after 3 days of great soccer, let’s take a look back at some of this weekend’s world cup action.

host nation germany started off group A play with a solid 4-2 win over the ticos of costa rica, even without the services of captain michael ballack. ecuador was the story of the second fixture, with a resounding 2-0 win over disappointing poland. look for defensive titan espinoza, and striker delgado to lead the rest of the tricolor past the group play stage.

group B featured defensive matchups between england and paraguay, and trinidad & tobago and sweeden, the only goal in either game coming on an early paraguay own goal from a spectacularly played beckham set piece. sweden showed star power but were unable to put anything past last-minute replacement goalkeeper shaka hislop, who put in a man-of-the match performance among many notable opportunities by ibrahimovic among others. the england/sweden game in koln should decide the winner in this group.

group C appears to be living up to its name as the group of death, with solid performances across the board. argentina looked to be quite stacked in the midfield in their 2-1 win, and had a great performance by abbondanzieri in goal to deny the ivory coast the chance to grab a point. didier drogba proved he can perform on the world stage, but he needs more support if his team plans to advance past the group play. the netherlands looked very sharp against a tough defensive team in serbia & montenegro who gave up as many goals in this game (1) as they did in the entire qualification stage. marco van basten’s holland squad looked like they could not only win this group, but make a play at the whole thing.

finally, in group D, mexico showed why el tri is ranked so high in the fifa world rankings, with a resounding, albeit late 3-1 win over a competitive iran side, sparked by creative play by substitute zinha. portugal came out of the gate firing, but cooled quickly after pauleta opened his world cup account in the 4th minute. mexico looks to be the early favorite in this group, but portugal should look much more impressive with deco in the lineup alongside a brilliant luis figo, and a better performance from young star ronaldo.

if the first eight games are to be any guide, it looks like we are in for a competitive cup with a surprisingly level playing field. the new seamless ball appears to favor more goals, with an average of 2.25 goals scored per game to this point. tomorrow’s 9 am (pdt) game will be the united states’ first of the cup, facing a czech side with a nebulous injured list. i fully expect you all to be missing work/school/religious services/personal obligations to watch the game. LETS GO USA!!!!!!!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 11th, 2006 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Sports, World Cup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.