Van Gaal

It's been a great tournament for the next manager of Manchester United so far, whatever the future holds for next season, being tactically embarrassed as was so often the case under Moyes last season, doesn't look as if it will be a problem under Louis Van Gaal.
I'm trying to not get too carried away yet though, he's not really been that adventurous, it's been mostly counter attacking stuff. The least impressive Dutch performance was against the Aussies, when the Dutch had to try and make most of the running. And that was where dopey Dave fell way short of what was required. Of course i recognise Van Gaal is only getting the best out of what limited ressources he has and on that score his achievement has been very ipmressive.
Never the less, I'm trying to lessen any wild optimism ahead of next season. The signing of Herrera is a positive though, now if we were to sign Bosnian central midfielder Pjanic as well, the best central midfielder of the tournament so far for me, I might start to suffer Cityesque surges of giddyness.

Music

Avishai Cohen - Almah: Another excellent album, at times almost avant garde classical rather than his world music/jazz fusion sound of the last couple of albums.

Christina Vantzou - No.2: I suppose this could be classed as classical avant garde, maybe Eno esque is a better description, it won't be to everybody's tastes, that's for sure. I enjoyed it.

Hiss Golden Messenger - Bad Debt: A grower, he doesn't exactly sound like Bill Callahan, but has a similar, one man and a guitar and almost spoken vocals at times.

Roseanne cash - :I'm not a massive of fan of country music, but there is undoubtedly great stuff in there. I first Johnny Cash's daughter when new country broke and have followed her since, her latest record is a decent listen.

The Dopplegangaz - Peace Kehd: Leftfield hip hop of a superior nature, on the deluxe album, there is an instrumental bonus which is almost DJ Shadow ish.

Wilko Johnson and Roger Daltrey - Going back home: If this is to be Wilko Johnson' s last album, it won't be a bad way to go out, old fashioned rhythm n blues, excellent.

Surprise, surprise!

So England will return home having failed to get out of the group. I didn't hold out much hope for England's chances during this world cup for the reasons i gave in my last write up, but even I thought they would get through to the next stage. I'm afraid all those journalists getting excited at all that young raw talent were completely deluding themselves as usual.
Fact one, are they in fact, really that good, how many of those Liverpool players have actually tested themselves in the premier footballing competition, the champions league, answer none. Until you have seen Sturridge, Sterling and co in that competition for a couple of seasons, all we really know is that they are pretty good premier league players. The clamour for Sterling to play was just plain embarrassing, fuck me, you would have though he was the next Messi the way some journos and ex players were going on.
Fact two, there was no way that back four was good enough at this level, as I pointed out ahead of the competition. It took two games for the press to realise it was a sub standard back four, why, it should have been glaringly obvious to anybody that's watched football for any length of time before the tournament began. Until that gets sorted out, they'll be struggling to get out of the next European championship group stage as well, that's if they get through the qualifying stages.
Fact three, Hodgson is a pretty limited manager as his career has shown. Let's look at Van Gaal and Holland, that is surely one of the lesser Dutch squads of recent history. And yet he's got through them through the group stages with three wins and must have a decent shot of getting at least to the semi finals. That's because he has assessed his squad, seen his weakness and strengths and adapted his tactical philosophy around the strengths, hoping to negate the weaknesses. Now look at Hodgson, a piss poor back four and what protection does he give it, Gerrard and Henderson. Hodgson has been praised for being brave for picking those young guns. I don't see it, what I saw, as usual, was an England manager managing to shoehorn, most, if not quite all the "names" that the press were screaming for him to pick, regardless of what that meant for the shape of the team.
Fact four, the climate, I thought England would struggle to cope, but the longer the tournament goes on the more I see most European countries struggling. Unsurprisingly the South American teams are getting stronger, as the tournament heads for the knockout stages. The Germany Ghana encounter was a great game, but it looked to me that Germany felt the conditions for that spell that saw Ghana equalise, take the lead and have a great chance of killing the game with a third goal. It's credit to the Germans that they managed to come back to grab a point. But if I was to put any money on a European country getting to the final, I would put it on Holland, their result against Chile was very impressive. Now that's not a sentence I expected to write ahead of the tournament.
Anyway it's been a pretty good world cup so far, to be a great one, that will have to continue through to the knockout phase, I'm reasonably optimistic that we'll get it.

Let the fun begin

So, another world cup tournament is about to begin, I suppose once it starts, I'll start to get into the thing, but then again! The last world cup in South Africa, wasn't the greatest, there were a smattering of good games and the best team won the trophy, which doesn't always happen. But as a an advert for the very best in football, it trails far behind the champions league.
Playing it in the summer doesn't help of course, though that wasn't really an excuse in South Africa, which was in their winter. It will be an excuse this time though. On of the reasons I can't really see this being a classic world cup will be the climate. It won't do England's chances any favours that's for sure. If England had the best team they'd ever had, they would still be almost certainly undone by the heat. The thing is how many other team will cope though, especially those based in the extreme humidity of the north.
As for England, as an attacking force, they are as strong as they have been for a long time. The midfield is questionable, there is talent there, but it depends on formations and who he selects, the balance between protecting the back four and assisting the attack doesn't look right to me. I certainly don't see Gerrard as the man to protect the one glaring weakness in the squad, the back four.
Centre half and right back don't look international standard, and time will tell whether Baines or Shaw have what it take. Cahill and Jagielka, neither with great pace, neither great on the ball, both are glorified stoppers really. It's not a United bias, but I would have Jones at centre half, there have been times when he's played there for United where he has looked really commanding, and the most important thing for me, he is better than both first choice centre backs on the ball. Of course how long he could stay fit, would have to be the big question there. As for right back, Johnson has always been shite with a capital S, but he seems to be getting worse. The fact Woy gave Milner a go at right back during the warm ups suggests he's onto that fact. Of course the fact Milner didn't set the world alight means the problem remains unsolved.
As to the winners, it's hard to see past Brazil or Spain. Brazil because they are the hosts and should be able to live with the heat as well as anybody else. Spain because they have by far the best squad and their possession game should help them in the climate, though it obviously won't help their pressing game. I'm struggling to see anybody beyond them two, Argentina have Messi and Portugal Ronaldo, but both rely far too heavily on their two geniuses to be confident in them going all the way. If push comes to shove I'd go for Brazil, not because they will be the best team, but because they will want it more. It would help if the country gets behind them of course, I'm not sure that's a total certainty with all the unrest in the country ahead of the next four weeks.

Music
Black Lips -Underneat the rainbow: The US indie/punk rock seventh album doesn't hit the heights of some of their previous efforts, but it's solid enough to be well worth a listen.

Metronomy - Love Letters: The fourth album from the indie/electronic/pop UK act. As with their last album it's a winner, Joseph Mount has a way with a catchy tune.

Real Estate - Atlas: The third album from the US indie jangly guitar act may well be their best yet, it's a real grower.

Sabina - Toujours: Debut solo abum of German born US based front woman of US outfit Brazilian Girls. With her accented vocal delivery, you can't help feel a little Nico in there, which works for me, but it really works with songs as strong as this.

Sam Sanders -Mirror, Mirror: A small compilation of a long forgotten US saxophonist, an excellent mix of jazz, funk and soul, leaves you wishing there was more material to unearth.

Sean Kuti & Eygpt 80 - A long way to the beginning: Another fine album from the Kuti clan, all the songs are pretty strong, but i love the opener IMF, catchy and angry as fuck.

We Are Scientists - TV en Francais: Another solid album from the US indie rockers, I've never noticed their influences come through as obviously, the track Overreacting owes a massive debt to Johnny Marr guitar work with the Smiths, good album.