The Top 10 things we learned from the World Cup today, Saturday June 19

By Mirror Football in 2010 World Cup Blog

Published 21:29 19/06/10

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It was the day of another Coalition sex scandal and the day Wayne Rooney apologised to England fans (sadly for his remarks, not his performance). But what did we learn from Day Nine of the World Cup? MirrorFootball is here with all the answers...

1) Holland's players have an extra incentive for getting through to the knockout stages as they have been promised a three-day visit from their wives and kids as a reward. Apparently England's squad have a similar agreement in place, which may have explained the shoddy display against Algeria. None of the players want their missus anywhere near John Terry.

2) Dirk Kuyt won't have got top marks for his hard-working, but ultimately uninspiring display against the Japanese, and he didn't score too highly with this 'gem' in the build up to the game. “I like sushi and sometimes we eat sushi as a team," he said. "But I hope that we will have the Japanese for dinner on Saturday.” (Oranje) boom-boom! Clearly that famed Scouse wit is rubbing off on him.

3) ITV, as you may have heard, have not had the best of World Cups up until this point. So was it to soon for Clive Tyldesley, tweeting the morning after England's 0-0 draw with Algeria, to quip: "well, at least we didn't miss a goal"? Hmmmm. And is it any wonder folk get frustrated when, 18 minutes into their coverage of yesterday's lunchtime kick-off (and therefore just 12 minutes before the start of the match) Adrian Chiles and his studio mates had not made a single mention of the words 'Holland' or 'Japan'.

4) Holland's Manchester City midfield star Nigel de Jong looked uncharacteristically nervous in the early stages against the Japanese, prompting one office wit to describe him as "de Jong and de Restless".

5) Midfielder Kevin Prince-Boateng described the Ghana squad as being "like a big, big family" in the build-up to the clash with Australia. So presumably the makes blunder goalkeeper Richard Kingson the embarrassing uncle nobody talks about.

6) The poor old Aussies had a man sent off in the first half for the second game in a row. After Tim Cahill saw red in the opener against Germany, Harry Kewell (remember him?) got his marching orders for handball against Ghana. It did look a bit harsh. After all, didn't the ref know Harry was playing by Aussie Rules?

7) Ghana might not be the best team at the World Cup, but they are certainly the most intelligent. After all, they have got two members of Mensah in their squad.

8) The Cameroon scorer's name seemed to ring around the stadium for ages. It was like there was an echo'o in there.

9) After watching Dennis Rommedahl v Benoit Assou-Ekotto, remind us again which one was the has-been kicked out some years ago by Charlton and which was the rising star of a Champions League team? The gulf in class between them was even wider than the comedy spacing between the letters on the back of K   J   AE   R's shirt!

10) The Danes went all the way without putting their foot in it. Unlike their compatriot Dane Bowers in that sex tape with Jordan. (Warning: Google only if you've got a strong stomach)

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