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With quite a few of the first round games played, it seems apt to take a quick look at the performances in Germany so far.

There has been a great deal of criticism of England, whom in fairness did everything that was asked of them – they won. 3-points thank you very much. But of course simply getting the points isn’t enough for the British press who seem determined to slate the team, and undermine its outgoing manager at every opportunity. The performance was tepid at best, but the defence remained steadfast and you couldn’t really argue that England weren’t in control for the 90-minutes.

The players were quick to blame the intense heat, which is ominous for the next World Cup in chilly… South Africa. On Sportsweek, Radio Five’s sports radio show, Colin Hart of the Sun said, “forget the heat,” and that the performance was just poor. Bobby Robson, who managed England to two World Cups and was a pretty good player himself (my Granddad promises me), shot back saying, “well you can’t forget about the heat, because I have played in it, and it does weaken you.” Of course playing in intense heat is going to wear you down, and here in the UK, because we don’t play football in the summer, it’s always going to be difficult for the players, some of whom lost 10-lbs during the match. Colin Hart and his opinionated colleagues should run a mile themselves in sweltering heat, rather than vegetating behind their desks, like bulbous perspiring tubs of margarine, opining about people with actual talent. Tabloid sports hacks must be the very worst kind of journalists, to call them paparazzi, is like calling a piece of shit between two slices of bread a club sandwich.

Germany, my tentative choice for the title, were good going forward but suspect at the back. Better teams than Costa Rica will cause them serious problems, but maybe they’ll address these frailties and strengthen as the tournament progresses. I didn’t see the Argentina game, but reliable informants - my dad and a guy at work – argue that the media hyperbole that has surrounded their performance is undeserved, but the Ivorians, who they beat 2-1, may be a side to watch.

Against the ever-improving US, the Czechs were brilliant, with Arsenal’s new signing Rosicky, the pick of a great bunch. Dispatching a decent, and very fit US side, 3-0, is a signal to the big teams that the Czechs should not be dismissed as a perversion of the FIFA rankings. We will see tonight if the Italians can overcome their financial scandals at home, and beat Ghana. This will be an interesting game, and will show whether Totti et al pose any threat to Brazil’s presupposed brilliance.

Other notable – if dour - performances were those of the Dutch, who beat a dull Serbia and Montenegro, and Portugal who struggled against an impotent Angola. Another side who failed to make the grade were Sweden, who were piss-poor against a plucky Trinidad and Tobago, a team reduced to 10 men for the second half, and whose performance was a tribute to grit and heart.

My predictions were almost thrown out of the window in the first week, when my surprise package Australia, were losing 0-1 to Japan with six-minutes left. Everton midfielder Tim Cahill scored two (including the Aussies first ever goal in the World Cup finals), and John Aloisi scored another, with the men from down under winning 3-1.

And to finish off, has anyone else noticed that African representatives Togo, Ivory Coast, and Ghana, all neighbour each other in the Gulf of Guinea, in Central West Africa? What a hotbed of football is developing there, overshadowing the previous African football titans of Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, and Arab states of the North. Even Angola is not too far away, just down the west coast.

Oh, and can the BBC please sack commentator/analyst Mark Lawrenson? A man who makes Mark E. Smith seem engaging.