On the Opening Round of the Group Stage: What I've observed.

So we've seen the first 16 games of the WC, we've had one good look at every team that is playing in the tournament this year. These are my observations from the precedings thus far:

Goalkeepers: Doing fine. I'm really tired of the media circus surrounding goalkeeper "errors." So Rob Green fumbled a ball, Algeria's keeper misplayed a ball, and Paraguay's keeper came out too early on a corner. Who cares? Aren't goals what we want to see anyway?

Also, no one is talking about the keepers who have had great performances. Nigeria's goalie Vincent Enyeama stopped Messi four times when the ball would have surely gone in the top corner. Japan's goalie played like an absolute hero against Cameroon, taking a hard fall on his tailbone and finishing the match. Tim Howard...is just incredible.

If the keepers have made errors, they have more than made up for it in their individual performance, and I say again: since when does an audience mind when goals are scored?

2. Jubulani Ball: Piece of crap. I know that this is kind of a cliche topic, but it has to be said. It seems that the complaints of players about this ball are well warranted. It flies way too far, it nearly impossible to curve (it seems) and takes some very odd bounces. Most of these players are used to just playing with something that looks round, this "technological achievement" of a "perfectly round ball" has them all caught off guard, and no one has quite been able to tame it.

3. The Far East: Surprising everyone. South Korea, for a couple of days, was the only team to get more than one goal in a game. They seemed to just cut swathes through Greece, who was certainly struggling, but the performance was impressive nonetheless. Then Japan destroyed the hopes one of Africa's main teams, Cameroon. But they certainly haven't stolen these games.

Kisuke Honda, for Japan, was perhaps one of the most exciting players to watch on the ball we've seen so far. His goal was one of the coolest I've seen yet.

North Korea, even though they didn't win, did extremely well against Brazil, and were even able to get a goal out of the contest. The two goals scored on them were hardly contestable as well, as the first was some kind of miracle, and the second was such an impressive display of skill that I can't think of a team that would have been able to stop it. It certainly seems as though the Far East are capable of surprising someone in this tournament, perhaps we'll see that tomorrow when South Korea takes on Argentina.

4. Big name teams: Unable to deliver. Italy ties Paraguay. Spain loses to Switzerland. France ties Uruguay. England ties the United States. Brazil wins by a goal over North Korea. Portugal ties Ivory Coast. It seems as if none of the big teams that have qualified in this tournament, other than Germany and Holland, who we'll get to later, have been able to really get a handle on their game. The majority of them just look like another team. Even Spain, despite an extremely impressive passing display, were unable to get that finishing stroke working.

5. Germany, Holland, and Argentina: The front runners. If not for an extremely impressive performance by Nigeria's goalkeeper, Argentina would have won their opening game 4-0 just as Germany did so impresssivly against Australia.

Holland have played their most difficult game in their group, so you have to believe that they will be able to rack up the goals.

Germany looked...immaculate in their game. They were even able to get a struggling Miroslav Klose to score. These seem to be the teams in the driver's seat at this point. Two are expected (Argentina and Holland) and one was perhaps underestimated by me, but should have been expected (Germany).

6. Cristiano Ronaldo: A douche. ...That's really it for that one.

7. Fabio Capello: Still an idiot. Capello decided to play Ledley King at centre back to replace injured Rio Ferdinand. The more than capable Upson was on the bench, sitting there. King is quite injury prone, and was barely cleared to even play in the tournament. King got horribly injured in the match against the U.S. and is now out of the WC. So Capello has managed to oust two centre backs thus far. 2 down, 21 players to go, right Fabio!

8. Diego Forlan: The Big Bad Wolf is howling. The only player to accrue more than one goal thus far, Forlan was the orchestrator of Uruguay's route of South Africa today. He's my favorite player, he didn't let me down today, and it's looking great for his team to advance into the next round (perhaps farther).

These are my findings from this opening round. Have some of your own? Comment!