The Germans put Argentina to the sword with a display of counter attacking football which had already cut through England in the second round but one could argue heaped more punishment on Diego Maradona’a South Americans than it did Fabio Capello’s English. Debate how many times the English scored against Germany all you may but the number is still higher than Argentina’s zero and from five minutes into the game when a Bastian Schweinsteiger free kick was met in the six yard box by Thomas Müller – unchallenged – who headed in.

It was Argentina exposed. The defensive soft centre which was feared exposed to all and as defenders fired dagger eyes at each other one’s mind drifted back.

One can almost imagine the scene in the Germany Football Authorities back in 2001. Sven Goran Eriksson’s had recorded a 5-1 win in Berlin and German football was at something of a low ebb. One imagines them looking for a solution. Whatever plan they came up with in the aftermath of that result has come to fruition. It is easy to look at the Germany example as the solution to every side’s woes and while implementing the German way all over Europe would probably cause as many problems as it would solve there is a freshness to the side.

Schweinsteiger is a fine example. Aged 21 at the last World Cup he is 25 now and plays the game with a cool head and evidence of rich experience as the lynchpin of the side. Compare this to the aged, stolid French or the English who have retained players from tournament to tournament. Philipp Lahm, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski are all under 26.

Argentina attack the Germans with Lionel Messi putting in a fine display in the heart of the South American’s midfield and his prompting and the hard work of Carlos Tévez are dangerous but as a side they are vulnerable and the ease of the German’s first goal had shaken Maradona’s men. Doubt had crept in – a doubt that would be realised – as on the occasions when the ball was given away the probing forward was frighteningly accurate and obviously effective.

The heart of the German side is Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira – the latter had a half dozen caps wen the World Cup started – who play the deep set midfielder role in a revolutionary manner. Popular conception has it that the two in a 4231 should be holding midfielders and ball winners but Löw’s pairing are more box to box players capable of tackling and getting behind the ball for sure but also able to be used as a spring board for attacking play.

For Schweinsteiger and Khedira there is no need to look for a passer after taking the ball – the pair are equipped to play in the three more forward midfielder – increasing the speed of the counter attack and its accuracy. What they loose in not having a Claude Makelele they gain in rapidity of play creating a nod to total football ideology. As Schweinsteiger plays the ball forward so Mesut Özil or Podolski or Müller can drop back and tackle.

This fluidity is a dream for Argentina – as it has been for many teams in this World Cup with the idea of player position granularity having become a mantra – and something they can never cope with. Javier Mascherano and Messi begin to look out of fashion with their skills so separate and the Germans take full advantage.

The second half is wonderful. Miroslav Klose ends up tapping the ball in from a yard after Schweinsteiger had burst out of the midfield to the touchline to centre from the flank behind the Argentine backline. Arne Friedrich adds a third and the fourth will perhaps be the goal of the tournament when a high paced flowing move form start to finish sees Klose volley home with aplomb.

It is flair channelled though practice and it is a joy to watch in the same way that the rest of the World enjoyed Sven’s side’s spanking of the Germans nine years ago. An object lesson which the rest of the game – so enchanted by the idea of having three types of midfielder – perhaps can learn from.

Argentina can take pride from their performance in World Cup 2010. They came from near out of South American qualifying and played with heart and skill to the quarter finals but they lacked the acumen of the rampant Germans who stride on to a semi-final as impressive as any who have worn the white and black of that nation.

Uruguay won the first World Cup and – as a shock result – twenty years and a World War later picked up a second trophy. They were a team before the fifties and like Hungary they have faded to football’s history but occasionally reoccur.

They have come to South Africa without huge expectations – they were poorer than Argentina in qualifying and Maradona’s side’s performance was to exclude them from consideration – but have shown a tidy side able to be meaty in the tackle but with a bit of meat in their skill. Diego Lugano is a fine defender, Luis Suárez a tidy striker with Diego Forlán able to dig around him making chances. The midfield have struggled to grab hold games at times putting in numbers rather than quality.

As with the Dutch – who put out the Brazilians earlier today – the success of Uruguay has not been in being a great attacking side of a dominate defence but rather in being capable of switching between the two.

