Here a re-publish of my latest Telegraph blog for the World Cup.

This isn’t a match report, if you want that – please click  here. No this is a blogger’s perspective of 95 minutes of excitement from this afternoon!

I tweeted earlier on @jandsworldcup that the World Cup hadn’t started for me yet. It had threatened to, with New Zealand nicking a point with a last gasp goal. There have also been some good performances like the North Koreans and like Chile earlier this afternoon – but there hasn’t been a game to really kick start the championship. Well, that should now be hadn’t, because this early evening’s game has DEFINITELY kick started it!

I watched the match on TV expecting a pretty dour defensive game, with the odd foray from the Spanish – but it was far from that. It’s true that the Spanish won all the statistics in possession, shots on goal, corners etc., but they didn’t win the one statistic that REALLY matters – scoring goals!

The Spanish played some really nice tippy tappy football in the first half, but didn’t really threaten – that was partly to do with the Swiss being very well organised at the back. The goalkeeper looked a little vulnerable, (resists obvious comment!), however I thought the defence were immense.

There were a number of surperb tackles, clinically executed like a Swiss surgeon! This included a couple of sliding tackles that if were miss-timed, could well have resulted in a red card! Taking that into consideration, I did feel that the Swiss deserved to be level at the break.

The second half was terrific. The was some wonderful football, both goal’s woodwork was hit but it was the Swiss who scored. A break away and a through ball and a clinical finish – well not quite. The first bit was true, but the Swiss who are renown for their precision, actually seemed like they didn’t want to score. I think it took 4 attempts before the ball ended up in the net.

That moment resulted in only the third time I have actually cheered out loud when a goal has been scored at this championship!

From then on, the Swiss were under the cosh. Wave after wave of Spanish attacks came forward like the tide coming in on the Costa-Coastline! It looked like only a matter of time before they equalised. At one point in the game, I tweeted that the Swiss had changed their defensive formation, to the siege formation of 8-1-1! Talk about park the bus, they were trying to park the Eiger!

In truth, the Spanish did have enough chances to get a point, well actually, to win. But as we all know, you don’t get anything for possession and chances, you HAVE to score goals. The Swiss however had a couple of decent chances to finish the match off and with a little more composure, it could have been even more embarrassing for the Spanish.

My first blog ended me saying that you can call me cuckoo, but I had a feeling that the Swiss may well qualify. Well, I’m sure you’ll forgive me feeling a bit smug this evening!

Bring on the World Cup!

Just to finish, one of my twitter and Joys and Sorrows friends, tweeted something that I thought would finish this blog off nicely. So, a quick mention to Nicole, thanks for allowing me to use this.

If anything, proves there is nobody to fear. Play to your own strengths and capitalise on their weaknesses. Nobody is unbeatable!