World Cup Roundup Day 5: The Group of Death

Today the infamous "group of death" started play. Group G includes five time winners Brazil, Portugal, African power Cote d'Ivoire, and North Korea. The most highly anticipated match was between Portugal and Cote d'Ivoire. The end result was a draw which was nearly broken up by Didier Drogba in the 90th minute. Portugal didn't look impressive at all and was relying on Ronaldo to create the scoring. They are sorely missing the play of Luis Figo, who is retired, from their Euro 2004 squad. The Ivorians looked like a solid squad that was able to create scoring chances with Drogba on the bench. I look forward to more games with Cote d'Ivoire. Brazil got an unconvincing 2-0 win against North Korea. I was slightly disappointed that Brazil didn't score more goals, but the Koreans were well organized having been playing together as a squad for several years. The Korean defense proved effective to stymie the Brazilian samba style offense. Understandably Brazil has brought a squad that is more defensive in nature, but their offense has been severely hampered in this game and last year's Confederations Cup final against the US. We may see Brazil make an exit from the tournament prior to the semifinals if they continue this quality of play. New Zealand provided quite some excitement by scoring towards the end of second half stoppage time to get a draw against Slovakia.
The most interesting game tomorrow should be the Spain-Switzerland game. Spain is highly touted as a strong contender for the cup due to their offensive prowess. They are also the current European champions which is no small feat. Switzerland were good enough to qualify for the knockout stage in 2006, but is this team as good. Honduras-Chile is an interesting South American-Central American match. Chile was the top qualifier from South America whereas Honduras qualified in the last spot behind the US and Mexico on the last day of qualifying. The US and Mexico have shown in the last few World Cups that they are not cupcake victories in the group stages and have the capability to advance through the knockout stages. The key question is whether there is any other quality sides in our region. If Honduras were to win or tie this would be a major wake-up call that North and Central America are beginning to mature into a strong region for international football. The last match of the day is South Africa-Uruguay. I feel that South Africa buoyed by the home crowd of vuvuzeulas will qualify for the knockout stages, but this match will be important as a victory will put them in the drivers seat to participate in the third week of the tournament.