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3.22pm: Ben Heywood has been sweeping back Craig Johnstone's dank curls, leaning in very close, and peering into the inner workings of his zany brain: "I heard Craig Johnston talk about the Jabulani on Talksport a few days ago arguing that the Jabulani was a disaster for football - as the inventor of the Predator boot and an expert on sports science I thought his opinion worth listening to. He states his case here, in an open letter to Sepp Blatter." Warning: he does go on a bit.

3.16pm: This is also quite funny, by Mark Stephenson, although obviously the views are entirely his and I'm not calling anyone on ITV or the BBC a racist or a sickly and patronising post-imperialist apologist. "All this talk of racism - around 1pm - and Ghana - at about 9am - makes me wonder if anyone else found the ITV commentary rather patronising? It's almost as though Clive Tyldesley's remarks about open-hearted and welcoming Africans came across as a Brentian disguise to hope the country forgets his previous appeasement. Am I being overly-cryptic? I find Tyldesley's patter about the morally superior Ghana deserving our support as though they're a team of against the odds and heart-warming stories rather than well-numerated players mainly spread across Europe's top league. We all supported Ghana because we like something different to the European and South American hegemony as long as they pose no serious threat to it, admittedly patronising, but Clive made me feel they should win because they smile a lot. I really hope we can look back at the BBC bus going through townships, Gary Lineker's best 'humbled' face before introducing every such link, and Clive's commentary as embarrassing relics in years gone-by."

3:14 pm: Snurk. Snigger. You may have already seen this. It is very good. NB: requires sound or you won't get it. Love the Beckham bit.

3.04pm: This just in from the likable Gerard "Piquenbauer" Pique :"I don't know why they are so impressive. Maybe it is because they have a lot of new young players." He he. He's asking for it, isn't he? On the predictions point from a while back Alexander Davidson urges: "Everything that you and Barry said about EBALJT and his cronies turned out to be correct. I think the only people who reacted badly to that were myopic little englanders whose total lack of knowledge of anything outside of the EPL (premier league) is one of the scars afflicting the game in the UK. I hope EBALJT and $tevie G bugger off to the UAE so we don't have to look at their grizzled coutenances any more." Which is perhaps going a little too much the other way. But you can see passions (and not necessarily cold reasoning) run high.

2.53pm: Eamonn Maloney points out: "Oh look, you've gone and published the linesman's name, publicising it to those too incompetent to find it out for themselves, surely inversely the most dangerous group of people when it comes to his safety. Silly linesman-endangering sports journalist." I was going to make a similar remark, in the context of his "life must go on" comment, but I thought that might get me in trouble. But now I can say you did it.

2.51pm: And Alan Whyte approves: "Seeing Paddy power mentioned reminded me to write and compliment them on having a boss that gets stuck in on a day to day basis. He's always popping up on the Radio for a chat, unlike that William Hill or Bet Fred. They're always nowhere to be seen, probably on holiday." That advert with the blind footballers and the cat. It's not as good as it thinks it is, is it? Someone somewhere thought that idea was really funny. They were wrong.

2.48pm: Paul Tooby has an appeal: "Please put me out of my misery on the 'maybe second' team to win the World Cup outside Europe and The Americas! I refer you to my entry below the line at 1.38pm, which is being studiously ignored. I'd be in bed by now but I've been waiting for the answer to show up for two hours now..."
He was with Britain '! Registration Europe in 1973. Prior to this primary source of independent British Empire.

2.47pm:NEWSFLASH: Jogi Low has announced he will wear his blue V-neck in tomorrow's semi. He says it's "lucky". Seriously. It's on Sky.

2.44pm: Again Graeme Neill on wages: This is from the Mail last month. The figures are unbelievable. That means the Premier League is spending nearly almost double on wages than the Bundesliga: English top flight clubs spent in excess of £1.32billion on employee salaries â€" more than Italy's Serie A (£0.93bn), Spain's La Liga (£800m), the Bundesliga (£684m) and France's Lique 1 (£615m)." Only 18 clubs in the BL, but still. I suppose the difference comes firstly in the wild excesses of the top four clubs, and then in the sheer consistency, the fact even the bottom club are doing this. But does it really matter? Only, I suppose, in the ratio between wages paid and money ploughed back into developing talent. Which is about 1.32bn:0 at the moment.

