LONDON - Thanks to everyone who contributed to this blog, which is one of a number being trialled across the BBC.
Comments on this blog are now closed. But look out for other BBC Sport blogs - including our on-going editors' blog where you can discuss our coverage, and other forthcoming event blogs we will be running - for instance for the Ryder Cup and the Ashes.
LONDON - Here I sit in my flat, surrounded by dirty washing, cut-price World Cup tat and a huge joint of cured ham that I bought in France on Monday.
When I woke up this morning Ricco was nowhere to be seen - most strange and somewhat refreshing after five weeks of my co-blogger being the first person I have clapped eyes on every morning.
LONDON - The World Cup, all 64 games of it, has been and gone and everyone has had their say.
Including you.
We wanted a new way of rating players' performances, so we asked you to do the punditry.
And you responded in your hundreds of thousands, giving marks out of 10 to every player in every game throughout the tournament.
As a result, we got to see who you rated as the best and worst players on the pitch at any given game.
We've now collated the information to find the player of the tournament - as voted by you.
You may be surprised by his name. And guess who was the worst? (Clue: he's English..)
Continue reading "Revealed - your player & team of the tournament"
THE ENGLISH CHANNEL – Our ferry will shortly dock at Dover and our blog adventure will come to an end.
It’s quite hard to look back over the last few weeks as it seemed to whip by so quickly, the memories are all a bit of blur at the moment, but I’m sure in a few weeks I’ll be able to pinpoint my favourite incidents more clearly.
BELGIUM - It seems strange to no longer be in Germany. It feels strange to write that sentence.
I guess my moment of realisation that the party was actually over came when the fireworks exploded over the Olympic Stadium on Sunday.
This sensation was rammed home this morning when I looked at Bild newspaper. For the last four weeks the 'i' in the spelling on the cover has been replaced by the World Cup trophy. No longer.
LONDON - I asked one of the journalists who has been working on the football desk during the World Cup and who normally runs our games section, how he felt about the end of the sport's showpiece...
Got any suggestions to help him get over the void in his life?
Germany's footballing soap opera gripped us for 31 days.
Now it’s all over I'm left feeling like I've had a five-week fling with Kate Moss .... and been dumped for Bernard Manning.
COLOGNE - This is it then, our final night in Germany spent having a great meal by the banks of the Rhine in a southern suburb of Cologne with one of our many new found friends, actor Joachim Krol.
And, like Fletch, the hospitality of the German people towards the hordes of invading strangers will stick with me for a long time.
IBC, MUNICH – So after 31 days, 64 games, 147 goals (2002 = 161), 28 red cards, 305 yellows and four penalty shoot-outs, another World Cup is over.
It’s been a long tournament for the Match of the Day team – most of us have been out here in Germany for at least five weeks. But what a fantastic experience! Being paid to work at World Cup is as good as it gets for a football fan.
Now it’s time to get in reflective mood, so I want to know what will you remember most about this World Cup?
To help jog your memories, here are the Match of the Day experts’ favourite moments of the tournament. Over at the Guardian they've also been listing their best/worst moments of the tournament.
COLOGNE - The World Cup is over for another four years and Ricco and I are heading home.
We have just arrived in Cologne, where we will spend our final night in Germany, after a six-hour drive from Berlin. With the dust settling on the tournament I think it is a good time to reflect - after all I have witnessed much, learnt a lot and had a great deal of fun in my time in Germany.
BERLIN - Marco Materazzi’s career has always had an element of car crash chaos – even during his brief spell at Everton.
And never has it been more evident than in his pivotal contribution to Italy’s World Cup final win against France.
BERLIN – Fletch and I worked out at that we are two of less than a million people on this planet to see to the current World Cup trophy lifted in person.
Obviously Fletch was comfortably seated in his press place for the whole game whereas I had to chance my arm in a late dash into the stadium, after the end of the action but before the prize was hoisted aloft.
BERLIN - So that’s it then – a World Cup carnival that has taken me from Baden-Baden to Berlin via Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Gelsenkirchen, Munich and other stops too numerous to mention in five eventful weeks is over.
The circus is leaving town after the final between France and Italy and pitches up again in South Africa in four years.
So let’s look back at the highs and lows of this German summer – and let me hear your memorable moments, your heroes and villains.
