England v DR Congo Live

 Tentative, nervous start and DR Congo know how to get round England.  And England are one nil down in seven minutes and England are all over the place.  Bellilngham booked.  England a mess in central defence.  

Nerves all over the place.   England are rattled. 

DR Congo shutting England down. 

You get the picture.  

I will come back. 

The water break is for once welcomed. 

England have come out better after the water break.  They have woken up. 

DR Congo still causing plenty of problems for England's defence though. 

England looking more like they could score now trying to get on top.  35 minutes gone.  

Rashford wins a free kick.  England looking for a penalty, hit of an arm which England plead for penalty, clear accident and referee says no way. 

DR Congo are in possession and DR Congo looking like about to score no. 2 flicks the post and wide.  Kane goes off for a rush to goal, goalkeeper slides into Kane.  Again England look for a penalty, DR Congo look to see Kane getting yellow card.  VAR look to see if it is a penalty.  Studio certain that it is a penalty.  VAR say no penalty.  Calls for England robbed.   England are going in at 1-0 at half time.  Kane is sick, Kane seen to have dived.  VAR backs this.  I leave it to you.  I see that Kane trips and no penalty. 

DR Congo make a great save of a Bellingham flying header. Glancing header, reflex save. 

It is actualy quite a thrilling game now.  DR Congo playing brlilliantly and England playing with vitality.

Super saves from the DR  Congo goalkeeper, 

It goes in at half time, DR Congo 1 England 0

Tuchel will be throwing the hairdrier about in the dressing room.

SECOND HALF

No changes in teams.  

England stepping up the gas now, surely a goal must come.  DR Congo goalkeeper continues to make great saves. 

Tuchel is shouting at England.  57 minutes played. 

60 minutes  : 

Gordon and Saka coming on.  Rashford off Madueke off. 

Tuchel very agitated on the touchline. 

DE Congo making a change.  

65 minutes 

Tuchel needs to make more changes in attack and he has got to chuck caution to the wind now. 

We are now in the water break  Tuchel is going mad with the players.   Shouting.  Never saw much of Southgate getting volatile like that. Tuchel must be wondering what the English psyche is all about. 

Eze is on and for an attacking side, defender comes off.  

England have scored!!!!!!!!!

Kane gets it in for England.  The relief in the stadium Kane to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!

Gordon delivers it to Kane.  Tuchel is animated, not agitated.  Great move by Gordon. 

76 minutes England 1 DR Congo 1

Kane has scored again!!!!!!!!!!!!! Into the top corner and what a goal!!!!!!!!

86th minute.

England break DR Congo hearts.  

90th minute and Declan Rice has a problem, 6 minutes of extra time. Rice is coming off and Stones coming on.  

DR Congo have a free kick and carrying on attacking.

We are into the third minute of injury time. 

Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate England. 

DR Congo are fouled by Bellingham, gives DR Congo a free kick in the last minute.   This is it and a dangerous moment for England in the last minute. Anderson lying down behind the wall. 

The ball goes over the wall and over the bar.  Saved again. Goal kick.  The players wait for the final whistle. and it goes.  

England are through. 

Kane digs England out of trouble and great use of substitutes by Tuchel.  

Mexico here we come!

Football

 No upsets in the football last night as France gave Sweden a masterclass, Mbappé scored two more and France won 3-0.

In the other game I watched earlier Sweden beat Ivory Coast 1-2 and Haaland gave a masterclass in keeping your position and being where you are expected to be in team play.  What a great player he is.  His father was watching and a very proud man he must be. 

Mbappé is level with Messi on 6 goals in the Golden Boot award but is number 1 because he has 2 assists and Messi has 0 assists.   

I remember me and Dave writing about Mbappé in the Russian World Cup in 2018 and spotting him as a player to watch.  He was at the time 18 years old.  

I hope Dave is enjoying the World Cup over there in Ireland and will one day write again.  I hope he is in good fettle and being looked after by his boys at this sad time of his life and will come through to see some good in the world around him.  

The other game last night saw Ecuador go out to Mexico who advanced to the last 16.  It looks from reports like Mexico easily saw off Ecuador with a strong defence and Mexico have not had such a good World Cup run for decades. 

