Locky's English Playground

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

IPA: Is It Possible to Have Primary-Stressed Vowels In An English Word?

"There is no agreed phonetic definition of a syllable" -- Ladefoged (1982, p219)
Image from Peter Ladefoged's homepage

"There is no agreed phonetic definition of a syllable" -- Ladefoged (1982, p219)

Last year, one of my students who happens to be an IPA teacher with a Master's degree in Translation, spotted something pretty interesting when I was introducing the word "masseur".

Image from Cambridge Dictionary Online

She argued that the stress mark should be before the /s/ not after it, according to the rules she has learnt. She suspected that this is a typo made by Cambridge University.

To my knowledge, having a primary stress on a vowel alone is not unusual at all, according to my hundreds of hours of blog-writing (thus my exploitation of the Cambridge Dictionary Online), but at that moment, I couldn't come up with a counter-example. She was convinced with what she knew and stressed that by telling me she was an IPA teacher, and I was also sure with what I know, and so she challenged me to find another example on the Cambridge Dictionary Online, or if the same word "masseur" shows up with the same IPA. Subsequently, the situation got worse and I even received a complaint from her through my boss. My ex-boss, who is a fervent supporter of the Oxford Dictionary, was on her side and instructed me never to teach IPA in class again because "you are wrong!" I found no point of arguing with her and also pointless to even think about educating her, and so I pretended to have accepted her view.

Why should I make her smarter if they insist that they are smarter, right?

But am I really wrong? Of course not, not in this case. What they do not know is the most fundamental concepts of pronunciation.

Now that things have cooled down, I can explain the logic and reasons behind.

Notice the difference in IPA for the same word by different dictionaries
Image from Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Now, here's something we must know. If we check different authoritative dictionaries, we are bound to get many different IPA representations for the same word. How's that possible?

The answer is both political and commonsensical.

It is political because of the way these dictionary authorities, such as Cambridge, Oxford, BBC, Colins, Longman, Webster, Merriam-Webster, etc., they are not friends and they don't share their researches. Sponsors or funded money is spent on top-secret data collections, data processing and computer programs.

It is also commonsensical since they basically use different algorithms to work on different lexico-grammatical and phonological data collected from different regions of the world, few, if any, of the linguistic features such as IPA, grammar, meanings, translations will be the same. Why would it be the same anyway if there is something called copyright and patent infringement? Just ask Apple Inc. about copyrights and patents!

What's more, I believe that there is in fact no 100% foolproof rule to anything on this planet. I used to believe that there is something that is absolutely right and absolutely wrong when I was a kid, just to realise that there are something called grey areas eventually.

When a theory or a rule is wrong, people set a new boundary and then set a new rule, and the new rule remains correct until someone disproves it. The subject of science works exactly this way. Remember that our Earth was once believe to be a cube and travelling too far off the ships would fall off the edge of the world?

Let's not forget, we are dealing with English, a language which has borrowed, devoured, digested and "stolen" from over 350 languages around the world since 450 AD, sometimes, or most of the time, which English word belongs to which language is a tough task to trace. Then how can one IPA rule bound every word in the English language? Quite impossible.

Anyway, I find this question really challenging and here's what I've found!

Images from Cambridge Dictionary Online

All of them, with the exception of "batik" which is from Dutch, are from French.

Could this primary-stressed vowel pattern mainly happens in French loanwords? I doubt it. Dutch, in particular, is well-known for their stressed vowels.

Could this primary-stressed vowel pattern only appears in Cambridge Dictionary Online? Not sure, but I checked every one of these words in the Oxford Dictionaries, and none of them shows this pattern.

Images from Oxford Dictionary Online

Anyway, I would very much like a clarification on that from the Cambridge University Press to make my student happy, so I wrote Cambridge University Press an email at 1:45am (now it's 2:33am, 26th July 2013), the response that I received was, they will follow up, and they never did.

That being said, you can try searching words like "ergo", "earnings", "urgent", "also", always", "pronunciation" and see the same pattern of primary-stressed vowel.

Back to my point, I believe that there is hardly any rules which can always be true (this is something I have learnt from Dr. House), pronunciation models are forever changing as humans evolve, what the quote from Ladefoged back in 1982 at the beginning of this post is very much still valid today, even with the advance technology that we possess right now. Syllabification, the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken or written, is a complex topic in linguistics study and like everything academic, it is heavily argued and debated.

