Diamond_Jim

By the way would anyone like to comment on the penalty given to England against Colombia. Not a soccer expert but it looked like the clumsiest act I have ever seen and so worth a penalty. My only question and I am not sure it is relevant to a penalty is that Kane did not seem to be in a realistic spot to score. The Colombians are still complaining backed by no one better than Diego "hand of God" Maradona. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/05/colombia-dirtiest-team-ive-ever-played-against-john-stones

Well a big couple of days coming up with the quarter finals. No real stand out teams but France and Brazil probably the most skilful. Other than Russia who would surprise if they make the next round one would not be surprised with any result. Hopefully not 4 matches decided by penalties though.

Macca, if Russia beat Croatia the lid will really come off. Only 37 in the beautiful city of Tbilisi today. Georgian wines are thought to be amongst the oldest in the world so I am doing my best to research as many as I can during my week here. They are rather good and not too expensive.

yep.. relative humidity is the term you should be looking at. In simple terms the hotter the temp the more water the air can hold and thus you feel a lot "wetter"at 30% humidity with a temp of 27 than with 30% at a temp of 17. Thus the term relative tries to standardise the comparison

That second half of the Belgium v Japan game was amazing. I had a long hot day (power outage included) in Tbilisi so after a boring first half I followed the second half on the Guardian blog before going back for what I thought was sure to be extra time. How wrong can one be.. five goals in a half and the winner with 8 seconds to go. On a different note the penalty taking is not subject to VAR so early movement by the keeper is not monitored. Wonder if this will change

Yep time to slowly head back ... (might have been a bit quicker if the Dees had been on a roll) Four weeks in Russia was enough... great experience.. saw 5 games. The tickets get much harder to obtain from the quarter final stage and quite expensive. Quarter final tickets are US$320 for example and the accomodation costs are very high during the WC period. Mind you the food and drink is very cheap and top quality. I am now in Tbilisi Georgia. The travel people call it the new Prague. Great old city with good food and wine plus it's very cheap. For example I'm in a two bedroom airbnb and out of the large number I have stayed in over the years this is up at the top. The price... $40 a night. If only it wasn't so hot ... may have to return outside the summer months. It's a big weekend getaway spot for all the expats in the Middle East.

Well I can tell you the old Soviet apartment blocks in Kazan are rumbling with the cheers of the locals after that win !!! Off to Georgia tonight on the 4:30am flight

Yep they do like their food here ! Now we are off to Penalty Lotto Old Vlad must be upset that he didn't drop in for this one

Lewis and Vince will go when someone from Casey forces them out. So far there really haven't been any standout players in that regard. Hunt injured and the perennial Wagner doesn't instil much confidence that a change will come soon. Playing Petty on the back of a few reasonable games smacked of desperation

Perhaps not a game for the ages but the break away speed France was at sometimes breathtaking. I noticed it in the early stages of the game against Australia but tonight it went for almost the whole match. France were unlucky not to score another two or three whereas Argentina's goals were against the run of play. Argentina's fans of which there were many are certainly noisy but as they left the various vuvuzele at home I rank them above the Colombians.

Very warm 29 degrees here in Kazan and should still be 29 at kick off. Strangely the game is not a sell out which I think is a combination of prices too high for Russians, Argentina ending up unexpectedly in this match thus causing their fans difficulty with last minute accommodation and transport issues. England FA didn't even sell its ticket allocation for tomorrow's match

I can recall the golden goal but I can never recall the player reduction. Funny because I have suggested for years that is the way to go. Perhaps it is too shambolic in reality. When many of the knock out games are decided on penalties the WC seems to lose just that little bit.

https://www.cuponation.com.au/insights/world-cup-2018 Fascinating article about the relative average wages in the various World Cup nations. A bit like the famous Big Mac index. Australia right up there with Switzerland and Denmark

The Argentinians will be arriving in town today. I assume the French will be here in greater number than they were against Australia. I'm assuming (hoping) the Argentinians can't be noisier than the Colombians. Went to the house where Lenin grew up in yesterday. It is now a great little museum. Almost deserted... Not sure that the football fans are into museums !!

England v Belgium will be a fascinating game. The preponderance of opinion is that the loser goes through to the easier side of the draw PS: If England win tonight they will play Japan in the round of 16... On form you would say England should win which will set them up nicely for elimination in the quarter finals ?

One does not begrudge Japan their success of they progress but this is a poor group. Poland ranked 8 have not fired a shot... far worse than Germany Senegal and Colombia are ranked 27 and 16 respectively with Japan at 61 If no goals are scored the two lowest ranked teams will progress to the next round with the to team being decided on the number of yellow cards. And of course 2 minutes after I post the above Poland scores?