Ghana have Kevin-Prince Boateng recovered from injury and he is quickly into the game as the Africans play the ball around with confidence but John Mensah brings down Suárez. Patience is the key, rather than forcing the win of the game.

Uruguay come at Ghana with no little verve and Luis Suárez causes problems down the left finding Mensah big in front of him. Forlán drops back back to make play but finds a deep laying African midfield blocking his progress. After the initial thrusts the Africans adopt a patient approach and start to build taking more of the ball and start to move Samuel Inkoom and Boateng forward along side Asamoah Gyan.

Isaac Vorsah has the first chance, heading wide from a corner and then Gyan shaves the opposite post. Uruguay struggle to drop back and defend. Boateng gets on the end of a great cross from Inkoom – a player who it seemed would never be able to defend yet was a vital part of the early rearguard action – and the German born Ghana man overhead kicks wide.

The goal the will live forever in memory. Deep into stoppage time in the first half and Sulley Muntari has nowhere left to run and no one really following him when he hits a powerful low curled shot from thirty five yards or more that bends away from Fernando Muslera who will go in at half time second later wondering how his side – who had conceded only once so far in the World Cup – managed to end up a goal down as they played out stoppage time in midfield.

The second half begins as the first ended and Ghana show with spirit piling forward with a four on three and Boeteng on the ball. He squanders the chance as he did a minute earlier when he had the chance to square but went for goal and suddenly Uruguay were level after a Forlán free kick that bent and sped into the goal leaving Richard Kingston – and the audience – stunned.

Uruguay have composure while Ghana – especially the European Boeteng – rattled. Poor decisions are made and the South Americans start to pick at mistakes which come. Kingston allows a ball to bounce through his legs to give away a corner and there is a growing sloppiness to the Africans.

Cameroon were the first quarter finalists from Africa and they were leading England 2-1, Senegal were the second and they lost 1-0.

If they had the game battled from them in the first half then Uruguay have won it back in the second and manager Oscar Tabárez can sense his side’s ascendancy bringing on a third striker in Sebastián Abreu. They work hard to ensure that defensive space is plugged and set up a thrilling last ten minutes which sees both sides threaten to break through but neither manage to get the touch past a defender, the meter of pace to the ball, that would give a goal.

Extra time – Ghana’s second in two games – starts with Ghana attacking but Kwadwo Asamoah lets the pressure fade with poor delivery. Kwadwo Asamoah is a frustrating player who has blown more cold than hot today. He does have the talent to be decisive though and his shot from range – while wide – will quicken the heart.

Both sides end the first half of extra time pointing to penalty appeals – Uruguay’s stronger than Ghanas – but the teams show signs of tiring, five penalties and not one looming. Gyan gets a headed chance from Stephen Appiah’s cross but he guides the ball over. Both Appiah and Forlán have chances that they cannot make the most of as legs get heavy. Gyan almost muscles past Andrés Scotti in the Uruguay box and the defender almost finds his own goal. Ghana look stronger and Gyan wins a corner trying to get around Jorge Fucile – a Uruguay lost captain Lugano to injury in the first half and have been intermittently rudderless since.

Boateng forces a save from Muslera, Forlán is almost in at the other end. Mensah take a last free kick of the game crossed and Ghana scramble in the box. A shot comes from Appiah, Suárez on his own line clears, it is returned with force and Suárez saves. Red card.

Gyan in the last minute has a penalty to take Ghana into the semi-final.

He will have to take another one as the ball canons off the bar.

It hits the bar and bounces away.

The ball slams the bar and it is unfair. Suárez’s has given his team the chance of an World Cup semi-final when they should have none.

There is English injustice, there is Mexican injustice and there is this. Suárez has down gamesmanship at its worst. There was no question about the ball going in – it was passing over the line – and the striker who won friends for four games has lost them all. He might be a good footballer, but he is a shit man.

Uruguay win, football loses.

The Dutch – schooled in total football if not always practising it and possessing a good few driving creative players – are consistently the most eye catching of the European sides and as with South American stereotypes they are soft centred, and beatable.

Much has been said about Brazil and the European style they have adopted – in the blue and while they look set for Filbert Street or St Andrews – but they have enough containment to cope with most team and the death of flair is an exaggeration.