2.40pm: Also Sepp Blatter has been gurgling into his executive megaphone about the wonderful success the host nation has made of the World Cup. "More than 500,000 fans will have come to South Africa and some are talking about the figure being even higher. The forecast from 'old Europe' was the fans wouldn't come - well here they are. I am a very happy president today and I hope I will be happy until the very end of this week." Old Europe. Isn't that a range of clothing produced by Marks and Spencer and featuring various styles of pleated chino?

2:37 pm:

2.30pm: And back on League Graeme Neill notes: "But Barney, according to this morning's quiz, only a handful of German players play outside of the Bundesliga. I'm not entirely sure what this means for the wider debate (which is fun to read btw) but interesting nonetheless." It means they pay good wages at Bayern Munich. As Lou Roper has already noticed: "In terms of 'leagues', is it not the case that most of the German squad actually play in the Bundesliga unlike their counterparts in various other countries? Also, did not the same league have a representative in last season's Champions [sic] League final? In order to curb this ridiculous situation, might a proposal be made to FIFA to substitute hype for football: this way, the most-publicized and self-aggrandizing league and national teams would always win (and shouldn't those with the loudest vuvuzelas always triumph over the meek, the dignified, and/or the circumspect?) and we wouldn't have to worry about such unpleasantries as offisides, 'cheating' Uruguayans 'depriving Africa', etc."

2.16pm: On leagues Scott W quibbles: "Per Geoffrey Saunders' remark about the Bundesliga, may I add that the World Cup is *not* the benchmark for the quality of national leagues? The Eredivisie, La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Primera Division Uruguaya are not currently battling it out to be declared the 'best league in the world'. If you want to make out that Germany's triumphs thus far are also an advert for the quality of the Bundesliga, obviously, you're free to do so - but it's not a given. Is it?" But... Maybe they could claim to be leagues and club systems that produce the best players, most of whom then depart to play overseas aged 20-23.

2:10 pm: Is Guillem Balague really Spanish? Or did he just sort of start being a bit "Spanish" for a joke, or in a moment of expediency and then it sort of got more serious until he could no longer go back and now he's stuck with it? I've spoken to him and I'm still not sure. Either way, he thinks Torres won't be dropped for the semi.

2.06pm: David Wall splutters with a weary shake of the head: "Re: 1.55pm qu 2, you're really having to ask this? Isn't the fawning over the iphone 4, ipad, any new gadget, etc, evidence enough?" I work for The Guardian. If you don't have an iPhone you're considered (a) insane; (b) challenged in some vital way, like straggly-bearded men at bus stops who wear odd shoes and a folded newspaper hat; (c) a suitable target to have your head flushed down the bog by a few of the lads from the graphic design dept.

1.59pm:

1:55 pm: On prediction anger specifically and generally Geoffrey Saunders writes: "Regarding the predictions, in order 1) anyone who watches football with their eyes open would say the same 2) Not very dark horses, half my mates picked them too 3) with Maradona as coach it was very predictable. However my point is that actually most people do not watch football at all. they watch their club and their players, and they ignore or gloss over the game itself. If you sit and watch with a bunch of English fans you see it all the time. The level of self delusion brought on by Sky and their constant "Best League in the World" is staggering.I said before the WC that the Bundesliga was better and more entertaining than the Premier League. I was laughed at - by people who don't actually watch it incidentally."
1. Stop saying my predictions were obvious. This is the first time I've been right. I intend to milk it.
2. Is that right? Can otherwise intelligent people really be so confused by a little hype?

1.53pm:

1.52pm:Sky "sources" said Howard Webb will not be sex [Cue Carry On-style parping horn sound effect], but may still judge the final, God is with them.