I must say I do not know everything, but you do not need to be a genius to know that nothing is true forever.

So, as common learners of English, whether you belong to the ESL, EFL, ESP or EAP group, when learning IPA, I have one advice -- don't be too rigid.

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water." -- Bruce Lee

The Analysis of French Schwa
Image from Jstor

Image from Wiktionary

For more articles on IPA, do visit my IPA page.

Vocabulary:

masseur -- (n)[C] a person whose job it is to give massages to people

typo -- (n)[C] informal a small mistake in a text made when it was typed or printed
fervent (also fervid) formal-- (adj) describes beliefs that are strongly and sincerely felt or people who have strong and sincere beliefs

authoritative -- (adj) containing complete and accurate information , and therefore respected

commonsensical -- (adj) the basic level of practical knowledge and judgement that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way

bound to do sth-- certain to do something; destined to do something.

foolproof -- (adj) (of a plan or machine ) so simple and easy to understand that it is unable to go wrong or be used wrongly

devour -- (vb)[T] to eat something eagerly and in large amounts so that nothing is left

trace -- (vb)[T] to find the origin of something
syllabification or syllabication -- (n)[U] the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken or written.

Resources:

IPA @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/search/label/IPA

IPA & Website: Peter Ladefoged's IPA Home Page @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2010/10/ipa-website-peter-ladefogeds-ipa-home.html

The History of English in 10 Minutes @ YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s

Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Cooking & Food: Battle Of The Udon -- Stage 3

Can anyone of the 4 udons dethrone the mighty ACE Sanuki Udon?
Image from Locky's English Playground

Surely, one will easily get hungry when watching soccer past midnight (HK time), getting sick of instant noodles? Maybe it is time for some "udoniousness", so back is our Cooking & Food: Battle Of The Udon -- Stage 3

First, a quick reminder the results from Stage 2:

Results from Stage 2

(Left to Rigth) ACE Sanuki Udon, ACE Japanese Udon (Hand-made Style), ACE Shikoku Sanuki Udon, Menyuraku Sanuki Zaru Udon Noodle, Japan Furusato Sodachi Udon Image from Locky's English Playground

Round 1 -- Price

Winner: ACE Shikoku Sanuki Udon -- HK$3.29/100g

Round 2 -- "Dry length" of udon noodle

Winners: ACE Sanuki Udon and ACE Japanese Udon -- 24.7cm and 24.5cm respectively

Round 3 -- Cooking time of the udon noodle

Winners: Menyuraku Sanuki Zaru Udon Noodle -- 6 mins

Round 4 -- The "Stretch" of the udon noodle

Winner: Menyuraku Sanuki Zaru Udon Noodle -- (25.8 - 20.2) / 20.2 x 100% = 27.7%

Round 5 -- Edibility!

Winner: ACE Sanuki Udon

Overall "Battle Of The 4 Udon" Stage 2 Winner !

ACE Sanuki Udon (again!)

And so ACE Sanuki Udon has won two battles in a row, although it may not be the tastiest udon or the cheapest, it is ranked way up there with the best, thus it really deserves to be the overall champion in both battles, but can it stand the 3rd test of time? Or will it finally be dethroned?

Let's kick off Battle Of The Udon -- Stage 3!!!

Here comes the new challengers!!!
Image from Locky's English Playground

This time round, we have 4 challengers for the two-time champion, Itsuki Hakata Udon is priced very close to ACE Sanuki Udon, Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type has an awesome-looking smooth non-glossy packaging, Yamamoto Seifun Udon is selling how its udon can be served hot and cold while forgetting to put the company logo in front, while Hato Dried Noodle Udon too, having no company name or logo, comes with a simplistic packaging.

Round 1 : Price-Per-100g!

ACE Sanuki Udon

Image from Locky's English Playground

Itsuki Hakata Udon
Image from Locky's English Playground

Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type
Image from Locky's English Playground

Yamamoto Seifun Udon
Image from Locky's English Playground

Hato Dried Noodle Udon
Image from Locky's English Playground

Like Stage 2, the udon prices are calculated according to the price bought.