Later today I have to take my car to have the top centre braking light fixed and will be in Diss for this.  I will return for the 5pm kick off of the Engand game England v DR Congo in Atlanta. 

A reader in Australia emailed me today to say she reads the blog and enjoys my writing.  That is nice to know and all support for me here is invaluable to keeping me going.  It can be a lonely life on the blog as well as in the home.   I have emailed a reply to the lady called Jennifer and thanked her personally.  

As Jennifer  said it takes a nerve to write a blog each day and to talk openly to people.  Yes, it does.   I was once talking to a features writer of a newspaper and I said about the pretty nasty comments she received on line and she said the first rule she learned was not to read them so she didn't.   And I don't.  

As for Cro, he is now enjoying a blog break.   

Football and Exercise

 A couple of upsets in the World Cup knock out stage last night with Netherlands and Germany both going out.  Brazil went through against Japan but did not look startlingly good or anything like we used to take for granted with Brazil.  

Germany played badly in the first half that I was watching, terrible defending and Paraguay scored an easy goal to go ahead. Totally unmarked while the German defence stood around doing nothing.   I went to bed and didn't watch the second half or listen to it.  

Later I discovered the match went to extra time and there was a controversial goal VAR decision when the VAR panel judged that the Paraguay keeper was fouled and disallowed a goal.  VAR adhered strictly to the new FIFA rules that goalkeepers are not to be touched.  I can't see that working in the Premier League but this is the rule in the World Cup so the goal was disallowed.  Lots of disbelief from the pundits, no doubt Shearer was shouting.  "That could never happen, he faked it, he dived".  Well Alan, it just did happen.  

The match then remained a draw at the end of extra time and went to penalties.  Germany had a terrible penalty time and it is said that four players refused to step up leaving  poor ol'  Jonathan Tah having to take one never having taken a penalty before in a competitive game and duly kick it over the bar.  That was it for Germany and Paraguay won 4 3.   This was Germany's  first failure to win a penalty shoot out in the World Cup in 44 years.  

On the basis of what I saw of Germany in this World Cup they did not look the greatest of teams and I am happy for Paraguay.  On the singing of their national anthem alone Paraguay looked like winners from the start. 

Another shock, The Netherlands were beaten by Morocco, a match that also ended in 1-1 and went to extra time and penalties.  Morocco are a good footballing side and I am happy to see them go through to the last 16.  They are another team who never give up and play with passion and winners in the singing department too.  I was once in Marrakech with my friend Allal and I asked to go to the Marrakech v Casablanca game that was on and he refused saying the passion for football in such a clash  is such that he did not feel it was safe for me to go.  Oh well..

We shall see what happens to England tomorrow night.  I think they will have a tough job on their hands with DR Congo.  Tuchel has a difficult team selection to make with plenty of off pitch advice coming his way I can see.  I liked DR Congo when I saw them playing Portugal 10 days ago and DR Congo had Portugal running pretty scared so England need to be ready for them and the counter attack.   It looks like a Ghana type scenario could happen all over again except this time it can't end in a draw. 

Will there be more shocks tonight when France play Sweden and Ivory Coast play Norway?  Lots of fun to come.  

I cut the grass and then sat down to prepare for more new exercises which I have ready for my new regime.  I am slowly getting better but each day takes a while to get started.  I am concentrating on legs and circulation and blood coming back up after its journey down to my feet and no varicous veins.   So important for the over 50s.  The new exercises are an overlap of those already in my regime. Calf raises, elevated legs up the wall, never stand still for more than 30 minutes, move and do some calf raises, and do ankle pumps point toes away and pull back.  

I have also added inner thigh shaping up with clam shell knee, lay on side with ankles together and open and shut legs like a clam shell keeping ankles together.  

Oh for love and happiness on the blog where people call in with pleasant greetings and joy to share with me.    

Stayin' Alive

 Will Sadiq Khan be locked up?  100s of gang rapes in London covered up by him and the Met?Mustn't offend the ecletic mix of folk lest we make them feel unwelcome. 

