GERMANY WIN; BRAZIL, SPAIN AND ENGLAND REGROUP.

The humiliation of Brazil at the FIFA World Cup in their own country was hardly unexpected after their first match or two. At no point did they appear to be the dominant force of previous years and their only outstanding player was the brilliant Neymar; too many of the rest were clearly make-weights, with the likes of Fred and Joe completely out of their depths.

Inevitably, the winners were a well organised team, not without some fine players but with none of the hype attaching to the few superstars on show. Ronaldo had departed at the group stage and, although Messi made it to the final, his few flashes of genius could not make up for the general paucity of greatness in his Argentinian side. In the end, Germany, with a well drilled squad and 2 or 3 high class players, won the day, and deservedly so. That said, the tournament was generally of a low standard and few will remember much about it in a year or two, except for the drubbings handed out to the hosts by Germany and Holland.

Where all this leaves Brazil, Spain and England is a good question. As the reigning champions, Spain came to the competition with high hopes that were smashed to pieces in their first match. Thereafter, they did nothing to repair a shattered reputation and now have to rebuild. Brazil, as hosts and the world's top footballing nation, expected to win but were, instead, humiliated. England, ............... what can one say ? Expectations were deliberately played down but, even so, their performances were pretty lamentable and their much vaunted stars were shown to be men of clay.

No doubt, after much huffing and puffing, there'll be plans put in place but nothing is likely to change. Teams such as the Manchesters, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and a few others will continue to ignore home-grown players in favour of foreign superstars and the national team will continue to have a dearth of real talent. Major club competitions and money will continue to dominate and England's quest for international glory will continue with little chance of success.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose !

JIMMY ANDERSON, BATTING SUPERSTAR !

After his desolation at the end of the Test Match against Sri Lanka, it was marvellous to see Jimmy Anderson do so well at Trent Bridge yesterday. His record last wicket partnership with Joe Root was just one of the plethora of records that were broken, mostly by Anderson, as he drove, pulled and nicked his way to a career best score of 81.

Against Sri Lanka at Leeds last month, Anderson batted for approaching 1½ hours without scoring, but in the process taking England to within one ball of saving the match. Batting with Moeen Ali, he helped to add 21 for the last wicket while keeping the enemy at bay for more than 20 overs before falling to the penultimate ball of the match; his despair was evident for all to see.

Yesterday against India, Anderson joined Joe Root with England again in a perilous position, 159 runs behind and with only wicket remaining. Slowly but surely, the pair consolidated, built and eventually took control. Their partnership passed 50, then 100; the Indian lead, which had looked frighteningly big, shrank, becoming less with every passing over. The stand passed the highest ever recorded for the 10th wicket by 2 Englishmen, the previous best being the 130 amassed by R E 'Tip' Foster and Wilfred Rhodes against the Australians at Sydney in 1903; Anderson reached the first half-century of his career and then passed the previous highest score by an English number 11, the 59 scored by John Snow during his famous stand with Ken Higgs against the West Indies in 1966. The partnership reached 150 and then passed the previous world record for a last wicket stand, the 163 achieved by Philip Hughes and Ashton Agar for the Australians at this very ground last year. By this point, they'd eclipsed the Indian score and taken England into an improbable lead, yet still they marched on.

Root passed 150 and Anderson's innings became the longest ever by a number 11 batsman in Test cricket. The partnership approached the 200 mark but, just as anything seemed possible, Anderson finally fell, caught at slip, and an incredible partnership came to an end at 198 and after 230 minutes. Anderson's 81 is the third highest score ever by a number 11 in Test cricket while Joe Root had quietly accumulated 154 not out in a stay of more than 6½ hours which had brought England from the brink of disaster to a position of potential strength.

After nearly 4 hours of batting heroics, Anderson then had to come out and open the bowling for India's second innings. Although he didn't take a wicket, his return of 9 overs for 21 runs was no mean achievement for a man who must have been exhausted, mentally and physically. Well done, Jimmy, you're a true star !

NEMAR INJURY SHOWS FOOTBALL AT ITS WORST.

Some call football 'The Beautiful Game. After the appalling physical assaults carried out in yesterday's match between Brazil and Colombia, it's hard to see it as anything but organised warfare.

