Bloemfontein, South Africa – Frank Lampard’s First half goal in Sunday’s 4-1 loss to Germany, not given in spite of the ball bouncing around half a meter over the goal line, recalled Geoff Hurst’s notoriously questionable strike when the two countries met in the 1966 World Cup final.

In a strange twist, Hurst’s extra time shot, which like Lampard’s effort came off the cross-bar, instead seemed not to have crossed the line. It was, nevertheless, adjudged a goal and it paved the way for England’s ultimate 4-2 win in Wembley.

Sunday’s event in Bloemfontein came 44-years afterwards and amid increasing calls for the use of goal line technology, including sensors, to guide referees and their assistants. However, world football’s governing body FIFA has steadfastly refused to install the technology.

‘We want to keep football as a game of the people with a human face, so we don’t want technology on the field of play because we want to maintain the spontaneity of football – played, administered and controlled by human beings,’ FIFA President Sepp Blatter said before the start of the 2010 World Cup.

The world football supremo additionally said he thought the ‘tremendous preparations programmes’ that World Cup referees had endured in the run-up to the tournament would avoid big errors being made.

Yet the Bloemfontein error by Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda and his assistants may now serve to hasten the introduction of sensors as well as other technology-assisted measures.

These could include instant video replays allowing referees to review incidents during the course of a match.

It may help that Larrionda’s mistake instantly reverberated around the world media.

‘Scandal of the World Cup,’ said Spanish sports daily Marca’s website – a sentiment echoed, using the same phrase, by Italian daily La Repubblica.

Even the Germans could do nothing but confess the Uruguayan match official’s mistake.

‘The referee’s assistant should have seen it, it was clearly a goal,’ said former team boss Franz Beckenbauer on German television.

In the World Cup final 44 years ago, Hurst scored for England with the ball bouncing out having come down on the goal line but Azerbaijani linesman Tofik Bakhramov said the ball crossed the line and granted the goal.

Fortune favoured England in 1966 but this time the luck was against them with Der Spiegel saying: ‘Wembley is back, only the reverse of 1966.’

Despite his talk of accepting human imperfection, Blatter has not closed the door entirely to the use of technology.

‘Technology on the field of play is put on ice. It is not out forever,’ Blatter said.

The World Cup Bets have neen changing dramtically since England have  been knocked out, with Germany shooting up the list of favourites.

Jamie Carragher has offered one reason for England’s World Cup woe – his own return from international exile.

The Liverpool veteran had last played for England in June 2007 but was lured out of international retirement by Fabio Capello amid injury concerns in defence.

Carragher replaced Ledley King at half-time in the Group C opener against the USA, when the Three Lions had to settle for a 1-1 draw before turning in a dismal display against Algeria.

A 0-0 draw on Friday means England, among the pre-tournament favourites, must now beat Slovenia to be sure of just reaching the second round.

Carragher is suspended for the game having picked up a second booking against Algeria, but the 32-year-old joked that could be a blessing following England’s stuttering start.

“It’s very difficult to put your finger on,” he said.

“We did really well in qualifying so I think maybe I’m the problem coming back!

“They seemed to be fine when I was watching the qualifying. It’s just not happening at the moment.

“Obviously we have a chance to put it right after two disappointing results and two disappointing performances. There’s still all to play for.”

England face Slovenia in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday and a point would be enough for the surprise group leaders to book their place in the last 16 having beaten Algeria 1-0 before drawing 2-2 with the USA.

Last night the host nation fo the world cup were delat a cruel blow, after drawing their first game against Mexico in a rather exciting game they took on Uruguay who also drew their first game of the tournament. Bafana Bafana (~SOuth Africa) went into the gmae full of confidence but they were soon humbled after Diego Forlans defelcted shot found the back of the net mid way through the first half. Urugua ended up running out 3-0 winners and were considerably better than the host nation. this means that South Africa will need to win the finally group game and rely on other results going their way to get through.

Here are the world cup odds after the 1st round of group matches

9-2 Brazil
5 Spain (from 7/2)
11-2 Argentina (from 6)
15-2 Germany
15-2 Netherlands
8 England
14 Italy
25 France
28 Portugal

Forget the USA-England rivalry; the real fight brewing at the World Cup is not over soccer, but the vuvuzela, the plastic horn that when blown correctly makes a very loud and drawn out sound.

Supporters say it’s an inspiring cacophony, but critics say it sounds like a swarm of bees, drowning out fans, commentators, national anthems and generally ruining the World Cup experience for everyone.

FIFA , the soccer-governing body in charge of the World Cup, is under pressure to ban the noise-maker. It said in a statement that for now it will only outlaw vuvuzelas if they become a physical hazard, such as if fans throw the horns on the field, but that it “continues to evaluate the use of vuvuzelas on an on-going basis.”

The football odds have the vuvuzelas to be banned at 4/1

England have released their official world cup song, and the man behind it is none other than the multi-millionaire music producer Simon Cowell. The song was performed by Dizzee Rascal and James Corden on Saturday’s final of Britain Got Talent, where over 8million people watched it. Here is the live performance

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCEXdv0sdBw&feature=related]

Dizzee and James will both be following the livescores throughout the world cup, as well as keeping track of their single in the charts.

England were favourites to win both friendly games this week, and they proved the football odds right with wins against Mexico and Japan. The games were used as run-outs for the players which Fabio Capello may take to the world cup. Here are the highlights of both games, you can make your own assumptions of the final 23 man squad which is to be announced later today.

England v Mexico (24/05/10)

Fast Tube by Casper

England v Japan (30/05/10)

Fast Tube by Casper