1.43pm: Meanwhile Guy Hornsby is talking about this - were we talking about this? - and has these views: "I applaud Tom Humphries for his viewpoint, for every advocate of replays or chips in footballs, there's also a misty-eyed throwback that still wants to talk about heinous errors decades later. But the truth is, no one really wants to see something as big as the world cup decided on such a mistake. I'm a massive rugby, cricket and tennis fan, and I was opposed to replays originally, but it's simple really - for something as important as a ball being touched down over the line in the World Cup final, an lbw in the final Ashes test, or a wrong call at match point at Wimbledon, you can't put it in the lap of the gods. We're not talking about instant replays for everything: goal line technology - and ONLY that - will remove the sort of mistake that could blight the game." And there you are. Some sound sense. But it won't happen.

1.35pm: Back to the actual World Cup: Jogi Low says :""Spain remain the natural World Cup favourites. They not only have one Messi, but they have several Messis." Nicely put; if only Argentina had had one Messi. We're still waiting to see the best of Iniesta too. He's a lovely player. I was trying to describe him to someone here and my best effort was a mix of the best bits of Paul Scholes and Joe Cole. Is that overly flattering? The boy does, as they say, have the lot.

1.23pm: Although for me - and now I'm going to talk about myself because nothing else is happening - it has been quite strange. I am generally terrible at predicting things. So it is perhaps unsurprising that for this unpredictable World Cup I've been unusually accurate. The downside of this, oddly, is I've never before received anything like the email abuse I've got for making various (ultimately correct) predictions. Here are a few of these:
1. Pre-tournament I said England would not win the World Cup and that they didn't deserve to win it and were in various key ways a slightly embarrassing team (aggrieved email response: I'm a traitor/ full of "self-loathing")
2. I picked Holland as dark horses (I'm pretentious/living in the past)
3. I thought Argentina had one big stuff-up waiting to happen (I am racist/stupid)
Is it just that people care much more about the World Cup and therefore feel doubly infuriated by opinions on what might happen? Are these particularly infuriating notions to put forward? Or what? It has been unusual.

1.21pm:

1.10pm:John Ashdown was busy this morning, beavering away on this blog about whether or not it is time to 'for Fifa enter "Penalty goals" (Not different from rugby 's penalty HP), in order to ensure that the Uruguayan strikers making illegal permits the target in view of their hands to get a punishment in accordance with their crimes. Personally, I think it sa Daft "idea". What do you think? [BG]

12.54pm: Not a major development, but an interesting column by Irish Times top dog Tom HumphriesOn why there shouldn't be a place for video technology in football. With so many people saying there should, it's heartening to read the views of somebody who shares my view.

The general gist of it is that we should accept that these things - Lampard's disallowed goal, Thierry Henry's handball, a Carlos Tevez offside - happen and get over them. Players make mistakes all the time, so why shouldn't referees, as long as they're honest mistakes. "The beauty of sport is that you can't freeze it all and undo it," writes Tom and I couldn't agree more.

"Sport in general and football in particular are lovely simulcrum of real life," writes Tom. "And life isn't supposed to be about certainties: it can't be about certainties, not with the short journey that is death looming at the end and our necessary haziness about the destination. That is if death itself isn't the destination. And things are grey and shrouded even before that. It's the human condition. Imperfect."[BG]

12:34 pm: I'm off for a few minutes, but will leave you and the blog in the capable, warm, comforting and strangely sensual hands of Barry Glendenning for the next 20 minutes or so. Any major developments - you'll hear about them here first.

12.35pm: Some news just in. Cesc Fabregas will be fit to take up his place on the Spain bench for the semi-final. Carles Puyol who suffered "blurred vision" against Paraguay will also be ready, presumably after doctors diagnosed a simple case of having really long straggly matted hair that gets in your eyes when you try to run. Good news for Fabregas. Still a tiny chance he might actually get a decent run-out from here if Del Bosque decides to tinker, or if they go a goal down and no longer need the double-pivot midfield.