Do you think a man who promoted fraud and lies and said Leon Brittan had been part of a paedophile ring should be in the House of Lords;  do you remember Tom Watson and the like when you voted? Tom Watson, Labour,  was the man who ruined the last years of Leon Brittan's life and his family with the lies he promoted from a convicted paedophile, fraudster, liar, pervert Carl Beech?  And then Tom Watson  was promoted to the House of Lords on the recommendation of Keir Starmer.   The watchdogs who vetted waved it through despite objections. 

Do you think we should solve the boat illegals coming in by sending planes to pick them up instead and on the soil from where they come firstly give them asylum and then they come in on the planes not as illegals but as refugees?    Then one day with your short memories you will forget the planes and say "Labour solved the problem, we don't have boats any more", forgetting that no, we don't have boats, we just have planes landing at Brize Norton bringing them straight in, easy.   That is how your memories work and Labour know it. 

Over 70,000 illegals have arrived in boats across the channel since July 2024.  How many of them are doctors and nursees now in work?  Doctors and nurses don't throw their papers in the sea, come across the channel in a rubber dinghy, and university students studying at high cost in universities come with a passport, a laptop and a hall of residence to go to. They aren't illegals, they are legits, doctors, nurses, students.  We are constantly told that we need these people as if that excuses the illegals in the boats.  Yes, we need them but not to be used as an excuse for illegals or confused with them.   Most of the illegals are not about to be murdered at home, they are about to murder us, scam us, rob, promote drugs for your children, provide drug runs, and fill our prisons when caught enabling rapists, murderers and thugs to be released early to make room for them.   

This country is ruined and will never recover from the Labour Party.  

It will become a new country full of unemployed, rotting buildings, closed industrial estates, abandoned buildings, gangs of thugs, praying in mosques paid for by China,   no banks (nothing new there)  no money, mounjaro sufferers with bodies that rotted like the buildings, vapers with arteries full of air, dropping dead,  no smokers just dying vapers, hospitals with rotting bodies they couldn't cope with  like Nottingham just found, GPs without a jot of sense unless they are writing out a prescription.  90% of over 75s are on medication, probably make that 90% of over 70s.   In hot weather their bodies can no longer cope because of that medication most of which interferes with sweat, the natural way of cooling.  Mother nature is compromised with all this medication.  Swollen feet don't just happen in the majority of people, they come because of your heart pills and your piles of medication each morning.  Labour introduced financial incentives to GP surgeries to prescribe statins and blood pressure pills.  Before this such incentives were unknown. This was part of Blair's Britain that is entrenched. 

Stayin' alive, stayin' alive. 

And then there is Archbishop George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, who covered up for Bishop Peter Ball who had been molesting and abusing young boys for years.   Carey hid from the police  letters of complaint and accusations by putting them in the back of a filing cabinet in a bundle and never telling the police. He eventually revealed only letter which was the least damning.   Ball's despicable behaviour was investigated firstly in the late 1990s and he received nothing and avoided prosecution.  The abuse went on for more years.  Meanwhile Blair recommended Carey for the House of Lords.  Carey carried on hiding the letters.  In 2015 Ball was eventually brought to justice.  Carey remained in the House of Lords.  He was allowed to stay in spite of the findings of the enquiry about Carey hiding the letters and knowing what Ball was allegedly doing and saying nothing and talking it down to absolutely nothing.  After the court case Carey resigned from the Church but continued in the House of Lords to where he sits and legislates to this day.  He is now 90 years old.   Did he do what you would have done?  Did Carey show dignity, integrity and be an upstanding member of the Church and community?     Members of the House of Lords are expected to show dignity, integrity, objectivity, openness, honesty, leadership, selflessness, and accountability.  Watson and Carey should not be in the House of Lords. 

 Ball died at home after serving half his life sentence.  Incidentally he came to Norwich for interview as Bishop of Norwich. They turned him down because he asked for an isolated house away from the Cathedral and not in the Close.  They didn't like the sound of him because the Bishop's House in the Close is a splendid dwelling and no bishop had ever turned it down before.  He subsequently went for another job and became Bishop of Gloucester, got his isolated house and continued molesting boys.  In order to pray and be closer to God he made them strip naked, the only way to be close to God, he told them. He also stripped naked.  No wonder he didn't want the Bishop's House in the Cathedral Close.  Like Jimmy Savile he also befriended people in high places such as Prince Charles (now King) and attained an air of untouchable importance. 

