The WC certainly is turning up some surprises. Italy's defeat of Germany, echoing their defeat of Australia in its sneaky last-minuteness – although the Krauts did stretch it out further than the Aussies could – seems to me to indicate that the Aussies were possibly even better than they at seemed to have proven themselves to be when they went out. Thus, I'm going to apologise for being so nasty about them. Sorry.
Every World Cup I find something to rant about that I think desperately needs improving. Last time, if I remember correctly, it was the number of appalling Asian teams allowed into the tournament. This is still an issue, as is another major issue this time, viz. the utter stupidity of the "third and fourth place play-off" which will ensue between Germany and another team of losers the night before the final. The Sun's "off-tube commentary" (i.e. a live web-cast of commentary by a couple of blokes say in front of monitors showing the game) last night described the third–fourth place match as "the most pointless match in football". The reason that it's pointless is because getting to the semis doesn't mean shit. Indeed, getting to the final doesn't mean shit: the tournament system is structured so that it should only ever tell you who's the best, not who's second, third or fourth best. Last time around, for example, when England went out in the quarter finals to Brazil, it seemed to me that they were probably second best in the tournament, but since they were out in the quarters, they never rank in the top four. As it turned out, Brazil were completely unstoppable, and England just happened to have the bad luck to meet them early, and Germany the good luck not to meet them before the final. This time, things aren't quite so clear cut, but it's still an intrastimacy.
Here's my solution to both my niggles about the WC finals, since it's clear that they want an extra game to pad things out before the final: have a match to determine the worst team in the finals, and 'relegate' the loser i.e. ban them from participating next time, or take half a spot off their region. This might finally remove the travesty of the Saudi Arabian team from the tournament, at least every other cup.