World Cup 2006: it's back on!
Feels weird not to have watched a single international football tie for the last couple of days, but the quarter finals are go, and I made sure I was finished with the Radio Times piece I'm writing by 4pm. Actually, I didn't finish it, but there's always tomorrow. It was a boiling hot day.

Germany 1 Argentina 1 (4-2 on penalties)
"It started like a game of chess . . . " said David Pleat. Well, Gary at 6 Music reckons it's going to be an England Germany final. I certainly wanted Germany to win: they're the cleaner side, and they have the prevailing wind of local support behind them. But the two teams were locked together in the first half, neither of them able to make a run for it and break out of midfield. It seems ungrateful to say, but it was quite dull. However, in the 49th minute, it all changed when Ayala converted a corner with his head - the first time Germany had been behind in this World Cup. This put a rocket up their arse. And, notwithstanding the championship-standard timewasting Argentina indulged in from thereon, it was Klose who headed one off a Borowski header to equalise, after which, with both sides locked once again, the play was only enlivened by some ducking and diving, and Michael Ballack spending a lot of time on the sidelines. You just knew it was going to extra time, and during that grim half hour, you just knew it was going to penalties. It started like a game of chess, stopped being one, turned back into one, and, to complete Mr Pleat's assessment, "it ended like blood and thunder." It was sweet to see the German team with their arms round each other, and the coaching staff and subs too, as they waited their turn in the shootout. Quite touchy-feely the Germans, maybe it's Klinsmann's Californian influence. In penalties, there was what can only be described as a lot of German efficiency on display. Argentina's Esteban Cambiasso was the Gareth Southgate, the David Batty, the Stuart Pearce, of the proceedings, missing the fourth Argentine penalty and guaranteeing himself a Pizza Hut (or Offal Hut) advert, while the Germans missed not one. Four out of four. Peter Drury went as wild as the German fans, declaring Berlin "Party City!" and falling over himself in an effort to express the joy of the home nation. "Never has Germany been so unified," he burbled. "Never have the German people been so universally smiling and cheerful." (That's "universally smiling".) And then one of the Argentines, Heinze, seemed to launch himself at a German player after an altercation and a proper scuffle broke out, with officials involved, amid much gesticulating and "He's not worth it" intervention, when it should by rights have been all handshakes and shirt-swapping. In this, Argentina let themselves down, they let the school down, they let football down. (They didn't actually let the football down, thankfully.) Ah well, an "intriguing" game, as Ally McCoist said, if not a particularly brilliant one, but when the team isn't yours, penalties can be exciting, in a reduced-down-sauce sort of way. Gary could still be right.
Italy 3 Ukraine 0
What a performance! I'm talking about Martin O'Neill at half-time. (Yes, it was back to the BBC, mercifully, with a gorgeous sunset behind our team at the Brandenberg Gate.) O'Neill actually went mad live on telly, firstly imagining the Ukrainian plane already revved up on the tarmac (they didn't exactly give it their all in the first half, you see), then criticising the Ukrainians for being in second gear, actually, for being in first gear, then saying he loved the Italians and that they were good looking so perhaps, in fact, he hated them, then he imagined Caesar and Nero and Crassus inventing the offside rule in Ancient Rome, and finally, he said, "What are we on about?" Never mind "we". Terrific telly, which is more than we can say for the first half of the match, in which, what a surprise, Italy scored an early first goal (Zambrotti) and then protected it for the remainder. Defenisively, even in first gear, even parked, they are unbeatable. I have learned very quickly that this is what Italy do. Are 1-0 leads easier to fix or something? The second half saw Ukraine putting the effort in. They were never going to win, too many long balls, not enough movement, Shevchenko's bad knee, but a couple of consecutive shots on goal in the 58th shook the Italians in to action and Toni went down the other end and made it 2-0. Then again, ten minutes later, both short-range goals, both sweet as a nut. (It was Jonathan Pearce who had begun the game by saying, "Lovely, Totti!" - which just sounded like, "lovely Totti!") I still like the way that when Italy are passing and the commentator gives out their names, it sounds like he's ordering food: "Luca Toni . . . Perrotta . . . Zambrotta . . . Cannavaro . . . Gattuso . . . and a bottle of the house red please."

So, Italy play Germany on Tuesday. And, according to Gary, Germany will win, facing us in the final. I don't believe him.