In Stage 3, our four contestants from left to right, up then down, all bought from AEON / JUSCO Supermarket, are:

ACE Sanuki Udon, 400g, HK$19.9
Itsuki Hakata Udon, 400g, HK$20.9
Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type, 500g, HK$32.9
Yamamoto Seifun Udon, 400g, HK$21.9
Hato Dried Noodle Udon, 270g, HK$15.9

And the Price-Per-100g is listed below:

ACE Sanuki Udon -- HK$4.98/100g
Itsuki Hakata Udon -- HK$5.23/100g
Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type -- HK$6.58/100g
Yamamoto Seifun Udon -- HK$5.48/100g
Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- HK$5.89/100g

And what do you know, ACE Sanuki Udon is the most inexpensive udon this time round! I wonder how many shoppers will notice this price-per-100g figure before they buy?

Sorry, some udon have already been eaten before taking all subsequent photos, that is, a bunch is obviously missing from some packets
Image from Locky's English Playground

Congratulations to ACE Shikoku Sanuki Udon for grabbing the first win in Round 1! Looks like ACE Shikoku Sanuki Udon is off to a great start today!

Round 2: The "dry length" of udon noodle.

Here are the measurements:

ACE Sanuki Udon -- 24.5cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Itsuki Hakata Udon -- 19.9cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type -- 24.2cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Yamamoto Seifun Udon -- 19.2cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- 24.5cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

After measuring, the results are:

ACE Sanuki Udon -- 24.5cm
Itsuki Hakata Udon -- 19.9cm
Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type -- 24.2cm
Yamamoto Seifun Udon -- 19.2cm
Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- 24.5cm

When it comes to length, we have 3 udon very close in length with each other, and so I am going to award this one to 3 udons measured around the length of 24cm!

Congratulations to ACE Sanuki Udon, Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type and Hato Dried Noodle Udon for winning Round 2!

Round 3: Cooking time of the udon noodle

(Left to Right) ACE Sanuki Udon -- 10 mins, Itsuki Hakata Udon -- 15 mins, Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- 7 mins
Image from Locky's English Playground

(Left to Right) Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type -- 18 mins, Yamamoto Seifun Udon -- 10 mins
Image from Locky's English Playground

All together, the result is as follows:

ACE Sanuki Udon -- 10 mins
Itsuki Hakata Udon -- 15 mins
Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type -- 18 mins
Yamamoto Seifun Udon -- 10 mins
Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- 7 mins

Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type needs 18 mins for cooking? I really do not get it! Hato Dried Noodle Udon takes this one!

Congratulations to Hato Dried Noodle Udon for winning Round 3!

Round 4 of the battle is the "Stretch" of the udon noodle

the stretch of each udon!!! This time, apology to the missing close-ups photo of the Yamamoto Seifun Udon.

ACE Sanuki Udon -- 30.9cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Yamamoto Seifun Udon -- 25cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Itsuki Hakata Udon -- 25cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Itsuki Hakata Udon -- 27cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type -- 30.1cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- 29 cm
Image from Locky's English Playground

All together, the result is as follows:

ACE Sanuki Udon -- (30.9 - 24.5) / 24.5 x 100% = 26.1%
Itsuki Hakata Udon -- (27.0 - 19.9) / 19.9 x 100% = 35.7%
Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type -- (30.1 - 24.2) / 24.2 x 100% = 24.3%
Yamamoto Seifun Udon -- (25.0 - 19.2) / 19.2 x 100% = 30.2%
Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- (29.0 - 24.5) / 24.5 x 100% = 18.4%

From the percentage, we can see that, if you want to have more filling sensation but wants to lower the carb intake, you should go for Itsuki Hakata Udon with 35.7% increase in length! Another surprise is that Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type takes the longest time to cook but has almost the smallest percentage of "stretch".

Congratulations to Itsuki Hakata Udon for winning Round 4!

Round 5, the final round of the battle, is Edibility!

The judges here are my wife, who did not know which udon she would be eating, and I myself, with my wife's opinions taking the most weight. The whole process was recorded and typed out by me.

ACE Sanuki Udon -- toughest, taste slightly salty
Itsuki Hakata Udon -- tough, bland
Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type -- too soft, disgusting, very bland
Yamamoto Seifun Udon -- soft, like Chinese ho fun, taste bland
Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- tough, but not chewy, taste ok

And here's her rank:

Hato Dried Noodle Udon
ACE Sanuki Udon
The rest

Congratulations to Hato Dried Noodle Udon for winning Round 5!