Throughout the match, I can't call it a game because there was little sport in it, both sides did their best to cripple their opposition. For the Brazilians, their principal target was the excellent new Colombian star, James Rodriguez, while the Colombians aimed their worst atrocities at Brazil's true superstar, Neymar. The referee and his assistants, by and large, stood by and let the increasingly vicious assaults go unchallenged barring the award of a few free kicks, the first yellow card only being shown well into the second half for a stupid but harmless lunge by the Brazilian captain, Thiago Silva. Meanwhile, the rest of the warriors kicked lumps out of each other, culminating in Colombian Zuniga leaping at Neymar from behind and quite deliberately sticking his knee into the base of the Brazilian's spine. While Neymar lay on the ground in genuine pain, the offender walked away scot free. Neymar received a broken vertebra and a long time on the sidelines - this is an injury which may well see him out of action for the rest of the year, or even longer.

If Zuniga's offence had been committed on a British street, he'd have been arrested, charged with assault and causing grievous bodily harm; quite probably, he'd have received a prison sentence. Similar action could easily have come the way of some of the Brazilians for their attacks on Rodriguez. However, the match officials did almost nothing and the response from the commentary team and 'experts' in the studio was muted to say the least. None of them saw anything other than normal footballing activity, which must say a lot for their warped view of normality.

If this is sport, I'm a Dutchman. FIFA are presiding over one of the poorest displays of sporting activity I've witnessed in a long time, while subjecting viewers to some shocking scenes of violence. One 5 year old I spoke to yesterday even believed that the purpose of football was to kick your opponents on their knees; now, where did he get that idea from ? Television programmes which include similar scenes of violence are prohibited from our screens until after 9pm; films carry warning notices and the impressionable young are refused entry to cinemas. Football, with all of its associated mayhem is immune to these strictures because of its position as our 'national sport'. Phooey. Played like this, it's no more a sport than was medieval jousting, in which the objective was to beat your opponent into submission by any means available.

Luis Suarez has quite rightly been banned for his animalistic behaviour and yet the thugs who took part in yesterday evening's match go free. Neymar is in hospital and who knows what injuries were suffered by the rest of the players. Suarez can rightly feel aggrieved that he's been singled out in an unfair way, notwithstanding that his actions were inexcusable; they were no more inexcusable than was the violence seen on a football field in Brazil last night.

FIFA has the power to review on-field incidents after matches and yet it rarely does. In Rugby Union, officials take such matters seriously and frequently review players' actions after games, often handing out significant bans for incidents which were missed by the match referee and his assistants. Why does not football do this ? So far, this World Cup has been more about warfare than about sport. There's been little great play and much overly-aggressive interaction between participants; there's been a lot of very poor refereeing and very little discipline has been imposed on matches. If FIFA doesn't do something soon, their 'Beautiful Game' will become no more than legalised thuggery and someone may well be really hurt or even killed.

MURRAY CRASHES OUT; NOW ALL CHEER FOR ROGER !

Andy Murray's exit from this year's Wimbledon championships was a clear reminder that while he is very, very good, he is not the best. He wasn't only beaten by Grigor Dimitrov, he was ignominiously thumped.

Of course, he's not the only big name to have a bit of a bad time this year, with Rafael Nadal also finding it tough going and losing to a largely unknown 19 year old Australian. What makes Nadal's exit less significant in some ways than Murray's is that he's already accumulated 14 Grand Slam titles to Murray's two, and grass is definitely not his surface.

In the men's draw, we're now down to the last four and it's an unusual bunch. After several years of Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and Murray making this part of almost every major championship their own, only Djokovic and the Grand Old Man, Federer, remain, to fight it out with a couple of young upstarts in Dimitrov and Milos Raonic.

Who will make it to the final ? For what it's worth, I can't see Dimitrov troubling Djokovic but I can see Federer having difficulty with Raonic. While 'my man' is Federer, I can't see passed a Djokovic-Raonic final, with Djokovic eventually winning his second Wimbledon crown. With any luck, that prediction has now cursed the other three and Roger will make it 8 titles - wouldn't that be something !