Three days in and yet no great games, but...

If you're new to international football, you ought to know that this is typical for the first round of games at the group stage in pretty much any World Cup. The venue is huge, teams are afraid, and they haven't played together at high level in months, maybe years. So it's normal that the first match be reserved for "studying" one's own game as well as the opponent's.

Surely enough, we've seen a lot of fine individual plays and even a few exciting minutes of football here and there... but by and large we're far from how World Cup games can (and will) be like.

Below is my quick, down-and-dirty assessment of the fourteen teams who've played so far in the first three days of the South African mundial.

South Africa

Typical home-team syndrome: want everything, want it now, think they can actually win. If they get lucky, like South Korea in 2002, they may just do something important. Otherwise, they're a rather forgettable team as seen against Mexico.

Mexico

Its first half against SA has been by far the best football seen so far, but they didn't close a game they should have dominated and in the distance they lost both skill and focus. A potential big-time outsider if they get their game straight.

Uruguay

The ghost of the highly technical, strongly physical team that nearly upset Italy in 1990. An uninspired, uninteresting formation that needed no more than its moderate technical means to stop an equally dumbfounded France.

France

The team that shouldn't be here (after Henry's handball against Ireland in the last qualifying match) confirms that it really shouldn't be here. Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta puts it best by wondering "who's supposed to score in this team?" More than that--who's supposed to do anything?

South Korea

Along with Mexico, the most convincing team so far. Their strength is teamwork, like in 2002, but what they have learned since is some skill and a more refined sense of tactics (as also witnessed by the fact that they're the only Asian team to have an Asian coach). They even have the star player in Manchester UTD's Park Ji-Sung. My money is on them to pass in group B with Argentina.

Greece

Might it just have been a bad game? One hopes so, or this team isn't going anywhere. They too are like the ghosts of the tough, skilled, and lucky players who brought home the controversial 2004 European Cup. Maybe their German coach Rehhagel really has exhausted his good luck.

Nigeria

Hard to judge. When they played, they played well; but they were dominated by Argentina for most of the game. Still, with the exception perhaps of Martins, they're light-years from the Eagles who knocked out Spain and (almost) Italy in 1994. But that's only natural.

Argentina

An offensive wonder who... wanders. Against the clunky Nigerian defense they should have scored six. Yes, the Nigerian keeper was in a state of grace, but Messi and (most of all) a horrid Higuain were simply imprecise. None the less, Veron and Messi are inspired and even the defense is kind-of holding, so with more cynicism in the box their ticket to the semis is already printed.

England

A Capello team, for better and worse. By far the most mature and Cup-ready team so far, and yet not quite as concrete as they should be. Never mind Green's mishap: they didn't kill the game when they could (and boy, could they!) and the American goal was in the air anyway.

United States

A game of surprising strength against an all-around better prepared England. They kept playing their game and seriously endangered Green's goal in more than a few occasions. Given as the MLS is currently in session, their physical condition might just be their best weapon (yes, only five play in the MLS, but they're also five key players).

Algeria, Slovenia, Ghana, Serbia

By far the two most utterly boring games seen so far, so not much to say about these. In the case of Ghana and Serbia, we know this isn't their best. Ghana got plain lucky in a game that shouldn't have awarded more than one point each. Hoping to see better/more next time.

Australia withdraw 2018 World Cup bid

About time. Australia can't host a World Cup--can you imagine getting up at 6 in the morning (or waiting until 11 at night) to watch games? Simply out of the question. Sorry, Aussies. Read the news here.

The pool of candidates now is down to England (wow, first the Olympics, now this... they're on a roll); USA (not again... please, not again...); Spain/Portugal (interesting indeed!); Belgium/Holland (didn't we just have a horrible European Cup here?); and Russia (my favorite, for no other reason they haven't hosted a significant international football event yet).

But of course, it's far too early to tell. Meanwhile, a reminder: Brazil 2014 will be the best World Cup ever, and if it isn't, I renounce football!

Paraguayan witches curse Italy

Now it's official: Italy will lose to Paraguay. Screw the bookmakers; the clairvoyants say so, and you just don't fuck with that kind of prediction!

The "news" is being reported all over the Italian media (see here, for example), but I haven't been able to find it anywhere else. I'm wondering if it's even true or--which is more likely--if it's a small and insignificant event that's being blown way out of proportion.

Who cares. It's funny as hell. It'll be ten times funnier when we beat Paraguay. Of course, if we don't... well, then............

Interactive WC calendar

Not really much to talk about today (so far), but check out Spanish sports daily Marca's ultra-sweet, interactive World Cup calendar!

Should North Korea play in the World Cup?

Do you believe that North Korea should be allowed to play in the World Cup? This question had been on the plate for a while now, but it resurfaced last night after incidents at the Nigeria-North Korea warm-up friendly. (Notice that the incidents were unrelated to the game and to either team, and were instead the result of poor safety and security standards by the South Africans.... even if FIFA disagrees with the latter assessment; also see here).

To most people, that's a non-issue; North Korea are regular, fee-paying FIFA members, just as they are UN members. And unlike the UN, FIFA is not even a government or political body. Others claim, though, that the alleged human-rights violations of the North Korean dictatorships ought to rule out its national team from international competition.

What's your opinion?

First ref designations...

FIFA has designated the referees for the first 16 games of the World Cup. Here is the link to the related PDF document.

Only two of the "big names" will start. One is Benito Archundia (MEX), who'll ref Paraguay-Italy. He had also ref'd Italy in the 2006 semifinal against Germany, doing a fairly good job. That year, he shares the record for most games refereed with the Argentine Helizondo. The latter, now retired, had ref'd the final among much controversy for ejecting Zidane, supposedly after being told by an assistant who had seen the replay on live TV (if you didn't know, any form of instant replay is strictly forbidden in football, a rule itself under much scrutiny).

The other big name is Howard Webb (ENG), who just excellently refereed the Champions League final. He will be in charge of Spain-Switzerland, a fairly easy game. Finally, Carlos Simon (BRA) will take England-USA, easily the most anticipated game of the group stage... well, at least by the Americans.

More later on the latest injuries and what the press has begun to call the "captains' curse"... since after Ferdinand, Pirlo, Drogba, Ballack, and Essien, now also Robben and Mikel have added themselves to an ever-longer injury list!

Edit: for a full list of all the WC referees and their assistants, see this document.

Luck of the draw?

In one of today's friendlies, Italy and Switzerland tied it 1-1. That's good omen, if one believes in such things. A similar pre-Mundial friendly in 1982 also ended 1-1, and one more such friendly before Germany 2006 had the very same score. All three games were played in Geneva, and in '82 and '06 Italy went on to win the World Cup. I don't believe in such mumbo-jumbo, but the reptilian part of my brain does and it was seriously rooting for there not to be any more goals after the first two!

Superstition aside, Italy played a much more aggressive game than against Mexico just two days ago. Of course, it was a different team... literally: Lippi picked 11 different starters each time, so as to give everybody the chance to play and (importantly) himself the chance to experiment two radically different squads and tactics. Azzurri, of course, are still far from top shape and light-years away from 2006 shape, but we all know how pre-WC games don't really say anything if not to the coach and players.

More to say tomorrow on FIFA's referee designation for the first 16 games, even though Drogba's tentative recovery is still (in my opinion) the hottest discussion topic right now. More coming up on that too...