Paul Watson readies the family for the Algarve

 Day 6: Tuesday 15 June 2004

Beautiful day yesterday.  Blue skies.  My dad' s birthday, we have a nice Chinese meal.  Our baby can say baba, veveveve, yuyuyuyu and dadadada.  One the way to my dad's house, I listen with horror to the noise in the back of the car, my wife has taught it to say va va va vroom.  What am I supposed to do?  Hey Bobby, what is ze French for "go without them"?

Tomasz Radzinski has asked for a transfer.  What do we do?  I don't know.  We need to get the debt down, but losing good players will send us down.

I got a result right.  Linderoth 5 - 0 Bulgaria.  Something happens to the Swedes when they get that yellow shirt on, average players seem to become world beaters.  Toby had a good game; our English ref didn't.  Best cross and finish, Edman and Larsson.  That was a fantastic goal, best yet.  Sporting (who play in green and white hoops) have got a nice stadium.  It is strange to see the moat around the pitch.  Ljungberg looked offside for the first goal, Ibrahamovic was not.  Ljungberg took a dive for the penalty, he ran across the defender.  It was a flattering result for the Swedes, but the Arsenal antics leave a bad taste in the mouth.  Bulgaria look like a decent side to me, maybe this is the group of death.  One thing that this game showed, is that although you may have a good performance, you have got to take your chances.  Larsson was outstanding.

Italy v Denmark.  First, Totti is a great player, but they must ban him for that challenge, he could have finished the Dane's career.  Second, Trapandpony is a buffon.  His 0-0 tactics are shocking, football has changed mate, retire.  Italy have the players, get them playing football.  Denmark survived this tricky fixture without their best player — our very own Tommy Grav, his tournament starts on Friday at 5 in Braga.  Sorensen looks the best keeper so far.  Villa paid nothing for him.  I shared a taxi with some Sunderland fans to the game a few seasons ago, we chatted.  I asked them who they thought their best players were, they said the whole squad was crap apart from Phillips and Sorensen.  They didn't mention Kilbane.  He has been pretty solid for us this year.

Tonight is Group D.  The Czechs are good, they will win all three games.  What Holland, Germany or Latvia do is anyone's guess.  Holland seem to be in self destruct mode, Kluivert is teaching the squad about lifestyle issues, van Hooijdonk is teaching them about motivation.  Germany don't like losing, but I think they are focussed on 2006.  The Latvians won their last qualifier in Sweden and then beat Turkey, but a new team usually loses all three matches.  Predictions (I shouldn't do this): easy win for the Czechs and a draw for Germany v Holland in Porto. I'd love to be at that game.

Last night, 11 arrested on the Algarve for allegedly throwing chairs and bottles. Stupid, but you never know what really happened.  If it kicks off, I'll scarper.   Why plastic chairs.

Faro five-day forecast: 32 C up until Friday. 24 C on Saturday.  Just takes some of the edge off my smugness.

Today is the day to do some essential holiday shopping.  Two hours round TK-maxx.  I go back to the car, we'll meet up in Sports and Soccer.  I go to the car, then to SaS.  Can't see them, I listen carefully, can't hear a vuvuvoom.  They are in shop next to TK-maxx, can't she walk past a shop without going in.  We go into Sports and Soccer, they have the amber Kejian shirts for £10.  Another result!  Can't think of anything else we might need. 

Paul Watson