12.29pm: And Geoff Saunders is getting it all off his chest :"I'd like to see EBLJT stepping off a plane in another country. Perhaps he could join Cannavaro in UAE (or wherever, I really couldn't care), and take his hilarious "sitting on the ground while the opposition speed toward his goal" routine with him. Anyone else notice the similarity between Man City's demolition of Chelsea and Germany's demolition of England? EBLJT sitting on his arse watching both games." Yes, except... Chelsea... went on to win the. You know.
And Terry - he was the one waving the trophy around at the end.

12.26pm: Daniel Tursk is keen to hand out some gongs. Maybe a little premature for this WC: the semi and final are where it all really happens with regard to this kind of thing. Not really a controversial view, but I can see it all being about Villa. Burt here's Tursk: "With World Cup about to reach it's culmination, I think it's quite fair to start speculating on who will get the best player of the year / Balon d'Or for year 2010. With Messi winning just one title and being quite a bit-part player in semi finals of the Champions League and quarter finals of the World Cup (not saying he flopped though, I think he played pretty well), the question is whose gonna be this year's best player. Frontrunners probably are:
Sneijder - treble at Inter, espescially fantastic in CL. In World Cup, maybe not as much in the picture as everyone expected and not as bright in Inter, but 4 goals and 2 assists clearly is an big impact.
Robben - double at Bayern, fantastic season all around. In World Cup, hasn't played much ofcourse, but in those 200 minutes or so he's had a huge impact too. One goal, hit the post for Huntelaar to score, good game against Brazil too.
Müller - double at Bayern, not a shining light for Bayern, but was good and found a perfect system for himself in the German NT. Amazing World Cup from him.
Schweinsteiger - double at Bayern, nice season, but much like Müller, amazing at the World Cup.
Villa - had his standard (which is pretty damn good ofcourse) season at Valencia and in World Cup he's sort of carried Spain through. No-one else has scored for them except Iniesta for one I believe.
Forlan - great season (2 goals in Europa League final), great World Cup. Becoming quite a star thanks to this World Cup."

12.16pm: On the subject of going home, Ian Copestake fumes: "Being beaten by Germany 4-0 one thing, being driven away in BMWs is another altogether. Where no armour-plated (as standard) Maxis available?" I think it was the suits that got me. Take the suits off, I say. Just bin them. Why prolong the illusion? What were the suits saying anyway? We are organised, united and ideally kitted out for some kind of formal champions' reception? I'd have liked to have to seen john Terry stepping off the plane in a pair of ballet pumps, black knee socks, combat shorts a string vest and a hat made out of sausage-shaped balloons.

12.10pm: Phil Alves in Jo'Burg is struggling with not so much World Cup fever, as World Cup 'flu: "My Monday bewilderment is caused, I think, partly by the two games last Friday (was at Soccer City...), and partly by Argentina's humiliation and my new-found appreciation for German football, but moslty because my regular lunch-time read of the main business daily here in South Africa has a preview of Saturday's Tri-Nations (rugby union) clash between the All Blacks and the Springboks in Auckland. Rugby? This World Cup is indeed coming to an end, and I am sad." And Lou Roper now has his serious hat on: "Since you didn't like my 'alternative' XI (which might play the 'Bavarian Babes' in a series of charity matches to promote 'The Power of Football' (Fifa trademark), how about this team: 1 I Casillas, 2 Maicon, 3 G van Bronckhorst, 4 C Puyol, 5 B Schweinsteiger, 6 P Mertesacker, 7 D Villa, 8 , 9 T Mueller, 10 W Sneijder, 11 D Forlan, Manager: O Tabarez." Casillas?

12.04pm:Sky Sports 'Nick Collins makes a good point: Uruguay has so far been cast in the role of "pantomime villain" at this World Cup. Hammer Africans / South American fraud. A bit unfair on the small, in achieving the country with excellent players. Forlan, of course, a very good person too. UNICEF ambassador and all that.

