Viewing figures for the final -

 

BBC 13.4m

ITV 2.3m

 

The BBC trounce ITV once again despite the handicap of employing Mark Lawrenson.

Such a good match! Spain were absolutely amazing to watch, and it's incredible that how much they managed to stop Italy getting the ball. I was over the moon at their win, and even more so that it was by four goals!

People calling Spain boring is the reason England will probably not win another major tournament again, ever. They're not boring because they can keep the ball well, it's how you win bloody football matches. Since Brendan Rodgers became Liverpool's managers I've actively taken an interest in some of the stuff he's said to the media before. He did a segment on Match of the Day 3 where he said possession is the key to everything when you're winning - don't give the ball up and you'll win. In England at football matches people moan and groan if players pass the ball backwards, especially if you're losing at home. When in reality it is careful play because the player realises there is not an opportunity to play a forward pass, so instead of giving the ball away they keep it. Spain are the masters of this, just technically brilliant everywhere. Just felt really sorry for Italy last night.

England have moved up 2 places to 4th in the latest FIFA World Rankings, just slightly ahead of Portugal and Italy. Proof that they probably need a new system, but as I've always said, it's hard to challenge the ranking as it's based on all results over a 4 year period and it was pretty much impossible for them to go down as the points the new ones are replacing are from Euro 2008 where England didn't score any because they weren't in it.

We're actually only three points off overtaking Uruguay as well! We could be in for a drop over the next couple of years though unless we completely blitz our WC qualification group given how well we did qualifying for '10.

I still think the rankings are a reasonable guide to relative positions within each confederation. However, because countries from different confederations rarely play each other in competitive matches, they aren't very good at cross-confederation comparisons. Their other main problem is that they will inevitably underestimate pending hosts of major tournaments. Brazil have already dropped out of the top ten and may well fall further by the time the World Cup starts. South American nations also suffer as there is no qualifying tournament for the Copa America so they have long periods with no competitive matches.

Although they do have a long WC qualifying campaign - compared to European teams at least.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/307019_2180656611217_216746867_n.jpg

 

(Alexandr Kerzhakov)

 

AMAZING

I still think the rankings are a reasonable guide to relative positions within each confederation. However, because countries from different confederations rarely play each other in competitive matches, they aren't very good at cross-confederation comparisons. Their other main problem is that they will inevitably underestimate pending hosts of major tournaments. Brazil have already dropped out of the top ten and may well fall further by the time the World Cup starts. South American nations also suffer as there is no qualifying tournament for the Copa America so they have long periods with no competitive matches.

Yes they are far better in comparing teams from the same continent. To be fair, when you look logically it's easy to see why England are so high. We had a poor World Cup, yet only three European nations (Spain, Netherlands, Germany) went further, and only two others (Slovakia, Portugal) got out of the group stage. In Euro 2012 only four teams went further than England, and of the three that went out at the same stage all had a worse group record and lost their QF, whilst England drew. So top 5 in both of the last two major competitions. Of the other teams to have gone as far or further as England they include Netherlands who had an abysmal Euro 2012 (0 points - bottom of group), Slovakia who didn't qualify for Euro 2012, Italy who had a dismal World Cup (2 points - bottom of group), Spain, Germany (better in both, both are ahead), and Portugal, who had an identical record in the World Cup (5 pts in group, out next round) and went one round further in Euro 2012, however England qualified for both of these tournaments directly, and Portugal had to qualify for both through the play-offs, finishing below Denmark both times. When you analyse it properly and look over the four year period in question it's hard to actually dispute England's position as 3rd in Europe. We certainly shouldn't be lower than 5th.