Well, England aren’t as good as we all hoped they were, African nations play with enthusiasm, but are prone to huge defensive lapses and you can’t write off the Germans.
Hang on, haven’t we heard that all before? The most startling thing about this year’s tournament is how familiar it all feels.
Even the unfortunate lapse suffered by Robert Green had a sense of nostalgia – how many England campaigns haven’t been punctuated by calamity?
The ball of course is being blamed by many. It is apparently the roundest ball ever, moves a lot in the air and is sighted as the culprit for goalkeeping errors, skied free kicks and even handballs.
It’s something else that I distinctly remember from previous years and I’ve never understood how a new ball always induces such surprise among the players. How different can it be? Surely they train with the same ball?
So what lessons can you draw on for your Fantasy World Cup team? Well, given the also customary over-exuberance of FIFA referees, combined with the beach ball that nobody can control, we can probably expect to see nearly as many red cards as goals in the next few weeks. In which case, packing your team with mild mannered defenders seems like the way to go. What a shame Gareth Southgate isn’t still playing.