BERLIN - The French fans buried their faces in their hands as they saw Zinedine Zidane dispatched from the World Cup final, knowing it may have cost them victory.
None could explain his "idiotic act", but at the same time, they insisted France would remember him as a legend, and would not turn against him.
BERLIN - What did you think of the World Cup final?
I thought it was a really enjoyable game in which the momentum changed sides several times and contained no little drama - Zinedine Zidane's red card, his early penalty which brought the game to life, the penalty shoot-out and some truly remarkable celebrations from the ecstatic Italian players.
BERLIN – I was going to call this pre-final blog “Some people are on the pitch” in homage to Kenneth Wolstenholme’s immortal commentary.
In the end, I shied away from any reference to anything to do with England, for fear of any more accusations of unwarranted nationalism.
Instead, I thought I’d quote Martin O’Neill quoting the screenwriter William Goldman at the end of last night’s 3rd place play-off show...
The World Cup final was the 16th match I’ve covered in 31 days at 11 different locations travelling around Germany on my own.
From the very first game between Germany and Costa Rica the atmosphere created by the host nation and all the other countries has been amazing.
OLYMPIC STADIUM BERLIN - World Cup finals are special events in the sporting calendar - each one is unique.
And already, after attending the 2002 final between Brazil and Germany in Yokohama, I can detect a different atmosphere in Berlin this afternoon.
BERLIN - After sleeping in 24 different places in 33 days chasing the World Cup - its stories, its atmosphere, its way of life - we come to the end of the road.
In just a few hours time the 64th and final match of the tournament will take place at the Olympic Stadium - two stops away on the S-bahn from our now crowded campsite.
BERLIN - It's World Cup final day, but you could be forgiven for thinking the main event took place last night, such were the scenes after Germany's victory over Portugal in the third/fourth place play-off.
Traffic came to a standstill along Kurfuerstendamm as hordes of supporters spilled onto the streets, people were standing up out of the sunroof of their cars waving the German flag and beeping their horns.
LONDON - Academics at the Cass Business School in London have devised an alternative set of world rankings - and guess who is top?
Continue reading "Formula that shows which countries are under-performing"
BERLIN - By this I mean supporters, not players.
Ricco and I travelled into the centre of Berlin on Saturday afternoon with the specific purpose of finding Italian and French fans - what we encountered instead were thousands of German supporters heading to the Fans Fest for their team's third/fourth place play-off game.
BERLIN - The weather has finally broken in Germany, after 30 days of unrelenting heat the storm clouds have arrived over Berlin.
After yesterday’s downpour when we were trapped in a station, both Fletch and I woke up bright and early this morning – about five – with the rain hammering down on Svan’s roof.
The next World Cup will be in South Africa and there are concerns over lots of issues to do with the host country.
But, while I still have worries, they've been slightly eased after the official handing over ceremony to South Africa.
I generally look forward to my all-too regular four-and-a-half hour train journeys in Germany about as much as the third place play-off but my trip to Berlin held an unexpected surprise.
First of all I managed to get a seat!! Secondly, a former World Cup manager only came and sat next to me and started chatting about all things football...
BERLIN - Ricco and I were heading back to the campsite after visiting an English family living in Berlin when an almighty thunderstorm broke out.
From our perspective there were two interesting consequences to this.
BERLIN - If you ever needed proof that the World Cup inspires passion and divides opinion, you should read some of the responses to my last blog!
All I did was defend our coverage of France v Portugal. As ever, most of the responses are well-argued and the feedback is of great interest to us as programme-makers. However, a few of the respondents – and seemingly some members of the wider public – would do well to remembers John Arlott’s observation that “some people take sport too seriously, and life too lightly”.
BERLIN - Jurgen Klinsmann has played in a World Cup final and has now managed on the highest stage by coaching his country to a semi-final.
Now he must take charge of a game that provokes mixed feelings among the World Cup community - namely the third place play-off.
LONDON - Those interested in yesterday's post regarding apparent attempts from various quarters to hijack Fifa's Young Player of the tournament award may want to check out today's announcement of the winner.
(Incidentally, Sean Ingle, writing on the Guardian blog today, makes some good points about what to do about the various disappointing aspects of this World Cup, including card-brandishing.)
