I made the stupid comment that Robert Green had a great game against Mexico, to Em a moment before he had nightmare stint between the sticks. Everything had been going to plan up to that point. England had scored, looked promising going forward and were soaking up the US pressure. The surprise stat for me was the 59% permission they had for the majority of the first half. I was at Paul’s for a World Cup Party in Maidenhead. There was a party four years ago, but this was the time before Facebook, so I never heard about it! We got there about 4pm and it was a great afternoon before the match. Paul even went to the effort to get some symbolic gestures relating to arguably the biggest sporting event on the planet.

I thought I was the only football fan in the building, but the other few fans had not bothered to wear their England shirts. At around 7pm, I was starting to get nervous and felt a bit awkward that we had not watched any build up or found out who was on the team sheet. Sure enough, minutes later the projector came on and we were watching the ITV (Digital TV SD feed) but with no sound. Instead Paul put on some classic football songs – World in Motion and Sven Sven Sven. At 7:20pm, the music system was set to mute and the sound came on for the pictures. This was it!

No need to go into too much analysis now, but it was disappointing after such a good start. The US are a much better team than anyone really gives them credit for, perhaps even their own fans. England on the other hand were rather laboured and set back, trying to get them on the counter but not having anything affective to show for it. Well apart from a Heskey hit direct at the Howard. At half time, I called Lee (webmaster over at Gametropolis) as I had pre-planned in an MSN chat earlier in the week. He was at a friend’s house watching on ITV1 HD and had missed the goal. I found out later, that the rest of the coverage was in SD. So in theory, I had a bigger screen and picture quality than Lee. We arranted to try and meet up at some point in the near future, but with all our Summer diaries booked up, it would perhaps be as far away as September before we could have the reunion between Khural and Hobbs. We expected more in the second half, but it was a lacklustre effort, even with the changes that Fabio made. Yes it was disappointing, but England tend to make a slow start to tournaments. Remember Euro 96 anyone? I think Crouch should have come on sooner, perhaps even Defoe to give the attack some directness. Rooney too was rather anonymous. As my friend Dave said, Gerrard was the one and perhaps only shinning light. But a draw is better than a defeat and just means more pressure for the next match. It turns into a must win, but the opposition are only Algeria. There are no easy games at international level, I hear you cry! After the football, the party started. Phil (Paul’s brother) was on fire! He was dancing on the table and striking poses in the 70s style spin chair! Just go check out the photos I have uploaded to FlickR. A highlight was Em versus The World. I am afraid to report that the World won! I left just after midnight, but got a picture message from Pav just before I fell asleep at 1am. Sandra and Phil and swapped clothes, I am glad I had left when I did. You know when cross dressing starts, it is time to go home!