So, there could be no complaints really about the result on the day – Italy deserved their 1-0 win, but, even so, the way Wales missed out on qualifying, even as one of the four best second place teams, surely needs some examination by UEFA. I say this not as someone who sees conspiracies to keep “smaller” countries from qualifying around every corner, but as someone who just thinks that the methods by which my country was denied a place in the Play Offs for the Finals of the tournament, to be played in Denmark next summer are both illogical and unfair.

In saying that, I accept that the rules were in place when the qualifying phase started and, I suppose, the time to complain about them was then. However, the rules would still have been illogical and unfair if they had enabled Wales to qualify and UEFA really do need to look at a system which is, frankly, a contradiction in terms. On the one hand, goal difference is ignored to determine who wins a group as UEFA instead decide to go by results between the teams that finish level on points to decide things, but it is hard to see any justification as to why away goals (originally a method to reward attacking football over two leg European ties) should count double in just two games of a group why sides play eight times as the next means of separating teams with very similar records. On the other hand, having decided that goal difference is not acceptable as a way to decide who wins a group, UEFA decided that it should count as the means to differentiate between second placed sides who finished equal on points.

This isn’t sour grapes and I go back to the fact that a Welsh win in Luxembourg right at the start of the group would have meant that it wouldn’t have mattered what rules were in place in determining who qualified. However, it is worth wondering what would happen if it was Italy who had our record and us who had theirs. If we had made the Play Offs despite having a worse goal difference and Italy missed out because Iceland managed a goal difference of 14-0 in two games with San Marino, would the same rules apply for qualification for the next tournament – somehow I think not!

The other current talking point in Welsh International football is who will be taking over from John  Toshack as manager? Stories began to emerge over the weekend that Toshack was looking to step down following Friday’s very disappointing defeat in Montenegro and a press conference on the matter is scheduled for tomorrow. There seems little doubt that John Toshack is going, but there is still the possibility that he will stay in charge for the matches with Bulgaria and Switzerland next month – I think this would be a bad thing as it would leave him looking like a lame duck manager and, even if it is a only a temporary measure, having someone like Brian Flynn in charge for those two matches would, surely, be the better option?

Better still would be to have a new man installed when we next play and it has to be said that, with his fine record with the Under 21′s, Flynn has done much to put forward his claims for the senior job. As for other candidates, well there’s Chris Coleman who, let’s not forget, did a very job at Fulham before blotting his copybook somewhat at Real Sociedad and Coventry, but with someone like Martin O’Neill looking very unlikely to me, Ryan Giggs probably ruled out by his playing commitments and Gary Speed newly ensconced at Sheffield United, there doesn’t appear to be a list of impressive candidates that would fall within the FAW’s financial means. Perhaps, the lure of managing exceptional young talents such as Bale and Ramsey at International level might be enough to entice some other high quality candidates to apply, but, if that doesn’t happen, then, maybe, Flynn (who, seemingly, knows how to get performances out of the younger elements of the senior squad) is the best bet?

As for Wales’ chances of having a say in the qualification group for the seniors, well England’s impressive 3-1 win in Switzerland has them looking very well placed to go on and dominate the group, but I think that we could have hoped for better from the Bulgaria v Montenegro match which had the visitors winning 1-0. On the positive side, Bulgaria are already looking like they are out of the running and a home defeat for Switzerland helps the cause, but yesterday’s result also makes a home win in the Montenegro/Switzerland game, which is played the same night we face Bulgaria, look more likely. If that were to happen then, even a Wales win at Cardiff City Stadium would give Montenegro a six point cushion over the other teams which would take an awful lot of hauling back – whisper it quietly, but we might have to start wanting England wins soon!

The match with Charlton was my first chance to watch the Under 18′s play this season and with a large influx of new recruits (the programme for the Doncaster match profiled sixteen new first year scholars) it was my first look at the majority of yesterday’s squad, but it was one of the older players, captain Ibby Farah, who got things off to a very promising start with a superb left footed volley from twenty five yards which looped high over the Charlton keeper and into the net. Sadly, the team did not kick on from here though and, carelessly, gave away a free kick in a dangerous area when keeper Reece Ottley picked up a back pass.

