When you need 2 and play to score 0, you might be Greece. What was Greece thinking? What was their grand plan to get through? Samaras had maybe two decent opportunities, one due to Argentina's Dimichelis whiffing on a slide, but that was it. A draw would've been as helpful as a loss, yet the Greeks looked set to play for 0-0 from the start of their game against the Leo Messi All-Stars. Shameful. To top it all off, they still coughed up 2 goals to Argentina, one rocket off the head of Demichelis, another off the foot of Palermo. And Messi himself came close a few times but still couldn't get his first of the tourney. The South Korea-Nigeria game was memorable for two second-half errors. The first came courtesy of Yakubu, who had the ball about 2 yards from goal, perfectly still, with the keeper entirely out of the picture. Missing a penalty wide left is embarrassing, but doing the same with the Oxford English definition of a sitter is humiliating. Yakubu did precisely that before being given a reprieve via a stupid leg assault in the box by South Korea. Yakubu stepped up and redeemed himself with a clinical penalty that sent the keeper the wrong way. But it wasn't enough to prevent Nigeria's demise, and the 2-2 draw sent South Korea through to the round of 16. It'll be Uruguay v South Korea and Mexico v Argentina in a few days. Both favorites will like their chances.

This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends... For a half hour, this game could be fairly described as ho-hum. Greece left their guts and pluck at the hotel, presumably showing up for a game of red rover or bingo instead of the footy. Nigeria had put themselves in front, and it seemed like the Greeks would need 14 men (at least 4 of whom interested in playing) to bother to mount much of a threat. Turns out they just needed Nigeria to lose a guy. I feel bad for Sani Kaita. He's a feisty defensive midfielder, and in a dispute over a throw-in, he kicked at Vasilis Torosidis. To me, it looked like he clipped Torosidis's hip, making it a straight red. It wasn't a hard kick, and I can't even be sure at this moment he connected, but it was definitely a high kick after play at Torosidis. Kaita's refusal to argue (and subsequent anguish) were signs he knew what he did. And what he did was put Nigeria on the ropes for qualification. That's a tough pill to swallow. Apparently the sight of a red card clued the Greeks into the fact that they should be playing soccer. They added an attacking player to the pitch and proceeded to put Nigerian keeper Vincent Enyeama through the paces. Time after time, Enyeama (and sometimes his back line) batted away Grecian strikes until, finally, one deflected off a defender and left Enyeama helpless. That was the first Greek goal in about 400 minutes of World Cup play (fact, not exaggeration), and it set the stage for them to claim their first win. Just as Enyeama was making Arsene Wenger think maybe he'd found his man in goal, a low, long shot came into the keeper's legs. He got down to block it, but didn't collect, and served it up for Torosidis, who punched it home. With that, Nigeria completed a stunning collapse -- surely anyone who watched the first 30 mins would never believe you if you told them the final score. The red didn't just hamper the Nigerian attack, it single-handedly brought Greece's to life. Even for a red card, that was a shocking turn in play. With their first World Cup win under their belt, the Greeks will be feeling good today. But to advance for sure, they'd still have to beat Argentina, and that's asking too much. Assuming Greece loses that game, South Korea sits in the driver's seat to qualify. Nigeria aren't out of it, but they'll need to thump South Korea and hope everyone finishes 1-2 behind the Maradonians and they can advance on goal diff. The second round has been GREAT so far. See, haters? The Jabulani told you not to worry.

Title courtesy of my coblogger, Auguste. I doff my hat to you, sir. As exciting as it was, as proud as I am of the team, as pleased as I am with the result...dang, am I ever glad that's over with. My nerves were frazzled to the point of a near-dissociative state and I felt like I'd drank a pot of coffee on an empty stomach...coffee mixed with oven cleaner and shards of glass. It's exhausting being a soccer fan! BUT! At times it is also rewarding, and while of course I was hoping for a US win today, I will gladly take a 1-1 draw. Overall, I'm happy to say that the US was the better team for good portions of this match. It didn't start that way, with England's goal coming in just the 4th minute after Steven Gerrard easily got away from Ricardo Clark. This was worrisome not just because of the obvious but because the US tends not to recover well when they allow an early goal, whether in the first or second half. But rather than getting deflated and coming apart, the team buckled down and responded very well. The defense, including Oguchi Onyewu in his first full game since his knee injury last October, gave one of the best performances we've seen from them in a long time. It wasn't without blunders here or there of course, but was much stronger and more cohesive than usual. In fact, Capello's reason for subbing out James Milner in only the 31st minute was that "he was having trouble with [Steve] Cherundolo". Tim Howard was unsurprisingly great, making several key saves even after taking Emile Heskey's boot to his ribs. I do not ever want to see this again:

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