11.58am: Easy quiz question (with surprisingly emotive ramifications if discussions here are anything to go by). One of our four remaining teams is going to become the second nation to win a World Cup outside Europe and the Americas. Or is it the third? And who are those/that previous winner(s)?
Incidentally Paulo Sousa is now formally "in talks" to become Leicester manager. He loves The Championship.

11.49am:

11.42am: On teams of the tournament, here's Lou Roper. "Here's my proposed team sheet for the Fifa World Cup (TM) XI for 2010 brought to you by Adidas, etc.: 1 R Green, 2 J Zuma, 3 P Evra (captain), 4 F Cannavaro, 5 F Melo, 6 J Terry, 7 S Blatter, 8 R Earle, 9 N Anelka, 10 D Maradona, 11 Kim Jong-Il. Manager: R Domenech." What is this? A dufus XI?

11.37am: Scott W has a few bons mots on where we stand: "Here's a look at some stats and sentiments that were commonly aired before the tournament began, and how they measure up to the state of play: * No European team has ever won the World Cup outside the continent. Uruguay are the last, best hope for this stat's survival.
* The last time a final was played between two teams who had yet to win the trophy was 1978, when Argentina played Holland. Given that stat, a Uruguay/Germany final looks historically more likely than a Spain/Holland encounter - which would be a real break.
* The best part is rarely wins the World Cup "(ie, Portugal '66, Holland, '74 and '78, Brazil '82, Yugoslavia '90, Romania '94, t . etc., etc.) Bad news for Germany 2010?. "
I disagree with that last one. I would say in the history of the World Cup the tournament has always been won by the team who eventually become world champions.

11.28am: And check this out, ijf you have half an hour, from Zeno Sidon (warning: very long and does contain Suarez revisionism; right about ITV though): "Reasons to be happy Uruguay beat Ghana (despite media coverage to the contrary):
1. They play nice fluid football when attacking, but defend as a team (without egos)
2. Forlan is up there for player of the tournament (and Suarez, Peirera and Lugano have been pretty good too)
3. ITV decided I should be supporting Ghana. ITV will never decide anything for me.
4. ITV then refused to show or acknowledge any Uruguay chances, any Uruguay shots apart from the goal, or the fact that Uruguay could (and probably should) have had a penalty in the second half.
5. Uruguay losers
6. It wasn't even a freekick for Ghana in the first place - before leading to that incident
7. It is not cheating, unless every foul is also cheating (if you take out the last man and get sent off, no one calls you a cheat, no one even called Harry Kewell a cheat when he did the same thing in a less important match) - and it's definitely not evil.
8. You would expect your team mate or the team you support to do exactly that
9. Suarez was punished, will miss the semi and Ghana had a pen. Fair is fair, stop banging on about it - he is not a villain (we'd have loved it if that was England and an England player - and we don't give a toss about England players diving)
10. ITV seems to be trying to turn Desailly into some sort of comedy figure, I feel like the constant replays of his reactions are pushing it a little now, further turning me against them (and their chosen morally superior team 'Ghana')
11. If Desailly loved Ghana so much he had to play for them (I love it, though) "
12. Kevin Prince 'born in Berlin' Boateng was Ghana's best player - I don't normally have a problem with players changing nationality etc, but for some reason in this case I do, maybe it's because he "played 41 times for the German Under-15, Under-16, Under-19 and Under-21 national teams" and "Boateng was offered the chance to play for
Ghana in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but declined. The Hertha BSC manager, Dieter Hoeneß, praised Boateng for turning down Ghana and opting to play for Germany". Maybe it's because his brother plays for Germany, and so would he - until he realised he wasn't good enough. . .he's hardly done it on the principle of retaining his connection to Ghana.
Now thats off my chest I can get on with life . . . "

11.25am: Not World Cup, but Roy Hodgson-related, who is BBC-related and Fernando Torres-related and generally globe-trotting international football-related: Lee Clark is "surprised" to be linked with the Fulham job: ""Most of the time I don't comment on speculation, but there has been absolutely no contact from Fulham and I don't want people to become unsettled." I already feel better.

