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And we have been drawn into group C for the qualifying phase of World Cup 2010 along with the following teams:

USA
Algeria
Slovenia

On paper that looks like quite an easy group, but as we all know there is no such thing as an easy game at the world cup but I like to think that we would prevail in this group.

Anybody on my friends list on here on Facebook?

Are you on Cafe World?

If so please add me as a neighbour. I am addicted!

Merlin Series Two Episodes Five and Six "Beauty and the Beast"
The next two episodes form the first two part story to feature in Merlin and I must admit that it works really well, the story is given time to breathe as are the characters introduced for the story itself, and I hope that they do more two part stories in the future - which is odd as I normally hate waiting a whole week for the conclusion of a story particularly in Doctor Who but that is from years of having the whole story available to enjoy in one go rather than having to wait weeks for the story to be complete like I did as a child and before the first BBC Videos came out. Anyway I am digressing the gist of this two parter is that a troll uses a magic potion to disguise herself as a princess who then bewitches Uther into falling in love with her and then ultimately making her heir to the throne of Camelot by turning Uther against his only son. Sarah Parish plays the part of Lady Catrina and her true troll persona with real relish not outhamming her turn as Empress of the Rachnoss in Doctor Who: The Runaway Bride, but not coming far short of that portrayal, farting and grunting her way through the episodes when not in the prescence of anyone who doesn’t need to know what she truly is. As a whole I would say that this is one of the best stories so far in the run of Merlin, there isn’t any additions to the stories of the main characters really but it is a fun two-parter that really uses its length to a good effect and the build up to the cliffhanger was really quite thrilling as you really wondered if Merlin was going to make it in time to stop the wedding from taking place. Of course he didn’t, which made the second episode more interesting as you wondered how on Earth could Merlin makes people realise that the woman who was now their Queen was indeed a troll.

Merlin Series Two Episode Four Lancelot and Guinevere
Two episodes in a row featuring the girls in the main. You are spoiling us. In this episode it is Gwen’s turn to take centre stage as she is captured by some mercenaries who have mistaken her for Morgana and then is promptly left to die by Uther who is just glad that it wasn’t Morgana who was captured despite Morgana’s protestations but luckily for Gwen Arthur fancies the arse of her so it doesn’t take much for Merlin to persuade the prince to go and rescue her despite Uther banning them to doing so. However also incarcerated in the castle where Gwen is taken is none other than Lancelot who then helps Gwen to escape the castle after they finally work out that she is not Morgana after all and just a handmaiden (by her hands and the clothes she was wearing mainly which I guess is probably a good give away as someone like Morgana would have soft hands and wear clothes of the finest material). Quite why they just didn’t kill her the moment that they discovered this is not quite clear (because Uther had assumed that she was already dead by the time that Morgana returned to Camelot) but it is a good job that they didn’t as Gwen is a good character and is nice to see Arthur squirm whenever he is in her company because he wants her, and she knows that he wants her, but can never have her, due to their differing statuses in society.

I was getting a bit far behind on Merlin reviews so here are some for series 2 episodes broadcast over the past few weeks. There may be spoilers so don't read if you don't want to know.

Merlin Series Two Episode Three The Nightmare Begins
At last a Morgana episode and not a bad one to boot. This is also the episode where Morgana discovers the truth about herself and why she had always had bad dreams. Katie McGrath was good in this episode and must have been glad to have something to get her teeth into unlike other episdoes where her appearance is little more than as glamourous window dressing in a scene. I know that the main focus of the series is always going to be on Merlin and Arthur, but it is nice when the girls get something to do as well. Colin Salmon guest stars in this episode as a druid who helps Morgana when she runs of to try and understand her new found magic and appears to be shot and injured at the end of the episode. We don't see him die but it can be assumed that he might well have done, and, unless he appears again, I guess it might well be assumed that he is. It is good that Morgana now has something interesting about her character rather than before when she was more often than not seen but never heard. Considering Uther's hatred of all things magical it is all the more amazing that the he has three people with magical powers living close to him, and god knows how many others in the outlying villages. This should certainly make for some interesting episodes later on in the series.

It's been a wierd few week at Liverpool FC. I mean they put 6 past hull (26 Sep, 2009 Liverpool 6-1 Hull City) where Torres plays for just over an hour and bags three goals and then his replacement Babel plays for just under half an hour and scored 2 goals. Why didn't they just keep Torres on the pitch then he could have had a hatful. I reckon the score would have been higher than it was if Torres has played till the end of the match.

Then it seemed to go wrong. Firstly we played Fiorentina in the Champions League, played badly and deservedly lost 0-2.
Next we played Chelsea and played much better but still managed to get beaten 0-2. This wasn't through lack of trying on ouor part though, Torres was well and truly silenced, and Gerrard himself only had a couple of chances, but defensively we let ourselves down (again) and leaked the two goals.

The international break was next and this caused major problems as both Torres and Gerrard were injured on international duty. Aqualine the player bought in over the summer is also still injured which isn't helping matters either so we went into the game against Sunderland without G&T and lost to the freakest goal imagineable (involving a beach ball of all things) 0-1. Of course we had enough chances to win the game, and had 7 minutes of time added on and still didn't manage to make the chances count so perhaps we didn't deserve this one either.

Last night we played Lyon and scored the first goal of the game. The problem is that Lyon got two goals and we were consigned to our fourth successive defeat, something that has apparently not happened for over 20 years. So at the moment things are not looking good for us and we could well go out the Champions League at the group stages and not even qualify for the champions league this season if we carry on playing the way we have be doing.

What is most frustrating is that we can beat teams without Torres and Gerrard, its just that at the moment we aren't which is just fuelling the media's insistence that we are a two-man team and that we are missing Alonso. We are not missing Alonso really, the problem there is that the player we signed to replace him is injured and can't play at the moment, which is a bit of an arse really.

The title race is more open than it has ever been and I believe we are still it, we just have to stop losing matches and win every game from now till the end of the season.

Its Scum on Sunday, that would be an excellent place to begin a wining sequence. 

It's been a funny old couple of weeks for LFC. We tonk Hull 6-1 then lose two matches in a week.

Reviews to follow during the internation break.

Merlin Series Two Episode One The Curse of Cornelius Sigan

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Merlin Series Two Episode Two Once and Future Queen

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