lol that Germany game was horrible. Not that I really care to much. Everyones been complaining about it at school though.

No we don't have any cable stations of any kind.

Oh ok, neither do we -just major networks and SBS.

I've kind of been avoiding this thread ; but I'll go ahead and agree with ILF; Australia's match against Germany was truly horrific. I didn't watch much of it (we recorded it) but my dad told me that it was really embarrassing as the team basically stopped playing; and it's been all over the news so I feel bad for them (they've had the mickey taken out of them ). Can you believe people were leaving the stadium before the match ended? I mean, I know Germany wasn't really beatable but 4 nil?! Oy.

But, like they said on SBS, Ukraine was in the same position last Cup -4 nil and a red card at their first game, yet they went on to make the quarter finals. Here's hoping we can beat Ghana on Sunday!

It's too early for our ride to be over; but Kate I might start joining you on the Spain bandwagon if it is.

Well, the Spain bandwagon temporarily has a busted wagon wheel. Spain suffered a HUGE upset to Switzerland, and lost 1-0. I didn't see the game so I don't know how on earth this happened (because of time zones, the match started at 4:00 in the morning for me). Disappointing for Spain, to be sure, but the World Cup wouldn't be interesting without upsets.

I'm going to stay aboard the USA bandwagon for as long as possible. One nice thing about being the underdog is that there's a smaller chance that expectations won't be met. If the USA can pull out a win against Slovenia this Friday, they've practically guaranteed themselves a ticket to the knockout stage.

Crushing defeat for South Africa. Once the keeper got red carded, you could see on their faces that it was over.

Good to see Uruguay doing so well, though!

Who won the New Zealand vs Slovakia game yesterday? I was watching it, but then me and my sister had to go out, and didn't get to see the ending.

I'm looking forward to the USA vs. Slovenia game on Friday. It is a little early in the morning (9:30 AM here), and hopefully I won't have to work. (It's only being broadcast on the Spanish Channel here, but still. . . . .)

Who won the New Zealand vs Slovakia game yesterday? I was watching it, but then me and my sister had to go out, and didn't get to see the ending.

The final score in that game was 1-1. New Zealand scored a goal at literally the very last minute (90'+2'!) to salvage a tie.

You can find all the information you could possibly want about the World Cup games here, if you ever need to look at past scores again. http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/

What a nightmare the Spain v. Switzerland game was! An upset in the extreme, and it's always disheartening to watch the team lose that deserves a win. They played well, but just couldn't score. I have faith that they can come back though. 2 more games!

I woke up at 7 AM for the USA v. Slovenia game today and what a wild ride it was! The US looked really terrible in the first half and as much as I wanted them to win, they just didn't deserve it playing like that. Fortunately, they really stepped it up in the second half. Donovan, of course, is quite the professional and is so smart when it comes to playing. Then Bradley's goal was lovely. And then there was the infamous disallowed goal by Edu. Any theories on what happened there? I don't see why you would jump the gun and blow a whistle for nothing with the ball in the box. It's so unfortunate that a referee call can have such a huge sway over the game. If the US doesn't advance, it will be quite a scandal. It reflects so badly on FIFA and soccer as a sport.

And then Germany lost this morning! What a surprise after their strong showing!

I haven't watched any of the games... I don't start watching until the last couple of games, when things get really close. But I have been following, and so far I've been pretty surprised! Since Spain won the Euro I thought they would crush Switzerland but I guess not!
I'm very disappointed by France though. The team has "gone on strike." Last time we made it to the finals and this time it looks like nothing good is going to happen. Especially if the team is refusing to train between games.
I don't know who to support anymore, but it would be cool if a lesser-known team could reach the finals!

This World Cup has had many surprises, to be sure. Germany, Italy, Portugal, England, France, Spain...just about every European superpower team is performing under expectations, while every African team is floundering except for Ghana. Asia's teams are all a bit shaky, while North & South America are the only continents dominating. There have been multiple controversial referee calls, and multiple goals for which the new ball has been blamed.

At least it's not boring.

True true Minotaur. No one can say it's been boring. Some of the non-superpower Europeans have done will though.

I watched Spain play today and they played very well and came out with a deserved win. I don't really know what their chances of going on are, but I'm hopeful. David Villa was dominant today, hopefully they'll all continue to play well.

Yay! The World Cup. Unfortunately, I don't have a TV to watch any but I've been very excited about the NZ results. First we make it to the World Cup after how long and then we tie with a team that was expected to do very well (Slovakia) and then we draw with the former World Cup winners (Italy)! All I can say is 'Go New Zealand'! And hope, by some fluke such as these draws, we actually win (something)!

Have any of you heard about 'Australasia'? Just because Australia has been playing badly they are saying there is all a bit of Kiwi in them and pretending our good scores are figuratively theirs as well. ?!?

Swanwhite: I didn't hear anything about that. Congrats on your best World Cup showing ever!

Right now I'm unfortunately occupied with number crunching and speculating whether the US and Spain will go on. The US can probably win over Algeria. They won't go down easy, but if we play like we did the second half against Slovenia, we'll win. And then we'll go on! If we tie, well then we need England to play as miserably as they have been.

For Spain, (and I never thought I'd see this day), the chances are slimmer. They're playing Chile who are the current leaders of the group and the people who they're trying to rack up more points than is Switzerland who is playing the bottom of the bracket Honduras. Arggh! Spain has to win or it's all over for them. What a shame if the best team in the tournament gets ousted. They are certainly better than Chile, but can they actually capitalize and score? Good, good question. If both the Swiss and the Spaniards win, Spain will go on unless the Swiss can rack up a high scoring game.

South Africa beat France, but it was too late. They're out of t he tournament.

Group play is finishing and we know who is moving on in some of the groups:
A: 1)Uruguay 2)Mexico
B: It will probably be Argentina and South Korea.

Hm. Holland did pretty well, but I think they play a bit... weak... they do win.. but it's not as good as I'm used to. I'm not into football things, but when the WC is and Holland plays I alwasy encourage my own country ofcourse But here everything is orange... Every supermarket gives away orange toys etc. Everyone is wearing orange here too... yeah, I don't like that much orange.. but well it will be over in just a few weeks. Holland won't get that far. They never do...

I think Brazil is pretty good too And.. yeah.. I'm not really into it.. so the other countries.. I don't know

Incredible finish for the USA! And they're top in their group -- a first since 1930. Man, that game had me biting my nails like crazy, but they managed to pull it off 1-0. *cheer*

eliza: I love watching the Oranje, but it's true, they've been lackluster so far this tournament. They had a great showing at Eurocup 2008, so I'd love to see them play better.

Oh. My. Word. I can't believe we pulled that one off. I also can't believe that we had our second disallowal of a good goal this tournament. It's gotten so bad that I take every goal scored with a grain of salt and just wait for it to be disallowed. Unbelievable. And I want to issue an apology to Donovan: I doubted him in the past, but he really pulled through.
How about a less tense win next time though?

We still don't know who we'll play though. Could be just about anyone from group D.