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Japan - Belguim
I was watching the first half and at some point i thought if these two teams were playing football, it was very boring and i never expected to witness such a change in the second half. Wow the second half had everything incuding 4 goals! Final scores 2-2 which it was a fair result IMO. A nice game but only in the second half.

Korea - Poland
Korea finally scored its first win the WC history, they've played very good football and deserved to win which they did. Also the rumors about the extorninary physical condition of the Korean Players has been confirmed in this game, these guys couldn't stop running.

The great thing about Korea is that they play positive football. They take risks and don't walk the ball up the field like many of the other teams. I hope they get past the group stage.

The Korea - Poland game was great. Korea played great football and they deserved to win. The one thing I was impressed by in the game was the crowd. The whole stadium was a sea of red. I didn't see a single Polish supporter.

I remember the commentators saying at half time that they were surprised that the Koreans didn't go for a smaller stadium, where the fans would be a lot closer to the game.

I believe they used a stadium with one of those annoying running tracks surrounding it.

Finally FIFA have presented their "verdict" on the "Rivaldo-incident"...
Rivaldo has been fined US$7,300... That's just ridiculous...for a guy that makes over US$100,000 a week, that low amount will make no difference....

@Karembu On the subject of Fifa, what is your opinion on Josep "60 crap ideas a day" Blatter?

Best match i have seen so far would be Brazil against Turkey, very entertaining

A symbolic fine, meant to show that FIFA will uphold their stance against theatrical dives this tournament. A one match ban would of been a lot better.

Well FIFA made something daring today, according to a commentator FIFA has allowed replays, even for "false" decisions from the refs, to be shown during the games on the stadium screens.

WOW!

US 3 Portugal 2. Stunned, I am. I thought the US would pull themselves out of the 0-3-0 hole that was '98 by going 0-2-1 in group D in '02. I can't believe they took down Figo and company. From what I've read, sounds like both teams had an own goal. Go figure the US's was Agoos.

Anyone out there watch this. Unfortunately, it started at 4am here. I tried to get out of bed but slept right through my alarm at that hour. They've actually got a shot at round 2.

@ Ned It was great
Hilarious
we surprised the crap out of them
pretty good game too
though they dominated the ball(but we let them)

I watched the whole game, too.
The US certainly played surprisingly well, IMO, but Portugal was just all over the place - not like them at all if you ever saw them in the Euro Cup. Their defence was atrocious, they looked complacent as if expecting an easy match or something, but the USA proved them wrong.
All eyes were resting on Figo, and he played all right, it was the rest of the Portuguese team that was in disarray - Rui Costa did almost nothing, F.Couto gave away silly fouls, etc...
This group D has certainly become more interesting, though, and the USA vs. South Korea hosts will be a very big game.

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
@Karembu On the subject of Fifa, what is your opinion on Josep "60 crap ideas a day" Blatter?

Best match i have seen so far would be Brazil against Turkey, very entertaining

Best team I've seen so far...(IMO)...is South Korea.... They really impressed me...of course Brazil's Ronaldo also impressed me...

"Sep" Blatter?!? Hehe...he doesn't really seem to be the sort of person that "deserves" to be the "boss" of FIFA... Over the years he has been involved in a lot of "strange" business...and like you said: he's no stranger to crap ideas... Just recently I saw a proposition from him to forbid "slow motion replays" in order to calm down the discussions of different situations in the game....

Congratulations US, I was very surprised to hear the US won 3-2 over Portugal. I haven't seen any of the games today, only a short extract from the US-Portugal game, so I hope someone will be kind enough to post a little review

C Elegans, for reviews of all games, you can go:
2002 World Cup
Anyway, here's a brief summary:
Portugal start attacking, then boom!, chaos occurs in Portuguese area as the US counterattacks and a good American header leads to O'Brien scoring from the rebound in the 4th minute. The game carries on with both teams taking chances but Portugal a bit on the back foot, and at 30 minutes, Landon crosses the ball from just outside the area, ball gets deflected off the head of J.Costa and goes in the gol, just scraping the left post. Minutes later (36th of first half), McBride receives a good cross near the Portuguese goal, and free of a marker, headers in a comfortable goal. USA 3 Portugal 0...big shock...however, Portugal start collecting themselves and Pauleta scores in the last few minutes of the first half to make it 3-1.
The second half sees an altered Portugal, attacking more and defending slightly better, however the USA initially hold them off quite well until at around 70 mins when Agoos scores a beautiful own goal.
3-2, and a tense last 20 mins; Portugal ever getting more and more chances and dominating the game more, though just a few real threats created - US hold out and win the game.
Overall, for the 90 minutes, USA deserved to win and they did.

Originally posted by Karembeu
Best team I've seen so far...(IMO)...is South Korea.... They really impressed me...of course Brazil's Ronaldo also impressed me...

Didn't see any South Korea Ronaldo was okay, i feel like he will get better as the competition goes on

"Sep" Blatter?!? Hehe...he doesn't really seem to be the sort of person that "deserves" to be the "boss" of FIFA... Over the years he has been involved in a lot of "strange" business...and like you said: he's no stranger to crap ideas... Just recently I saw a proposition from him to forbid "slow motion replays" in order to calm down the discussions of different situations in the game....

That is one of the most ridiculous things i have ever heard, even for Sepp Why did they vote for him, i couldn't believe it

Thanks, Lost One, and welcome here
What a strange situation, both teams scoring own goals. Imagine what a horrible feeling it must be to score an own goal in the World Cup

The Germany - Ireland match would have been interesting to see, how good are this fairly unknown German team? The tie was a abd result for Cameroon, now they must beat Germany in order to advance further, since it's not very likely Saudi will beat Ireland.

Re: Sepp Blatter, I wouldn't mind if he accidentaly should fall under a train...

Originally posted by C Elegans
Re: Sepp Blatter, I wouldn't mind if he accidentaly should fall under a train...

That sentence sounds like a threat

Senegal played this morning, shame they couldn't beat Denmark, the really should have. Seems like the deciding match will be between Senegal and Uruguay in that group

*sigh*...what is the football world coming to?? (Note: this is not an insult to any country, but it looks like the 'underdogs' are the ones who are having a good time in this year's World Cup )

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
Senegal played this morning, shame they couldn't beat Denmark, the really should have. Seems like the deciding match will be between Senegal and Uruguay in that group

I agree, I had several really good chances and really dominated the game for most of the 2nd half.

Yes, and if France beat Uruguay tonight, which I think, then Denmark-France may also be a deciding game.

@Brink: It's good the underdogs win It's so boring when the favorites win every game, I think unexpected underdog wins makes the sport more appealing to more people

Originally posted by C Elegans
I agree, I had several really good chances and really dominated the game for most of the 2nd half.

The sending off really ruined that game, i think it was a joke of a sending off. Referees so often ruin a game, they certainly did that one

Yes, and if France beat Uruguay tonight, which I think, then Denmark-France may also be a deciding game.

I think Uruguay can win it, okay they don't have the best defence but they definately have the attacking players to make the game interesting