Stickers: World Cup Day 23

      Think I mentioned yesterday that today's prediction - you may have noticed that due to the UK-Brazil time difference, with games ending late at night UK time, this blog is a day in arrears - is a 2-2 draw.  And that would have been a far more interesting game than the borefest we got. The stickers also throw up two no-shows Rafael van der Vaart and Ever Banega, while Dirk Kuyt gets to take one of the penalties and Pablo Zabaleta lasts 120 minutes.  The highlight of the game was Ezekiel Garay hoofing the ball into the crowd because he only had one boot on and wanted time to put the other back on.
     So Alex Sabella becomes the first (to the best of my knowledge) ex-Leeds United player to manage a side in the World Cup Final.  So a reminder of when stickers/ trading cards would sometimes be faked. An old Dauily Star trading card where Alex Sabella's face has been cut and pasted onto someone else's body, I think possibly  Frank Gray.

Via e-bay

 And if you thought tonight's game was a lot of balls...

Via spanishleeds.blogspot

With 101 stickers still needed and only 60 to reveal it's unlikely that I'll get down to the fifty ordering threshold of Panini - requiring a 85% success rate - so alternative means will be needed. The small profit of two correct results for the semis has brought me down to a loss of £17.95. It'll be a bit tricky to make that up from four fifty pence bets.
     And finally paninicheapskates can really show up how scary some of the stickers are. I give you potential Dr Who villain, Australia's Mark Milligan.