Neville Dalton is a journalist with the BBC News website and a
So Harry thinks it was a dull World Cup.
Didn't see enough of the matches to comment, but I must admit I grew disappointed after the excitement and quality goals I saw in a few of the early group games.
Spotted plenty of individuals who made me think: “They could light up Fratton Park.”
But of those whom I saw more than once, I'm afraid many looked more like they had been lighting up a few fags by their second or third outings.
Still, I'm sure one or two could certainly enhance the Pompey squad – and I'm not talking about the real top stars who presumably would be out of even Sasha's financial range!!
I wrote a few weeks ago about the gap between so-called world-class players and those who shine at the world's premier football event.
They're certainly not always the same thing.
See below for a look at how my world-class XI on the eve of the tournament compares with a team comprising players who caught my eye over the past four weeks.
In the meantime, here are a few thoughts on lessons learned during Germany 06.
Cheating is worse than ever.
This is not a new phenomenon – nor is it just “a foreign problem”.
But it is a problem.
Now, it seems, no one is immune – and that's very bad news for the game.
It's not nice; it's not fair, but it has now become so entrenched that many of us appear to have accepted it as a necessary evil in our game.
I'm not one of them. It's an insidious sore that is reducing the value of the sport, leaving success almost as much at the mercy of the quality of cheating as of the footballing skills of the players.
I expect it to continue to prevail next season, but I dearly would love to see referees act, backed by the FA, the Football League and the managers.
A player's misdemeanours will be condemned by commentators and my colleagues in the media on a scale based loosely on the quality and popularity of the perpetrator.
Consider David Beckham's treatment after his petulant (but hardly violent) kick at Diego Simeone.
Fast-forward to Wayne Rooney's relatively light treatment among fans and media for an apparently similar action a few weeks ago.
I must add that I don't believe anyone but Rooney knows whether he intended his foot to land where it did – and under no circumstances can anyone justifiably call it a stamp – and the way he was being fouled simultaneously by two Portuguese meant that with the best will in the world, he could not keep his balance.
But given that the referee deemed it violent conduct; Sven-Goran Eriksson did not complain, and the bulk of football watchers seemed to agree, Rooney seems to have got off relatively lightly – especially considering that England again went on to lose.
Instead, the venom has been directed largely at Cristiano Ronaldo for rushing to the referee to make sure he knew what had happened.
Don't get me wrong, I find this type of activity as contemptible as the other forms of cheating and gamesmanship that blight much of the game. But his was no different from the actions of numerous other players throughout the tournament – and, I might add, is not unknown on Premiership grounds.
I do have a sneaking feeling that the referee bottled it and actually took red-card action after Ronaldo's intervention. But the fact is, he considered it a deliberate act by Rooney – and if that's the case, the England man is surely more deserving of criticism than Ronaldo.
Then consider Thierry Henry, one of the greatest players I've ever seen “live” and someone who has an excellent rapport with Pompey fans.
He is also highly regarded by the British media, which may explain why the furore over his dives that earned France two valuable goals in the tournament quickly subsided.
Less of an “offence” than Ronaldo's, or is it just that Ronaldo is so easy to hate?
And so to the farewell to end all farewells… Zinedine Zidane's assault on Marco Materazzi was a violent, inexcusable attack that would have earned the assailant a serious punishment if it had happened on the street.
It was not part of the rough and tumble of the modern game. It was not the result of a mistimed or over-zealous challenge.
It was a pre-meditated butt by a man who was neither being physically attacked nor under threat of being attacked.
Yet apart from the general criticism of the shame with which he took his leave of professional football, there has been more focus on how he might have been provoked.
Almost certainly Materazzi must have said something insulting to elicit such a response. But surely that can never be an excuse in a civilised society, still less on a sporting field.
Footballers spend whole games winding up opponents, maligning their families (ask David Beckham), taunting them over their sexuality and questioning their parentage (among other things).
It's not nice; it's hardly adult behaviour, but it goes on. And it doesn't lead to head-butts every week.
Imagine if the perpetrator had been Robbie Savage, Lucas Neill or (think back) the great Mick Kennedy.
Would the focus have been on how the poor lad was wound up, or would we be told the thug should be booted out of the game for a very long time?
England players are just as skilful as any other country's.
Unfortunately, they rarely proved it when it counted.
We all know what Wayne Rooney can do – and he showed glimpses of it at the World Cup, despite not being match-fit and despite the inexplicable team tactics, which would never bring the best out of him.
But Joe Cole has now confirmed what many of us already suspected – that he, too, is a world-class player with an outstanding array of skills.
Steve Gerrard, too, has such ability, and Frank Lampard has displayed similar quality against Premiership and European opposition.
But both, by and large, failed to reach such levels in the cauldron of the World Cup finals.
Which brings me to another point…
There is more than one way of playing with a single striker.
You can play with a deeper-lying attacking player.
You can support the front man with two wider forwards flitting between midfield and attack.
Or you can lump five people in midfield, with little expectation of any of them getting forward to support the lone striker.
Of course, there is the radical alternative of actually playing with more than a single striker (at the same time!), although such a tactic might leave the manager vulnerable to accusations that he wants his team to score goals – and thereby possibly win matches before they reach penalties.
How I hope Harry's philosophy continues to be the one he encouraged in the last part of last season.
Slow, deliberate build-up does not suit England.
We may have the personnel, but we do not have the experience.
We are more suited to playing at speed, playing our way out of trouble with slick, quick, one-touch passing than to ambling around, telegraphing passes to static colleagues, depriving us of the momentum needed to outwit canny opponents.
Yes, it was hot and the players had to conserve energy. But they played much the same way whatever time of day they were playing and whoever they were playing against.
Slow starts are not necessarily an indication of how a country will fare in a tournament.
It's worth reminding ourselves of that the next time a fancied country finds itself needing to win its last group match to stay in a competition, or the next time a country tears another apart in the early stages of the group phase.
Brazil always had another gear or two in reserve, we were told; Argentina would be the team to beat in the semi-finals; Spain really might make it all the way this time.
Italy looked no great shakes when they were held by the USA in their second group match, having been less than impressive in beating Ghana.
And as for France – no one gave their ageing squad a hope when they kicked off against mighty Togo needing to win to progress to the knockout stages.
However, one thing that was never in doubt in my mind as I watched England struggle for much of the games against Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago – they would have to improve substantially if they were to have a hope of being involved at the big boys' end of the World Cup.
Unfortunately, they never did.
Team of the tournament.
I didn't see enough of the other games to be sure that I'm picking the players who performed the very best in their respective positions, but here is a team comprising players who impressed me, proving that world rankings are not always the best measure of tournament players:
Ricardo
Zambrotta – Cannavaro – Thuram – Babic
Camoranesi – Yaya Toure – Ballack – Rosicky
Klose – Torres
Only World Cup-winning captain Cannavaro and Ballack survive from the players I picked as a World XI at the beginning of the tournament:
Cech
Cafu – Nesta – Cannavaro – Sorin
Riquelme – Makelele – Ballack – Nedved
Ronaldinho – Henry.
And finally…
Keep Brian Priske!