Fifa have now also announced their Squad of the Tournament - John Terry is the only English player included. What do you make of it?
BERLIN - The World Cup is almost over and it's time perhaps to try to provide a glimpse of what it has been like living in Svan for the past month.
We are currently parked in a temporary campsite somewhere in Berlin. In an effort to disguise the fact that we are basically in what looks like a abandoned piece of land the owners have laid sand over the entire area and dubbed it a crazy beach party.
BERLIN - It's all we've heard about these last four weeks, the city that's in every song and is the ultimate destination of all those who dreamed of being succesful at this World Cup.
Well we've finally arrived in Berlin, where the final will be played on Sunday, and it is curiously quiet.
We’ve had complaints from one or two quarters claiming that our coverage of Wednesday’s semi was influenced by sour grapes towards Portugal for having beaten England.
If that was the case, we’d be permanently sour during the latter stages of every tournament. There was no antipathy from us towards Brazil in 2002, nor Portugal in 2000 or 2004 for that matter.
Our pundits and production team first took issue with Portugal in this tournament following that horrible game with Holland, several days prior to the Rooney/Ronaldo shenanigans...
LONDON - Time to vote for your goal of the tournament.
If you enter (by phone/text) there's a chance to win a signed England shirt and a behind-the-scenes tour of Match of the Day, and most of the money (70p+ out of £1) goes to Sport Relief.
MUNICH - Not long left in the International Broadcast Centre now - is there anything else you would like to know about the BBC production here?
In the meantime, we've received plenty of emails asking about Match of the Day's on-screen graphics so I asked one of our graphics operators Alex Rice to explain more..
NUREMBERG EN ROUTE TO BERLIN BY TRAIN (6.5 HR JOURNEY!) - Portugal’s reputation as the World Cup’s pantomime villains was confirmed in their semi-final defeat against France.
Cristiano Ronaldo was a target for the “boo-hiss” brigade, while we could have spent the entire match shouting “he’s behind you” at the fourth official whenever “Big Phil” Scolari wanted to debate yet another decision.
LONDON - Cristiano Ronaldo - by all accounts the best player on the pitch in Wednesday's semi-final - was apparently leading in the vote on Fifa's website to find the Young Player of the Tournament.
He appears to have been overtaken by Luis Valencia, the Villarreal player from Ecuador, who England beat in the second round.
Something funny going on?
HELMSTEDT - There is always a bit of risk in accepting an invitation to a stranger's house.
So we weren't quite sure what to expect when blog reader Stephan offered us beer and a barbecue at his mate Sebastian's place while watching the France v Portugal semi-final.
ON THE WAY TO BERLIN - With Italian football mired in alleged corruption, would it not be a travesty of justice for Italy to walk off with the World Cup trophy on Sunday?
It’s a question I’ve been putting to Italian fans in Germany all this week. Not surprisingly, they dismiss the question out of hand.
MUNICH - Contrary to popular belief, England have not been knocked out of the football tournament going on here in Germany. In fact, I just saw them convincingly win their latest game 5-2.
Their passing was slick, their skills put the opposition to shame and, at the final whistle, they saluted the crowd and hugged the Israeli/Palestinian team they’d just played off the park. Confused? You shouldn’t be because this is what we’ve come to expect from the Street Football World Cup.
DORTMUND - Imagine interviewing one of Germany's biggest sporting legends. Imagine interviewing him straight after Germany are dumped out of the World Cup.
Boris Becker rocketed in my estimations though. The guy was clearly gutted but he stuck to the commitment and talked eloquently for our Match Of The Day highlights programme.
DORTMUND - I said on Tuesday that I did not want Germany to win the World Cup.
As I sat in the stadium in Dortmund on Tuesday evening I was stunned by the manner in which my wish came true.
MUNICH - If the World Cup semi-final between Portugal and France is half as eventful as the pre-match press conference, it is destined to become an all-time classic.
Rarely have there been such scenes of chaos, confusion and a little touch of ill-feeling as there were when Portugal boss "Big Phil" Scolari and his French counterpart Raymond Domenech met the media deep in the bowels of the Allianz Arena.
DORTMUND - For the second time in four days I was there, in the thick of it waiting for the boiling atmosphere to bubble over and the party to start.