Nevertheless the opening goal of the game after ten minutes – scored by Robinho following a pass from back four to centre forward by Felipe Melo – is not a result of flair but opportunism. André Ooijer and John Heitinga left between them the kind of gap which invited a run and Robinho obliged meeting the ball as it entered the box after travelling some forty yards and sweeping in past Maarten Stekelenburg.

The Dutch reply with pressure but not product coming down the right flank but meeting a strong backline. Robin van Persie skies another free kick in a World Cup which has had so few accurate strikes and as perhaps suffered because of it.

The Brazilian touch is not lacking though and Juan hits a shot over the bar after Maicon’s work on the flank had left Dirk Kuyt chasing shadows in the box. Minutes later Maicon strides out from the back and Mark van Bommel has to stretch to keep him at bay. Kaká’s bent shot at goal forces Stekelenburg to tip wide. Brazil are poised.

Arjen Robben’s prompting up front is lost as the Dutch become isolated with the link between forwards and midfielders damaged by distance. The Dutch are forced deep and while the front men break with pace, the midfielders are too far behind.

Maicon blasts a shot out of the Carlos Alberto book of full backs hammering shots. A two goal lead would not be out of keeping with the game.

After half time The Dutch look for a lifeline and perhaps should have it when Michel Bastos – booked in the first half – drags down Robben but from the free kick van Bommel drifts a nothing cross in which Júlio César races out for and misses. The ball sails and nestles into the Brazilian goal and the pains of Michel Bastos’s sending off are largely forgotten. Felipe Melo takes credit for the own goal after jumping with Júlio César. The Dutch, it seems, are back in the game.

Michel Bastos exits for Gilberto Melo and Brazil are on the back foot, The Dutch have pushed their flank men further out wide and advanced more in the centre giving themselves more options coming forward. Kuyt, Wesley Sneijder, and van Persie combine and push the ball around Lúcio screaming for a penalty when the big central defender sees the ball hit his arm but they get nothing.

Kaká tests his range again, bending a second chance at goal but going wide. Third time the charm perhaps and it will have to be as the Dutch continue their pressure and a corner from Robben is flicked on by the increasingly wonderful to watch Kuyt and invites Wesley Sneijder to head in from some five years out, powerfully heading in.

The Dutch have come from a goal down and in Brazil one can only imagine the discussion. “This is Dunga’s defensive steel? Free headers in the box?”

The men in orange are everywhere with the ball and the Brazilians get frustrated, Felipe Melo tackles Sneijder from behind – a stand up tackle – but for little or no reason he tramples over the Dutchman to regain the ball. The red card has a feeling of inevitability and Melo does not complain.

Robinho does. Minutes after he is blasting Robben for what he sees as a dive on the touchline screaming at the winger to get up but in truth it is all that the striker has done all afternoon and the South American’s inability to cope with the slightest tactics tweak of the midfield has cost them dear. They are restricted in chances – ten men chasing a game – and have been bested not not the skills of the Dutch but by a team who were capable of moved softly, deftly between the two positions which Brazil try to decide between.

Dunga wants Brazil to have European defensive steel, the people want them to have attacking flair but they have been beaten by a Dutch side who have been able to switch gears from the one to the other.

Brazil out, The Dutch into the semi-finals and who will stop them now?

It started well with Uruguay and South Korea playing out an interesting game and Ghana’s win over the USA being the highlight of what turned out to be a poor round of games.

Poor for performances. The losers seemed to divide between those who went for it and lost – like England – and those who sat back and took a defeat meekly as Slovakia did. Japan and Paraguay – a penalties win for the South Americans – was as poor a second round of the World Cup as one could fear watching. Two teams who could play but decided not to do so.

Perhaps it was the sting that came to England – chasing a 2-1 but ending up 4-1 to Germany – from the media which put off the more defensive defeatees but perhaps not. England and Mexico went out on the Sunday which the World Cup will find hard to forget.

One goal given that was offside – and all knew it – and another which was in but not given – and the keeper knew it – and football’s politics came to the for. The calls for Sepp Blatter – Head of the World Game – to look again at forms of technology to help Referees reached a tipping point and at the post-World Cup talk the subject is back on the agenda.

