re England - on one hand it was great to get the result, on the other hand it was an abject display, with Sven showing his lack of bottle by pushing up Joe Cole to play off Crouch instead of bringing Walcott on - if Sven doesn't trust him (Walcott) to play ok for 30mins there wasn't much point in bringing him (so why bring Jenas and not another forward like Defoe, Johnson or Bent - instead of a poor man's Gerrard/Lampard clone?).

Unsurprisingly, Cole off Crouch did not work, and Lampard and Gerrard still look like they haven't figured out which player does what in centre midfield.

Hopefully these things'll be ironed out in the next copule of group games - because if not England may well be in trouble vs some decent...

Thought the Germany-Coast Rica game was a great opener - esp the two classy German goals. Congrats to Ecuador who played their gameplan very well and took their chances.

Really got behing the Trinidad & Tobagoans vs Sweden - god, Sweden were poor - full credit to the Caribbean side for giving their all to get a result - in spite of only having the 10 men for 45mins.

Seems the ivory Coast have enough to qualify still, despite losing narrowly to Argentina - who seemed to stop playing arunf 60mins in - should be an interesting group.