Brasilien

World Cup action continued today, as the much anticipated defending champions made their debut, but more on that later. First off, the second Asian team in this tournament, the Korean Republic, made their debut against the African nation of Togo in Frankfurt, Germany. After an early goal in the 1st half, the Togo team seemed to be playing a better game than the Koreans. But once the 2nd half kicked off, the Koreans showed a newly ignited spark that ultimately led them to victory as they overtook the Togo team 2-1. Next, we saw the clash of two European powerhouses. The French team met up against the youthful team from Switzerland in Stuttgart, Germany. Both teams were evenly matched, which ultimately made for an exciting, yet scoreless game. This one ends 0-0. Finally, the match of the day, straight out of Berlin, Germany, the defending champs in their traditional yellow and blue, Brazil, faced off against the checkerboard team from Croatia. This game was quite frankly disappointing. When you think Brazil, you think amazing soccer. They were pretty much lackluster today. If anything, I was more impressed by the game put on by the Croatian team. But even Brazil at half-speed is still a formidable opponent, and that was made clear as they grasped victory by the minimal margin of 1-0. So, after today's full day of game play, Groups F and G look like this:

Group F:
1. Australia (3 pts.)
2. Brazil (3 pts.)
3. Croatia (0 pts.)
4. Japan (0 pts.)

Group G:
1. Korea Republic (3 pts.)
2. France (1 pt.)
3. Switzerland (1 pt.)
4. Togo (0 pts.)

Tomorrow: Spain vs. Ukraine, Tunisia vs. Saudi Arabia, and Round 2 of play officially kicks off with Germany vs. Poland