Last night, however, Jim Beglin, on summarising duty for ITV, could barely contain his laughter when replays of Jermain Defoe's second goal for Tottenham against Young Boys showed the Spurs striker deliberately handled to set himself up for a glorious finish.

"He got away with it," was Beglin's take on an act of cheating on a par with Henry's.

By Ollie Irish

Now that Adrian Chiles has swanned off to ITV, Match of the Day 2 (the better of the MotdDs) needs a new host. There is fairly substantial backing on the big interwebs for eggheaded Serie A fan James Richardson ex of Channel Four's 'Football Italia' and now presenter of the Guardian's excellent 'Football Weekly' podcast to get the gig.

By Ollie Irish

Spain play with their shiny new toy

In terms of viewing figures for Sunday's World Cup final, the BBC handed ITV its arse, with almost five times as many people choosing Gary Lineker over Adrian Chiles.

The BBC claimed its match audience average was 4.

Well, I confidently suggested that the seemingly ubiquitous Colin Murray was the ideal fit for the BBC's ‘Match of the Day 2' and its more relaxed view of the weekend's football, and that Adrian Chiles would be "Adrian Who?" before long. Was I right? At the end of this Sunday's first show, I wasn't sure.

When you're 4-0 down, with only ten men and you're facing the current European champions, then to eventually lose 4-3 constitutes a pretty successful result.

Some said that we had nothing to lose at the San Siro, but to be on the wrong end of a thrashing would have done neither our hopes of making the Champions League knockout stages, or our confidence any good.

It's incredible to think that this following collection of vintage videos, which were shot over 100 years ago at football grounds across England, would be added to YouTube and we'd be viewing on a computer via this thing called the World Wide Web. But no matter how much technology has changed in the hundred plus years, two things haven't changed that much.

By Chris Wright

Adrian Chiles has quit the BBC after a 'dramatic falling-out' over his reduced role on the channel's tea-time tossbag of nonsense 'The One Show'.

Chiles has quit the Beeb after hearing of plans to give DJ Chris Evans the Friday evening episode of the daily magazine show.

Adrian Chiles, it seems, has made his last appearance as presenter of Match of the Day 2. The BBC have today announced that Chiles will be moving to ITV to co-present GMTV and, of more significance to us, anchor the commercial channel's World Cup coverage this year.
This is likely to bring about one of two distinctly different reactions in you: apathy bordering on abject relief, or contentment based on a secret admiration for the West Midlander.

Nothing in Adrian Chiles' BBC career became him like the leaving of it, as Shakespeare might have written of his fellow-midlander if he watched ‘Match of the Day 2'. "This is what modern football has become." Chiles told his last MOTD2 audience, with all the indignation at his disposal. "An administrator signing autographs.

The gloves are now off. For the first game of any World Cup, you always need to pick your strongest side. Anything else would be foolhardy, so we can be fairly sure we are seeing people's strongest hand. How, then, did ITV do? This year it was their turn to take the opening game for the first time in eight years, and they looked keen to show they meant business.

The thing that shocked many about England's 1-1 draw with the USA is that the opposition were a team that apparently play little football in their homeland. It may be the sixth most watched sport in the States, but funnily enough it is the most played. Let's not forget, the USA did progress to the final of last year's Confederations Cup.

COS contributor Liam Trim discusses a fairly low key start to the proceedings in South Africa.

Join Betfair and get £25 free!

Win the Club Shirt Of Your Choice Simply by Speaking Your Mind!

Am I the only one that's disappointed? Now I know everyone would have been gutted with England's opening result but the tournament itself has yet to ignite into the vivid festival of football, of entertainment, that we have been promised.

It's a conundrum for English national team fans, who to support out of the football and cricket arch-enemies. But it's not a problem for long as the game is over as a debating point within the first quarter.

In the ITV studio, Edgar Davids is making it clear that it's "C'mon Aussie, C'mon" for him.

Van Persie crossing for a Dane to power home is a vision we'd like to see a lot more of, but we got a sneak preview in the World Cup today as Poulson headed his cross against Agger's back and in, to give Holland a lead they never looked like giving away. The 2-0 scoreline gave the Arsenal contingent their first victory of the competition, and Van Persie looked sharp throughout before getting a rest for the final fifteen minutes.

ITV 1 gives twenty minutes introduction time to this 12.30 kick-off. But its 12.26 before the actual game it self is addressed, the rest being about England, who aren't playing for another 55 hours. Honduran kids, we are told, have to learn all seven verses of their national anthem. If that was the case in Britain we'd all know the bit about "rebellious Scots to crush" – which would double the Scottish National Party's vote in one single history lesson.

"It might also have something to do with BBC's highlights presenter Colin Murray being such a turn-off," suggested Charles Sale in his Daily Mail newspaper diary column last week – "it" being ITV's daily World Cup highlights programme averaging a million viewers compared to the BBC's 846,000. It is rare for ITV to outperform the BBC in this way, for the widely-acknowledged reason that ITV's football coverage generally isn't as good.

You analyse the fixtures, pick a match you're desperate to watch, and get into work early to ensure you're home in time. Minutes before kick off, you grab a beer from the fridge and perch yourself on the sofa, no intention of moving for a couple of hours. On goes the television, and then comes the big moment is it on BBC, or ITV?

"Let's make this a celebration," intones ITV commentator Peter Drury, before kick-off, and millions of people, all at once, think, "yeah, lose your voice." Uruguay's national anthem is what Billy Connolly had in mind all those years ago when he suggested replacing ‘God Save the Queen' with the theme tune to ‘The Archers.

It's a curious sight. The BBC's panel is sitting, for the first time in this tournament suited and booted, in its base studio outside the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, almost eight hundred miles from Johannesberg, where the match itself is being played. It looks deserted, behind them. It probably is everybody will be at home, watching the build-up to the 2010 World Cup final.

Football. It's all about results.
So the BBC will be busy celebrating their trouncing of ITV in the World Cup final face off between the two channels.
A slightly pyrrhic victory though given the lack of quality at the commercial channel. Much like Celtic beating Tranent Juniors 7-0, it would be unseemly for there to be any gloating.

Football. It's all about results.
So the BBC will be busy celebrating their trouncing of ITV in the World Cup final face off between the two channels.
A slightly pyrrhic victory though given the lack of quality at the commercial channel. Much like Celtic beating Tranent Juniors 7-0, it would be unseemly for there to be any gloating.

Guess Who's Been on Match of the Day?
Kevin Day has magical powers. It has to be said that EFW isn't the greatest fan of the Premier League, horse racing and moreover Crystal Palace. The fact that Day has taken that trio and turned them into entertainment is a huge feather in a cap already bursting to capacity, and, worthy of 5 (five) FIFA stars.

Valencia 0-1 Manchester Utd: Observations

FC Barcelona it was not. Yet, that did not matter as this ugly ‘showpiece' ended in typical United-like fashion – snatching a last-gasp winner in a performance where the adjective "unconvincing" does not quite tell the whole story.

International friendlies are probably the most irrelevant set of matches in the footballing calendar.

Despite the depressing idea of watching a mediocre performance by England and also hearing the pointless thoughts of Adrian Chiles and Andy Townsend, the footballing world was dealt another devastating blow.

Televising live soccer is never an easy job. There's no opportunity to do a re-take and chances of making mistake are much higher than usual. When a mistake happens, sometimes it's humorous. But often times it can be downright embarrassing.

During 2010, there were quite a few howlers.