Being a football journalist is, most of the time, a brilliant job, I get to write about something I love, meet some of my sporting heros, ask interesting, and sometimes utterly random questions, and have a platform to air my views.
The downside is that it doesn't really stop. And when my team has lost and the last thing I want to do is think about football, chances are I will be writing a match report about it, or interviewing a player who will tell me they are 'gutted' but still think that they themselves played well...
And even if I'm not interviewing, I will be bombarded all day with news from the club.
Germany 4 England 1 was a microcosm of this.
There will also always be some fans who think I don't know what I'm talking about simply because in their view I lack the equipment (literally) to really understand the game.
Or that I picked this career as a way to get close to footballers to fulfil my long term ambition of becoming a WAG.
And while a footballer would no doubt be able to keep me in the designer shoes I plan to become accustomed to, the thought is not appealing. I'll buy my own, thanks.
My mum calls me a witch (affectionately I'm almost sure!) because I have a knack of picking the right option.
I don't look at the odds or study the form particularly, I simply make a choice, based on a feeling, and stick with it.
I'm not psychic or any of that nonsense, I just trust my instincts.
This backfires on occasion as I have beginners luck. I will generally win a new game the first time I play it, from poker to pool, as I'm not concentrating on the rules.
But as soon as someone tries to get me to 'do it properly' or 'learn' I will get worse and worse at it, why? who knows.
For me, practice rarely makes perfect.
I also have the tag of 'draw-devil' as whenever I support a team long term, they seem to have an unusual number of draws to their name by the end of the season, usually when I have been in attendance.
It could, and has been, argued, vehemently in some cases, that i'm a jinx.
I recently grumbled that I wanted 'more goals' while watching a futsal match, shortly before the opposing team banged in four in quick succession.
And I'm afraid I said "In that case I want Clint Dempsey to score" seconds before Rob Green's howler against the USA, as my friend had said he needed a USA goal for a bet. I know, I know.
I don't predict scores because my brother used to blame me for the outcome if I did, and because I'm superstitious.
But with general predictions for the World Cup, I'm on a roll.
Apart from England being a massive disappointment my predictions thus far have been:
One of the 'lesser' sides would get to the quarter finals - Ghana and Paraguay both count.
Uruguay would get through the group, Forlan would score an important goal, and the two time winners would get further than the bookies odds, or their world ranking, would suggest.
I didn't say they would be the last South American team left standing, but I did say they would get pretty far in the competition.
While we are on the subject, Uruguay deserve their place in the quarter-finals because they won the penalty shoot-out, and Asamoah Gyan missed in extra time.
Yes Suarez handled the ball, but he was sent off and Ghana got the penalty, 'justice' within the rules of the game was done. The fact that Gyan missed the penalty makes no difference I'm afraid.
And Ghana still could have won the penalty shoot-out, particularly as Suarez would have been certain to take a penalty had he still been on the pitch, meaning one Uruguay threat had already been removed.
Anything else is sentimental clap-trap due to Ghana being the last African side in the tournament.
And finally, I opined that if anybody had a real go at Argentina's defence, they would discover it was as flimsy as one of Capello's excuses.
Every other team who had played Argentina had, to a certain extent, marvelled at the spectacle of Messi and co, and did not get past the midfield.
But if you think of the Argentina attack as a parade of heavily armed security guards around a glass case containing the keys to their undoing, basically, they had left the back door open. The keys were not necessary if you could see past the big guns.
And Germany went straight in.
I also thought USA would be in the quarter finals by sheer bloody minded arrogant determination, and was therefore surprised when Donovan and co's puffed up chests visibly deflated as Ghana took them to extra time.
The other day, prior to the first quarter-final kicking off, I remarked to my boss that we could end up with an all European final, which he thought was almost inconceivable.
In case you can't count, or are even worse at geography than me, Spain, Holland and Germany are all European teams, meaning one of the finalists will be from Europe, and the chances of two of them battling it out on Sunday are high.
There is also a 50/50 chance of a first time winner, which, to my mind, would be exciting, as Spain and Holland have never lifted the trophy.
Germany are looking to make it a fourth triumph, thus overtaking Argentina and putting them one behind Brazil, while Uruguay are going for a long spread out treble, which would put them on an equal footing with Germany and Argentina.
I still want Uruguay to win, but I would not be disappointed for this young exciting Germany side to take the top prize.
First published on www.SportingPreview.com on 5/7/2010
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