Am I too pessimistic?

England beat Paraguay 1 - 0 and look unimpressive for a large part of the match. Michael Owen is anonymous and gets substituted early in the second half. We are not hopeful of winning the World Cup.

Brasil beat Croatia 1 - 0 and look unimpressive for a large part of the match. Ronaldo is anonymous and gets substituted early in the second half. Commentators are convinced this is just a sluggish start and Brasil will still probably win the World Cup.

What's the difference?

Wayne Rooney.

If Owen and Ronaldo don't come back to form we have a more than adequate backup but the Brasilians don't. Of course it would be stupid to pin all our hopes on him - look what happened to Beckham and his inability to perform after his metatarsal injury.

All I am saying is, I am getting a bit more optimistic.
Not enough to change the name of the blog :-)

But maybe England won't go out on penalties.

We could even get to the World Cup Final before we . . . lose on penalties.

(Keep practising those spot kicks, boys!)