So far

Well South Africa was brilliant in their opening game against Mexico. It was a fitting start to the tournament with a tremendous goal from Tshabalala. Both sides had their fair share of chances and one player who stood out for Mexico was Giovanni Dos Santos.

Uruguay and France drew nil all, in what was a lacklustre encounter. With Nicolas Lodiero sent off for Uruguay they did well to hang on against their opponents.

Korea Republic played well against Greece. Captain and talisman Park Ji Sung stood up for his nation and sealed the match with a 2 nil victory. This leaves Greece still searching for their first ever World Cup goal.

Argentina was very sharp against Nigeria. Kudos must be given to Nigerian keeper Vincent Enyeama whom saved a number of point blank shots from the likes of Messi and co. Messi did have a brilliant game and looks set to have a big tournament.

Well Robert Green must be one of the most hated people in England right now, after a colossal error in goal for England gifting the USA a 1 all draw. Gerrard opened the account for England with a nice finish on the back of some slick passing. However Green's error from a Clint Dempsey shot will be what this game is remembered for.

Algeria and Slovenia are tipped to be bottom of Group C and this game did show the fans why. Apart from a fan that made their way to the top of one of the flood lights in the stadium this match was pretty boring. Ghezzal was subbed on for Algeria in the 58th minute and within the space of another 14 minutes he was off the field again with 2 yellow cards, one for a silly shirt tug and another for a dilebrate hand ball in the Slovenian penalty area. Captain corageous Robert Koren finished a nice move on the left flank to win the match for his team 1 nil.

Group D's first game between Serbia and Ghana was a tight and tense affair with several chances for both sides. It again came down to another brain explosion from the experience Aleksander Lukovic to open some space for the Ghanaians. Although Serbia had two brilliant opportunities to open the scoring, it was a handball from Stuttgart midfielder Zdravko Kuzmanovic in his own penalty area that gave Ghana the win.

The other group D encounter saw three time winners Germany facing off with Australia. Australia had a great chance within the early exchanges to go ahead, but it was Germany through star player Lukas Podolski that took the lead. Miroslav Klose then headed home to make it a 2 goal advantage for the Germans at half time. The game was turned on its head as Australian star was sent off under dubious circumstances following a challenge on Bastian Schweinsteiger. It was a massive dive that could draw comparisons to the Fabio Grosso dive in '06. The Germans in their efficient manner went on with the victory with youngster Thomas Mueller and Brazilian born striker Cacau finishing the rout. 4 nil the final score.

Well an interesting 8 games so far. The Socceroos were always going to find it tough against the Germans, and when Pim named Timmy Cahill upfront it was always going to be just that much harder. I do not understand Pim's ploy, he didn't use a single recognised striker until Rukavytsya came on 64 minutes into the match. So our hopes rest on the next two matches now, hopefully Kewell and Bresciano can come into the line up and cause some problems for the opposition. For all the Socceroos supporters out there, this isn't the time to give up on the team; this is when they need us most. They have two tough games ahead and they need results. So let's stick by the boys and help them home to victory. C'mon the Socceroos!

It's so close now!

The World Cup kicks off in under 10 hours! It is just so close now. After arduous qualification campaigns for these final 32 teams, their time has finally arrived. So I thought I would run my rule over the first 2 matches from group A.

The host nation, South Africa, begins its campaign against a Mexican side full of talent. The captain of the Mexican squad Rafael Marquez has been under an injury cloud but will start for Mexico. The South African squad is without one of its big name stars, in Benni McCarthy. So the high expectations of the home nation will fall squarely on Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar. The match up between him and Marquez should be a cracker. There is however something many fans will overlook in this South African squad; it's the 4 P's - Pride, Power and Passion, along with coach Carlos Parreira. The man is a World Cup veteran having coached at 5 previous World Cups, and winning one in 1994 with his native Brazil. He is the right man to lead South Africa and unlock the potential in this squad, so I'm backing the host nation to win a tight contest 2-1.

The second game is between two powerhouse football nations in Uruguay and France. Both come to the tournament with controversy not far behind. Who can forget the Hand of Frog scandal? As for Uruguay they were one of the most ill-disciplined sides in qualification for South Africa, totalling 48 yellow cards and 4 red cards. Both teams also struggled through qualification with play-off wins securing their spots. Oscar Tabarez, the Uruguay coach, will most likely stick with his 3-5-2 system with the deadly strike duo of Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan up front. Raymond Domenech, French coach, will look to change his formation to a more attacking 4-3-3 with Jeremy Toulalan holding the midfield, and Flourent Malouda and Yoann Gourcuff in more attacking positions. It looks to be an interesting game between two sleeping giants of football. I expect this game to show some glimmer of hope for both sides, but some defensive errors on both teams behalf will see this game be a 2 all draw.

But more importantly what do you think out there? Do you agree with my predictions? Please leave a comment. Otherwise enjoy the football.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog, The world of Chiso. My name is Alex Chisholm and I'll be blogging about anything and everything. But in the next 31 days I will be focusing on the one and only FIFA World Cup. I will try to bring you the passion, glory, disappointment and the unusual from the event, as well as talking goals, tactics, players and anything else World Cup-ish. I'll leave you with a couple of links:

The 50 best World Cup Goals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9L9rj4swhs

Australia's first World Cup Victory over Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo4N-RfvCTw

The World Cup Contenders (By Bigpond Sport)
http://www.bigpondsport.com/news/tabid/91/newsid/42700/the-2010-world-cup-contenders/default.aspx#

Enjoy!