And so it is over…finishing on a low, high, or sour note depending on your point of view. Having watched the last final in a B & B on Inis Mór …

Sixty-Two matches down, then, and a mere two remaining. It’s at about this stage of every World Cup that one begins to feel a mix of emotions. On the one hand you look forward to the dénouement, keen to see …

Ahead of another semi-final that could well end up being decided on penalties, I thought I might have a quick root around in the archives to see exactly what the records …

If the fall-out from "Bollockgate" /"Stampgate"/ "Carvalho’s-testicles-gate" (or whatever you want to call it) is proving one thing, it’s that certain sections of the English press (and some fans) take alarming comfort in blaming a “greasy dago/wop" Not my …

I suggested, a few days ago, that I couldn’t wait to see the outcome of Zidane vs. Brazil, Round 2 (8 years after Zizou headed France to World Cup glory), but …

If there's one thing about the World Cup that really irritates me it's the nauseating sanctimony one has to endure from FIFA (and other guardians of footballing piety) whenever a scuffle/altercation/melee breaks out on the pitch.

The words "disgrace", "shame", and …

It struck me yesterday evening, as I watched the end of an absorbing and mega-tense Germany/Argentina match, that the only team who has previously won the World Cup not present in the last eight is Uruguay. Their failure to reach …

After gorging on 2-3 matches a day, the 48 hour gap between the end of the second round and the beginning of the quarter-finals always comes as a shock to the system. After the feast comes a brief (but keenly …