British Prime Minister David Cameron – hopeful of an England victory to help kick start his Government – added to the calls for the technology distancing himself from the nation’s fury. FIFA demand that Government stay out of football.

This is not the case in France where Nicolas Sarkozy invited Thierry Henry for a chat about why the French side had done so poorly. FIFA looked on sternly and the French were quick to point out that they were only asking questions, not proscribing answers. All over Europe – indeed the whole World – where economic times are bad Presidents and Prime Ministers prey for the hand of football to help the mood of the people. A pick up, a booster. In England, in France, the opposite has occurred.

That politics tries to effect this correlation – to do more than prey – is hardly surprising and Nigeria’s leader Goodluck Jonathan broke ranks suspending his side from International football for two years while they review what had gone wrong at the World Cup.

On the surface it strikes one as a tin-pot action to curry favour but Goodluck Jonathan’s determination to rework the Nigerian Football Association could – as an act of modernisation – be long over due in African football. There is no African league which is comparable to even a minor European or South American and the assumption is there never will be.

If Goodluck Jonathan’s aim is to change this then his actions might be meritorious but they have fallen foul of FIFA who are angry at this intervention. The fall out will follow.

The fall out from the day of bad decisions seemed to hang over the tournament. When the English had recovered from the slumber of a bad defeat brought about by a poor performance one noticed that the four games on the following days had been dull to say the least.

Disappointing performances from Chile, from Japan and Parauay, from Portugal and from Slovakia added to England’s attempts and Mexico’s hard look story and created a round of failure.

And the reasons for that failure, the politics, are to be chewed over later.

The names involved are a list of the some of the best players in the game. David Villa, Fernando Torres, Xavi, Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Raul Meireles, Tiago, Simão and Christiano Ronaldo are names to conjure with but one could add Wayne Rooney, Fabio Canavarro and Theirry Henry to that list and the presence of those players did not guarantee success.

The Spainish seem more of a team that the Portuguese who – even when playing well – look like ten blokes and Ronaldo doing his own thing. Ronaldo’s poor sportsmanship has not bubbled to the surface as yet but he would do well to eclipse the German keeper Manuel Neuer who’s admission told all that he knew the ball was in against England, but cheated to carry on. Diego Maradona has done the same in the past – knowingly cheated – and rather than talk about video replays banning players who cheat in this manner would be a better – although impossible – aim.

The game starts as tense and the half ends as a stalemate with few chances. Iniesta enjoys the best for the Spanish forcing Eduardo to a low save while Hugo Almeida misses a nicely floated in headed chance but aside from that there is little in the of note. The Spanish are heavy legged for sure but it is the fact that the two teams both employ the 4231 which has the two side cancel each other out.

The Spanish take the initiative in the second half combining better and moving the ball forward with more purpose. Torres struggles to make an impact and is replaced by the more muscular Fernando Llorente who troubles Ricardo Carvalho no end. It is the rapid play across the back line which sees the ball end up at the feet of David Villa who hits a shot at goal and then tucks in the rebound via the bar.

The Portuguese need a response but struggle to muster one. Sergio Ramos rampages down the right and cutting onto his left foot stings a shot well saved by the keeper. David Villa does similar from long range and despite these teams being placed second and third in the word there seems an acre between the sides.

Portugal want the ball but Spain will not left them have it – the tikitac football of the European Champions frustrating the pretenders who – when they do have the ball – are left looking for the isolated Ronaldo. Ronaldo started his World Cup with a dive and a blazing shot which hit the post but it would seem that he will end with with something approaching a whimper. He is found with a pass but under the slightest challenge from Joan Capdevila he is prone. The Referee is unimpressed and – one suspects – so are the footballing public.

Rooney and Ronaldo were at the centre of a winking storm at the last World Cup, four years later neither has been able to make even the smallest dent in the competition. Ronaldo is booed after a week shot wide and limps apologetically.

Llorente heads wide after a cross from David Villa and a drifting, mazy run but the Portuguese and a lash at goal is blocked by by Capdevila who a minute later is left in a heap with Ricardo Costa standing over him. There is a red card and a long look at replays to find any evidence of contact.