11.11am: Here's a http://www.101greatgoals.com/video-maradona-the-argentina-squad-welcomed-home-as-heroes/58618/of Argentina's joyous homecoming after their exit from the World Cup (with thanks to www.101greatgoals.com). Look at all those flags. The happy people. Bit of a contrast with England - after their own shellacking by Germany - sliding in through the back door in a fleet of shame-faced bullet-proof BMW's.

11.04am: Brian Cloughley isn't afraid to ask the big questions :"Any suggestions for the team of the tournament so far? Here's my fairly predictable effort to kick things off: Stekelenburg, Maicon, Friedrich, Lucio, Coentrao, Van Bommel, Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Forlan, Villa, Gyan." Did Vincent Enyeama really blow so badly it with his mild gaffe against Greece? You could argue his performance against Argentina was the best of the tournament.

10.58am: Meanwhile Manuel Iglesias beleives Spain will win this World Cup in spite of their very nice coach with the dad-ish moustache: "Why change something when it is clear that it works? We won Euro 2008 playing great football, we played with one defensive midfielder (Senna) one playmaker (Xavi Hernandez), three attacking midfielders (Iniesta, Silva and Villa on the left) and one fordward (Torres). With this system we scored lots of goals and conceded very few. However, Del Bosque didn't like it and removed one of the attacking midfielders to put an extra defensive midfielder (Busquets). The result is a team that struggles to score and that is more unsecure defensively. If we win this World Cup it will be thanks to the determination and skills of the players and in spite of a very unwise and stubborn coach." Gah. To have Spain's problems, eh?

10:54 am: Also, from the very witty and more-ish kickette.com, this is kind of heartwarming

10.50am: If you like very happy Uruguayan men singing with joyous and perhaps drunken abandon, you'll love this. Diego Forlan More videos at home.

10.40am:

10.34am: Lynx writes: "HOOOOORAAAYYYY!!!! *Does the dance*" Indeed. And Liam Pennington is taking the Christmas Day ball and running with it: "Following Gloop's comment, I feel like it's similar to half-way through Boxing Day. You're still playing with all the best presents and having a great time, but it's not quite the high of yesterday, while the mind can't shake off remembering that the proper working week starts tomorrow. This has been a confusing, mixed-up, unpredictable World Cup, with everything from plucky North Korea holding their own (for a bit) through to the battering of Argentina by Germany (almost for the entire game) still to settle in the mind. When the history of South Africa is written, it'll be remembered as the most distinctive and open competition since Italia '90." Preferred 94 myself but I know what you mean.

10:32 am: Ivor Leonard has some haert-warming tidings: "I've got to work today to be met by an excited colleague who told me that England had won the WC yesterday.
I was a little confused as I know what really happened in the real world. It transpires that his 7 year old son's school team played in a World Cup competition in Hobart, Tasmania yesterday and represented England. They beat Argentina in a penalty shootout (no goalkeeper!) in the Quarter Final before going on to beat Brazil 5-1 in the final." Ah yes, kids. They'll learn. Oh yes, they'll learn.

10.30am: Hmmm. I wonder what Fernando Torres is thinking this morning.
On Germany: "They will try to win, they will try to attack and so we can have more space to exploit." Like the sound of that.
On David Villa: "That was his World Cup." Do not you? Really? Already?
On staying at Liverpool: "For now, my future is the World Cup and we still have a very important week ahead. I am sure we will talk soon." Uh oh.

10:22 am: Irrelevant but still strangely persistent octopus news. Apparently there is a doctored "unofficial" prediction out there. Really. The Germany v Spain prediction hasn't happened yet and this has been doctored via Photoshop. So there you go. It has, in fact, come to this.

