More Points Then England,

More Points Then England, We've all got more points then England!

Today at the World Cup started with the Group F match between Argentina and Iran. Argentina have been tipped (by supporters of Roy Hodgson) as potential tournament winners. The bulk of Iran's squad is made up of amateur players and sadly politics means that they have been denied the opportunity to warm-up for the tournament against World class opposition As a result this fixture had many people thinking back to that time Hungary defeated 10-1 in the 1982 World Cup and caused a few to suggest that long standing record could soon fall.

As it turns out the Iranian team absolutely covered themselves in glory playing very tight, very disciplined football. This meant that for much of the first half they literally did not get out of their own half with them playing such a defensive formation that their two centre-forwards spent most of the 45 minutes hanging about 10-15 yards inside the Iranian half of the pitch without even thinking about attacking let alone scoring. However it also meant that they did not concede a goal even if the way they were constantly being forced to soak up Argentine attacking pressure left you feeling it was only a matter of time before Argentina took the lead.

In the second-half Iran maintained their shape and discipline but also started putting some attacks together. Although I wouldn't go so far to say that Iran were creating the best chances of the game they certainly created some real chances. For example on 52 minutes Reza Ghoochanneijhad (Gucci) got his head on the end of a Montazeri cross forcing a save out of Romero - the Argentina 'keeper. On 66 minutes Ashkan Dejagah also got his head on a long diagonal cross from Montazeri forcing a finger-tip save from Romero that was millimetres from a goal that would have rivalled Van Persie's header against Spain.

Iran's best chance though came after 55 minutes when Mohammad Reza Khalatbari (Reza) was brought down in the penalty area by Pablo Zabaleta in an incident that has already been expunged from the BBC's match coverage. Viewed from the front this was a clear penalty with Zabaleta not only taking Reza's legs out from under him but also failing to make contact with the ball. As this denied Reza a clear goal scoring opportunity this should have also earned Zabaleta an immediate red-card.

The problem was that the referee viewed all this from behind from where it must have looked like a very skilled challenge by Zabaleta so he didn't award it. In making this mistake the Serbian referee seems to have shown a slight bias towards South American teams that we have seen throughout this tournament. Again I'm not making accusations of match-fixing or cheating but when there's an incident where the referee isn't sure they all tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the South American side.

However what also often happens is football is that when a referee makes a mistake like this he will have it quickly pointed out to him by his assistants, the coaches, the players and large sections of the crowd. Again while they won't cheat the referee will then often try to correct their mistake by erring on the side of the team that lost out the next time there's a 50/50 call. On this occasion though the referee continue to hammer Iran picking them up on every potential foul and even seeming to make an effort to award Argentina free-kicks in areas where their star player Lionel Messi is known to be so dangerous.

Rather then being an anti-Iranian plot by Serbia I think this had more to do with the fact that when the referee turned down Reza's penalty call Reza responded by charging up to the referee screaming and then lunging as if he was going to head-but him in the chest. This is obviously not the way to get a referee to do you a favour.

Despite the falling out with the referee and growing Argentine pressure Iran held firm until the 92nd minutes (2 minutes into 4 minutes of stoppage time) when Messi did what he is famous for and curled the ball in from about 25 yards winning the match.

Next up was the Germany versus Ghana match in Group G which I will cover in more detail after the imminent Group F match between Nigeria and Bosnia. However I do need to point out that this match was marred by a lone pitch invader.

Having worked in football stewarding/security for the best part of 10 years I should explain that the procedure is normally that stewards/police do not chase lone pitch invaders/streakers onto the pitch. That is because rather then being malicious these people are simply attention seekers so chasing them merely gives them what they want. However the protocol I'm used to working under is that the referee will gather the players together in one area of the pitch and a couple of stewards will go on to protect them should the need arise. That said my old boss once had to go into the crowd to stop Eric Cantona attacking a fan so its fair to say that a lot of players can look after themselves. Another area the Brazilians might want to look at is doubling up the number of stewards at the gates/stair-cases that provide access to the pitch.

21:45 on 21/6/14 (UK date).

Edited at around 23:55 on 21/6/14 (UK date) to add: Of course the main rule of football is;

Don't Bring Your Missus to the Match!! I don't care if they're male or female you simply do not do it!

