It's a World Cup year!

Just like to point out the small consolation that the USA are a goal down to Slovenia and looking pressured.

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Thanks, Mod. So let me get this straight, because Bradley was fouled just before the shot was made, the US was robbed of the point?

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Did they at least get a penalty kick for their troubles???

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No, the referee blew for a different foul by a US player. Who is supposed to have committed it is not clear, as it wasn't evident to anybody except the ref.

[qs]Blasphemy. And you're right, Cameroon should be proud, considering nearly all of the African teams, with the exception of Ghana, have been lackluster.Ghana haven't impressed at all - they're not the team from four years ago. Ivory Coast have been quite good - they're the ones I really pity for the North Korea result. It's going to take a miracle for them to bear Portugal on goal difference.Cameroon also have little to be proud of. Their performance against Japan was shocking, but I'll give you that the Denmark game was fun to watch.

Not just out, but humiliated. One point and one goal from three games - whatever happens now they've already done worse than England or, for that matter, New Zealand. You mean the English. There is no Britain in football, and I'm sure the Scots will be over the moon if England go home tomorrow.

It's fine! We're playing all in red! England have never lost a game in which they've played with red shirts, shorts and socks. What more comfort do we need?

Quite a few live in Japan, so I reckon they'll be safe.And they weren't that bad a side. They defended and counter-attacked very well against Brazil, and the first half with Portugal could easily have gone either way. They were just outclassed by a great attacking side in the end.One interesting thing we realised last night. Of the ten teams who've qualified so far, only three are European. Paraguay are almost certain to qualify, and Chile and Japan both have a good chance as well. At least nine of the last sixteen have always been European in the past, but this looks set to change this year.The funny thing is, the decline in relative quality of European international teams is mostly the result of the dominance of European club teams. It doesn't matter any more if you're an impoverished African nation with no money and no training facilities, because your entire squad is being trained by and regularly playing against the best in the world in the Premiership or La Liga, and your manager comes from Sweden.

What an awful report. "What is taboo in the US simply isn't in Europe" - Nazis are taboo here as well, and there are Americans who prance about waving swastikas. What's different is the connection between neo-nazi movements and some football clubs, which I think comes from the odd way your choice of football club has been a political statement in so many countries in the past. Real Madrid was the team of the fascist dictator Franco, of Spanish unity and conservative values, while Barcelona was the club of the anarchists, leftists and Catalan seperatists. Here in Prague, Sparta are the fascist club; while Bohemians fans wave anti-Nazi flags.This sort of sectarianism is changing in a lot of places, though. There were plenty of clubs in Britain for whom having either a Catholic or a Protestant player would be unthinkable not so many years ago. Now, no-one bats an eyelid.

And doing it in the wrong stand in Europe could easily get you killed. Like I said, it's not that expressions of support for Nazism are less tabboo here (they're illegal in a lot of countries), but that there is a link between football hooliganism and the far right.

The most notorious are definitely from Turkey and Russia. Galatasaray are the most famous Turkish team for hooliganism in Britain, but that's because a few English fans have been stabbed during away games with Galatasaray - not sure if they're actually the worst. In Russia it doesn't seem to matter which club - hooliganism and football go hand in hand.Some Yugoslavian clubs are a bit notorious as well, because it all ties in with the ethnic tensions there. The Belgrade clubs all have reputations for far-right nationalist supporters who ar up for a good scrap with foreigns, Jew clubs and teams from the semi-autonomous north (as well as each other).Hooliganism in England has died down a lot nowadays, but there are still a few clubs in Britain with dangerous reputations. I don't know if it's true, but I remember being told that at least one person gets stabbed, on average, in connection with every Old Firm derby (that's Glasgow Celtic v. Glasgow Rangers). These happen four times a season.Not got many statistics for you, but I did find the Ten Worst Football Riots. The crazy Sicillians are the only ones to bring explosives into the mix, but Liverpool-Juventus still wins in body count.

They haven't drawn much attention because they've been balls. Winning an easy group by playing not quite as bad as your opposition doesn't amount to 'starting well'. They won't face any serious opposition till the quarter finals though, so they have plenty of time to raise their game.I'm so happy not to live in England now. Just imagining the endless chorus of self-pitying lamentations about the disallowed goal, as if it mattered in the face of how totally outclassed we were, sends shivers down my spine.

What else could Suarez have done? It's the dying seconds and the only way to stop the goal. He's banned for the rest of the tournament now, so fair play. Took one for the team.And Gyan scored in the penalty shoot-out, so he's already wiped the ignominious stain of failure.

You get a one-match ban automatically, but the disciplinary committee can always extend it, depending on circumstance It was a conscious, deliberate cheat to block a certain goal that would have won the match. That's got to be a two-match ban.Either way, one game probably is the rest of Uruguay's World Cup!

Wow - you successfully predicted that the bookies' firm favourite would win. What uncanny perspicacity.

It's already started! Look - the preseason friendlies were underway yesterday

The carnival atmosphere's finished and I'm over international football for now. This is all just an entertaining sideshow - the business of real football is busy getting underway. The real question now is who should onifre be backing for the Champions League.