Eddie

Yeah, if both England and Argentina win their group they will play in the final, while if Germany win their group we will play Ecuador in the last 16 if we win ours. This is the World Cup, you are going to have to play and beat good teams if you want to win it.

You've only got one point American. As for Keller being one of the best keepers in the world, I'm not so sure about that one. He was really only called on once to make a save during the match which he did well. Have to agree with USAblue when I saw the goal I did think back to the Cisse goal. I still think all three red cards were deserved. As for the USA being the only team that didn't get the rub of the green with officials, they were quite lucky with some of the times that the Italians were called offside.

They still did their best not to score. African sides will always create chances though I have to say that the Czechs simply didn't turn up today. Perhaps they will really suffer from not having their first choice of strikers, though they should be fit for the knock-out stages (if they make it, which I have to say is now in considerable doubt).

I would agree with that.

Personally I thought that the ref got everything right tonight. De Rossi had to go and so did Mastreoni (if you slide in with studs showing you are always asking for trouble, add to that the fact that you are going in with two feet, late and one foot slightly off of the ground and you'll be lucky to get away with it), while Pope, given his experience, should have known better than to have gone in for a tackle like that having already been booked, both bookings were deserved. It would have been nice had the officials managed to keep the Italian play acting under wraps, but I don't think that is really possible and they never got away with anything that was too serious. As for the goal, the player was certainly "active" or whatever term we are supposed to use now. Have to say French TV only showed it twice so maybe when I see it again in the morning some of the details I thought to be so might be wrong, but though he didn't touch the ball (or did he...really don't think he did) it appeared as if he tried to flick it (though was that his attempt to get out of the way?), but even if neither of those are true the fact that he was stood directly in the line of sight for the keeper, right through the path of the ball and so close to the goal means that he has to be considered active in what happened.

I actually thought it was a funny little S&M joke. Leanardo seems to be growing into his role, good choice by the BBC.

Well Portugal seem to have a bit of the England syndrome at the moment, but they did what they had to do today and can now look forward to the next round and possibly the prospect of playing Argentina. That could be a great game, I have no doubt that with the attacking talent that Portugal have that they will come good and become more entertaining as the tournament goes on.

Yeah...rub it in.

Better than Spain and Italy yes and were the most convincing of that lot in qualification, though because of the weakness of England's group that means nothing really. Overall strength in depth, same reason why most people you hear talk, be they current or ex players or just folk in the media. Now that isn't to say that is the only reason I believe that, but there is just a quality in that England starting 11 and even on the bench that puts them slightly ahead of those sides.

No, as in they had only played one game in this tournament.

Best goal ever? Think that is going a bit far.

If you look at it that way not much seperates most players in this world cup. When you really look at sides it is easy to pick holes, if you look at Brazil I can't see a single defender there who would make it into the English backline. There is no perfect team out there, but England are one of the top three and in my opinion those three are slightly ahead of a following pack which is then virtually impossible to seperate. As for the lack of silverware being down to lack of talent, I woudln't agree. I am not saying that over the past few years we have always been overflowing with talented players, but we are always good enouh to be able to do something, the fact that we have not won anything for 40 years is the result of poor management and underperforming. If we win this World Cup I won't be of the view that we won it despite having SGE at the helm and if we fail it won't just be because of him. We have a squad of players with a huge amount of talent and if they aren't able to produce the goods when they cross that line then that is their fault.

Let's hope they sort themselves out. Prove all the doubters and naysayers wrong.

You were saying that about England after you'd only seen them play once.

It didn't flatter them, but they were helped by the sending off and also by the fact that S&M simply didn't turn up. They played very well today though.

On current form no. However, there is a long way to go yet and neither team has faced a real test yet. They are good enough to beat each other so it will just be about who produces the goods in the knock-out stages. Brazil don't look to be in the same class as Argentina when you compare performances in Germany, but I'm sure that you wouldn't argue that Brazil are a far worse team than Argentina.

Feel sorry for S & M, even told someone to put a bet on them getting through the group as a good underdog bet...oops. They showed what they could do in the second half against the Netherlands, but apart from that they seem to have been out of their league.

Isn't this the same Argentina that we beat 3-2 and 1-0 the time before that? Personally I don't think that matters, but it is the argument that has been used for Spain. I don't think any of these group games matter as long as you get the points and get through, couldn't care less if you looked like world beaters or scraped by, it means nothing.

He has pace, good ball control, good passing ability and a good eye for goal. You obviously haven't seen very much of him and I thought that he did a decent job when he came on yesterday. He has suffered from the fact that he didn't play much last year as a result of injury, but there is no doubting that 'boro have a very good player on their hands and I'm sure he'll go on to big things.

We'll see.

6-0 Flopsy! Not that I would rank that achievement up there with some of the others.

Mexico 2-0

2-0 Portugal

Problem is I can't see Ghana scoring. They created chances against Italy but their finishing was shocking.

The thing is, if it weren't for geographic requirements would either of you really be seeded?