Bruno Alves goes face to face with Capdevila – his thoughts on the sending off obvious – and it is worth noting for all those who talk of instant justice from video replay that as the game finishes and Spain progress to the quarter final no conclusive image has been shown of Capdevila and Ricardo Costa.

Portugal are out and seemed to accept their fate almost before kick off. Perhaps they are happy that they have not been spanked by their rivals as England were but neither did they look like overturning the slender lead the Spanish had. It is a pitiful end and one which brings no pride.

The Spanish have questions to answer about Capdevila reaction which saw Ricardo Costa sent off but they advance to play Paraguay and eye a place in the final four.

The English going at Germany with injustice – since apologised for – in their hearts or the Mexican with fury at the decision which put a far away game even further away. These games of attacking with and understanding that doing so leaves openings at the back are not the concern here.

A fear of having to chase the game – very few World Cup games have been won by comebacks – neither team is prepared to put men forward. A result is needed today and – it seems – we cold be here fr sometime.

Not that one would criticise the two teams for playing this way. They are evenly matched – a great credit to Japan – and understand the nature of the opportunity in front of them.

Forty five goalless minutes are uncommendable but the second half sees the exciting Yasuhito Endo deployed further forward on the field and chances start although – to Japan’s regret – Paraguay lead in them. Roque Santa Cruz breaks forward but is tackled by Makoto Hasebe. Édgar Benítez is denied with his cross by the once again excellent Yuji Nakazawa.

Nakazawa’s partner Marcus Tulio Tanaka takes a bad knock to the arm – or perhaps the head – but after wandering off in a daze he is itching to return. Paraguay’s additions have seen them bring on a third striker and there is work to be done for the Asian side – although the results of that work look hazy at the moment. Japan have any possession they have in the two thirds of the field nearest their own goal mounting only the odd raid forward compared to Paraguay’s encampments which – it has to be said – show no more chance of bringing a goal.

Normal time ticks away and there is a lingering disappointment that while this game will produce a winner neither team has tried to force a victory. One is almost tempted to say that there are teams who full unjustifiably knocked out who could replace Paraguay or Japan are they not that interested in progressing.

Perhaps such talk is unfair. Unlike the Slovaks playing Holland yesterday Japan and Paraguay will consider themselves more evenly matched and neither side should be expected to give up that parity for the sake of entertainment. The English press has been full of criticism for their side for losing after chasing a 2-1 half time scoreline to the extent that they were picked off. Why should either of these sides suffer similar counter-attacks just for the thrills of the viewer? Certainly no one in England considers the game to have been entertaining.

Japan’s best chances come from Endo whipping free kicks from in and around the box but again nothing comes of that and in the end penalties come and Y?ichi Komano misses. Paraguay through and Japan left wondering – perhaps – why they did not feel the need to make more of this chance to progress.

Progress – however – might be the name of the game. They have done better than Italy and France and as well as England and Mexico. It is not the rising sun, but it is the start of the dawn.

Chile play Brazil all the time and lose against the often but they start well and show the kind of healthy lack of respect which Slovakia had for Holland earlier today but hopefully with two slices more ambition. Brazil open up Chile but they make a mess snatching at the chance that Luis Fabiano has. Claudio Bravo watches the ball wide.

Brazil have a worry. Chile are a team schooled in the reality of Brazilian football rather than the dreams the Europeans have and know to get at the men in gold quickly and hard. Still Brazil play a good game and Gilberto Silva gets Bravo to make a first save of the night.

Chile come forward and Mauricio Isla gets to the by-line but the longer the game does the more the Brazil side get to grips with Chile, match them for robustness, combating the steel with an iron of their own. When they get the first goal it comes from Juan jumping high to convert a corner. It is breathing space.

Breath taken they add a layer of style when a ball to Kaká on the edge of the box is played through with the deftest of touches and Luis Fabiano rounds Bravo and deposits the ball in the then empty goal.

It is a comprehensive performance of football against a very good Chile side which has matched their energy and combativeness and – having bested that battle – been able to use flair to make conclusive breakthroughs.

