I personally still feel like I was playing the Italians the other night–alone, but I’m slowly getting the bearings back.

Germany still has theirs, obviously, thrashing the overmatched Ecuadoreans 3-0. The match was never in doubt, since they made up the schedules.

For now, the Germans seem to have patched up their leaky defense. We’ll have to see if it continues to hold against stronger competition.

In the battle of also rans, Poland managed to rescue just a smidgen of pride by beating Costa Rica 2-1. Anyone bother to watch it?

If I was a neutral, I suppose I’d be hoping England finish second in their group later today. That would set them up against Germany in the next round in what would be sure to be a great match. But, I’m not. I’d rather England advance easily, than entertainingly for now, thanks very much. I’ll rely on the US for the epic battles.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to catch the England/Sweden match live today. Life’s not fair sometimes. At least there’s Tivo.

Everyone is fretting about Ronaldo, but the Brazilians have everything under control. Their 2-0 victory over Australia has assured their place in the second round. Ronaldo didn’t score and he missed badly on an easy chance, but he had a great assist on one of the Brazilian goals.

Meanwhile, France might face another early exit after only managing a 1-1 tie with Korea.

What a game! After looking like a second-rate squad in their opener against the Czech Republic, the Americans came back strong with a sprited effort against an Italian team that looked fantastic in its opening match.

The Americans were able to frustrate the Italian side by working loading up the midfield and playing very aggressively, constantly fouling the Italians. Unofrtunately the officials issued an incredible three red cards! The Americans played with a 10-9 disadvantage for much of the game, but still managed to hang on for the draw.

With Ghana’s amazing 2-0 upset over the Czech Republic, the United States now has a clear path to advance. They need to defeat Ghana and then hope for a win by Italy over the Czechs.

Defeating Ghana will not be easy, though Ghana will be without two of their top players in the match. Ghana looked great agaist Italy in the opener despite losing 2-0, so many shouldn’t be surprised by their win over the Czechs.

As for Italy, they have to be disappointed by their effort against the United States.

Portugal are through after beating a very average Iran team 2-0. Iran actually hasn’t looked that bad in their two losses, but the promise of millions and their own villas from their dodgy president wasn’t enough incentive to get them out of the group stage.

Portugal, in their best imitation of England–loads of talent and still no offense, will advance. Or maybe they’re just imitating themselves. At any rate, they’ve only earned the privilege to be fodder for Group C anyway.

Pretty boy, Christiano Ronaldo, actually looked useful at times rather than just showing off. It’s Figo’s presence on the pitch that’s making the difference so far, though. Deco was the star today, but this team will only go as far as the old man takes them. They should be better, but they’re not. Loaded with guns. A great coach.

Two more matches to play, and they can head for the beach–that seems to be what they’re thinking.

Mexico might have looked the more dangerous side, but things ended 0-0, as Angola attempt to salvage some African pride. I’m still hoping they manage to get through over the overrated Mexicans.

I just can’t warm to that team. I see nothing.

Surely, one African team must advance. Isn’t it in the rules?

In what clearly was the Group of Death, Holland join Argentina in the second round after getting past Ivory Coast 2-1.

Ivory Coast will probably be the best team that doesn’t advance. Despite the two losses against powerhouses, they looked good in both matches. They had more going for them than Didier Drogba, just not quite enough to make it past two of the best teams in the World Cup.

The Netherlands have shown that as long as they can quit bickering, they’re a force to be reckoned with. However, if any team can get you to start bickering, it’s Argentina–whether the game’s virtually meaningless or not. They play each other next to see who wins the group. Either team should handle Portugal and Mexico, so the order of finish isn’t very important. That could make for a wide-open, pressure-free match between these two entertaining and offensive teams.

After completely destroying a supposedly decent Serbia Montenegro 6-0, Argentina are the best team in the world.

At this minute.

They are playing perfect football right now. Not a weakness to be found. The bench is stocked with loads more talent that we finally got a glimpse of today. Messi and Tavez are stars, forget about starters, on every other team in the world.

You can say they haven’t been tested yet, but neither have any of the other ‘name’ teams. While the rest of them are floundering around and scraping through with 1-0′s, Argentina have been putting on shows.

Stretching to find anything negative to say about Argentina, you could argue that they are peaking too soon. Okay. But I wouldn’t want to play this team.

No one would beat them tomorrow. Whether that’s still true on July 9th, we’ll have to see.

Sweden waited until the 89th minute to finally break the ice and score their first goal of the World Cup. Luckily for them, that was all they needed to get past Paraguay 1-0.

The Swedes have looked like they were about to score constantly for two matches now, but had to wait 179 minutes before they finally managed it. A Freddie Ljungberg header eventually found the back of the net and Sweden was able to breathe again.

Their offense is too potent to have those sorts of problems for long. England may be in for a goal-fest when they meet next week, even though all either team really needs is a draw.

England became the third team to advance out of the group stage with a with a nailbiting win over Trinidad and Tobago 2-0.

It was closer than that.

England, looking like they couldn’t finish if their life depended on it–and it nearly did, looked like they were going to be held until Beckham finally hit Crouch with a great cross that he finally got into the net. Until that moment, Crouch didn’t just look bad, he was horrible. I couldn’t understand what he was doing on the pitch–nor, apparently did he. At least he had the good sense not to do that robot rubbish afterwards.

England showed no spark whatsoever until Rooney, Downing and especially Lennon came on late to open up some space. Up until England scored, the play of the game was John Terry’s clearance off the line in the first half that nearly put the minnows in the lead. Frank Lampard was at least taking shots–mostly feeble balloons, but shots none the less. No one else on the team was doing much of anything. Gerrard was invisible until he poked in the second, nearly at the whistle.

The English criticism of Ericksson is starting to look on the money. This cool and calm team has no sense of urgency and are soon to find themselves in much hotter water.

Other than picking up the three points, England also was able to give Rooney a run out. Broken foot and all, he came on and was hustling all over the pitch.

So England are through, but they certainly have a lot to work on.

Lowly Ecuador, the team that wasn’t expected to be able to compete at sea level, has bounced Poland and Costa Rica out of the World Cup. Costa Rica didn’t seem to comprehend what exactly was at stake in the match as they were soundly thrashed 3-0.

What it also means is that a draw in the last match of the Group won’t be good enough for Germany to take the top spot. England will probably be in the unusual position of praying for a German win against Ecuador.

That won’t be a problem.

Ecuador will be very pleased at being able to take advantage of the Poland slip, while playing over their heads themselves for two matches, to get themselves out of the group stage.

Whatever else happens, this team will surely be considered the weakest in the next round.