Great. The World Cup has started. The opening ceremony was on yesterday. We decided not to watch it. From the clips we saw on the news later we were right to do so.

Why do they bother? I’ve never understood what the opening (and closing) ceremonies are all about for things like the Olympics. Still, if it keeps some people happy then so be it.

Today was the first game for England. Sky News had a clock counting down to kick off today. They’d already had helicopters following the team as they left their English hotel to catch the flight to Germany. They had reporters and cameras parked outside the German hotel. It is typically over-the-top.

By the end of that game most people watching would have been wishing for a helicopter to take them away. To call it boring would be too kind. The BBC commentators didn’t help much to be honest. Mark Lawrenson was a part of many great nights for Liverpool supporters as a player, but we didn’t have to listen to him speak then.

Our enthusiasm for the World Cup is strangely low this time around. Not sure why, but it’s just not doing it for us. Maybe we’ll feel better once we get to the last group games, when it really does get exciting. Seeing an underdog show the big boys that football is indeed a funny old game will be fun. Seeing an unknown talent emerge will be exciting. It will get better, and by the time it’s over we’ll feel there’s a big hole appeared in our lives. In fact we’ll know we are hooked when the tournament has its first “day off” later on in proceedings. By then we’ll be calling for the introduction of an under-21 tournament to be played alongside the main event just so we don’t get days without games.

And that brings us, loosely, onto our next gripe. Just like there aren’t enough games in the World Cup, there aren’t enough games in Premiership football. The big (usually in more ways than one) boys with all the football power keep telling us there are too many. Nonsense. We used to get 42 league games in a season, that’s now down to 38, the powers-that-be want it cut to 34.

Why? Basically to let them fit more international games in. They aren’t daft - they make a lot of money from internationals, not a penny from domestic fixtures. I’d rather see the World Cup scrapped than lose any more domestic matches. And I’m not the only one, so I suggest those powers-that-be think before they tell the supporters what they want.

It’s been a few weeks since we last posted here, maybe as long ago as a month. Ok, as long ago as a month. We’ve not posted as much on the anfieldroad.com site itself as we’d like to recently for one reason or another, but we’ll try and put that right now.

At least Liverpool won the FA Cup during the time since we last posted, and the goal that forced extra time was later voted goal of the season. A good season ended in a great way for the Reds, the gap on Chelsea down to just nine points and Rafa managing with far from a complete set of players.

Close-season is the time when we just hate reading the papers. Cricket moves to the back pages. Transfer speculation fills the columns that are devoted to football. The fact this is a World Cup year at least keeps football at a higher profile than say last summer, but it’s just not the same.

Based in England, all our press is interested in is Wayne Rooney’s metatarsal. Or at least they were until the middle of this week. That’s when Crouchamania (as some call it) ran wild. Crouch has been an Anfield hero, some would say cult hero, since becoming a Red just under a year ago. England fans weren’t convinced though, nor were the press. It’s his size you see - people don’t like anything that is different. That’s pretty much why racism has been such a problem in England (and elsewhere) for so long.

This week though, he did something with the England fans that he did very quickly with Reds fans. He won them over. Liverpool fans already knew about his robotic dancing at the Beckham party the previous weekend. Even though most Reds fans wouldn’t even have watched the program on ITV, it soon spread around forums and inevitably these days, You-Tube. So it was no surprise to Liverpool fans when he did that celebration after scoring against Hungary - we were just delighted at the guts on him to do that.

England (the country) went Crouch crazy. Songs have been penned. Videos have been made. Graphics have been drawn. Then he only went and got a hat trick against Jamaica didn’t he? Eriksson said he’ll probably start now for England in the first World Cup match. Let’s hope he also finds a place for Jamie Carragher, who had another good game for England, although like Gerrard earlier in the week, wasn’t in his real position.

With the Crouchamania running wild, and the expected influence of Liverpool’s Spanish trio (Xabi, Luis and Pepe) in the Germany tournament, not to mention Harry Kewell for the Socceroos, we’re hoping for a better close season than normal. To us the World Cup is like a long-running testimonial tournament or series of charity games. It’s great to watch it (sometimes), but it’s not the real thing. That starts in August for us, with the Charidee (Community) Shield  - against the team nobody likes any more, Chelsea. And we’d be pretty pleased if we were fielding the scorer of the winning goal in the World Cup final. Doesn’t matter which one of ours that is, as long as it’s one of ours.

So, for now, maybe the close-season won’t be a bore. Well, not until July anyway.