I got a “Welcome to the United States of America” letter from the immigration people today telling me that my application for permanent residence has been approved. At this point I don’t think it really makes much difference to my everyday life other than the fact that I have to carry an permanent resident ID card with my everywhere I go. I have just over 2 years until I can apply to be a US citizen but I’ll look into that closer to the time – I think it will let me move more freely between the US & UK as currently I need to spend a certain percentage of my time here otherwise I’ll lose my status.

In the football today the commentators seemed to get all the player’s names correct but they went very quiet when they showed shots of the player’s wives & girlfirends, I don’t think they had a clue who they were. They did say however, that getting booked for timewasting was a waste and they should save the cards for a professional foul.

I think ESPN have been getting complaints about their coverage, they didn’t show any of the national anthems until it came to the USA game, then they went to a commercial break straight after the US anthem so we didn’t have to sit and listen to the Czech anthem. It seems that some people found this a little offensive and they have started to show the full anthems, added nicely to the build up to today’s game.

Excitement is building amongst the pundits who keep saying how badly the US did on Monday and then are upbeat saying they can still beat Italy. I just hope they don’t go back to US ‘sports’ stop showing all the games after they get beaten again.