I will now add my own opinions into the judgement and present to you my choice of Stage 3 winner, but before I reveal the answer, let me do a quick summary of our current winners:

Itsuki Hakata Udon -- Winner of Stretch
Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- Winner of Shortest Cooking Time
ACE Sanuki Udon, Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type and Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- Winners of Dry Length
Hato Dried Noodle Udon -- Winner of Edibility
ACE Sanuki Udon -- Winner of Price-Per-100g

I will have to say that this time round, the competition is not as tight as the previous 2 battles. We know that price is not everything when it comes to food, but surely, Ishimarus Futo-Udon/Thick type at HK$6.58/100g turns out to be the most expensive in terms of purchasing and use of gas in that 18 mins of cooking. Good packaging is now proven to be a poor reference to good udon.

Yamamoto Seifun Udon and Itsuki Hakata Udon, one word for them, mediocre.

The finalists boils down to ACE Sanuki Udon and Hato Dried Noodle Udon. ACE Sanuki Udon has shown us once again its positioning is among the most competitive in this aspect, at the other end, Hato Dried Noodle Udon is the most costly of the badge, whether being the smallest packet scares or attracts customers is an interesting research topic, but smaller packet does mean that it is going for the premium customers rather than general household consumers. Has it then reached that level of taste requirement of the premium customers then? The answer is definitely no.

And so, for the most consistent udon, we have, and yes, once again,

ACE Sanuki Udon wins 3 times in a row!!!
Image from Locky's English Playground

Congratulations to ACE Sanuki Udon 讃岐うどん for becoming Locky's English Playground, "Battle Of The Udon" Stage 3 Winner !

I am starting to think if there will be any other udon out there that can defeat the brilliant ACE Sanuki Udon.

There will be the Battle Of The Udon -- Stage 4, till then, I know which one is the best!

Vocabulary:

stand the test of time -- If something stands the test of time , it is still popular , strong , etc . after a long time

dethrone -- (vb)[T] to beat someone who is the best at something, especially a sport , and become the best yourself

Resources:

Cooking & Food: Battle Of The Udon -- Stage 1
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/07/cooking-food-battle-of-4-udon-stage-1.html

Cooking & Food: Battle Of The Udon -- Stage 2
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/07/cooking-food-battle-of-4-udon-stage-2.html

Tokyo Ramen
http://www.tokyo-ramen.com/

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/stand-the-test-of-time?q=stand+the+test+of+time
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/dethrone?q=dethrone+

Friday, 27 June 2014

World Cup News & Sports: Ronaldo's Portugal, Balotelli's Panini, the Rio Night & the Biter!

Portugal out, who's fault?
Image from ESPN

Just a few collection of articles and videos these few days, mainly World Cup related.

Here's what happened to Portugal last night, they are out. They played without teamwork, they played with Nani, Nani and Nani, and Cristiano Ronaldo did his best. Seriously, he did his best. Considering the performance he gave this morning, that he could still outrun and outjump some of the Nigerian players while he's still stuck with that knee injury, I think he has even outperformed himself! Sure he missed several good chances, but those chances are dead close to scoring, and he still scored one! Now that Portugal has lost, who is to blame? I think no one but CR7's club -- Real Madrid, for they over-exhausted him this season and failed to win La Liga.

Here's Mario Balotelli picking himself and only himself as the player to play every single position of the Italian team, self-centredness at its best:

Considerable work went into Mario Balotelli's Italy squad selection.
Photograph & Caption: Guardian

Here's what Rio de Janeiro looks like during a game of football when the Brazilian team plays:

Here's what happened to the guy who bite and the guy who was bitten:

Woke up by the baby at 6am this morning, dead tired. Still, time to return to researching.

Resources:
Mario Balotelli covers up Italy team with own sticker in Panini album
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/16/mario-balotelli-panini-italy-facebook-world-cup

Alzirão Brazil Fan Festa | Layla's World Cup @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/QFYIAPIalzU

Luis Suarez Bites Giorgio Chiellini @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/SCcgrSaoK9c

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

News & Sport: Suarez Bites, RoboJap, Big iPhone & LINE's 3rd Birthday

A Locky's English Playground production inspired by Luis Suarez's bite on Chiellini
Image from Locky's English Playground

Uruguay beating Italy? No surprise there. Italy failed to reach next round, a little surprise here, but still, none is more surprising to see Luis Suarez performing one of his best moves on the pitch again -- the Suarez Bite! This time his victim is Italy's Chiellini, who took his teeth by his left shoulder.

