MY enthusiasm for the World Cup needed a little shot in the arm going into last night after such a tense, defensive start to the tournament.

Very few sides have taken my eye and, after watching Portugal and Ivory Coast wrestle to a lifeless, goalless stalemate, I started to wonder whether volunteering for a daily column in The Bolton News had really been a wise idea at all. Wimbledon is starting soon, and perhaps I could have provided a daily commentary of the surface on Centre Court instead.

It hasn’t all been bad. I took some joy from seeing Chung-Yong Lee and South Korea rinse the Greeks on Saturday, equal amounts from South Africa’s opening game, and as much pleasure as an Englishman can from Germany’s demolition job on Australia.

But most teams have been so frightened of losing the flair seems to have been sucked out of the tournament with a giant flair-sucking machine.

Thankfully, I had an ace up my sleeve. I knew I was in for a goal-fest when Brazil took on North Korea. Now, I enjoyed last night’s game immensely, but absolutely not for the reasons I thought I would.

From the very start, Tae-Se Jong’s tears during the national anthem gave us our second visual ‘moment’ of the tournament, behind Siphiwe Shabalala’s celebrations after scoring in the opening game against Mexico for the hosts.

The expected attacking feast never really materialised, but the longer the North Korean’s held out, the more I cheered, not because I was rooting for the underdog but because my wife was getting steadily more annoyed at the Brazilian’s attacking impotence, having guessed 5-0 in her sweepstake at Gorsefield Primary.

Such childish pleasures probably shouldn’t be my only reason for enjoying the World Cup – but then Emmanuel Adebayor’s mobile phone has provided me with the moment of the tournament so far. You have to grab your kicks while you can.