WORLD CUP

Slovenia 1 - 0 Algeria
Robert Koren, Solvena's captain, scored a late goal Sunday to give Slovenia a 1-0 win over 10-man Algeria in the teams' tournament opener, putting the World Cup's smallest nation, about the size of Houston, ahead of the United States and England in Group C.  The strike came from quite a distance in the 79th minute, and deflected off the Algeria's keepers arm and into the goal.  An Algerian subsitute, who only played for seven minutes, was red carded for handling the ball inside the penalty area, a big no-no, which even his teammates could not argue.  Once again, supposedly the ball is to blame.  My opinion:  These professionals, who have played with this ball since November of last year, need a scapegoat rather than admit they are simply nervous on the world stage, and furthermore the creator of the ball and Adidas have received very few comments on it until now.  The ball is round, white, and Germany seems to have no problem scoring four goals with it.  What could be to blame are those damn vuvuzelas.

Serbia 0 - 1 Ghana
The first World Cup in Africa has its first African winner.  Ghana stunned Serbia when Asamoah Gyan scored on an 84th-minute penalty kick Sunday for a 1-0 victory in Group D.  But overall, a very slow and uneventful game, and considering the only goal came from a penalty kick against a team with only ten minute due to an ejection, it wasn't so deserving.  Unfortunately for Serbia, their next match is against Germany, and I wish them luck (perhaps in the form of a penalty kick, or an ejection of a German), for they'll desperately need some help if they can't manage to hold Ghana to at least a draw.

Germany 4 - 0 Australia
Hot damn!  Finally a match in the world cup with goals to entertain throughout, two coming in the first half, and two in the second.  Known more as a methodical team than a brilliantly creative one such as Brazil, the Germans scored all spectacular goals.  And as they said before, they wanted to dominate in this years World Cup, and literally destroy teams and show they mean business.  Lukas Podolski scored with a strike and Miroslav Klose scored witha brilliant header from far out in the first 30 minutes as Australia coach Pim Verbeek's defensive tactics backfired.  Thomas Müller and Cacau also scored against an overwhelmed Australian defense in the second half after Cahill was red-carded in the 56th minute for a late tackle on Bastian Schweinsteiger.  Truly a team effort, all without Captain Michael Ballack.