It is – without a doubt – modern World Champion football.

The second half is more a process than a football match. Robinho gets a third goal as Chile are forced to chase a goal which never comes thanks to the stern defensive play of Lúcio and the holding midfield play of Gilberto Silva. Chile attack, each attack is bested, Brazil are untroubled and Júlio César only had a single save to make.

Credit to Chile they pay every moment trying to get the break they need to mount the unlikely comeback but Brazil are too strong at the back, too good at the front.

They have put in the best performance of the World Cup so far, fear them.

They play the Slovakians who took a chunk out of themselves to beat the Italians but have a team which can defend and has some talent in attack with Róbert Vittek dangerous in both finishing and size. Vladimír Weiss is a talent too – 20 years old and the son of the manager – and from his run Erik Jendrišek lashes over.

The Dutch have Arjen Robben back although the 25 year old – a contrast to the fresh faced Weiss Robben looks at least thirty, if not older – has yet to convince that his reputation is well earned. The team exchange a few yearly chances and the Slovakians look impressively brazen not fearing the Dutch.

The Dutch’s response to this is weak. The ball starts to be given away too often and the team look disjointed. They hack a long ball clear to Robben on the right wing who takes the ball in back the right sided centre back Ján Durica who tracks inside but cannot block the low drive which beats Ján Mucha.

The Dutch have got out of jail after an opening twenty minutes which left them looking weak but the goal underlines their status as a favourite for the tournament. They score with confidence lacking in those other three European nations but as they do one recalls Nigel De Jong’s first game fouling which should have resulted in a red card and contemplates the nature of good fortune and refereeing decisions in who will win this World Cup 2010.

The Slovaks make most of the running in the game but look like they could be sliced open when the pace of Robin van Persie breaks. They are forced to chase the game and leave space which Robben and Wesley Sneijder look to exploit.

Slovakia have – perhaps – looked at the English and Mexican attempts to restore parity and tried to stay strong and in the game although that they can is down to a great save by Mucha’s face from van Persie’s shot following great work from Robben who is the best player on the field by some way.

Indeed Robben has a chance which sees him cut the ball just wide at the start of the second half and the Dutch seem to be a goal away from killing off this game and taking a place in the second round. Certainly the Slovaks have little reply to Robben with Radoslav Zabavník scything down the winger. Van Persie goes close with the free kick but Mucha saves once more.

The orange pressure is near relentless but breaks when Miroslav Stoch works a great chance on the left that Maarten Stekelenburg tips over the bar and – a minute later – Vittek is put in space in the middle and seems certain to score but has his shot pushed away by a great save by Stekelenburg. If those are the chances come and gone which Slovakia decide to preserve the one goal deficit for then the game looks beyond them unless they put more into their forward play.

Dirk Kuyt should do better from a Sneijder cross – he heads over – and Kamil Kopúnek comes on for Erik Jendrišek as the trailing team try to turn the game by getting more of the ball and better service to the front players. The ploy fails and Slovakia are left looking for a mistake, a free kick, a corner which could give them an equaliser. It is the football that ensures that you do not go home being lambasted for losing 4-1, but was always unlikely to win the game and as Kuyt beats Mucha to the ball and picks out Sneijder the Dutchman finishes and go through.

Slovakia lose the friends they had won in their enterprising win over Italy. When given the chance to fight for their place in the World Cup they opted to hope that Netherlands might be charitable. They go out meekly and without an end worthy of a song despite Vittek’s last minute penalty.

That is worth being angry about.

The two sides have remarkable similarities in their World Cup – albeit less impressively for the Mexicans – with teams that attack well but have some questions at the back the majority of which are answered with statements about how great the defenders are at attacking. Rafael Márquez has been got to at the back for Mexico, but he does play a great ball forward.

The Mexicans started well and attacked with vigour. Carlos Salcido drove in from the left win and crashed a a long range shot against the bar, minutes later Andrés Guardado drove wide. It was a healthy start and late in the second half Javier Hernández took a ball into his feet, turned the Argentine defence and slashed the ball in.

In-between the Mexicans had suffered from action, inaction and reaction.

