World Cup

What a great World Cup it's been ! The Group stages were full of thrilling matches, the most memorable being Holland's games against Spain and Australia. Then, in the last 16, Brazil escaped elimination against Chile by the width of a goalpost, and Costa Rica v Greece was packed with incident, especially after Costa Rica went down to 10 men. Columbia scored two fine goals against a toothless Uruguay.
Most memorable of all was Belgium v USA. Both teams went for all-out attack, and Tim Howard pulled off loads of great saves. In the second period of extra time the USA started two down, yet pulled one back and found the stamina to keep on pressing. Their courage was amazing and they deserved to reach penalties.
The quarter-finals were disappointing apart from Costa Rica's bravery against Holland. The antics of the Dutch keeper in the shoot-out were a disgrace. But the semis were the real deal. Last night Holland and Argentina played 120 mins of gripping technical football, unsulllied by anything as vulgar as a shot on target . Argentina deserved to win as they were the more positive side. On Tuesday, by contrast, Brazil became the tragic heroes of the tournament. Their act of conceding 4 goals in 6 minutes symbolised so many things - by falling apart so completely and utterly they played out the drama of the collapse of western capitalism and also the trainwreck which my own life has been in the past three years. From the heights of 1970 and 1982 to the utter disintegration of Tuesday  - it was truly cathartic to witness. Socrates would have been proud.
It's been a horrible year - domestic hassles, legal nonsense, and problems with my eyes. The World Cup has been a brief glimmer a light for me. I trust that the remaining two matches will provide a suitable ending to a truly historic tournament.