I have written about all these things before including Bishop Peter Ball. 

We seem to enjoy covering up for things we don't like in Britain.

Saturday on Sunday

 I wrote this yesterday and didn't publish as I realise nobody is really interested so I may as well not be interested myself in publishing and concentrate on other things.  Blogger may condescend to update the reading lists by Tuesday or Wednesday by which time the last 32 will be midway through the second half, the heatwave will be over, and all this will be old news anyway.  This morning I publish and be damned.   

Oh woe is me of those who know so little about Great Britain.  As we have a net zero zealot in government in the name of Ed Miliband and his fellow net zero zealots in local authority it is decreed that air con is ripped out of houses if already there and it will not be put into houses if not already there.  Please you foreigners be aware of this.   In my vicinity those using portable air con in their offices of the state who are watched by Stasi type officials they are ordered to turn them off and take them away and never use them again. Camden Council (London)  are having complete air con units removed from housing when they see it.

The electric buses In Norwich are not turning on the air con  because the drivers say the buses do not have the electric battery capacity to switch it on without risking failure to get to their destinations and return.

Enough of that for the foreigners.   Close the curtains and stay indoors and the heat will soon be over, it never lasts very long in Britain.   Mind over matter helps a lot along with natural sweat and water taken on board to replace that lost. 

The England game is tonight at 10pm when we play Panama.  Let us hope that some players are rested as we are now certain of going through to the last 32 whatever happens tonight.   Let us hope Bellingham has a fit of spirit and riles them all up. 

France entertained with Norway last night to beat them comfortably 4-1 with both countries already through so Norway resting many players, notably no Erling Haaland.   France played superbly like winners and must be favourites for the Cup after I see such play as last night.   Denbélé with a hat-trick and such entertainment and the team that plays as winners. 

I hope that we learn something in England from the games we see in the World Cup and that the VAR is not holding it all in its hands and the game has been allowed to continue with flow and little intervention.  No more VAR officials holding the tape measure and the set square to the goal line against  the screen with the magnifying glass in the car park next season I hope. Play on and the referees decision is (sometimes) final. 

The six girls I have seen officiating, the one with the pony tail referee and her assistants,  have been impressive at keeping order and flow amongst the men without confrontations.  Perhaps the players are more scared of a woman than of the male referees they are used to.   She keeps order well. She referees with certainty and complete assurance. 

 

As I have said before, Andrew Lawrence says it better than me. 

And finally, the bit I wrote this morning:  I listened to the E|ngland game on the radio in bed.  Sounds like the first half was more of a Southgate half and they sparked up to win with two goals in the second half with the help of Bellingham's grit and spirit. I then slept and didn't dream of winning the World Cup.

The rest of the tournament is far too difficult to work out for my chart so I will have to rely on the experts so I can fill in the last 32 and the fixtures.  I never was any good at algebra. 

Edit  I have now up-dated my wallchart.  It took 20 minutes.  

England play DR Congo on Wednesday,  1st July, kickoff 5pm.

The first game of the Round of 32 is not Germany v Paraguay tomorrow,  it is South Africa v Canada 8pm tonight, Sunday and then Germany is  Monday,  June 29, kickoff 9.30pm.

France play Sweden on Tuesday ,  30th June, kickoff 10pm.

Win for Ecuador Heat and Capitals and Rats (edited)

 Great win for Ecuador against Germany last night. Ecuador go through to the next round along with Germany and Ivory Coast.   Very enjoyable to see a team playing so hard to win a match.  When I see teams like this in the World Cup I despair that England are my team.  Maybe it is better to just be a neutral and enjoy good football, which I do of course when England aren't playing, but I always fall back on to England. 