Action in the form of Carlos Tévez who took the ball from the edge of the box and taking two steps forward and hit an unstoppable shot past Óscar Pérez to give the Argentine side a third. It stunned the viewer.

A reaction as the Mexicans were stunned when a heavy, poor touch from Ricardo Osorio gave up possession to Gonzalo Higuaín who slotted the ball past Pérez for a second goal. The defence, the Mexican team, stifled by rage.

An inaction after a rage as the Mexicans – on top of the game – saw a pass forward reach Martín Demichelis who had Pérez dive at his feet and push the ball out to Lionel Messi who chipped the ball back to Carlos Tévez – offside past the last two defenders and the goalkeeper – who headed in.

Controversy would have been rife anyway but when some South African stadium worker decided to show the incident – the horrific mistake – on the big screen to be seen by all.

Whatever the workings of Italian referee Roberto Rosetti’s thought process his outcome is wrong. Perhaps he knew that their was a debate on video technology in football fanned by Frank Lampard’s goal against the Germans which was ruled out despite being a meter or so behind the line. Perhaps he was aware that Sepp Blatter would be watching him and knew the man’s feeling on video in the game. Perhaps he wanted to ensure that the decision made by the Referee was put above everything, even the truth.

Rosetti had a choice of two evils. To allow the ad hoc use of video technology against what he would wish or to allow a goal which he knows to be wrong. To make a decision based on evidence he did not want but nevertheless would be the right decision.

Either way before the restart of the game Rosetti had seen the incident again and gave a goal. The Referee must be right – he seemed to say – even when he knows he is wrong.

It was high handed to the point or arrogance and shameful. The Mexicans reacted poorly and conceded another as a result because goals change games and this would permanently perverted this one.

Football is a game about goals. Goals are rare in games and as a result they are massively significant. They change the tides in a game and force the way that teams have to play. Teams can defend a draw until a goal is scored, a losing team will chase goals and made concessions more likely, teams in the lead have less of a need to score goals. The point of football is the goals and to knowingly give one which is false – or to miss an obvious one – is to damn football.

It is to render the chief mechanic of the game redundant. To change the physics of football. To break the narrative, robbing it of any glory.

27th of June 2010 is a dark day for the World Cup. Twice today the match became broken and – for all the self flagellation of the English – the games would have been different. It is poison in the well from which football draws its World Champions.

A note for Argentina who – once again – are a team who play good football but lack honour. If Lionel Messi wanted to be crowned the best football in the world – and to exceed his loathsome manager Diego Maradona or if Maradona wanted to replace the tarnished crown some would have him wear – then the Argentine Messi would have taken the ball after the goal and scored a honourable goal in his own net.

Imagine the sight of Maradona pointing Messi to play the ball into his own goal. The sight, the sportsmanship. It was beyond the Argentine side who win, but win without class.

The phrase “My game is fairplay” is hollow today.

In league football every season the top teams are guaranteed at least two games against each other – Liverpool and Everton, Bayern Munchen and 1860 – they play with a metronomic regularity. They are the touch stones of a season.

In international football though it is chance and not eventuality which presses teams together. The luck of the draw so to speak and it is possible for any two nations to go years without the prospect of playing each other emerging. Seeding adds to this – although England’s 5-1 win over Germany in September 2001 was the result of the nation being placed second – and the result is that these clashes are more exciting because of their scarcity.

It is twenty years since England met Germany in Rome for a place in the World Cup final. Gazza’s tears – along with Hillsborough redefined football in England – but the Germans took a win on penalties as they did six years later in the semi-finals of Euro 96 at Wembley. The English fixation with penalties comes from these two moment.

Four years later and in an ill fated group for both Alan Shearer gave England a 1-0 victory the bragging rights for which lasted only a few months until the final game at Wembley gave the Germans a 1-0 victory with Didi Harmann’s free kick settling the day.

The last time the game met anything the Germans took the lead in minutes, England had won by the hour. 5-1. It was the making of a generation. The making of Michael Owen, of David Beckham, of Steven Gerrard.

The Germans have started World Cup 2010 well but fell off with a loss to Serbia that was put down to a sending off for Miroslav Klose – who returns today – but the 1-0 win over Ghana was not convincing.

