We Always Win 2-1

As I write this, it is ten to three in the morning. My body clock is a bit out of kilter. Or rather it feels like someone has smashed my body clock against the floor and it's in a permanant state of malfunction. I suspect contributory factors include my medication and poor general physical state but we'll put that to one side for the moment. The current insomnia situation proved useful in watching England vs Canada in the Women's World Cup quarter finals in its entirety, with a 12:30am kickoff BST.

We suckerpunched the Canadians with two goals in the first quarter of an hour. Canada dominated the rest of the half and scored courtesy of yet another error from Karen Bardsley in the England goal. Bardsley then went off with an eye injury, throwing in Siobhan Chamberlain at the deep end. Fortunately she didn't have a great deal to do and coped admirably. Canada were below par but England did well at nulifying their attacking threat in the second half, save for a couple of hairy moments. We might have had our own chance to seal it on the break too. It was the first match I've seen at the tournament that felt like a real occasion, although playing the hosts with a 50k crowd is a large contributory factor

Onwards then to play Japan in the wee hours of Thursday morning. The defending champions are obviously a very good side but struggled to dispatch a dogged Australia with a late goal. They will obviously be favourites but the beauty of knock out football is that anything can happen. Now I have to be up in five hours time because one of my friends wants me to play a board game. This is apparently my life now. Goodnight.

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