago I listed about 10 Serbs (I need to add Kezman, Jokanovic, and Croat Stanic) who have been to England and gone back quickly as they didn't do anything, and I believe that Zigic will be another. We'll have to play him loads and all he'll do is sit on his stringbean ar$e and collect the cash.

I was talking about their mentaltiy.

And some want to sign Zigic?

Thanks Phil, if you can't get it either I guess that the cohorts caught up with them, for now.... American it's nothing to do with the Beeb, it is about licensing. ESPN/ABC paid for the WC, they have sole rights, and should broadcast the games online.

Phil, I've installed the player but everytime I launch it it says that it cannot be initialized and to find a network connection. Any ideas?

T&T wasn't as boring as Paraguay but in the cold light of day we've won both and are moving on. I too wonder about our performances, and I think we need to drop Crouch to make us play it on the ground, but with Owen looking lethargic it may not happen. Sven tends to stick to what he's got, but you have to give him credit for having the ba!!s to switch it up. We completely changed when Lennon came on, not just for the fact that he ran at players but it gave Beckham more space. T&T played for a draw and nearly got it. We should play Rooney against Sweden, get our first 11 out there to get ready for a long run!

American, I think France '98 was a different case than the current one. In 1998, team captain Harkes got booted 3 weeks before the tournament (alleged carnal indiscretions have been mentioned) David Regis played every game despite getting a US passport 2 weeks before the tournament. Then the manager played the most bizarre system ever seen in a World Cup; 3-6-1. How I laughed when I saw that line up. Separately, Harkes, Wynalda, Balboa, and Lalas have all commented indirectly about Steve Sampson and his mis mangement of that team. Lalas has also got more revenge by firing Sampson from LA. Wynalda may have sour grapes but it doesn't detract from the fact that he's right. The 2006 team played awful on Monday, unless they get something out of the Italy game, which I doubt they will, they are home with the public switching off as usual. I believe that Arena's days are numbered if the USA come back with 0 points. DanLad, I mentioned Johnson ages ago on here, the lad is fast and can score. His touch needs improving but a good coach like Sparky will do that. Rover6, do you really need someone with insider knowledge to answer that one? Of course not. The only male-female debate ever in the USA came in the 1970's when some crackpot actor/pseudo star said that women shouldn't play sport and challenged manimal tennis legend Billie Jean King to a game. She beat him.

I heard Wynalda on the radio this morning, he is still seething. He had a right go after the game and did so again this morning. He said that how can the USA play that badly when they have a great chance to show the nation that they are decent. It makes a change that commentators are saying what they think. It's normally glory glory glory with Americans. This is refreshing as journo's don't have a clue. Arena needs to make changes. He needs to give them a kick up the ar$e. Play Eddie Johnson (who we should sign), drop Beasley or Convey or Donovan (it wouldn't matter who after their performances) and Mastroeni. Tactics: get the ball wide and in the box, Mcbride will eventually get something. Donovan may now be rueing his decision to stay in the MLS, he got found out yesterday. It does look bleak though as the Italians were very impressive.