City survived that scare, but didn’t learn their lesson. Regular readers of this blog may remember that a recurring theme of reports on Academy matches last season was how the side diced with death by insisting on building from the back when it wasn’t really on – somehow, they got away with it last season, but they didn’t yesterday as a ridiculous penalty for Charlton came about by players passing sideways across the face of goal when being quickly closed down by the opposition (while it’s a good thing that City’s youngsters are encouraged to express themselves by playing passing football from deep positions, surely part of their education should include a recognition of when such an approach is on and when the “Row Z” option should be used?).

In the event Charlton duly accepted their gift and the scoring was completed with only about a fifth of the game completed. What followed was a pretty undistinguished battle for supremacy by two sides who, largely, cancelled each other out. For me, Charlton had the better of the first half, while City, perhaps, edged the second period – we could have won it if Al- Basith’s well struck shot from twenty five yards had been a bit lower and a header by centreback Nugent had to be cleared off the line in the second half, but the visitors could point to their own near misses (including a good save by Ottley right at the death), so, all in all, a draw was a fair result.

Despite all of the new faces, it was one of the “oldies” who impressed me most. Besides his fine goal, Ibby Farah got stronger as the game went on and was the player who drove the side on as they tried to find a late winner with the way he would somehow emerge with the ball from tussles with a couple of Charlton players reminding me of Seyi Olofinjana. Farah responded well to the responsibility of being a senior player in the Under 18 team and, on this evidence, looks a good choice as captain.

On to teatime then and, first, a thank you to the Cardiff City mad messageboard contributors who found a link to coverage of Wales Under 21 teams game in Hungary. With Italy winning in Bosnia on Friday, long time group leaders Wales went into their last two matches with not even the runners up spot guaranteed. Hungary had been thrashed 4-1 at Wrexham by a side which had a lot of players who had featured in the group winning team of 2008, but yesterday’s side had a much more inexperienced look to it as they faced opponents who were just a point behind them and featured highly rated players such as Newcastle’s Tamás Kádár and Liverpool’s Krisztián Németh .

Wales found themselves under the cosh for much of the first half and were forced to defend desperately at times, but kept their goal intact and went on to start create a few promising situations of their own which gave an indicator of what was to come after the break. The second period saw the home side becoming increasingly desperate for the goal which they knew they had to get to keep any realistic hopes they had of topping the group alive – this was reflected in the number of fouls they were committing and yellow cards they were picking up as the Portugese referee became an increasingly busy man.

It was from one of the many free kicks they were given that Wales broke the deadlock on sixty eight minutes when substitute Ashley Richards’ wickedly hit free kick from out on the right touchline was touched on by Hal Robson-Kanu whose header from a good sixteen yards out bounced down and flew high into the net. Perhaps, the vital touch came from a Hungarian defender rather than the Reading forward, but Richards’ free kick was of such quality that it deserved the reward it got and Robson-Kanu became increasingly prominent as opportunities arose for Wales to pick the home team off on the counter attack.

The best of these opportunities came late on when Wales were awarded a penalty for a foul on Robson-Kanu by Hungarian captain András Debreceni which saw him given a second yellow card, but keeper Péter Gulácsi saved the goalscorer’s poor spot kick to keep home hopes alive for a little longer. Wales’ response in the closing stages was impressive though as they did an excellent job of winding the clock down to see the game out with few alarms.

A great win has the table looking like this ahead of Tuesday’s decider in Italy. Although Wales’ better goal difference would give them a significant advantage in other competitions which would protect them even in the event of a narrow defeat in Pescara, the rules of this tournament (which are set out in Des Parrott’s post at 18.38 here) appear to indicate that a 1-0 win for Italy would see them overtake Wales and book their place in the Play Off’s – if Wales do lose on Tuesday they need to do it by a one goal margin while scoring at least once and, to that end, the drafting in of Neil Eardley, Andy King and Simon Church from the senior squad has to help their chances. If Wales do find themselves in second place though, then they need to be one of the four best runners up in the ten qualifying groups to make it through to the Play Off stage which they reached in 2008 before losing to England, but, to be honest, it will need three or four other results to go our way for this to happen and so I would say the odds have to be against us making it through if Italy overtake us – that 0-0 draw in Luxembourg in our first match might still come back to haunt us.

Whatever happens though, Brian Flynn and his team deserve tremendous credit for what has been another excellent qualifying campaign, it’s just a shame that it has been done with so little input from Cardiff City players. The squad for the current round of matches contained five players from Swansea (with two more amongst those named on stand by) and two on Wrexham’s books whereas our sole representative was Adam Matthews. Likewise, a recently named Under 19 squad had three from Swansea and two from Wrexham with just Alex Evans on stand being from City – to balance things up a little, a recent Under 16 squad had nine youngsters from Cardiff in it compared to one from Swansea and one from Wrexham.

