Was it the Jabulani!

So England managed to scrape a draw against the US tonight. "Fantastic" I say - through gritted teeth. The American's equaliser was one of the worst blunders in world cup history. The ball was trundling towards the English goal with about as much venom as a Bangladeshi 'slower ball'. Little Ffion could have stopped it. But the West Ham keeper, Robert Green just let it roll on by. Perhaps he's read so much about the way the Jabulani swerves and swings that he was completely taken aback when it just rolled straight up to him. Adidas reckon the Jabulani is the 'roundest ball' ever made with a 'grip and groove' texture that gives it unmatched flight characteristics. Tell Robert Green that.

Pleased to see that Wayne Rooney stayed on the pitch. It seems that there's a crackdown on profane language at this world cup, and our Wayne is reputed to curse like an Irish jockey with a thistle in his pants. Read somewhere that the referees have been mugging up on English swear words, hoping to catch Wayne out. But do they know what these words sound like in Liverpudlian? Perhaps Wayne has learned to do his cursing in Welsh, though this is not guaranteed to be successful. When Malaysian negotiaters needed to communicate with each other during peace discussions with Indonesia in the 1960s, they completely fooled the eavesdroppers by speaking to each other in Welsh. They had both been students at Aberystwyth. The Brazilian referee tonight might easily have been an ex-Aber man.

I'm overcome with uncertainty about what attitude to strike when watching England play in South Africa. Normally its quite straight forward for any Celt. We just back whoever's playing England. Nothing to do with not liking the English. Its always been like that - a 'Big Brother' thing. Bit like the Milibands I suppose. Anyway this time, David Cameron has stuck an English flag up in Downing St. and told us all to back England. I almost choked on my bara brith. Well OK, but on one condition. If Wales reach the semis of the rugby world cup next year, and the other home nations are out, I want the Welsh flag up on No 10. Deal?