Pretty comfortable win for Germany too, first team I've really been impressed by this World Cup. Cahill's sending off was harsh and made it more comfortable, but it was probably won by then anyway.

German's consistency is always admirable - at least the quarters in seven World Cups running? England didn't even qualify for all of those.

I like the way, even when the team's not full of stars, they demonstrate how effective playing as a team can be. It's a style England could emulate, it would suit our style of play well, but is something we never quite seem to grasp. Maybe Capello's tactic of not telling the players who will be playing together until 2 hours before the game doesn't help.

Going overseas for the last two England managers has worked, but I wonder if the FA would have been better off going to a different country for a manager - when Otto Rehhagel can lead even Greece to a European Championship, you wonder what a German manager might have done with England. Though it wouldn't go down too well with parts of the fanbase perhaps! And as Triesman recently demonstrated, it is traditional to populate the higher levels of our FA with blundering imbeciles, so perhaps we shouldn't expect any sensible decisions from that quarter...