Third Place Play-off

Let's face it, gold is better than bronze and bronze is better than nothing but in all honesty, what's the point of having a third place play-off. Ask the majority of German citizens and they probably would dismiss such folly out of hand.

Not so for us Irish. We don't need much of a reason to have a party. As the sky empties it's contents on the land of Ireland tonight such thoughts are merely dreams and dreams are about as useful as Mary Harney unless they come true.

As the Vuvuzela's boomed for the penultimate time at World Cup 2010 Uruguay squared up against the Germans for the right to call themselves the third best team at this years World Cup.

Thomas Muller, back from missing the semi final through suspension scored his fifth of the tournament to give the Germans a deserved lead on 19 minutes. Add three assists to that and you see why this guy belongs in an Arsenal jersey. Could he have made a difference if he played against Spain? My pet lobster (Larry) reckons he'd have scored twice if he played. At just 20 years old and with only one international cap before the tournament Muller has put himself firmly in the shopping window around the World.
Sorry Larry can't predict tonight's scoreline but things are a little tight around here right now so he's on the boil.

Uruguay were fair game and in an open affair found themselves level on 28 minutes when Cavani levelled with a shot into the bottom corner of the German goal. Suarez, also back from missing the semi-final should have put Uruguay on 42 minutes but one suspects karma had a 'hand' in that.

As the people of Ghana dropped to their knees in laughter at Suarez the referee looked at his watch and blew the half-time whistle wishing he was Howard Webb.


Uruguay did the threatening early in the second half and Diego Forlan put them ahead on 51 minutes with a superb volley and take his tournament tally to five and making it a four -way tie for the Golden Boot.
The Germans rallied and within five minutes were level when a Boateng cross was met firmly by Jansen. We were having one of the games of the tournament.
German keeper Butt was the busier of the two and made three saves to keep his country in the game.


The game continued to ebb and flow and in a game of see-saw the Germans registered their 16th goal of the tournament when Khedira headed home to make it 3-2 on 83 minutes.

Despite Forlan rattling the crossbar in the last seconds from a free-kick, Uruguay could not get an equaliser and as karma served it's purpose the Germans matched their result of four years ago and won the bronze medal. Given that this particular German sides on youthful who's to say they will change the colour of recent medals in the near future. Not me and that's for sure.

Prediction - Germany 2 Uruguay 1
Result - Germany 3 Uruguay 2
Fail !


(No lobsters were harmed during the writing of this post)