Brazil 2014 – World Cup Report

Results to date (18/6/14)
Group A
Brazil 3 Croatia 1 – the hosts get off to a great start with a little help from their Japanese ref! 2 for Neymar but should have had a red! Felt sorry for the Croats as they deserved more.
Mexico 1 Cameroon 0 – as expected but Eto’o injured and a Peralta winner.
Brazil 0 Mexico 0 – magnificent match with Brazil’s stars v. the superb Ochoa, Mexico’s goalie.
Group B
Spain 1 Holland 5 – ¡Madre mia! ¿que pasa? Biggest shock so far, but Robben (2) and Robin (2) – superb! However, Ramos and Co can still win it like 2010!
Chile 3 Australia 1 – as predicted, the Aussies making up the numbers with Chile as WC dark horses!
Group C
Colombia 3 Greece 0 – group co-favourites start with a bang , but looking bad for Greeks!
Ivory Coast 2 Japan 1 – from 1 down, Drogba on as sub, to winners in 2 minutes – magic!
Group D
Uruguay 1 Costa Rica 3 – I warned you, the Ricans are no pushover but still a shock; red card for Maxi gotta be good for England!
England 1 Italy 2 – great goal for Sturridge, Sterling superb, but what’s Roy doing, playing the Roo out of position. Me thinks he should play in the middle behind Sturridge, with Sterling and the Ox either side. Must beat Uruguay on Thursday!
Group E
Switzerland 2 Ecuador 1 – 1 down and the Swiss roar back, turning defence in to attack in 25 seconds for the killer goal!
France 3 Honduras 0 – a Benzema double in a stroll in the park, even sans Ribery, enjoying himself here in IBZ!
Group F
Argentina 2 Bosnia 1 – not easy for my favourites but a bit of Messi magic and ’tis all over!
Iran 0 Nigeria 0 – the first draw and scoreless to boot! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Group G
Germany 4 Portugal 0 – Mueller with the first hat-trick of the WC 2014, and yet another red card (Pepe for sheer stupidity) so Europe’s perennial hopes on the march, yet again!
Ghana 1 USA 2 – Klinsmann gets his campaign off to a winning start with an 86th minute winner.
Group H
Belgium 2 Algeria 1 – Man U’s Fellaini changes the game as a super-sub as Europe’s dark horses start with a win.
Russia 1 South Korea 1 – Capello’s team scrape a draw with the unfancied South Koreans.
Jezza’s Comments: I asked for lots of goals and 49 were scored in the first set of Group matches, a World Cup record and an average of 3 per match. Excellent! Only negative note, what are the BBC doing employing Phil Neville as their match co-commentator? Boring and monotonous are just two of the negative comments, not only from me, but 400 other fans on Twitter! Get a life mate or geroff! To come: Spain (v. Chile) and England (v. Uruguay) must win to keep their hopes alive as must Cameroon and Croatia or one of them goes home!

Spain Out

Spain have been left wanton this evening after being knocked out of the World Cup after only 2 games. Whilst many saw their first performance as a real shocker, it was hoped they would bounce back and show us they are still a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Twitter and social media will go wild with comments such as “It seems everything was wrong for Spain. The team was a bad, unimaginative team with an ageing squad and a brand of outdated football. They only had a plan A and everyone cracked it first try. Vicente Del Bosque was naïve.”
“…an ageing squad with a little bit of complacency and a lack of desire.”
But you have to take your hat off to the Chile side who were superior in their tempo, movement and fight to win the game.
“There is talk of an end of an era for Spain, but there will be a big night of partying ahead for these Chile fans.”

Jezza´s Sports Report

Here we go with another helping of Jezza’s Sports Snaps to go with our World Cup Report!
Cricket: OMG, compulsive TV viewing in the 1st Test at Lords, as England needed the last Sri Lankan wicket with 5 balls left but all to no avail as the SL last man blocked out to save the match. With great innings’ from Root, with a double century, Ballance with his first England ton, Sangakkara and Mathews for SL with their first tons at Lords, the former on probably his last appearance and the latter with his first as skipper, all made superb contributions to a fascinating match.
Rugby Union: More incredible TV in the 2nd Test between England and the All Blacks, with the Red Rose on top in the first half, NZ coming back and appearing to be running away with the match and the Series at 28-13, only for England to hit back with 2 late goals to eventually lose by only 1 point. Only pride now to play for in the 3rd and final Test on Saturday but 2-1 is better than 3-0! Elsewhere Ireland stuffed Argentina in S. America, and Wales lost 38-16 to South Africa in Durban and finally, how boring was this scoreline? Half time Australia 0 France 0 and Full time:Australia 6 (2 penalties) France 0. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Tennis: Yet another early loss for Andy Murray, this time at one of his favourite tournaments, Queens, as he bowed out in the 3rd round, but then, so too did Rafa, so can’t be all bad! At least he’s smiling again so must have summat to do with his new coach, French madamoiselle Mauresmo.Let’s hope he gets his act together by Monday as he starts the defence of his Wimbledon crown, especially as the Fed is looking good after winning yet another ATP Final, in Halle. Oh, and lest I forget, apologies to the Gorgeous Grunter Maria Sharapova, who I forgot to mention last week, won, as I predicted at the start, the French Open.
Golf: All hail German Martin Kaymer, who won the US Open at Pinehurst with an 8 under overall score, having led from day one. To give you some idea of his scoring prowess, only two other players finished under par and he was 7 clear of them! Also congrats to Sheffield’s Matt Fitzpatrick, playing as an amateur, who became the first man since 1930 to win the Silver medal for best amateur at both the Open and US Open.
Hockey: Big blow for our Men as they failed in their bid to win their first World Cup medal since ’86 as they were beaten 2-1 by Argentina in the bronze play-off match, whilst favourites Australia absolutely thrashed Holland 6-1 in the Final.
Finally, it’s that time of the year again when I start my “Spot the Sports Star in Ibiza” and already, two big boys in the bag! Novak Djokovic, complete with huge bodyguards, seen at Pacha last week and French and Bayern Munich footie star Franck Ribery, unfortunately not at the WC due to injury.
‘Tis all for now and hope you’re filling in your WC wallchart which, I sincerely hope, is not in the wc! Seeya!

