Viva Espana

Yesterday evening Spain won their final match against Argentina and won the world cup. To me and so many other Brits, we felt like they had avenged us. It was like the Argentina fans we so disrespectful and they got away with so many fouls that we were pleased that Spain had won the match. England came third in the tournament, that's not bad. They didn't come back empty handed. 

I was thinking that there are small mites living on daisy flowers and they would make it their home and eventually die there before the flower wilts in autumn. To them the centre of the flower is like a forest and the petals are like a valley. How would such a being imagine what it is like to sit down and watch a football match for 1 and a half to 2 hours. We don't eat the game we don't use the game to reproduce, being human wouldn't make sense to such a creature. Is the best treasure in humans embracing leisure? Or is it a distraction because we know the outcome for people is the same as the mite in the daisy flower, we exist for a short time, then we are gone. What happens after then is the mercy of a supreme being or nothing. 

World Cup Anomaly

I was checking the fixtures for the knockout stages for the world cup and noticed it didn't add up and didn't make sense, they expanded the number of 4 team groups to 12 and they added a 32 team knockout stage. If there is twelve groups then only 24 would pass through, where were the other 8 teams coming from?

I turned to my ai friends to clarify what had happened. The ai explained to me that fifa wanted to add an extra layer of the knockout stage of the cup but they didn't want 16 groups so they would let the best 8 relegated teams pass through the group stage, this means some of the groups would have an extra team passing through. 

England are playing dr Congo on Wednesday, they came 3rd in their group so normally they would have been relegated from the next portion of the tournament but they are one of the 8 teams that played well and got enough points to squeeze through the back door. It will be an interesting game. 

I watched the Panama and England game on Saturday night. England were taking some long shots from the edge of the goal zone but the Panama defence was tight so in the second half they focused on keeping possession on their side of the pitch and shooting when there was an opening. To cut a long story short, they got their act together in the second half of the game and won 2 goals to 0. 

With an extra layer of the tournament to add a week of football to the world cup, things will be more interesting. 

Drones Football and Trains

I watched the England opening game against Croatia on Wednesday night. England eventually won the match and rose to the top of Group L. There are two more group matches left for England. I found it amusing that Scotland are high up in their group and so is the USA. Imagine Scotland a small country with roughly 10 million people playing USA, a country with more than 400 million people. It's like a David and Goliath story. 

Drone warfare is becoming more popular in the world because they are very cheap and easy to deploy, if they are shot down, the weapon is usually more expensive so it's productive on different levels. An army would shoot down a £70 drone with a £100,000 missile and it would still feel like a loss because of the contrast in price. A swarm of drones with explosives can do a lot of damage. 

Unfortunatly an express train heading to Luton airport crashed during the weekend, the driver of the train passed away. We don't know what happened exactly, all they know is the train crashed into another train that was not moving. I'll continue to observe the findings as they come. 

Tense Game

On Saturday evening at about 17:00, England played against Switzerland in the quarter finals of the European football tournament. It was a very tense game and went all the way to the penalty stage. We won on penalties. It was a very narrow escape. It reminds me of the movie Indepence Day when they were trying to escape from the alien mother ship and the doors were closing in front of them and they squeezed through the doors just in time before they closed. 

I think the game was more interesting because it was so close. 

I couldn't help but think about the swiss army knife, folding pocket multi tool. Then I was looking up the leather man pocket tool because it works in a similar way. Then I was watching videos of pocket multi tools in general. I went through several videos of folding pocket tools on YouTube. The Swiss make some very interesting things. 

Quarter Final Teams Settled

The 8 teams that will play in the Quarter Finals over the weekend have been settled in the 16 team stage last week. Netherlands, Argentina, Croatia, Brazil, England, France, Morocco and Portugal. 

The first match will be Croatia VS Brazil on Friday at 3pm British Time. 

The Second Match with be Netherlands VS  Argentina on Friday at 7pm British time. 

The third Match will be Morocco Vs Portugal on Saturday at 3pm British Time. 

The final match of the weekend will be England Vs France on Saturday at 7pm British time. 

By Saturday night we will know the four teams that will play in the Semi-finals on Tuesday and Wednesday. It would be very nice if it is England playing Morocco or Portugal on Wednesday night but we will see. 

One weekend, four matches. 

We are through

It is almost winter here in Britain, it is 5°c all day most days and it is getting dark very quickly but England are through to the 16 team knockout stage of the world cup. I don't ever remember having a football world cup in winter. I like the world cup being hosted in the winter. 

It is sad that two British Nations were in the same group in the world cup, Wales played well. It would be nice if they went to the 16 team knockout stage but they lost in the group stage unfortunately. 

The two best teams in group B, USA and England will play against the two best teams in group A, Netherlands and Senegal. Netherlands will play USA and England will play Senegal. 

This Sunday from 19:00 I will find out which team will get to the Quarter finals (the best 8 teams). Before that I will see if USA wins against the Netherlands this Saturday. It will be a very interesting weekend.