In the event, Matthews came close to scoring from a free kick early on in Hungary before picking up an injury which saw him substituted after a quarter of an hour and so the only, tenuous, Cardiff City link after that was provided by our former player Aaron Morris (who signed for Aldershot in the summer) who gave a typically solid performance in the heart of the defence.  With players such as Ibby Farah and Nat Jarvis doing well at Cardiff, you would like to think that this would be reflected in their selection in one of the various Wales age group squads, but, to my knowledge, that has never happened and it is concerning that there is so little Cardiff representation at the older end of the Wales youth set up.

Given the build up beforehand, it follows that now Wales have lost this “must win” game, many are saying that we are as good as out of the tournament already, but, although it’s certainly going to be tough to finish in the top two from now on, I’ll be surprised if all of the other sides in our group are able to pick up the three points we missed out on when it comes to their turn to visit Podgorica.

It’s hardly surprising that much of the criticism for what, it has to be admitted, was a poor performance is being directed at manager John Toshack. Speaking as someone who has tended to be supportive of him over the past six years, it is becoming harder to argue his cause because last night’s setback was just another chapter in a recent history which, mass squad withdrawals notwithstanding, has seen no sign of his squad progressing. Up until a year or so ago, when Wales lost it was often possible to cling on to some good things which suggested that things will get better soon, but lately you look at some of the players who came in two or three years ago and think that they are not making the progress that they seemed capable of when starring for the Under 21 team.

To a degree at least, John Toshack has to take responsibility for that lack of progression, but it also needs to be said that last night the manager was let down by the experienced players who I would guess he would have thought he could rely on. Craig Bellamy was poor by his standards, Sam Ricketts was very bad in the first half in particular and I’m afraid James Collins had a real night to forget. The worst thing that happened to Wales all night was when Collins lost it with Montenegro skipper Mirko Vucinic after he had headed just wide around the twenty five minute mark. Something went on there which was not clear on the television pictures but the two players squared up to each other straight after Vucinic had missed the chance and from then on it seemed that he decided to make life as miserable for Collins as he possibly could and as, on this evidence at least, the Roma striker is a tremendously gifted footballer, that was very miserable indeed.

Within seconds Vucinic had skinned Collins down Wales’ right hand side and when he did it again a few minutes later, the striker this time fired in the goal which decided the game. Besides that though, Vucinic dominated Collins in a way you see few strikers do in the Premiership – maybe, like a few others in the team, Collins was lacking in match fitness to a degree, but it was surprising to see him taken to the cleaners like he was.

Virtually everywhere you looked in the Welsh side there were players who fell short of their best. Although he made some good saves, I thought Wayne Hennessey looked like someone who has seen little first team football in the past year and when a keeper is beaten on the near post like he was last night, you have to wonder whether he had got his angles wrong. I’ve already mentioned Ricketts and Collins at the back, but Chris Gunter also struggled and in recent internationals has looked a worse player than he did when he first came into the team three years ago. In midfield, Joe Ledley and Dave Edwards weren’t so much poor as anonymous and Bellamy was another who looked like he could have done with more games, while up front Steve Morrison battled away but achieved little (the service to him was abysmal at times though).

No, for me, the only Wales players who performed to anything like their capabilities were Ashley Williams, David Vaughan before he tired and Gareth Bale, while it was also good to see Earnie prove that he does have something to offer at this level with his lively contribution after coming on for the last twenty minutes or so. Another sub, Simon Church did hit the bar and have a goal, rightly, disallowed late on as Wales came close to exploiting Montenegro’s nerves as they sought to protect their lead but, truth be told, the home side could and should have been out of sight by then as they found it much too easy to create chances against opponents who were comfortably second best for the majority of the match.

In many ways Montenegro were an impressive side, but they also had a cynical side which I believe will cost them dearly when they play away. The referee who, beforehand, John Toshack thought would favour the home side was fair in his decision making much of the time, but that stopped short of sending off two or three of the home players who had already been cautioned, with Dzudovic’s assault on the unfortunate Collins being worthy of a straight red. Montenegro’s treatment of dangerman Bale was a throwback to the 60s and 70s when every side had their own hatchet man who played the man throughout (with the ball being something of an afterthought) and they were allowed to get away with it in their compact, noisy and intimidating stadium, but, as I mentioned before, they’ll suffer if they use the same tactics away from home.

