I have finally recovered from England's departure and can now watch the rest of the World Cup without shredding my nerves


Before looking at the Semi-finals, just a mention that John Terry of Chelsea is firm favorite at the bookies for the vacant Captain's position and either he or Steve Gerrard of Liverpool would both make excellent captains for England.


It would seem that the rumours of Ashley Cole joining Chelsea are persisting and that he could soon be on his way to Stamford Bridge in a ₤16m deal according to the 'Daily Mirror'.


Anyway back to the World Cup
At least two Chelsea players are now guaranteed to have their team play in the World Cup Final. There remain six Chelsea players at the World Cup and new midfield dynamo Michael Ballack starts of the action with Germany today against Italy.


I am hoping for a Germany win, not only becauase of Ballack but also because the Germans deserve it both for their play on the field and their hospitality and organisation off the field. It should probably be mentioned that the World Cup has brought the nations of England and Germany closer than we've been since the days that we were both considered Saxons. In fact, its probably fair to say that Germans are just English without a sense of humour.

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Chelsea still have a full team in the tournament and have players in each of the World Cup Quarter Finals


Ballack's Germany takes on Crespo's Argentina in what looks like the game of the tournament so far. The bookies are evenly split in what should be a very entertaining game and one I will definately be sneaking away from work to watch.


The afternoon game sees Shevchenko's Ukraine taking on diving specialists Italy. Ukraine have failed to impress so far but then so have the Italians - but unfortunately I see the steely defence of the Italians winning this one. Our only hope is that the Italians fancy themselves and come out and attack otherwise this will be the drab game of the quarters.


England versus Portugal could pit up to seven Chelsea players against each other. I actually expect this game to be exiting as Portugal's style of play will encourage a more lively performance from England. It's going to be a really exiting game, close and could well go down to penalties - I hope for our sake England have been practising them.
Lampard is overdue a goal, Joe Cole is the second most fouled player at the World Cup and John Terry needs to have a leader's performance to thwart the pacy Portugese attack. For Portugal Carvahlo will have his work cut out at the back by Rooney. Ferreira and Bridge are likely to watch this one from the bench.


In the last game Gallas and Makelele will need to be at their best to stop the marauding Brazillian midfield and Adriano - but Gallas speed will nullify Ronaldo.

This too will be a great game of soccer and will give Brazil its first real test of the World Cup. If Brazil win the World Cup they now have to beat three very good sides in succession and maybe even have to win a penalty shoot out - so if they win it they will deserve it.


So by the end of the weekend we can hope that England will have reached the semis and therefore guaranteed to do better than they have done for 40 years. Chelsea will have at least four players in the Semi finals and as many as eight could still be in the competition come Saturday evening.

Teams with Chelsea players highlighted in blue
All times European - +1 hour UK, +6 hours, USA East

So PLEASE,don't give us an Italy vs. Brazil final


The Players:
Argentina - Crespo

England - Bridge, Cole, Lampard, Terry
France - Gallas, Makelele

Germany - Ballack, Huth
Ghana - Essien

Portugal - Carvalho, Ferreira, Maniche

Spain - Del Horno

Watching England play is definitely not good for the nerves and it is quite understanding why we England supporters are all driven to drink too much


Another good day for Chelsea and England with Chelsea players picking up both FIFA man of the match awards - John Terry for England and Maniche for Portugal.


England 1 - 0 Ecuador
John Terry almost cost England dearly with his header which almost gave up a goal to Ecuador - but he made amends with good tackles, leadership and took on the mantle of Captain after Beckham left the field for the last 10 minutes.

England were woeful in the first half, but picked things up in the second and Lampard should have scored a couple of goals - once (and if) Frank & England start firing they are going to be capable of beating the better sides which they are going to meet in the rest of the World Cup.
England did a good job of stifling the Ecuador midfield and attack and while it was not pretty it was effective.


Portugal 1 - 0 Holland

Maniche scored a well taken effort taking a pass in the area jinking past the defender and coolly slotting home.
Carvahlo had a great game martialling the depleted Portugese defence and was one of the few players on the pitch not to get a yellow card. Robben looked lively for the Dutch but for some strange reason Van Basten dropped Van Nistelroy and it probably cost them the game.


Portugal looked very dangerous even playing with less players than Holland for large stretches of the game until the referee evened things up with his second and fourth red cards.

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On the first day of the knockout competition both Blues players saw victory and passage to the Quarter Finals. Ballack had nine shots on goal of which five were on target but was thwarted by some great goalkeeping by the Swedish goalkeeper who kept the score reasonable in a very one sided game.


Crespo scored his third goal of the competition (even if it may have also had some help from Mexico & Bolton's Borgetti). Certainly the Argentina v Mexico game was the best of the tournament so far and the deciding goal by Athletico Madrid's Maxi Rodriguez was something special.


Tomorrow sees Eight Chelsea players in action with England (4) taking on Ecudor and Holland (1) taking on Portugal (3). We will all be hoping England can play to their potential against Ecuador and Holland v Portugal has the potential to be another World Cup classic.


On the club goal scoring stakes the current table reads as follows:

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