Luis Suarez

Luis Suarez is a cheat.

And not only is he a cheat, but he's an unrepentant one as well. Suarez said:

"This was the end of the World Cup [for us]. I had no choice. I have the 'Hand of God' now. I did it so that my team mates could win the penalty shoot-out. When I saw Gyan miss the penalty, it was great joy."

Is that right? Is it heck. But it's hardly out of character. Suarez also likes to cheat by diving, which was the activity he occupied himself with during the 89 minutes he was on the pitch when he wasn't handling the ball.

It's also very disappointing (though hardly surprising) to see the Uruguayan manager, Oscar Tabarez, come out and defend his player:

"Saying we cheated Ghana is too harsh a word to use. Yes, he stuck his hand out, but it's not cheating. I don't think it's fair to say that."

Not fair?! Not cheating?! Take a look at the picture and decide what's unfair and what's cheating.

England 1-4 Germany

So, England lost to Germany. Were we surprised? I was, as I had them down to win 2-1. Yet it wasn't the worst performance I've ever seen from England, and I don't quite know why the pundits were saying that it was.

Clearly the first goal was an awful piece of defending. To concede like that at such a high level is unbelievable. Terry, who was watching the German midfield rather than the flight of the ball, ran right under the goal kick and then - given that pace isn't his best attribute - was never going to catch up once he'd actually looked up and seen the ball fly over his head.

The defence was weak again for the second goal, but to be frank they were pulled apart by some wonderful movement from the German forwards. Sometimes a team just beats you, and that was the case with this goal.

Upson's goal was good, and for a 15-minute period we were the better team. The mistake by the officials was obviously unfortunate, but sometimes these things happen. Great teams rise above things like that. Poor sides can't. England didn't. I suspect Germany would have, if it had happened to them in that game.

The rest of it was an attempt by a team totally lacking drive and determination to break down a confident young side with a good defence. It wasn't a great surprise that Germany were able to counter-attack so well.

I'm not really sure that we knew what we were doing, at any point in the game. Germany played much better, changing the way they played to suit the phases of the game beautifully. In the end they more than deserved it.

Baby Ron

Poor little Cristiano Ronaldo! He was so upset following his country's 1-0 defeat to a much better Spanish side that he decided to spit at the cameraman.

On the pitch his split-second reactions are partly what makes him such a talented player, but it seems that off the pitch he should probably take a minute or count to ten before acting.

Rule Britannia!

Did anyone else find it more than a little inappropriate that fans were singing Rule Britannia during the England v Slovenia match?

I'm all for showing your support, but singing a song about imperial slavery while in Africa is surely a bit thoughtless!

Terry and the press

I think it's pretty hard to like John Terry given his previous actions. His indiscretions have disqualified him from leading the national side and the media love to jump up and down on his reputation. Why on earth did he decide to come out and hold that stupid press conference?

A player with a rap sheet like Terry's cannot command sufficient respect to lead criticism of the coach like that. He was clearly unhappy with the USA and Algeria results, as were the press (and the fans), but Capello still has a great deal of authority. The strength of England's qualifying campaign and the fact we can still get out of Group C means that Capello was always going to be given the leeway by the press to make his own decisions. They were never going to back Terry and call for the manager to heed his advice.

Terry has made a series of bad judgements in his life and this was another. No one even cares if he has valid points - and playing Joe Cole instead of Lennon or Wright-Phillips is a very good point - because he has lost the respect needed to make them. He simply has to learn to avoid the press. That they would turn on him and see him as a troublemaker was absolutely predictable.