The Semis

The World Cup semi finals kick off tonight with France and Spain going to battle. That'll be followed by tomorrow night's England .vs. Argentina game.

Going by the betting, France are favourites to get the win over the Spanish. I don't find that surprising. It's a result I would prefer, because I'd like France to win the entire tournament. However, I could see this one going to penalties in a low-scoring game. 

That could be famous last words on my part, but I am imagining Spain's defence being key to this game.

As for England .vs. Argentina - the bookies have England as favourites. This could be a negative-bias on my part, but I feel Argentina should be favoured.

England have pulled out some good results, but they've done so by having their backs to the wall on numerous occasions in the playoff portion of the tournament. That luck, some might call 'resilience', will run out eventually.

Will it?!

With that stated, Argentina came close to being ousted by Egypt and had to take Switzerland to extra time in the quarter finals. 

Maybe the bookies know better than I do.

Sam Neill Passes Away

I've just found out that Sam Neill has passed away.

It was only a few months ago when he declared he was cancer free.

F**k Cancer.

Neill leaves behind an amazing library of film work. 

Jurassic Park is the obvious one because of how popular that franchise is to this very day. However, there are so many other films. For example - Dead Calm stands out to me.

Another one which makes me smile is Hunt for the Wilderpeople. I haven't seen it, but I recall Sam Neill and his co-star, Julian Dennison, doing promo work for it. They made an appearance on BBC's The One Show. A young Dennison hysterically upstaged his colleague. It was so funny. Neill took it very well.

G1 36 Kicks Off

I had to avoid the Internet for most of the day because I didn't want to bump into any spoilers for the first night of the G1 Climax.

My mission went well. I didn't see anything, so all the results were fresh when I managed to see everything by this afternoon.

Going in, I was kind of not as all-in as I usually would be for a G1. However, now that one day is crossed off, I feel slightly submerged.

With last night's tournament kick off taking place in Chicago, the participants will resume action in Japan starting this coming Saturday. It's a 9:00 AM start for those in the BST time zone.

Thoughts About Ann Widdecombe's Death

I was somewhat shocked to hear of Ann Widdecombe's passing, when I first learned of it yesterday. 

'Somewhat' is the operative word. I assumed she had died due to an illness or from natural causes. After all, she was in her late-70s. An easy conclusion, no?

With that all stated, imagine how stunned I was when it was later reported Widdecombe's death is now being treated as murder.

Even if you disliked Widdecombe's politics, you cannot argue that she didn't stick to her beliefs. 

You also cannot argue that the murder of an elderly lady is an abhorrent crime. 

Today's American Football Trivia Question Was Easy

There was an easy question on today's page of my Year of Football Trivia calendar.

It asks 'Which famous action-movie star and former pro wrestler is an owner of the UFL spring football league?'

They have Hulk Hogan, Dave Bautista, John Cena, Dwayne Johnson and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin as the possible answers.

The correct option is Dwayne Johnson. He, and his partners, merged the XFL with the USFL - to create the UFL - in late 2023.

A Super Bowl LXI Gamble Inspired By Lindy's 2026

As I mentioned, back on June 15th, the 2026 issue of Lindy's Pro Football Preview Guide has been published.

My copy arrived that morning with Seattle's Sam Darnold on the cover.

In today's post, I'm going to give away a spoiler from the publication because a betting opportunity has arisen from it.

Each year, the writers of the yearbook dedicate one of the earlier pages to predicting which teams will compete for the Vince Lombardi Trophy at the conclusion of the season. For Super Bowl LXI, they guess the Los Angles Rams will defeat the Cincinnati Bengals.

That scenario will be a repeat of Super Bowl LVI, which saw the Rams beat the Bengals 23-20 on February 13th 2023.

Oh, and another wrinkle:  the 2023 game was played at SoFi Stadium. Guess where Super Bowl LXI is going to emanate from? Yep, the Rams' home once again.

As mentioned above, there's a betting opportunity that is available for this result.

Some bookies might have an exact forecast on the Super Bowl result. Bet365, for example, is offering odds of 60/1 for the Rams to win the big one over the Bengals.

I've placed a £1 punt on it for a laugh.

Another thing I've done is gambled on the Bengals to reverse the result from the conclusion of the 2022 season and beat the Rams in Los Angeles. That was 100/1.

The fact I've only put £1 on each option should indicate just how much I consider this a crapshoot. 

I have published my own preview for the 2026 Pro Football season. You can read all about it IN THIS POST.

Catch Up Time

There aren't any World Cup games tonight. 

It'll be the first day, since the tournament began, without something to watch.

I'm not complaining. Well, not completely. 

You should see all the TV programmes I need to catch up on. I have a stack built up because of the football.