A nation expects!

After months of hype and speculation, England’s first game of the 2010 South African World Cup finally arrived. The masses were out in force across the country, with painted faces, England shirts and irritating fog-horns that seem to be everywhere at the moment. Millions of flags hang from the windows of houses, flats and cars across our great nation, and it seems almost impossible to walk anywhere without being reminded of the World Cup. England fever has most definitely arrived.

It all started so well for England too. Steven Gerrard, who captains the side for the World Cup following Rio Ferdinand’s injury, looked like he’d be writing his own headlines when he scored the opener just four minutes into England’s 2010 campaign. A cleverly worked move finished with the Liverpool midfielder who calmly sliced it beyond Tim Howard, before wheeling away in celebration. Magic!

It would have been even more magical had I actually seen it live. Viewers watching on ITV1 HD, missed the goal as ITV cut away to an advert! What I’m assuming was a technical glitch was fixed just in time to see the travelling England fans celebrations as ITV replayed the footage. £10 extra a month to miss the goals? Bargain! As if ITV’s coverage wasn’t bad enough, they’re now putting adverts where goals used to be. It’s certainly a unique take on football coverage.

Rob Green tops the WC blunders list

From there on in, England had their chances to kill the game off, but the Yanks held out. Just minutes before half-time, with everything seemingly going to plan, disaster struck. Clint Dempsey struck a poor shot straight into the hands of Rob Green, but in a moment fit for the David James hall of blunders, Green fumbled and the ball rolled free into the back of the net as England’s keeper scrambled behind it.

Green went on to redeem himself a little with some good saves, but that one moment of calamity could haunt him for the rest of the World Cup. It was a mistake that can only be attributed to pressure. The enormity of the scale he found himself on at that moment must be terrifying, but the memories of that goal as he relives it time and time again, will be even tougher.

In the second half, the American’s tightened up and kept England at bay. We had our chances, but the final product just wasn’t there, meaning the match finished 1-1 and Rob Green’s embarrassment will be the talking point for a few days yet.

England fans can take some comfort in knowing we seldom do things the easy way at World Cup and often start slowly. America was definitely the hardest game in the group, so all is not lost yet.

2010 WC predictions update

Madferret leads the way in the TSS 2010 World Cup prediction league with 7.5 points, a three point lead already over Matt BB and TinyEight who are tied in second.

Madferret’s lead is largely down to him being the only predictor who didn’t go for an England victory last night. He joins just 9.9% of all the players on SportGuru who correctly predicted a draw.

Meanwhile, yours truly is bringing up the rear with my only points so far coming from Argentina’s victory. Today, I have Algeria to beat Slovenia, Ghana to beat Serbia and Germany to beat the Aussies so fingers crossed somebody delivers!

Current members should be advised that they have just over 24 hours to predict for the next round of the competition and anyone who wishes to join can sign-up at SportGuru.co.uk now. During registration, the form asks for a Pool ID; Here you should enter ‘harmboxy‘ to join TSS’ league.

Last night seemed as though it was all going to plan when returning striker Luciano Becchio converted Robert Snodgrass’ shot after twenty minutes, but Leeds couldn’t kill the Conference side off in normal time. Their keeper had another great game, issuing orders from the box whilst pulling off numerous saves to keep his club in the tie. Much like the first leg, the woodwork also played it’s part in keeping Leeds United back and as the tie continued to remain 1-0 on the night, you just felt Kettering might have a chance yet.

By no surprise whatsoever, it was former Leeds man Anthony Elding that scored the equaliser setting up another half hour of missed Leeds chances and nerves in Elland Road. With the scores remaining level at full-time, the tie went in to extra time. Kettering by this point will have been happy to take a penalty shoot-out, and given their keepers heroics so far, you wouldn’t have bet against them to win it.

Grayson made a change of formation leaving Kandol, Grella and Beckford upfront in search of goals. As half time in extra time passed, a penalty shootout beckoned. Leeds’ lack of success from the penalty spot didn’t fill any of the 10,000 supporters with any confidence, so it came as a relief when substitute Mike Grella smashed a shot home from close range to make it 2-1. Unlike the rest of the team that had seemingly run out of ideas and began shooting from anywhere, without taking any time to line their shot up, Grella was patient, controlled the ball and fired home with venom.

