2010 FIFA World Cup: Germany Klose To Final After England Got Müllered

Well, what an absorbing game that was in Bloemfontein at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

A 4-1 Germany win full of thrills and spills was inevitably met with delight across Germany, Europe, and several English-hating South American countries.

And for England, the final whistle culminated in a nation full of shock and utter disbelief at, firstly, Mauricio Espinosa's complete incompotency, and secondly, the gutless showing of the men wearing that sacred Three Lions shirt.

As for the football-loving neutral, it was a masterclass showing from the likes of Mesut Ozil, Miroslav Klose, Manuel Neuer, Bastian Schweinsteiger, etc.

Germany beat England back in April when Bayern Munich overcame Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League, and now it's happened again with the two national teams.

Here's what we've learnt from the 4-1 thriller/disaster/tragedy/masterclass performance in one of the smallest and most logistically challenging host cities at the World Cup.

Goal line technology, obviously, has to be introduced

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said back in March about goal line technology, "One of the main objectives of FIFA is to protect the universality of the game of association football.

"If you are coaching a group of teenagers in any small town around the world, they will be playing with the same rules as the professional players they see on TV."

He added, "No matter which technology is applied, at the end of the day a decision will have to be taken by a human being. This being the case, why remove the responsibility from the referee to give it to someone else?

"The application of modern technologies can be very costly, and therefore not applicable on a global level. The experiments conducted by companies on technology in football are also expensive.

"The question has already been raised: if the IFAB had approved goal-line technology, what would prevent the approval of technology for other aspects of the game? Every decision in every area of the pitch would soon be questioned."

Let it be made clear that goal-line technology should only be introduced at the international level. After all, what club team would want to ruin their budget and invest many millions in something that'll produce very little rewards?

And at the international level, a lot of countries already have the technology in place. We can see at this World Cup every decision is replayed on a big screen inside the stadium at every venue, so there's absolutely no problem there whatsoever.

Some countries aren't rich enough to afford goal-line technology for their continental and international qualifying matches, and that's fair enough; goal-line technology is something that can be applied for big, prestigious, international tournaments.

In cricket, for example, the third umpire is only used for big events like The Ashes, ICC World Twenty20, Cricket World Cup, etc.

In tennis, hawk-eye is only used at Grand Slam tournaments (heck, it's not even used at one of them, Roland Garros) and other massive events of the sort.

The exact same goes for Rugby Union and Rugby League with the video referral system concerning ambiguous decisions.

As for a human being ultimately making the decision, it's clear that massively deleterious decisions like Frank Lampard's unjustly disallowed goal and Thierry Henry getting away with that handball wouldn't have occurred with the use of video technology, as that human being making the decision would've clearly been able to see what's right.

As for the more ambiguous calls, simply put, the referee's job will be made much easier with a video referral system. Fact.

And finally, football is played with the same rules universally? Then why are all referees given 'competition rules' manuals for every different league and tournament?

In football, the world's most popular sport, goal line technology has to be introduced at the highest international level, or the FIFA World Cup at the very, very least.

That aside, England were a disgrace to the nation

Poor judgement, silly mistakes and general laziness in defence cost England massively.

These players representing a nation of over 50 million believers, who would give anything to put on that Three Lions jersey, were simply a disgrace to English football.

Wayne Rooney, England's talisman, showed little of the desire and determination, as well as skill, he displays week in week out in the Premier League for Manchester United.

The defence as a whole let themselves down, and Matthew Upson's goal couldn't even mask the poor, poor performance he had; football at the highest level is not for him.

Overall, these players not only disgraced themselves, but also their management team and the rest of the 23-man squad, and could well have cost their manager his job, with Fabio Capello possibly now being "urged to resign" by executives from The FA.

And in tough economic times with government budget cuts affecting the whole population, the England footballers have helped make national morale potentially hit an all-time low.

Thank you John Terry, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Matthew Upson, Ashley Cole, Glen Johnson, James Milner, Gareth Barry, and Jermain Defoe, you've disgraced an entire nation.

Paul Really is a Psychic Octopus!

A "psychic" octopus in Germany is said by its aquarium owners to be able to correctly predict the results of the German national team at the World Cup.

When consulted, Paul the octopus chose a mussel from a jar with the German flag on it ahead of one in a similar jar bearing the cross of St George.

Paul has so far correctly predicted all of Germany's results in South Africa, and this correct prediction streak continued against England.

His keepers say he correctly predicted nearly 70 percent of Germany's results during the 2008 European Championship.

"Paul's prediction was phenomenal," said aquarium spokesman Tanja Munzig.

"He swam straight over to the German glass, climbed in and even put a lid on top once he was sitting inside."

What a clever octopus.

Octopus source: BBC News