But again the atmosphere was killed in a second - the second it took Fabio Grosso to curl the ball round Jens Lehmann and into the net to set Germany on the way to World Cup semi-final defeat.
MUNICH - Being a fairly Anglo-centric person (despite being mostly Welsh) I never thought I'd see defeat mean more to England fans until I saw the Germans here tonight.
Everybody had a German flag painted somewhere on their anatomy and you couldn't get a decent seat anywhere as every bar, restaurant and kebab house in this part of Bavaria tuned into watch what many believed would be another step towards a football dream and a nation's rediscovery of collective well-being.
ESSEN - After the semi-final between Italy and Germany in Dortmund we will get on the road towards Svan's final destination in Germany - Berlin.
We've been on the road for four weeks now and Berlin has always been the shining light at the end of our blog tunnel - but we're going to be a bit early for the final, so we want your suggestions of something to do on the way.
MUNICH - The reminders of what might have been are everywhere here in Munich as England's conquerors Portugal prepare to face France in the World Cup semi-final.
Even the drive to the hotel gave us a sharp reminder of what we thought was to come from Sven-Goran Eriksson's so-called "Golden Generation" of players.
DORTMUND - Germany’s optimism has until now been tempered by caution. Not any more.
Ahead of the semi-final against Italy here tonight, Germans are wholly confident they can progress to the final. Every Italian I’ve met says exactly the same thing about Italy.
DORTMUND - I'm not going to make many friends saying this but I do NOT want Germany to win the World Cup.
I've spoken to quite a few England fans over the last few days who have expressed the view that they would be happy to see Michael Ballack lift the World Cup trophy in Berlin on Sunday - and a few people on this blog have expressed a similar sentiment, not to mention my fellow bloggers Paul Armstrong and Paul Atherton.
ESSEN - Four laps of a running track. Easy right?
If only I could say that was true but after running a mile for Sport Relief on Monday evening I felt the cool touch of the grim reaper on my shoulder and the hot burning sensation of the devil in my lungs.
DORTMUND - Italy held an open training session ahead of their semi-final against Germany and it was notable for the fact that there was not the normal array of prancing about for the cameras.
The players were put through their paces in the sweltering mid-afternoon heat and Gennaro Gattuso and Gianluigi Buffon, in particular, caught the eye.
Hardman midfielder Gattuso rarely holds back and he showed little sign of being any different during the session.
He reminded me of the description the German commentators use when describing Wayne Rooney.
Continue reading "Don't underestimate Italy and pitbull Gattuso"
BERLIN - Bear with this blog: I’m eventually going to agree with my fellow blogger Paul Atherton who has audaciously adopted the host nation for the remainder of the tournament.
Eventually. But first, as that well-known goalkeeper and part-time existentialist, Albert Camus once wrote: “All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football.”
FRANKFURT - Marcel Desailly is still very close to the French team.
Four of those who played in the victory over Brazil in Frankfurt played alongside Marcel in the 1998 World Cup final in Paris - Fabien Barthez, Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Patrick Vieira.
And the former France defender, who retired in 2004, told me that since the win over Spain there's been real belief in the squad that they can go on and become world champions.
DUSSELDORF - Ricco and I are driving to the British Army base at Rheindahlen and will this evening run a mile for Sport Relief.
We have opted for this particular destination on the back of a suggestion by Penny - comment eight - who mentioned that her Dad used to race at a track near Monchengladbach when he was in the army.
LONDON - So, penalty heartbreak again. England missed more penalties on Saturday (three out of four) than Germany have missed in all four World Cup penalty shoot-outs in which they've been involved (one out of 18. Who & when was that miss? Answer later.)
What exactly is it England have done to upset the footballing Gods so? Or do fans need to front up to the fact that yet again, despite the hype, the team just weren't good enough. Here's one view. But do you agree?
By Ben Dirs, BBC Sport. This was a joyless World Cup. Joe Cole’s goal against Sweden apart, I can’t think of a single act by an England player that got the veins on my neck bulging or which led to beer raining down on me down the pub.
HOHENSYBURG, OUTSIDE DORTMUND - Yesterday was a total wash out.
It's more than 36 hours now since England went out of this World Cup and Fletch and I are still struggling to process that information and summon up the required strength to move on.
Check out the video from Saturday's fan fest and also a kid doing keepy-ups for my entertainment.