With less than fifteen minutes remaining, the floodgates opened. By now, Leeds’ superior fitness was playing it’s part and Kettering were undoubtedly disheartened from conceding so late. Kandol added a third within a minute, before Grella got a second with a beautiful curling shot from the edge of the area and Jermaine Beckford finished off the show, finally managing to hit the back of the net after a frustrating night. His celebration showed the relief for him in scoring.

A crazy night inside Elland Road. A game that should have been all too easy for the Whites proved to be massively frustrating and Kettering did themselves proud once more. Whether the scoreline reflects the game or not is debatable. Leeds must have had fifty chances, so in that respect, I guess it does, but considering how well Kettering kept us out, maybe it doesn’t.

Beckford had a frustrating night, but Lucciano Becchio showed why he’d been missed. Elsewhere, we dominated throughout although the defence looked a little shaky at times, especially when Capaldi was brought on to try and lose us the game. Such is the mans hopelessness, I’m actually starting to think Ridsdale sent him here to mess with us. Aidy White had a good game at left-back, but had to be taken off through injury, whilst Grella will deservedly grab the headlines.

I have a theory on the late goal blitz. Our third round opponents were playing away in Europe last night in a match with the same kick-off time. Clearly, the Scum fans will have been watching that game on TV, so Leeds held off ’til it finished in order to put the frighteners in them with our four goal flurry at the end. If Scum’s defensive problems aren’t resolved before we visit Sold Trafford, I reckon we could actually get something from there.

Bates has already had his calculator out and reckons the next match will net Leeds United around £750,000. Whilst that kind of money would probably only buy one player for the Whites, it would have kept a team like Kettering in business for years. Unsurprisingly, the next round will once again be shown live on ITV. The match will take place on Sunday the 3rd of January at 1pm and Leeds United will be accepting ticket applications from 10am tomorrow.

Sky Sports should be renamed Leeds United TV after the satellite broadcaster screened the Yorkshire club for the 3,479th time this season on Tuesday night.

I doubt Uncle Ken would be too happy with that rebranding. I sense a lawsuit coming on. We already have a LUTV which you’re more than welcome to subscribe to for a small monthly fee – £20p/m to you.

You can accept that the Elland Road team are easily the lower divisions’ best supported outfit but still observe when the pursuit of ratings turns into overkill.

That point was reached when viewers were treated to Leeds v Grimsby in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy northern quarter-final four days ago.

You know you loved it. The quality of Kilkenny’s and Beckford’s goals were enough to justify the air-space. Not to mention the beautifully struck consolation goal from Mr. Sweeney.

Both their FA Cup ties have also been snaffled by the broadcasters, not to mention their Carling Cup meeting with Liverpool and the odd league fixture, too.

OK, none of the FA Cup games were really very interesting, but Leeds v Liverpool is an obvious choice for TV coverage. Especially since we sold the stadium out with ease and there were still tens of thousands of people around the country eager to tune in. What other tie had such excitement?

Remember: money tips into the Elland Road account whenever Ken Bates’ troops appear live on our screens, in case you thought this was just an aimless Cumbrian bleat.

You get the feeling that Sky and their rivals would sooner send the cameras round to watch Simon Grayson’s players brushing their teeth rather than devote anything more than token time to the other 47 teams in the lower tiers.

Quite right too. None of the other teams are interesting enough to hold our attention – although, in fairness, I could be a little biased.

That leaves just one little question. Who the hell are ‘The Times & Star?’ Well, they’re a “three-edition broadsheet newspaper, based in Workington. (…) covering the communities within the Allerdale district of West Cumbria.” Basically, they’re Carlisle United’s local rag.

So, everyone from The FA, Sky Sports and ITV take note- the next time Leeds United and Liverpool are drawn against each other, don’t give the people what they actually want. Show them Carlisle v Portsmouth instead (as was the draw) and let’s make their 400 sheep farmer fans happy.