The World Cup has now finished and on balance it has been pretty good, with just a couple of dud games (including the final!), a lot of entertaining ones and the cream rising to the top, with all top 4 ranked FIFA teams making the semi final stage. I could have done without rehydration breaks at the games where they were not necessary, but we all know that the real reason was for a three minute advert break in the US. Less of Infantino would have been nice and we certainly didn't need Trump getting involved, or a half time show in the final, it is not the Super Bowl and actually against the rules of the game. But, as FIFA said beforehand, it was to be a "landmark celebration at the intersection of sport, music and global impact", which is just gobbledygook and better just to say "money" and making the game more palatable to US audiences. All that aside, I enjoyed the competition more than I expected to and the right team won.

 

We made a decent profit on the WC, but were close to so much more and not just with Argentina in the final, also with "to win the group stage" betting where we had a 22 point expected return heading into Matchday 3 yet ended up with a measly six. There were several games where "our" team battered the opposition and couldn't score, but that is football.

 

It was fun, but very nice to wave goodbye to international football for a (long ?) while. 

 

Two full rounds of MLS games this week and we were on fire with those before the break and also some European qualifiers and only 24 days until the start of the English football season. My plan is to have the first of what is very likely to be eight parts of EFL/EPL preseason notes next Monday (July 27th). 

 

Good luck!