 It's universally agreed that the Germans have put on a fantastic World Cup. Their stadia, transport system and accommodation have all been spot on and their citizens have had the patience of saints, particularly when it comes to the English.
They've welcomed the World Cup to their cities with open arms and turned the other cheek when too much has been drunk and songs about the war have come out.
But the good citizens of Cologne must have been sorely tested last night by the pile of poo served up in the form of Switzerland versus Ukraine.
We're still waiting for a game to reach dangerously high levels of entertainment at this tournament (though Argentina's 6-0 demolition of Serbia and Montenegro wasn't bad) and I'd wondered if we might see some goals last night.
True enough, Switzerland don't normally set the heather on fire, but in Alexander Frei they have an excellent centre forward. There was also the small matter of Chelsea new boy Andriy Shevchenko at the other and he's been known to bulge the onion bag from time to time.
But the turgid nonsense purporting to be a football match last night wasn't fit to grace a public park let alone the world's leading tournament.
People talk about there being too much at stake for both teams to go out and play open, attractive football and I sympathise to some degree. But they could have at least looked like they were trying to score a goal. There was barely a shot on goal.
AC Milan fought tooth and nail to keep Shevchenko at the end of last season but on the strength of his performance out here, Chelsea are welcome to him. His penalty during the shoot-out was as bad as, well as bad as the one he missed against Liverpool in the Champions League Final in Istanbul. If he's worth £30million I must be worth a couple of hundred grand at least (although I missed the last penalty I took too) Switzerland were even worse.
From my visits to land of cuckoo clocks and chocolate I was aware of their sleepy nature, but this was a massive Mogadon overdose.
Fortunately I was awoken from slumbers between the end of normal-time and extra-time when the tannoy blasted out the Proclaimers' hit song 500 miles. I'm only surprised most of the crowd hadn't set off.
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