World Cup Diary: Day 2 - Lions roar, Jack Grealish does 'The Finlay' and Gareth Bale inspires Welsh heroes
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THE star of Day 2 in Qatar wasn't to be found on the pitch.
A young lad called Finlay brightened my start to an otherwise normal Tuesday.
He has cerebral palsy and is a Manchester City fan.
He met his favourite footballer Jack Grealish a few weeks ago - the star's younger sister also has Cerebral Palsy - and asked him if he would do a special celebration if he scored at the World Cup.
The £100 million man duly obliged when he rattled in the sixth goal in the Lions' stunning (I use the word stunning with an attached health warning as it was a very poor Iran side) 6-2 demolition of Iran.
The arm wobble celebration was brilliant and he blew a kiss to 11-year-old Finlay.
BBC Breakfast tried to dub the celebration 'The Worm' but Finlay insisted it should be called 'The Finlay'.
Go Finlay, that's what I say and I will be rooting for Grealish to bag a few more goals, if only to see the beaming smile on Finlay's face.
It was sad to see that Harry Kane was effectively censored and gagged by FIFA after being threatened with sporting sanctions if he wore a 1 Love captain's armband.
I have no love for FIFA after that, or the fact that female Welsh fans were not allowed to take Rainbow bucket hats into the ground to see their heroes play the U-S-A.
Goodness knows, the world needs even more love right now, not less of it, regardless of your sexual orientation.
On the pitch, England were rampant; fair play to the Iranian lads for staying silent during their national anthem in protest at what is going on back home (will any of them be in the starting XI for the next game against Wales if the morality police have their way?)
Old Golden Balls himself (aka Becks) was there to watch the action but looked strangely sombre when he was caught on camera politely clapping England's goals.
I am not gonna say 'It's Coming Home', because it is early days (oops did I just say It's Coming Home?). I don't even have England in any of the many sweeps I have entered - Brazil, Spain, France and Mexico are my four favourite teams. I am hoping for a Brazil v France; Spain v Mexico semi-final lockout (or any permutation of the four will do) and I will be laughing all the way to the bank.
After 64 years in the World Cup wilderness (that's even longer than Scotland's absence from the biggest footballing tournament on earth), the boys from the valleys took to the field for the first time since 1958 and they were Rockin' in the Rhondda, singing in Swansea, Cavorting in Cardiff and leaping about like dafties in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (go on, I dare you to have a go at it, I know you want to).
Their talisman Gareth was about as effective as a Bale of hay would be in soaking up a tsunami in the first half as - boom, boom, boom, let me hear you say Weah! Weah - Timothy, fired America ahead. He is the son of George Weah, a New York-born Liberian - now president of Liberia - who was arguably one of the best players never to star in a World Cup.
George was named African, European, and World Player of the Year in 1995 and starred for Monaco, PSG, AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City.
However, Bale nailed down his star quality when he won a late penalty after a foul by Walker Zimmerman. The commentator initially thought Tim Ream had made the challenge and that conjured up all possibilities for a headline like D-Ream alive for Wales as Bale makes USA pay the penalty - sadly, the mistake was quickly corrected and I will have to keep D-Ream on hold for later in the tournament.
In the other game on day 2, Senegal, missing their main man Mané through injury, were tangoed 2-0 by the Netherlands, whose fans were so orange it was quite surreal. Even more orange than Donald Trump.
