Quintin Jardine's blog

Big night coming up; Spain vs Germany  for a place in the World Cup final. We may go out to watch it, question being where. I will, of course, be supporting Spain, but with some trepidation, whatever the psychic octopus may say.

In terms of quality, this has been a poor World Cup, a defeat for football in many respects. No side has played well throughout, other than maybe Ghana, moral victors over Uruguay, but only the result goes in the record books, not the manner of its achievement. Looking back, it’s easy to argue that if the England ‘keeper hadn’t let in that goal in the first match, and they’d avoided Germany in the first knock-out round, they’d be in the final now.

Of course, as a Jock, I could not care less. However it does irk me when I see Uruguay, with a population only 70% of ours , less if you consider those eligible under the grandmother rule, not only qualifying for South Africa but going as far as the semis. If I was in a position of authority in the Scottish Football Association, I’d be sending someone out there to study their development and coaching set-up. In fact, I might even volunteer for the job.