This happens in every World Cup, I remember South Korea in a Cup gone by, was it really 2002?, and their passion that never seems to quite make it to  England teams.   Perhaps it is to do with our national psyche.  No love for our country seeps into the veins and our feet and our hearts. 

I am enjoying the heat, not having to do anything makes it enjoyable.  I don't fret about the night time or any of the things I see written about that people fret about in the heat.   I am glad we didn't have internet and social media in 1976, we just enjoyed it, outdoor living like I had never seen it before, Marsden beach was like the Riviera.  

I will enjoy my day and the sunshine, please do the same, relax.

In my house no fans, no doors open, just bedroom window. 

If you have that door open to the garden and you feed the visiting wildlife be aware that a rat will walk in to your house without hesitation.  Take that from a farmer.

Quito is the capital of Ecuador.  La Paz is the capital of Bolivia.  Lima is the capital of Peru.

The Ecuador manager had really cool hair.   He is Argentinian and the capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires. 

When a rat finds a good source of food, particularly left overs, chicken, etc. it will remember it like it a good restaurant and it will return.  It will be its first food seeking jaunt in the night.  It may not recognise any boundaries of houses, gardens, ownership or fences, but it will remember a good source of food location.  Rats are not dumb animals.  Ask any farmer. 

England 0 Ghana 0

Excellent defensive performance from Ghana and I did enjoy the game on Tuesday night.  I have only just got around to writing about it because I had other things to say. 

But, and it is a big but, England first half looked like the old Southgate team back again, slow, yawn, hurry move lads, do something.   Bellingham got a bit stroppy at half time which he does when he gets frustrated with play and we see that side of him and he apparently said some choice words to Quieroz and Queiroz should have just ignored it but he drew attention to it later at the Press conference so it all got a bit silly and oh, just grow up, at 73  give the boy a chance and don't make a song and dance about it.  *Brings back memories of Beckham and Keane getting in a few scraps wtih him too now I come to think about it.

Ghana 4 5 1 and that was their defensive block and it was effective.

DJed Spence and Anthony Gordon could not get behind it. 

Quieroz did a good job as Ghana's coach.  You may remember him as Alex Ferguson's assistant once upon a time - Fergie seemed to get on ok with him but I don't remember the boys at Man U liking him much, see above*. 

Yep, I did enjoy it and although I wanted England to win I couldn't help but enjoy watching Ghana because as well as the defence being solid it was also fluid and Ghana tactically moved correctly, and fast. 

Kane touched the ball 6 times in 45 minutes.  

Then after 56 minutes  England did  get behind the defence, but the Ghana centre midfielder and centre sprinted back and covered again and again so nothing happened. 

England will qualify and this match was a bit of a hiccough and it doesn't mean England are out or anything but it is a bit of downer that we still see the selection problems and Rashford not brought on soon enough in that game and why didn't he start the game?  and the two changes in back two with Gordon and Spence  that Tuchel made were probably well thought out but they didn't really work.   Rashford coming on is not mentioned in many reports and yet he made an instant impact.  Yes, I know it was minor and late but it was still an impact.   And then Rice who is so important to the team is nursing a nagging injury.  With a yellow card on top he should not play against Panama.

And further, although not much was said when I was watching on tv,  Ghana should have had a penalty near the end when Ezri Konsa  made a wild tackle from behind  on Prince  and didn't touch the ball and yet the ref waved play on and in the studio Shearer and the other guy said absolutely nothing like "oh we'll just ignore that England fouled Ghana there and why isn't VAR going to take a look?"The joke doing the rounds is that VAR had gone for coffee.  There was an offside flag but that was after the tackle.  Lucky England. 

And finally, whenever I watch Pickford running around on the pitch miles from his goal I always think that one day he is going to cost England a match. 

Saturday is the final group stage game against Panama and no doubt the defence will change again and O'Reilly will be back and Djed Spence on the bench.  Will Rashford start?  I doubt it.  Will Saka start?  Only Tuchel has the answers. 

My chart shows that Panama have been beaten by Ghana and Croatia and England should make that three and also beat them.  They are ranked 40th in the world by FIFA.  England are currently ranked 4th which sounds very generously high.   

Rashford to score and England to win 3-0.