World Cup Last 16 - England v Germany

Deutschslapped!

A youthful energetic and exciting German team whipped England 4-1 to reach the World Cup quarter final. Klose and Podolski put them on their way with two goals in the first 30 minutes. And when Upson equalised it looked like England could make it a contest.

Then came the controversial turning point on 38 minutes. A Frank Lampard shot clearly crossed the line, but amazingly the officials miss it, and no goal is given.

England were poor, and Germany crucified them on the break twice in the second half with two goals from Mueller, after swift sweet passing movements the length of the pitch.

In the end, England were praying for the final whistle to put them out of their misery.

World Cup - Group D decided

Germany and Ghana Go Forward

Germany beat Ghana 1-0 but both teams progress after Australia beat Serbia 2-1 in the Group's other final game. The only goal of the game was a brilliant one by Mesut Ozil in the second half. And Germany were lucky - Ghana had several close misses. But in the end the Germans progress to meet England at the weekend.

It was still party time for Ghana too. They are the only African nation to progress to Round Two. That's because Serbia could not find an equaliser in a tense conclusion to their game against Australia. Australia were 2-0 up at one stage, and had a slim chance of progressing at one stage - if they and the Germans both scored one more. Their goals came from Tim Cahill and Brett Holman. But Serbia pulled one back and piled on the pressure. But could not find the equaliser that would have sent them through.

World Cup Day Eight

England bore their way to a draw

Showing no creativity, no ideas, and no hope of figuring in the later stages of this tournament, England drew 0-0 with Algeria, a team that Republic of Ireland beat 3-0 just a few weeks ago in a friendly. I would mention some goalmouth action if I could remember a single exciting moment. But I can't. David James started in goal ahead of butterfingers Green. Erm...their fans booed at the end.

On ESPN:

Steve McManaman: When they play in the jerseys of Man United, or Chelsea, they are stars. But when they put on the White jersey, not so good.

Alexei Lalas: How about this? They're just not that good. They are big names, big stars, get paid lots of money, are very famous. But they are just not that good.

USA robbed by ref after dramatic comeback

USA came from two behind to snatch a 2-2 draw with Slovenia, and should have won it, but had a goal disallowed in the closing stages for no apparent reason. Landon Donavan smashed a brilliant shot into the roof of the net from a seemingly impossible angle to start the recovery, and then the coach's son Michael Bradley did well to keep his shot down when scoring the second. A really exciting game though, and one that's sure to boost interest in the World Cup here (Americans love feeling a sense of injustice, don't they? Watch them moan justifiably about that disallowed goal)

Germans shocked by Serbia

Having thrashed the Australians 4-0 Germany shot up the favourites ladder, but they've been knocked right back down again by a 1-0 defeat to Serbia. Milan Jovanavic scored the winner in the first half - but the other key moment was a red-card for Miroslav Klose (two yellows in just 36 minutes) which left the Germans chasing the game with 10-men. It's not like they didn't have their chance - Lukas Podolski admits he feels like an idiot after missing a second half penalty. So now Spain, France, and now Germany have all lost games in the tournament so far. It's getting interesting.