MUNICH - Ok, I know it’s hard to drum up much enthusiasm for the rest of the World Cup now England have packed their bags and gone home.
But there’s still a week to go and four teams left in it. We’ve got to wait four years until the next World Cup, so we may as well enjoy every minute while it lasts. So come on, who will you be cheering on in this week’s semi-finals?
For me, there’s only one choice.
HOHENSYBURG - Unfortunately at some point before Ricco and I leave Germany and head for home we have to run a mile for Sport Relief.
I say unfortunately because after close to a month of consuming meat in the same quantities as your average German - and let us be honest sneaking the odd beer along the way - I no longer feel able to guarantee that I could run the distance without doubling over, throwing up etc etc.
MUNICH - My final night in Berlin was spent chomping on a steak on Unter Den Linden watching thousands of devastated England and Brazil supporters trudge under the Brandenberg Gate, their painted faces streaked with tears, their flags and dreams left crumpled in the gutter.
It's always said you can't have a World Cup without Brazil and many on our side of The Channel think the same but having being here and travelled around the venues to watch countries from every continent I don't think any team has a divine right to play here anymore.
BADEN-BADEN - England's version of the big top - their tented media village - was being dismantled within minutes of Sven-Goran Eriksson and David Beckham's departure for Baden-Baden airport.
There has been an element of the circus about England's World Cup campaign, and as usual it was leaving town ahead of schedule.
GELSENKIRCHEN - St George was unavailable for comment as he left the stadium after England’s defeat last night. Or at least the man dressed up as St George, yes, I know it’s not him really.
That’s highly unusual for an England fan. Throughout this tournament they’ve had all the answers for me and ‘given good quote’. But they’ve only ever asked me three questions in return.
“Can you get me on tele?” is always number one. “No, I’m afraid I’m too lowly,” is my stock reply - I can’t even get myself on tele...
BERLIN - As I’ve been at pains to point out throughout the tournament, the BBC’s World Cup coverage from Germany isn’t being brought to you by a bunch of little Englanders.
Honestly.
However, I would be lying if I told you that the prevalent mood here at our HQ in Berlin this evening is one of “Hey-ho - you win some, you lose some.”
GELSENKIRCHEN - The scene at the hastily-installed second fan fest in Gelsenkirchen told the tale of the day.
Where not one hour previously around 30,000 England fans had urged Sven-Goran Eriksson's team on, there was now just a mass of discarded plastic glasses and the odd fan laid out on the ground - too much sun, too much beer and the pain of defeat having taken their toll.
Check out the video.
GELSENKIRCHEN - Terrible, just terrible. I am sick to the stomach.
England's defeat to Portugal on penalties induces not only a distressing feeling of deja vu but also a slight nausea.
Two years ago I wrote this article - change a few words and it is as relevant today as it was then.
It could have all been so different, certainly the day got off to an interesting start - read more about my trip to the ground in a limo belonging to a, as-then-unkown to me, famous German actor further down.
ARENAAUFSCHALKE GELSENKIRCHEN - England's travelling media have arrived at the magnificent Gelsenkirchen stadium riding a wave of optimism.
We have all expressed justifiable reservations about the way England have performed in this World Cup so far - you cannot portray low-key and lifeless displays as sporting works of art.
The 70,000 England fans predicted here have indeed arrived. They are streaming out of the main station and lining the roads into town.
In the square by the main station they are hanging out their flags enjoying a drink in the sunshine and singing "We're not going home".
It's incredibly hot here already - it's only 10am and I'm struggling carrying a laptop around in what must be 30 degrees at least. But the atmosphere is optimistic and expectant.
A SERVICE STATION - I drive until the (not so) early hours to get us within striking distance of Gelsenkirchen- and England's quarter-final tie with Portugal.
Ricco and I went to the match between Italy and Ukraine in Hamburg on Friday night.
MOTORING TOWARDS GELSENKIRCHEN – The moment Jens Lehmann saved Esteban Cambiasso’s penalty to send Germany into the World Cup semi-finals, Fletch and I immediately turned on our heels and walked away.
We had to get ourselves to Hamburg’s stadium for the Italy v Ukraine match, but any thoughts that we were leaving the party were soon quashed by the number of jubilant Germans who joined us on the train.
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