I did not realise that the Asian Cup is not a FIFA approved tournament and therefore the various league clubs are not obliged to release their players

Well I should not have mentioned the beer. About five minutes before kick off the German guy behind me spills his whole beer all over me. I am talking from shoulders to backside and all over my seat. Not happy Ralph. Anyway a great game because everyone sat down and you could watch the play. Apparently because Sweden were 3-0 up on Mexico all Germany had to do was score and they would be in the next round in place of Mexico. And then of course goal.... disallowed.... VAR .....and goal-to Korea. Extra time went 15 mins with the German goal keeper playing as a striker and we all know what happened..runaway goal to Korea. A joy to watch in the end. My beer spilling mate shook my hand... I toldmy son he should have bought me a T shirt !! First time that Germany have missed the play off rounds since 1938. Of course there was no German team between 1938 and 1990 which the Guardian reporter failed to point out. Now time for the late games !!

Another little bit of colour as I get ready for my 3k walk to the stadium for the 5pm kick off... Germany v South Korea. The official beer of the World Cup is Budweiser Non Alcoholic Beer... yep that's right. And what's more they charge the same price for that beer as for the normal budwesier ... A$7 per cup ... but the cup does have flashing lights on it ?

I see that North have made a $5M over five years offer for De Goey. Hopefully it hurts the Pies to match it. https://au.sports.yahoo.com/north-makes-giant-afl-offer-young-pie-065430493--spt.html Also Gubby Allen has taken a job at North... will be interesting to see how Eddie reacts to his mate targeting one of their key players

Seating at the World Cup is fascinating in the sense that FIFA's categorisation of premium seats changes to suit themselves. In the round of 16 for example almost the whole stadium is recategorised to the highest price..category 1 so our seats are up top (second level) this time whereas for the group matches they were around 10 rows from the pitch. The logistics of ticket purchasing, travel and accommodation for a follower of a particular team in the knock out stages is mind boggling. If Colombia make the next stage I'm not sure how their 20k plus travelling supporter group will manage. From the game the other day most had to go back to Moscow and then travel to Samara which is a very hard destination with few links and virtually zero accomodation. If Colombia wins in Samara they don't know where the play next until the group standings are finalised. There are either a lot of rich Colombians or as I suspect they are borrowing big to follow their team.

Well .. that Iceland Croatia Argentina Nigeria group was certainly close. Memories of '87. So our round of 16 in Kazan will be France v Argentina ... my son is very happy as he gets to see Messi. It seems that Germany v Korea which is our game tomorrow has not exactly filled the bars ... he may have to talk to his old man !!

One could feel the result coming on. Let's hope that there is some 18 year old wonder kid striker coming through. IIRC the Asian championships are in Qatar which will provide a good test. Now onto the serious end of the tournament as distinct from the emotional....who to follow from here... I would kind of like England to progress so as to watch some final agony

The group games really are the luck of the draw including the order in which the teams play. There was always a big chance that France would play its second stringers in the last match if they had already qualified. So many combinations possible and most do not suit the Aussies. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/jun/13/1982-world-cup-algeria Incredible story in the link above of why group matches are now played simultaneously.It includes these two gems: "When German fans gathered at the team hotel to protest, the players responded by throwing water bombs at them from their balconies." Even less bothered was the head of the Austrian delegation, Hans Tschak, who made these extraordinary comments: "Naturally today's game was played tactically. But if 10,000 'sons of the desert' here in the stadium want to trigger a scandal because of this it just goes to show that they have too few schools. Some sheikh comes out of an oasis, is allowed to get a sniff of World Cup air after 300 years and thinks he's entitled to open his gob." Did you see the stat for the Iran v Spain game .... Iran had 49 passes in the first half... the lowest in World Cup history for many years with the record being held... you guessed it by Iran with 46. Not sure I'd like to follow a team like that.

Warming up here... 30 degrees at 8am. A 5pm start for the Aussies will be very warm. Hoping to find a nice bar to watch in the aircon. The Colombian match was a wipeout from a spectating viewpoint. Think of yourself in the middle of a Collingwood cheer squad 30,000 strong all on their feet for 80% of the game. I suppose I should be thankful that they left their vuvuzelas at home. As an aside the TV coverage is always showing the pretty young ladies in the stands. In reality the crowds are 80% male if not higher. The VAR is starting to dominate games. Cannot think of many sports where scoring is so hard which makes for real tension when the ref goes off to watch the TV. Wonder why soccer doesn't try more onfield referees. A relatively stationary ref at either goal plus the roving ref springs to mind.