Hurt your teeth, Luis?
Image from telegraph

And as people say, three times a charm, to celebrate his third ever attempt, I created the Jurassic Park-like image above.

Delicious!!!
Image from bbci

Oh! So yummy! If you want to know what human flesh tastes like? You no longer need to ask Edward the vampire any more.

Skin deep
Image from independent

I wonder if he'll be banned for the rest of the World Cup.

L to R: Android robot Kodomoroid; Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro; Mamoru Mohri, the chief executive director of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation; Otonaroid, in Tokyo on June 24.

Caption and image from Mashable

We talked about Geminoid F in the past, now her sisters have arrived, and they are earned their jobs too! One being a newsreader, the other being a museum guide.

The future is just looking more and more awkwardly realistic (or realistically awkward)!

Image from Quartz

A research report says that potential iPhone 6 customers want bigger iPhone, I wonder why they bother to do this kind of research when Apple is already having their production underway and the large Android phones selling in millions.

Image from thenextweb

LINE's 3rd birthday has just past, but already they are one of Asia's largest and most popular Instant Messengers (as I have predicted since day 1)! Its stickers are incredibly cute and their games are becoming more and more addictive! My favourite of course, is LINE Rangers, seeing those cute little characters battling aliens are simply awesome! There are even forums, YouTube channels and blogs dedicated to this game and the players are from Taiwan, Thailand, USA, Hong Kong, basically across the globe!!

LINE Tee-shirts with Uniqlo
Image from Uniqlo HK

LINE is already printing tee-shirts with Uniqlo, and if they are going to make plush toys for each of the characters, they are going to make cargo loads more cash!

Here's Panic Button's LINE Rangers blog and her LINE Rangers YouTube Channel, highly recommended if you want to learn to play the game well and learn some English terms while practising your listening skills!

Okay, that's about everything I wanted to share for now! Back to PhD researching!

Vocabulary:
three times a charm -- (proverb) One is sure to succeed at a task or event on the third try
underway -- (adj)[after verb] If something is underway, it is happening now

Resources:
Living: Close Encounter With Geminoid F 2012 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/04/living-close-encounter-with-geminoid-f.html

Luis Suarez appears to bite Chiellini @ Soccernet
http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1909019/uruguays-luis-suarez-appears-to-bite-italys-giorgio-chiellini

Japan's New Robot Museum Guides Are All Too Human @ Mashable
http://mashable.com/2014/06/24/japans-new-robots-are-scary/

Most people want a bigger iPhone—some are even willing to pay extra for it @ Quartz
http://qz.com/225557/most-people-want-a-bigger-iphone-some-are-even-willing-to-pay-extra-for-it/

As it turns three, Line reveals its family of apps has chalked up over 1 billion downloads @ TNW
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/06/24/as-it-turns-three-line-reveals-its-family-of-apps-has-chalked-up-over-1-billion-downloads/

Uniqlo
http://www.uniqlo.com/hk/

Line Rangers Stage 119 Free Clear (new) - English Voice @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/0gQa1hDxQ9Y

Panic Button's LINE Rangers YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0G47SUBSGS-N-pLuNHeDrg

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/third_time's_a_charm
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/underway?q=underway

Friday, 20 June 2014

Sports & Opinions: Some Thoughts About World Cup 2014 So Far

Fred appealing for a penalty even before his buttocks hit the ground
Image from ESPN

I guess it is not right not to talk about the World Cup when the entire world has now more or less come to a stagnation just for a game of soccer ball. And actually, I have done pretty much nothing these days other than doing housework, taking care of my baby, preparing tonnes of lecture notes, doing very little research and watching one soccer game every day.

And so, here are my views:

Brazil 3-1 Croatia

Lady Luck practically sat on the head of the Brazilian team, maybe she had even cast a penalty charm on the eyes of the Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura when Fred performed a kid-in-slide on Croatian centre-back Dejan Lovren's body. I like Brazil, but I hate diving!!! Did Fred really take Eric Cantona's advice -- "Never grow up, my friends"? So much for Joga Bonito!