10.10am: Ramya Mohan has this: "Paul the Psychic Octopus has predicted a Spain win over Germany! As a long-time fan of ze Germans [note: The Guardian does not necessarily endorse this "ze"], I hope that little sucker is mistaken. Not to mention the Spanish just wont do justice against the Dutch in the finals." Not sure what that last bit means exactly. Presumably that Holland will somehow "shut down" the Spanish. But... Really?

10.01am: And Alvaro Reynolds has done a number on Carlos Tevez who, he suggests, might have learnt a lot from his time in England: "Being in denial after conceding four against Germany is all the rage this summer. Carlos Tevez, 4 July: 'Are you stupid? We have some of the top players in the world. Germany and Holland don't have top players, but they won their games and made it as a team.' Michael Owen, 28 June: 'There is no one in the world who can convince me that the German players are better than ours.' " Really Michael? Not even Thomas Mueller?

9:55 am: Is Miroslav Klose the player you would have hand-picked to eclipse Ronaldo's scoring record? He says: ""I spoke with Ronaldo after the [2002] final. At the time I would not have dreamed of ever coming this close to him, needing two more goals to surpass him. I hope he's not too worried." I should imagine he is. Worried about how many packets of cheesy poofs he can successfully cram into his mouth without having to leave his Ribena-filled jacuzzi. But really. Klose. All-time top scorer. Is it unfair to disparage the hat-trick against Saudi Arabia, the very slight sense of a flat-track group stage bully?

9:52 am: Harry Redknapp on Sky today (live from the golf course): "I 'm Gutted. I sincerely believe it was our time to win the World Cup." Mmmm. Also at J Cole: "sa Joe 'a great player, I' D I love to Joe." "Plus, he thinks a piece of Diego Forlan, but 'e may be out of our league ".

9:40 am: And on another topic - the is-it-a-good-World Cup issue - I'm with Gloop's comment below: "Before the world cup started I heard a lot of folk saying it was like the night before Christmas as a kid. Does anyone else feel like it's about 6pm Christmas day as a kid now?" I think it has been, and still is, really exciting, even taking in some of the dour and cagey early fixtures. We have had a sense of rhythm and building momentum. There have been surprises and injustices. And still no one really knows who's going to win. It's been great.

9.22am: You can of course email me on barney.ronay@guardian.co.ukand share their views on various topics of the day. This, I think, could include:
1. Whither Dunga? And is it all really his fault? I can see the reasons why they've got rid of him. Brazil simply have to win the 2014 World Cup, and they also have to perform in a definitively Brazilian way while doing it. Dunga was never really a part of this, but rather a reaction to the perceived decadence of the 2006 campaign. As for Dunga himself it seems like managing Brazil buys you enough goodwill for a shot at one big European job. Something in Serie A? Man City in six months? Portsmouth perhaps?
2. Why is it so inconsolably upsetting when the World Cup has these non-playing days? What, exactly, does the World Cup think it's doing?
3. Does Van Persie's fitness make Holland the most obvious finalist of the four teams, and can anyone out there really say they don't want to see a re-match of the still-heated 1974 final?
4. And as there seems to already be some talk about this: perhaps it might have seemed pre-tournament that England had more stellar, or highly paid, or experienced and successful Champions League players (some use the phrase "world class" here) than Germany. But football is a fluid game. Careers rise and fall. Germany and England intersected during their last 16 match. after which Germany set off up the hill, and England began their freewheel down it. A year from now this picture will be even clearer. Is that right? Or is it all simply a form blip and a management/fitness/idiotic internecine fallings-out issue?

9:18 am: Hello and welcome

8.40am. Welcome to day ... 25(!) of guardian.co.uk's daily live World Cup blog, wherever you are in the world ....

Oh, and I should mention our usual disclaimer: we hope this blog will provide news, predictions, pontifications, colour from our team in South Africa, plus lots of pointing outwards; to your comments below the line, to the best things we've seen on the web and to various World Cup randomania.

I will be here from around 9am and the plan is to update the blog until around 5pm UK time.

And just to let you know that James Richardson and the World Cup Daily podcast team will be back later this evening with their thoughts ahead of the semi-finals.