World Cup Blog | Bruce Crumley Feeling Let Down By The Giants Of Football subscribe to TIME Printable Version email this story Bruce Crumley: Read all his blog entries

Posted Thursday, June 15, 2006; 11.10BST

THOMAS KIENZLE / AP SITTING COMFORTABLY >>>> A lone fan waits at Munich's World Cup stadium for the start of the Tunisia v Saudi Arabia match

So, now we've seen them all in action, and have got which teams hit the World Cup running, which tripped and fell, and the majority who seemed to jog in place. And what kinds of intelligent conclusions can we start to make based on those maiden games? None, of course — but this exercise isn't about being Einstein with shin guards, so let's make some observations that'll doubtless be proven wrong with the next round of games.

The big banana first: most teams have, by and large, played pretty mediocre football given what most people expected of them — though that hasn't kept tournament favorites from bagging their first three points. It seems everyone is in agreement Brazil performed no where near the level anticipated, and was probably

Previous Entries July 7, 2006 Assessing The Legacy Of Domenec   July 6, 2006 The Runners-Up Final Is Really No Consolation   June 28, 2006 For Fans, Now Comes The Hard Bit   June 27, 2006 All About The Swiss Misses   June 26, 2006 Reading Between The Lines Of The Freebie Press   June 26, 2006 Little (Irritating) Things That Make The World Cup Go Round   June 25, 2006 The Cup's Rough Edges   June 22, 2006 Chilled Out In Dortmund   June 19, 2006 Living It Up In Leipzig   June 18, 2006 Why No Joie de Vivre?   June 16, 2006 Taking Advantage of Poor Refereeing   June 15, 2006 Feeling Let Down By The Giants Of Football   June 14, 2006 Reasons To Be Cheerful for Germany's Win   June 10, 2006 How To Win The Good Conduct Medal   June 9, 2006 Deutschland 2006 Turns Up The Heat

pretty fortunate it came away winning against an admirable Croatia. (Lula was right and shouldn't have apologized: Ronlado is a tub, and played like one. In fact, one had to wonder if the collective sluggishness of the Brazilian side wasn't due to Ronaldo's team members spending most of the game marvelling, "Man, is he a hog, or what?!")

England similarly owes its victory to the first 20 minutes of sound soccer it played against Paraguay, before it gave in to looking as hot, tired, and bloated as many of the people one hears screaming "Eng-er-lund!" around Germany these days. Italy adopted a similar approach in dealing with Ghana. The offensive pyrotechnics in Germany's opener against Costa Rica provided the counter argument to complaints many American sports fans make that football's "boring because there isn't enough scoring"; fans of the game, however, came away wondering when the Manschaft decided defense was over-rated — and how it could expect to win the whole enchilada surrendering multiple goals to the not-so-mighty Costa Ricans. Despite winning 3-0 over the self-destructing Ukraine, Spain looks in exactly the kind of shape it's relied upon to always come away from international tournaments with the Under-Achiever Award. Portugal needs to improve to qualify as mediocre, and Mexico isn't much better. And France…oy vey!

Would that mean everyone stunk? Of course not. The manner the South Koreans bounced back from a stinky first half to beat Togo showed considerable athletic and tactical discipline by adapting to Dick Advocaat's total strategic over-haul at the half. And the Czech Republic was absolutely awesome with a win that made an American team look much weaker than it really is. Ditto Argentina — a team that looks like it can get from one end of the pitch to the other before is rivals even realize the Argentines have stolen the ball. The Netherlands' one goal victory over Serbia and Montenegro doesn't look all that impressive on paper, but one sensed from its play that that squad has some major footballing to show us.

Should the heat dissipate a bit, and winning teams feel a bit freer to play their game with those first three points in the bank, we might see most of the favorites and outsiders raise their level to what you'd expect of the world's elite of the elite. But even if that doesn't happen — or at least in a general fashion — there are a few approaching games promising to be dramatic indeed. The first comes with this week's Group F collision between the sluggish Brazil and Australia, who out-physicaled the Japanese before dazzling them with an explosion of three goals as the game closed. Should the Selecao come into that game as flat-footed as it did against Croatia, and should the Aussies' succeed in destabilizing Brazil's fluid play with heavy contact, a draw — or even long-shot upset — isn't impossible. Italy also isn't beyond a slip up in Group E, which will make the Squadra's June 20 match with the Czechs of enormous importance. And the following day brings the Group of Death show down between Argentina and the Netherlands — nuff said.

So, even if games haven't generally been the stuff of bar side recounting for years to come, take heart: the coming week should deliver major drama, and thrilling football. And who knows, if Carlos Alberto Parreira can keep his star's face out of the trough a bit, we might even see Ronaldo do more than waddle up an impotent sweat.

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