Unconvincing describes England’s progress with draws against USA and Algeria giving way to a 1-0 win over Slovenia which deserved a better scoreline based on the performance and allows Fabio Capello to pick an unchanged team.

These days are rare and to be savoured. Many nations, many players will never play in a game such as this and in the life of a supporter who often will these days come? Four, five, a half dozen? For the players think not or the rewards of success or the fear of failure but rather the joy of participation. The biggest game – so far – of the biggest event in the World. It is why boys kick balls against walls until the day goes dark, in every country.

The last time England played Germany in the World Cup nothing in football was ever the same again.

Breath, it is baited.

Baited and breathed as a good English start is countered by a goal from Klose which goes from the hands of keeper Manuel Neuer – between John Terry and Matthew Upson and is poked past David James for an opening goal. The Germans are calm, England begin to flounder and the problems of players no performing roles emerges once more.

Steven Gerrard is idling on the left and lets Mesut Özil wander past him leaving the English with one too few defending players. A ball flipped over to Lukas Podolski – given the freedom of the penalty area with Glenn Johnson’s being pulled over to cover Gerrard’s inaction – fires home a second.

England are sparked into life and Gerrard whips a fine delivery to Matthew Upson who makes good some static defending which has seen David James called to make some fine stops and heads in from close range. Within a minute Frank Lampard has hit a shot that beats Neuer bouncing down off the bar and a meter over the line before being pulled away.

Referee Jorge larrionda and his linesman Mauricio Espinosa ignored the goal – and a goal it was – and with that the game would never be the same. The English celebrated but the game continued. It was as bad a mistake as the men from Uruguay officiating the game could have made and on it the game turned.

The second half was but two incidents. Lampard pile drove one free kick against the bar and from another the Germans broke to score one of take counter-attacking Thomas Müller goals which coloured a scoreline already perverted.

The Germans move on and will count good fortune while the English will – as it usual – rips themselves to shreds. The decision is a blight on the game and a scar on the World Cup. The English need to press the game at 2-1 causing a lopsided scoreline. Knockout football is about winning and few should blame Fabio Capello’s side for going after an equaliser that would stick although many will.

The Germans take praise for a performance that saw them pick off the holes that came when England came forward – the two counter attacks that polished the scoreline were clinical – and more so for being able to pick holes in that defence finding the gaps that were caused by ill discipline in the midfield and back line. They are a young side but have quality and a way of playing which could see them do the same to the notoriously weak defenders of Argentina or Mexico.

For England though the ramifications will be more significant than they should be but ramifications there should be. Since the emergence of Wayne Rooney England have had a problem balancing the fact that Gerrard and Lampard both like to come out of the midfield and the forward likes to fall back and as a result of this three men in one zone problem the team is neutered.

Gerrard’s effectiveness on on the left is reduced and one worries that a talented English player has been lost to trying to fit him into curious positions while Lampard – for his many attributes – is not a player able to perform in the formation which Capello has made a career of playing. As the Germans deployed two holding players and three forward midfielders one had to look at Capello’s intractability in his decision to bring only one deep sitting midfielder and his dedication to the 442 formation.

Not that the solution to these problems was to deploy Gerrard behind Rooney as some would have it – that still retains the problem with Lampard wanting to come into Rooney/Gerrard’s position – but with the players that Capello ultimately decided to take with him and their unsuitability to the formation he wanted to play. Capello’s Real Madrid and AC Milan two deep midfielder, two fast wide men, a drop off striker and a goalscoring striker are not represented in the eleven he sent out for England. Capello’s winning sides would never have included a Lampard.

The Italian fails in the final big test of his career and the failure is his own, although he will look back to Lampard’s shot and how with parity at half time his side would not have had to chase the game, not have been counter attacked, not have ended up seething with a rage of injustice. One wonders if it will be this, rather than the problems with selection and trying to force those selections into a formation which troubles Capello in the coming days.

A note though for anyone suggesting though that the failure of the English came in not topping the group and thus facing Ghana and then a South American side.

England were – in a sense – knocked out by a team of Uruguayan and while the game passes into football’s history this game pivoted entirely on that moment.