So, can Wales still make that top two? They can do, but a timid looking Bulgaria (on last night’s evidence anyway) will have to be beaten at Cardiff City Stadium and, given what happened last night, I’m guessing that this will have to be done in a stadium which is some way short of being full to capacity. Even if Bulgaria are beaten though, the odds have to favour a Swiss win when Wales travel there a few days later and that would leave them having to get something off England, home wins over Montenegro and the Swiss and a victory in Bulgaria to seal that second place – if Aaron Ramsey and Jack Collison can come back at something like their best, the likes of Collins and Bellamy put yesterday’s performance behind them and some of the youngsters start looking like the players they promised to be a while back it could be done but is anybody prepared to bet on it happening?

Therefore, at about half past one this morning I finished watching my recording of Wales’ win over Luxembourg and, by then I was a little bit more confident about our chances in our qualifying campaign for Euro 2012 which begins next month. As is usual with Wales these days. there were players dropping out of the squad left, right and centre in the days before last night’s match and I would have to qualify any optimism I might be feeling with the hope that we can get something resembling our best team onto the pitch over the coming month.

If nothing else though, last night again showed that an old fashioned 4-4-2 system doesn’t tend to work in International football any more as, even a side as limited as Luxembourg were able to cope quite easily with Wales’ predictable efforts. Indeed, the visitors probably had the better of the first ten minutes to quarter of an hour as Wales struggled to come to terms with their extra man in midfield – things got slightly better after that and Wales were able to take the lead after thirty five minutes when David Cotterell scored his first international goal courtesy of an Earnie cross on one of the few occasions when we were able to threaten the Luxembourg goal. Having gone ahead, this should have been the signal for Wales to make their superior ability count, but instead the visitors drew level just before the break when a shot from Kitinge from the edge of the penalty area got a slight deflection which took the ball beyond the reach of the helpless Wayne Hennessey.

Something needed to be done to prevent the game turning into another one of those miserable friendly match experiences that Wales supporters have had to put up with in in the last year or so and John Toshack responded by taking keeper Hennessey off and replacing him with Boaz Myhill while Brian Stock and Earnie (who didn’t get the sort of memorable 50th International cap that he must have hoped for)  made way for Andy King and David Vaughan.

More importantly though, Toshack changed systems as the now lone striker Steve Morrison (who was quietly effective on his debut) found himself supported by Bellamy and Cotterell on the flanks while a central midfield three took it in turns to break forward. The impact was immediate as Bellamy went down under challenge from Da Mota Alves in the penalty area to win a slightly fortunate looking penalty which Ledley put away with the minimum of fuss and when King beat keeper Joubert to Bellamy’s corner to head his first Wales goal shortly after, the game was over  as a contest just ten minutes into the second half.

Chances came and went at regular intervals for a by now dominant Welsh side and all Luxembourg could offer in reply was a more physical approach which eventually saw Mutsch dismissed  with just under a quarter of an hour to go for a second yellow card. This was the signal for Wales to quickly add to their lead when Ashley Williams claimed his first goal for his adopted country with another header and there was still time for Bellamy (whose performance on the night brought back memories of his inspired display in Slovakia in 2007 on the last occasion when Wales scored five in a match) to add a fifth to round off a much improved second period for his team.

So what does all of this tell us about Wales’ chances in the qualifying campaign that kicks off in Montenegro in three weeks time? Well, first allowances have to be made for the weakness of the opposition who were poorer than anything they will face in those eight matches, but I would say that it showed again that we have a quality International footballer in Craig Bellamy who prospers in a more flexible system than old fashioned 4-4-2, that even without the injured Collison and Ramsey, we have a pool of midfield players who are at clubs in good quality leagues (the Championship is stronger than many European country’s First Division in my opinion) and that in Steve Morrison we might just have someone who can act as an effective focal point for others to play off in a 4-5-1 formation.

As to individual performances, I’ve already mentioned Bellamy and I didn’t think the midfield player who plays in a poorer quality league than the Championship did badly either. Joe Ledley reacted positively to being one of the senior players in the side and in the second half showed a creative side to his game that wasn’t always evident at City – I thought he looked an established performer on the international stage last night. Others who did well for me included King and Vaughan while Cotterell probably had his most influential match in a Welsh shirt – add Bale, Collins and one or two others to last night’s side and we can feel reasonably confident going into those early qualification matches which have to be played without Ramsey and Collison.

