WHY SAY ANYTHING?

So to the day’s games and first up was Portugal against Morocco or, more realistically, Cristiano Ronaldo against Morocco. Fresh from his 3-3 draw with the entire Spanish team he set out to prove it was no fluke and, indeed, that he could take things a stage further by actually beating a team.

He managed it but it was a close-run thing. With just the one goal, a bullet header in the first half, he had to rely on his team mates at times to defend his lead. They did this heroically, albeit with a few of the stutters they showed against Spain.

So for a few short hours Cristiano was top of the group. He is, of course, far too modest to accept all the plaudits and was gracious enough to allow the team name to be used when the tables were shown.

The second game was between Uruguay and Saudi Arabia and this one had 1-0 written all over it. Why? Well, Saudi Arabia were never going to concede five again, after all, they have to go back to Saudi Arabia at some stage! Also, Uruguay are not renowned for being a free-scoring team like the born-again Russians, so the scoreline was predictable.

And so it proved. Luis Suárez scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 Uruguay win which means they have now taken six points from six and sit second in the group on a far inferior goal difference to the hosts.

The third game, Spain versus Iran, was the most entertaining although it also ended 1-0 to bring up what would have been a nice treble had we had the foresight to cross our local bookmaker’s palms with some silver.

It was entertaining because Iran showed the world, for the most part, how to defend and the Spanish, in their own inimitable way, showed us how to attack, admittedly without much success due to the Iranians defensive prowess.

The game will be remembered, though not for long, for a Diego Costa goal which he knew little about as it went in from a rebound off his shin, the Iranian players rolling around as though they had been shot every time they were tackled and VAR being used for a genuine reason and coming up trumps when it correctly disallowed a goal by Iran for offside.

Diego Costa – Celebrates his goal against Iran and probably wonders how it ended up in the net!

So every game ended 1-0 and every game, close as they were, was won by the favourites. No surprises, no giant-killings just some good old-fashioned football where the best team won.

Let’s hope the rest of the tournament carries on in the same vein.

Meanwhile, in other World Cup news, gawpy Gareth has dislocated his shoulder. How did he mange that? You may well ask, particularly as this was a day off! He was running. You may still feel entitled to ask; how did he manage that? And you would be right to wonder, as we did, how you can dislocate a shoulder running!

Anyway, Gareth managed it and, as with any good leader, his first thoughts were of his troops and how he was glad it hadn’t happened to any of them.

Here’s a little secret Gareth, football players are not usually very bright but even they, particularly on their day off, would not go running and, if they did they would probably not be daft enough to dislocate a shoulder! Not while running!

And finally back home…..

Manchester finally appears to be joining in with this transfer malarky. City have, reportedly, agreed a fee of £43 million with Napoli for Jorginho. This has been one of those transfers which has dragged on a while and not for any obvious reason as the player isn’t involved in the World Cup.

United, not to be outdone in the “dragging out a transfer” stakes have finally announced Fred as a new signing. This is the same Fred, (could there even be two?), who was announced unofficially about three weeks ago. Quite what has been going on all this time we are not so sure although he is taking part in the festivities over in Russia, so maybe he was keeping it a secret from nobody at all for some reason.

Weeks after not being announced as United’s latest signing Fred is announced as United’s latest signing!

And a final message to Jürgen Klopp. West Ham United have signed a goalkeeper with Lucas Fabianski joining from Swansea. That is now Arsenal, Wolves and West Ham who have signed keepers since Liverpool’s need for a new one was emphasised in the Champion’s League final. Just saying.