Four days of the the tournament in the books and, as usual, goals are at a premium. From the 11 games completed, we have seen a total of 18 goals, including 4 by Germany, 1 each by way of a penalty kick and an own goal, and 3 courtesy of schoolboy-level goalkeeping errors. 9 of the 22 teams have been shut out from scoring for the full 90 minutes. As is also traditional, I am going to draw all sorts of unreasonable conclusions based on a statistically meaningless sample:
1. The 2010 World Cup will be considered the best officiated tournament ever.
2. Australia will not be taking home the trophy.
3. Slovenia will surprise either England or USA but not both.
4. Klose will become the all-time World Cup Finals top scorer.
5. France will rally around Monsieur Domenech to win Group A.
6. Brazil will struggle against North Korea before ultimately prevailing 4-1.
Almost the entire young German team impressed, including relative veterans such as Lahm, Schweinsteiger, and Podolski, but the standout player in the win over Australia was Oezil. (You were right again, Rainer!) Other players who have shone in Round One are Asamoah Gyan, Giovanni dos Santos, Steven Gerrard, Oguche Onyewu, and Simone Pepe.
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