Before the penalty wrongly granted, the game was 50-50 and Croatia could have been able to win it.

Netherlands 5-1 Spain

The score was not as good as it looked for the Oranje until Robin van Persie's brilliant flying header! And what do you know, his move has got a name right after that goal, called "Persieing"!

It was so amazing that it made "San Iker" looked dumb. That was his third biggest mistakes since the Champions League final last month, then his fourth and fifth came soon after.

Casillas was practically non-existed in front of goals as van Persie and Robben literally toyed with the Spanish goalkeeper. Whose fault? Not his, but manager Del Bosque's. He should not have played Casillas in the first place, the man was barely used by his club all season. How do you expect someone so lack of form to defend such high quality attacks?

England 1-2 Italy

Andrea Pirlo with his magnificent control and passing
Image from soccerbyives

Goals are always good, but the best of this game is not the goals, but Andrea Pirlo. Every player was expected to play for the full 90 minutes, many English players suffered cramps due to the heat, but none of the Italians had similar problems. The most incredible of all, was that the 35-year-old Italian playmaker was so fit and sharp throughout the game with his dead accurate passing that he made all youngsters look old and incompetent. The Italian's incredibly high successful passing rate as compared to the English's made all the difference. More good passes, less redundant runs. It is physics, the conservation of energy.

Ivory Coast 2 - 1 Japan

Nagatomo's sliding tackle
Image from soccerbyives

Japan's passing just did not connect, especially those coming from Kagawa. I have no idea what made him famous judging by his performance. He just kept given away possessions cheaply. Honda's goal was of great quality though.

Pity. I supported Japan in this match.

Argentina 2-1 Bosnia-Herzegovina

Messi's goal
Image from whoateallthepies

First World Cup goal for Messi in 8 years, good. Nice good from him? Yeah, but not great by his standard. Other than his goal, Argentina was a lot of individualism, very few connected passes and a very poor Kun Aguero. The Argentine never looked united or spirited to me. They were lucky to have won the match. Judging by their game, they definitely do not look like they can make it to the final. It was in fact the most boring match so far in the World Cup. Should have watched France VS Honduras instead.

Germany 4 - 0 Portugal

A walking Cristiano Ronaldo all match means Portugal will lose, definitely . No one will blame CR7 because everyone knows he was injured, he still is. The Germans are just too organised and well-teamed up for Portugal, or even for Brazil. So far, the strongest team I have seen in this World Cup. Muller simply knew where the ball will end up. Amazing!

Brazil 0 - 0 Mexico

The Brazilian team did not improve since the previous match. Mexico played really well though! With the god-like performance from the Mexican keeper Ochoa, I thought that Brazil will lose, and they should have!

With Ochoa out of contract from the club, he is one hot bargain for sure!

Spain 0 - 2 Chile

Eduardo Vargas scored an excellent goal and he is up for sale at his club
Image from dailymail

George Bush once said, "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." Of course, this is a very wrong saying, but I cannot use the correct one on Del Bosque because the wrong version fits his disastrous tactics perfectly.

The most "wrongest" move he made was to keep his faith in Casillas. I knew, many knew, that if Casillas played, it would be bye bye Espanol, and the match would be very entertaining too! Though I still chose to watch Australia VS Netherlands, I did not miss the highlight. So Barcelona wants to sell Alexis Sanchez? Eduardo Vargas is also for sale? For real? I seriously think that Inter Milan should get the pair.

Netherlands 3 - 2 Australia

Robben celebrating his goal
Image from cmgdigital

The Dutch thought the Aussie would be easier than the Spanish, and they were wrong. The Aussie were strong! The Dutch's passing was not as fluid as in the previous match. Lucky that the manager van Gaal knows his stuff and made Sneijder the key playmaker in the second half, so the Dutch regained more possessions and enjoyed some deadly through-passes from him. As usual, Robben was superb! That being said, Cahill is one very good striker and he should be playing in Europe!

My prediction for the following matches are:

Italy beating Costa Rica, France beats Switzerland, Argentina beats Iran, Germany beats Ghana, Belgium beats Russia, USA beats Portugal, Netherlands draws Chile.

So much for now.