There were parallels with the Germany v Italy Final from twenty years ago as one side set out to stop the other playing using fair means or foul and it was only a goal late in extra time which stopped them going to the penalty shoot out which could easily have given them an unjust win. In 1990, Argentina (who had kicked their way to the Final) held on until Andreas Brehme’s late penalty and then lost what little discipline they had completely as two players were red carded. This time around, a Dutch side who, while not being as negative and dirty as that Argentina team, were so much more functional and defensively minded than many of their predecessors, got to within four minutes of penalties before justice was done and, by then, they could and, perhaps, should have been down to seven men.

There is one way in which the 1990 tournament trumps South Africa 2010 though in that Gazza’s tears gave it a visual image, to UK viewers at least, which is instantly recalled even now by those who watched it at the time – I can’t help thinking that in a couple of decades time it will be the image of a harassed Howard Webb doling out yet another yellow card which will be the main visual memory of South Africa 2010.

I get no satisfaction from saying this, but I found South Africa 2010 to be a real let down. Before the tournament, I had hopes that the fact that it was being played in what was mid winter for the host nation would lead to a competition which would see sides not being hampered by hot and humid conditions as they played at a higher, more energetic tempo but, sadly, the increased energy levels of teams did not result in attractive football – quite the opposite in fact.

So why was the tournament a disappointment? Everyone who feels the World Cup 2010 wasn’t very enjoyable will have their own answers to that question, but I’ll concentrate on two aspects. Firstly, although it became less of a factor as players got a bit more used to it as the tournament went on, the Jabulani ball still made very good players look idiots at times – Iker Casillas was almost caught by a ball which bounced ridiculously high when a Dutch player returned it to him after the Spaniards had put the ball out of play to let one of their opponents have treatment for an injury and, right to the end, well struck crossfield passes (which would have been excellent balls in any other tournament), were bouncing over the intended recipient’s head and out for throw ins.

Secondly, I believe it’s instructive to read Dutch coach Bert Van Marwik’s after match comments. The part of them that will make the headlines will be the critical words about the referee where Mr Van Marwik , in true football manager/coach style, argues that Howard Webb could have sent Puyol off in the second half of the game while conveniently ignoring the fact that Van Bommel (yet again!), De Jong and Robben could all have seen red as well as Heitinga!  The interesting bit for me though was how the fear he had of Spain comes through in so much of what he says – all this from someone whose team had come from behind to beat Brazil in the Quarter Finals.

Now, I know that stopping the opposition playing is a very important part of the game and I wouldn’t for one moment argue that this aspect of football should be ignored, but this is a tournament to find out the best team in the world, not the team who can stifle their opponents best  - in my view, far too many of the coaches at South Africa 2010 concentrated on stopping the opposition while forgetting or ignoring the fact that this is only doing half of the job. To illustrate what I mean, you only have to look at the system used by the majority of teams involved. Apart from a few dinosaurs who persisted with 4-4-2 (the only team England beat played that system!), the vast majority of sides played 4-3-3 (as Jose Mourinho calls it when his team play it)/4-5-1 (as virtually everyone else describes it), but it was how this system was implemented which defined South Africa 2010.

On 22 May, two teams won hugely important club matches using 4-3-3/4-5-1. In the afternoon Blackpool beat us by using the formation in an attacking way – although they only had one player acting like an out and out striker, they had three forwards in their starting line up as Ormerod, Taylor-Fletcher and Campbell were all used primarily as attackers with the influential Adam backing them up not too far behind them. On the other hand Inter Milan used two of their three alleged front men (Eto’o and Pandev) in withdrawn roles to beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final with both of them having plenty of defensive responsibilities.

Jose Mourinho is a very charismatic individual and it’s impossible to ignore the trophies he has won in a great managerial/coaching career, but, especially when you consider the talent available when you work at the level of the game he does, his sides don’t half play boring football and it was the Mourinho version of 4-3-3/4-5-1 which won out in South Africa rather than the Ian Holloway one. If you accept, as most, seemingly, do now, that playing 4-3-3/4-5-1 at the highest level means having a back four supported by two, central, holding midfielders, then you would think that the other four outfield players’ main duties would be attacking ones. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in the World Cup with many sides (including quite a few who were touted as possible winners) being happy to leave a lone striker completely isolated for long portions of the game – the increased energy levels through playing in lower temperatures I mentioned earlier being used up more by three of those four notional attackers I have talked about tracking back to check opponent’s forward runs rather than them going forward to get level with or beyond the lone striker.

