celebrations all round

Oww...hangover city this morning.

Great display from England yesterday afternoon, especially that 15 minute spell at the start of the second half. Joe Cole looks like he's finally fulfilling that potential, which can only be a good thing for England. Another game like that on Wednesday and England should be through to the World Cup finals next year. Arsenal-wise, Sol looks like he's going to find it hard to get back into the center of defence (see East Lower's summary), while Ash Cole did a standard job, though wasn't really tested, was he?

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, the Irish looked like they were going to destroy Israel after getting off to a flyer, but it was Israel who came back to grab a late, late equaliser (scored by an Israeli-Arab, for those of you interested). I was at a brit party (celebrating R and S's new baby boy) and caught some of the game - the promised big screen failed to materialise, so, together with a bunch of dodgy-looking Israelis, I had to make occasional jumps into a small office and mutter under my breath as some naive play almost let the Irish walk it. I missed the equaliser of course. Nice to see Roy Keane trudge off the pitch looking miserable, enjoyed that.

And the beers floweth on...next stop was the corridor-land party. As it was just across the road from our house, I couldn't very well not go...nothing special but there was a band fronted by Si Himan (her spelling, not mine). And why the hell husbands of fellow-workers have to take tons of pics with their flashy cameras I really don't know...