Ok there have maybe been a little too much world cup posts for the past 2 weeks, but you must understand, it only happens every 4 years, of course we are gonna discuss the hell out of it when it finally comes around. Now this world cup has certainly been an exciting one so far... the different upsets which have occured, the surprise goals, the hand balls, the crappy refereeing, the red cards, this has truly been a world cup with all the excitement of all previous world cups, despite what many people believe. Now I wont start drawing battle lines as yet and say what team I am a fan of, but I will take as objective a view as possible at alot of the events of the world cup... and then draw battle lines, because its the manly thing to do.

Now the first event of the world cup to draw the attention of the press was the big USA v England clash. This clash was really a match up of nation against nation more than football teams against each other, simply because both countries were depending on their teams to give them a sense of pride if they beat the other. Maybe its historical, but USA and England rivalries no matter what form they take are always more for pride than anything else, if England loses then USA will say that they are still the better country since their independence, and if the US loses then England will say that they are the better country etc. But I digress, this is about football. In my opinion both of these teams are pretty much evenly matched, the only difference between them is that the English players are more internationally popular, with people like Rooney, Gerrard, etc., while the US players while not as popular (internationally), make it up with their skill, athleticism, and their will to win no matter the cost. However I will not deny, that I gave the edge in this match to England, for the reason that their attack should have been stronger than the US attack especially with Rooney being so deadly a striker and also on form. And in all honesty the game was really turning out to end the way I predicted with the US on top, until...

Need I say more. In what can only be described as the most horrible showing of goalkeeping skills ever seen, Robert Green gave the match back to the US in fine style.

But no need to linger on that match, I need to look on all the other things that happened, such as Spain losing to Switzerland. I will be honest I did expect Spain to lose eventually, but I didnt expect them to lose so spectularly, or as a matter of fact that they would lose to Switzerland! But lose they did, in what has been descibed as probably the most painful type of defeat possible, losing by only 1-0.

The next important upsets that occured only this week was the ousting of both France and Italy from the world cup. The two finalists from the last world cup, could not even make it past the 1st round, both finishing at the bottom of their groups, against teams that really should have been a walk over for both of them. But alas they did, once again I did fully expect them to lose eventually but not so early. Reason being, France has shown time and time again that without Zidane, they may as well be ranked 100th in the world, because they will become rubbish. Italy I expected to fail because their team selection was horrible, they were probably the oldest team on average at the world cup and they didn't even bother to pick the good old people like Totti, nor would they pick the good young guys like Toni and Ballotelli (not like they'd pick a black man to play for them anyway). But alas they both suffered because of their choices. Other teams which have made a poor showing at the world cup include Portugal, the Ivory Coast, and all the African teams (except Ghana who cant seem to score unless its a penalty).

Finally there are the teams that have lived up to their expectations, the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina have all come into the world cup seemingly to show that their top 10 ranks are definitely not in anyway mistaken and they deserve it all. While Germany did lose a match that should have been a shoe-in for them, they still pretty much dominated the group and their beating of Austrailia did show that they can in fact stamp their class when necessary. The Netherlands had a pretty easy group but they still showed some quality football and based on that one can expect them to go far in the world cup.

Now on to the people who were largely expected to either win or reach the final game in the World Cup... Argentina and Brazil. Both teams had pretty slow starts to the world cup but they still showed that their names were in fact ones to be feared. The one surprise about Argentina is Lionel Messi's seeming inability to actually put the ball in the back of the net, however it does seem that Maradona has truly freed himself from cocaine addiction and picked the best squad possible with only one exception... Juan Roman Riquelme, who was missing after he and Maradona were at odds with each other. One can truly expect Argentina however to go very far in this world cup. Brazil on the other hand picked a squad which was notably missing two of their biggest names (Ronaldinho and Pato), but still performed excellently under without them. It seems that Dunga's squad selection is not what many Brazilians had expected and has as a matter of fact put him at odds with many Brazilians, however has been successful as brilliant goals from Elano, and Luis Fabiano have shown Brazil will defeinitely be putting the fight to the world cup.

I will be writing more and more about the world cup as it progresses though, as it is seemingly the only way to calm me down between matches. Oh and as for the team I cheer for... I will only say one thing: Joga Bonito!