World Peace? By the number of ties, I'd say it's doable...

Then there's all the gift wins too - even if Ghana deserved theirs. It's all a bit a bit cautious with a few exceptions.

Germany - With the side viewed as somewhat overconfident heading into the cup, their clinical dismantling of the Aussie Socceroos belies a justly confident squad. It is the new German generation of Mueller, Schweinsteiger, Cacau and others. Oh yeah, then there's the Poles - Klose and Podolski. Yeah they contribute a little bit too. I see little stopping the Germans from rolling through the group - something I wasn't too sure about with Ballack out before. Mistake Chimpo.

South Korea - Did you know they've never lost their first game of the World Cup Finals before? Damn. Apparently, if I heard the announcer right, neither has the Dutch. (And the Oranje's record goes back to the 1930's, while Korea's... maybe not quite as far.) Still, S. Korea and the boys in red hit the ground running and are probably still running in place as they wait for their next game against... Argentina.

So, was Lio Messi just being nice to not score all over the face of Nigeria the other day? Did you notice the blur of his legs as split defenders left and right? I think he had a ball with him. Still, to not hit the back 'of the ol onion bag' (as Andy Gray and Tommy Smythe always talk about during Champions League) is huge for the young master. He had a total of eight shots - all on target and he couldn't finish. Let's not take away anything from the Nigerian keeper who was HUGE in there, but Messi needs to score, as he hasn't for his national side, La Albiceleste, in the passed 8 games that he's played for them. Think I got that right...

Couple of notes:

My cousin, watching the U.S. game in Bismark, North Dakota (it's a small province on the Siberian peninsula), asked my opinion of Tim Howard's ranking in the world of goalkeeping. Before the game, I said, slightly overrated, makes some mistakes, Top 10. Timmy, I stand corrected - Top 5. (Buffon, Cassillas, couple of others that I'm too lazy to think of right now.)

And this Green character from England - yeah way to fucking blow it. But he didn't blow it on Altidore's near post blast that would have given the U.S. a full 3 points and England none. THAT was quite a save.

Despite the tie, I think Italy looks sharp, just without too much creativity. This will change with the return of Andrea Pirlo for the last game of the group stage. They're trouble, no doubt.

And finally, Japan. Not bad... Not bad at all. Now what the fuck are you doing E'To'o?

Gotta go to work. poor Cristiano... only the woodwork...

I've been lagging. Maybe it was the ten hours at the bar on Saturday followed by the rounds through sunny (for the first time in a while) Portland that left this supporter a little flat-footed covering the rest of the games.