Still, at least the tournament was won by a team who always went out with the intention of winning the game rather than of stopping the opposition and at least the winning goal was scored by a proper footballer, but, truth be told, although they were deserved winners in my view, Spain were never the free flowing side which dazzled at times in Euro 2008 and four consecutive 1-0 wins tends to tell a story -Spain’s brilliant midfield always ensures that they will get their fair share of the football during matches, but not many of them were too willing to get forward to support Villa (or Torres when he started).

After Italia 1990 the fact that it was felt by many that the balance between attack and defence had gone too much in favour of the latter was addressed by introducing changes such as the one which banned a goalkeeper from handling a back pass as well adjusting how the offside law was interpreted so that the benefit of the doubt went to attackers rather than defenders. Maybe there should be a similar attempt to try to make the game a more attractive spectacle after South Africa 2010 – off the top of my head, it’s hard to think what this could be (after all you cannot tell coaches how they should be sending their sides out to play), but, perhaps, a system whereby anyone who gets a yellow card for foul play could also serve a five or ten minute period in the sin bin might see the Van Bommel’s of this world become less influential?

A developing theme of this World Cup which, for me at least, will not figure amongst the ones we all remember in a few years time, has been the almost total failure of world superstars like Kaka, Messi, Ribery, Ronaldo, Torres and Rooney to impose themselves on the tournament with only Ronaldo of those named finding the net – the matches involving Brazil and Argentina both saw them exposed as being collections of individuals as opposed to true teams by Holland and Germany respectively.

So was it a case of European pragmatism and discipline triumphing over South American flair and style? Well, not really, despite all the stereotypes about discipline, efficiency etc. this German team is a stylish and talented outfit which has played some great football while banging in goals left, right and centre. Spain (although not firing on all cylinders throughout the tournament) have far more attacking flair than the obdurate Paraguayans and a Dutch side, which has more steel than many of it’s predecessors, still had the skill to match and then better the faltering Brazilians.

Uruguay can still ensure that it won’t be an all European final because, unlike Brazil and Argentina when the chips were down, they have a structure and a team ethic backed by the ability of Forlan up front, but, without the suspended Suarez, they have to be big underdogs against Holland and with Germany seemingly going from strength to strength, Spain are going to have to up their game a lot if they are to keep their chances of adding a World Cup to their Euro 2008 triumph alive – it’s a repeat of the 1974 Final for me and I’m edging towards another German win at the moment.

Therefore, this isn’t going to be the mega long post that I thought it would be because much of what I was going to say is being said elsewhere by people from within the game. For example, Harry Redknapp talked of Germany playing modern football, Graham Taylor said that he didn’t think a team playing 4-4-2 would ever win a World Cup again and David Pleat spoke of England playing football in straight lines as the sterile, dated and completely predictable formation they used was picked apart by opponents who were light years ahead of them in terms of wit and imagination.

However, all of the those I have mentioned seemed to still be of the opinion that England had the players to be a real force in the world game – I’m still wondering why they, and all the others who trot this out, actually believe that. Most of the players in that team yesterday have formed their reputation playing in a league where the standard of defending is of average quality and so all the goals scored in recent seasons in the Premiership by the likes of Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard become devalued somewhat and, apart from the first named in 2004, none of those three named (and no other England player in the last twenty years or so) have been stand out performers in major international tournaments. The likes of Ashley Cole, Ferdinand, Beckham and Scholes have been influential at times, but the quality that we are constantly told about isn’t there when you judge the players by the high standards needed to win World and European international competitions.

Chris Waddle might have made a right mess of managing Burnley a few years back, but I found myself wishing there were more around who thought like him when I heard him speaking about how the British get football coaching wrong virtually from the moment a kid starts playing the game. With eleven a side matches for eight and nine year olds (often watched by parents who treat the whole thing as if their son or daughter is playing in a World Cup Final) played on full size pitches, it is those who kick the ball furthest and those with the speed to get to those punts downfield first who prosper as the British game’s infatuation with pace and power takes a grip right from the start.

