After a dull first phase of World cup, the tournament has come to life with some splendid goal scoring in the second phase of group clashes. As more and more teams are forced to drop their defensive attitude, more goals should follow. There have been four second phase matches so far and those have already produced 11 goals. Argentina were rather wasteful in their first match against Nigeria. But against South Korea they took their chances and brought out the performance of the tournament so far. Lionel Messi would consider himself unlucky for not scoring goals in these two matches, but boy oh boy, he was involved in everything. Argentina won't mind him not scoring goals as far as he creates these many for his team mates. I have earlier written in my Argentina world cup preview, that it is essential for Maradona to play three of his best players upfront and also the necessity to play Messi behind the other two. It looks like he has done all those, but the selection of Guiterrez as right back could come to haunt him. There is no doubt about the fact that the world cup is doing well with it's greatest poster boy, Maradona back on the sideline. Actually he looks more passionate than anyone in and around the pitch. It is a treat to watch him celebrate every moment, may be a bit childish but still a treat for the eyes.
Last two days have been the days of upset in this edition of World Cup. First it was an absolutely unexpected Spanish defeat against Switzerland and followed by yesterday's defeat of France to Mexico. The latter doesn't surprise me as I have predicted a chance of the same in World Cup Preview. Meanwhile Group G has gone from bad to worse with suddenly North Korea showing that they are not any push overs. Cristiano Ronaldo criticized the defensive attitude of Ivory Coast, quite surprising that he will be playing under Jose Mourinho next season. Germany has been the delight of the tournament playing "Total Football", due to the simple fact that they are more comfortable with the Jabulani than anyone else. Let's hope with the second week the tournament opens up a bit. But one thing is for sure that the knockout stages will be ultra-defensive this time around, there are too many Jose Mourinho's in the competition.
Fuente: All About FC Barcelona