Gumball 3000

On the evening of Wednesday the 6th June Ibiza hosted the finish line to the Gumball 3000 in the port of Ibiza Town. Alongside the ferry terminal an inflatable Gumball finish line was erected and an area was closed off for the race finishers to park their cars for public view. Having started in Miami and covered 3000 miles a large crowd had assembled in eager anticipation of the night ahead and the chance to see this unique event.
Unfortunately, due to a bit of the normal bureaucracy, the Gumballers were a little late in arriving but when they did the atmosphere and noise soon made up for it. Having arrived off the ferry in San Antonio and driven to Ibiza Town, seeing Ibiza’s streets full of Ferraris and Lamborghini’s was quite a sight. The star car was undoubtedly the Rebellion R2k making both the Bugatti Veyron and McLaren P1 look relatively domestic in comparison. The crowds were treated too much revving of engines and burnouts as the cars arrived in the port.
Meanwhile at the other end of the street Tony Hawks, the world renowned skateboarding star, arrived on his skateboard to a huge cheer from the crowd. He suddenly appeared from the crowd, skateboarding down the street and started to put on a display of his skills and tricks on a temporarily erected half-pipe. It was not going to be your usual night in Ibiza . . .
Having crossed two continents, the 3000 miles had obviously taken its toll a little, as out of the 120 race entrants only around 25 actually made it to the finish in Ibiza. Sadly, The Hoff, in his Knight-rider Kitt Car being one of those lost in action, somewhere around London we are informed. Despite this those that did make it continued to put on a great show, the port was completely full of people and live music echoed out as the sun went down.
The Gumballers then headed off to Pacha for an evening of more celebrations, entertained by Steve Aoki, followed the next day by more revelling at Destino for a pool party. The Gumball awards ceremony acknowledged locally well known DJ Deadmau5, who had participated in the Gumball in his ‘Purrari’, he was awarded the spirit of Gumball award.
As always in Ibiza, the event did not go without a little surprise. We have all been looking forward to the visiting of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior but had not expected to see it at the Gumball 3000, placed alongside the finish line with a huge anti oil protest banner. At the moment we are not sure if this was intentionally a protest against the Gumball specifically or just a bizarre coincidence. Either way, everyone happily partied on into the night regardless.

Ibiza C.C. vs Hearsall C.C.

14th June, 25 overs per side
It was decided between skippers Jeremy “Silver Jez” Parmenter and Lee “Knobhead” Connor that Ibiza would bat first, and the hosts lost no time in scoring rapidly with openers Neill “Speedy” Tobitt (51 retired) and Martin “Scoops” Cooper (55 retired ) hitting boundaries regularly and scoring runs at over 10 per over. Sam “Smiley” Gooda (30) and Jolyon “Jonty” Swinburne (53 retired) continued to pile on the runs and even Jeremy Parmenter (32 not out) got to bat alongside newcomer John Eastmond (20 not out). This allowed Ibiza to finish on a daunting 274 for 3 off 25 overs, a run rate of 11 per over. The Hearsall slow bowlers were not used to the slow astroturf pitch and struggled to stem the runs, with skipper Lee Connor, his Dad Terry Connor and Brent Harkin all obtaining a wicket each.
It was then Hearsall’s turn to bat and they needed to score rapidly from the start, but never managed to get going, with the Ibiza bowlers’ experience on the slow wicket helping them to prevent enough boundaries being scored. Only Lee Connor managed to hit some lusty blows in a gutsy innings of 43, and was supported in a partnership of 60 runs with Mick French (15). However, once they were both out, Hearsall fell to 97 all out in the 20th over, Ibiza winning a friendly but one sided contest. Ibiza bowlers Graham “Bose” Boe (3/11) and Robin “Robiño” Parmenter (2/8) had the most success, with Paul “Peacock” Partridge and John Eastmond contributing a wicket each.

This is the fourth consecutive year since 2011 that Hearsall skipper Lee Connor has organised the mid- summer tour to Ibiza, accompanied by his dad Terry and cousin Dominic, and it is always a pleasure to see them here. Many thanks to them once more and we look forward to welcoming them back again, perhaps with all their players available, since several had sampled too much of San Antonio’s night-time attractions the night before and suffered accordingly!

Modball

Hot on the heels of Gumball the next influx of Europe crossing super cars arrive when the Modball rally hits our shores this coming week. Initially arriving at San Antonio, the cars will be on display at Space before then coming back to the finish line of the entire European race in San Antonio harbour on Thursday 26th June. After the race there is a Modball party at Ocean Beach.
http://modball.com/