Now pace and power can be very important weapons in the modern game, but too often, some British players with pace don’t have the intelligence to best utilise it while others lack the technique to deliver what they are attempting – as long as they stay fit, kids with real pace at eight or nine don’t lose it in their teenage years, so they should be given the chance to enjoy improving their skills and footballing know how by playing in matches in which those with talent prosper and not just the sprinters. It’s a bit different for “powerful” youngsters because often the advantage their physique gave them in junior football disappears as those in their age group grow quicker than them or, if they maintain their physical advantage, then their sheer size becomes a hindrance which can make them look clumsy and uncoordinated, but, once again, the advantages of concentrating on developing the football skills of such kids for about six or seven years from the age of, say, nine seems obvious to me.

Unfortunately, the infatuation with “power” continues at senior levels in the British game though and by then this more often than not means spirited but limited, musclebound, scufflers rather than true footballers with the physical strength needed to succeed. The best International teams are full of the latter but England had a few of the former in their side yesterday – British managers tell us that they would love to have such scrappers alongside them in the trenches in a war, but why do they keep on insisting on using them against the likes of Ozil and Muller on a football pitch!

Maybe the same criticism could be aimed at England as well, because, although they did make it through with an improved performance against Slovenia, they still look pretty predictable with James Milner’s excellent crossing last Wednesday being the only thing that threatened to give them  a real cutting edge – they still desperately need more of a contribution from  Wayne Rooney.

Anyway, I will now open myself up to embarrassment in future months by predicting how the last sixteen round results will go;

Uruguay v South Korea – the Uruguayans have played a full part in what has been an impressive South American challenge so far and I expect them to triumph over a South Korean team who done pretty well without really building on their impressive start to the tournament.

USA v Ghana – tough one this, the fact that Ghana are the only African team left in the competition confirms the impression gained when you watched them that they were the best of the teams from that continent (that’s not saying much mind). The USA have been pretty impressive so far with their ability to come back after conceding first standing them in good stead – I think they’ll win (although I would have gone against them if Ghana had a fully fit Michael Essien in their team tonight).

Germany v England – perhaps everyone was so impressed by the Germans in their first game because everyone else was playing so poorly at that time? Whatever the reason, they haven’t quite recaptured the form which brushed what turned out to be a decent Australian team away a fortnight ago and I have this nagging feeling that England will run them very close – however, Germany have shown a quality that England have merely hinted at so far and, although it may take extra time or even penalties for it to happen, I expect the Germans to prevail.

Argentina v Mexico – could be one of the best games of the round, with two sides whose strength is in attacking going for it for the whole ninety minutes. Argentina have been the best side going forward so far in my book, but Mexico are good enough to pose serious questions of a defence which hasn’t looked water tight up to now – despite this, I expect Argentina to have too much fire power for the Mexicans and  to win by something like 2 -1.

Netherlands v Slovakia – if the Slovakian team that shocked Italy turn up then a further surprise cannot be ruled out. However, although they have gone about things in an uncharacteristically quiet way, I reckon Holland have been Europe’s best team so far and the Slovaks could be in for a tough afternoon if they play like they did in their first two matches – whichever Slovakian team they come up against though, I expect the Dutch to win.

Brazil v Chile – I’m so pleased that Chile, who have been one of the pleasant surprises of the tournament for me, qualified at the expense of boring, boring Switzerland and, on their day, they are capable of giving any team in this competition a real good game. However, with suspensions beginning to bite, the Chileans have a huge challenge on their hands against a Brazilian team who have the look of finalists (at least) to me – Brazil to win.

Paraguay v Japan – Paraguay are a powerful team who, traditionally, are strong in defence – they should beat Japan. However, if there is going to be a shock in this round, I think this might be it, the Japanese have got some very talented players, who unlike some of the stars from Europe in particular, are prospering under the pressure of a World Cup tournament – Japan are stronger at the back than in recent World Cups and seem better equipped to cope physically, I think they can scrape this game by the odd goal.

Spain v Portugal – toughest game of the eight to predict for me. Portugal have a superb defensive record and, if they go out with the attitude they showed against the Ivory Coast and Brazil, they will take a hell of a lot of breaking  down. Spain are getting better, but they still don’t look like the team which so impressed in winning Euro 2008 – I’ll go for them to win, but, truthfully, it’s more to do with heart ruling head because I don’t want to see what has been a negative Portugese side progressing.