Day 1 Thoughts

Considering that no one has won a game yet and one game didn't even have a goal, it was a pretty exciting day. For a brief moment, I was 100% on my picks. I'm down to 50% now, which is probably as high as my percentage will be for the rest of the tourney. Today was a nice reminder that predictions don't mean much when it's time to play the game.

If I had to pick who had the best day, I'd have to say South Africa, but I can't help but feel like they left two points on the table with a bad defensive miscue.

Team by team thoughts:

South Africa - If there is such thing as a moral victory, they had one. They showed they belong in the tournament as much as any team. They caught a little luck in the first half and were overly-reliant on last ditch defending. They paid for it on Mexico's equalizer when the captain, of all guys, didn't push up with his back line and kept three Mexican attackers onside. But the energy is there. Can they keep it up?

Mexico - Same story we've been seeing from El Tri. Lots of possession, excellent skill on the ball, but not getting goals when they need them. If they can't break down South Africa, it raises questions about how they'll do against teams they don't outmatch at nearly every position. Also, did anyone else see Blanco just taking up space out there? He didn't a chance to show off his trademark diving and yelling at the referee. He reminds me of General Zod's goon from Superman II.

Uruguay - Well, that's defense for you. Forlan carried the whole load offensively today, and managed to generate a chance or two. They'll need to do more than that if they really want to score goals, but in this group, shut down defense might be enough. I don't know much about this team, but what I saw today was almost mistake-free defensive soccer. The performance today bodes well, but they can't feel two good about the number of cards they got, including a deserved red for a dumb-ass late challenge.

France - Franck Ribery played terribly. His speed was there, but his service and vision were amateurish. New captain Patrice Evra earned his pay today, but he might be the only one. They looked better after Malouda got into the mix, but you get the sense that if Ribery isn't going to step up, this may be a team that needs two forwards.