As I mentioned above the next match of the day was Germany versus Ghana in Group G. Having lost to the USA Ghana needed the one point they'd get from a draw to stay in the tournament. Having thrashed Portugal Germany would also have been happy with a draw. As such following the excitement of the Argentina V Iran game I was looking forward to a nice, calm 0-0 draw.

This would have given me time to explain that the USA have very much modelled their football team on the Germany's. So not only are they managed by German legend Jurgen Klinsmann but many of their players are more German than American. For example John Brooks who scored the winner against Ghana is the son of a US serviceman and was born in Germany. As such the Germany V USA match is shaping up to be something of a master V apprentice grudge match.

Unfortunately the big story of the match turned out to be the pop-star Rihanna. As some of you may have heard Rihanna has not only been watching a lot of this World Cup she has taken to providing a live commentary on Twitter. Given the problems caused by the silent treatment Rihanna gave the World during the recent Winter Olympics I think this is generally a good thing. The problem is that despite being celebrity friends with professional footballers who are playing in this World Cup and people who are effectively married to professional footballers who are playing in this World Cup (Shakira etc) Rihanna seems to know very little about football. For example she today congratulated Messi on going past defenders to score his goal although that seemed more like a question to me. As a result three of the five teams that Rihanna has backed to win in this tournament have immediately gone on to lose earning Rihanna a reputation as a jinx.

This began at the Ghana V USA game when about 20 minutes before Rihanna posted a picture of Ghana's Kevin-Prince Boateng saying something along the lines of him being that handsome that it made her switch allegiance from her adopted home of America. The problem was that in the photograph Boateng bore a passing resemblance to Chris Brown. As a result no-one was quite sure if Rihanna was being serious, getting into the spirit of things by playing it for laughs or secretly indicating that she was getting back with Chris Brown. Combined with Clint Dempsey's goal after 29 seconds this completely psyched out the Ghanaian team and they were useless for about the next 70 minutes. As such it has been suggested that Rihanna has been engaging in mind games to help the USA win although in my experience Rihanna tends to be the victim rather then the perpetrator of such dirty tricks.

So when in the second half of the Germany V Ghana match Rihanna declared she was backing Germany the Germans in the crowd instantly burst into song in in order to spur their team on to win and avoid the curse. Moments later Germany went 1-0 up.

As the players lined up to kick-off following the game our pitch invader appeared. Although as is standard and reasonable (legal issues, denying them attention etc) the TV coverage cut away I understand Ghana's Muntari had a quiet word with him and he quickly left the pitch. Obviously I cannot comment on what I have not seen but I suspect that the pitch invader was pre-screened and allowed onto the pitch to provide a discussion point about Rihanna's role. Alternatively it was just a drunk fan getting over excited and unilaterally deciding to promote discussion about Rihanna's role. Either way my above assessment remains valid.

Once the match did kick-off again Ghana almost immediately equalised causing me to completely lose track of what was going on and focus almost entirely on Twitter. However I gather that Ghana went on to take the lead before Klose equalised for Germany and in the process equaled Brazil's Ronaldo (the fat one who was good in the late-1990's) record of 16 World Cup goals. As a result both teams got their point and the group is heating up nicely.

By the time the final match between Nigeria and Bosnia & Herzegovina in Group F began I'd become over-excited and needed to sit down quietly in a darkened room. However I gather that Nigeria really raised their game and won 1-0. This means that Nigeria can still qualify for the last 16 but Bosnia are out having not scored a single point. This is a bit of a shock because of the outside bets (Belgium, Switzerland etc) Bosnia seemed - to me - the most likely to make it through to the last 16 and then pull off a shock by getting to the final and even winning the whole thing.

If anything their problem was arrogance because in their opening game against Argentina they scored a own goal after about 10 minutes. Although I was massively drunk by that point this struck me as having an air of "Go on, we'll let you start with a 1 goal advantage. You'll need it!" Bosnia then went on to equalise before Messi once again dug Argentina out of the hole. Now Bosnia are going home and even I'm disappointed.

Now where is that darkened room because I'm loving this World Cup but I'm pretty sure that writing up every match is going to kill me.