(Hopefully we'll be meeting these guys for pints on Saturday in Frankfurt)

What’s happened to this world cup? Where are the 4-3 enthrallers, the end-to-end epics and exciting extra times we had hoped for? Despite the pundits lauding it as a tournament of exciting and attacking football, this ‘pundit’ believes it has been far from vintage. In fact, I think it’s actually started to fizzle out and like the English team, this World Cup has been over rated and over hyped. Perhaps I’ve been watching a different competition but with the exception of Argentina and Spain, high-quality football has been spontaneous at best.

The group stage never really caught fire. With nearly all the top teams having qualified for the knock out stages before their final game, there was little at stake in round 3 of the group which in previous tournaments has provided some remarkable games. Looking at the leading contenders few have really sparkled so far. Brazil, England, Holland, Czech Republic and even Italy are stuttering through the tournament unconvincingly or are already eliminated. I had hoped for some improvement in the second round but with 6 of the 8 matches now played only the Argentina V Mexico game stood out.

All is not lost though. Today we have the prospect of two very exciting games, Brazil v Ghana and Spain V France. The winners of both games play each other in Frankfurt this Saturday. A mouth watering prospect indeed and thanks to the corporate connections of a certain contributor on this site the In Fact, Ah crew will be packing the German phrase book along with our 1988 replica Irish jerseys and heading to Frankfurt early this Saturday morning. Excited, we most certainly are and let's hope the elite of world football have held back their best performances for the business end of this great tournament. Even if the football isn't top notch I hear the beer in Germany is fantastic!

Come on Ghana!