Japan and Holland both won their opening games in Group E play, and a win here could clinch a spot in the final 16. The Dutch side entered the tournament as one of the favorites to win, and despite a slow start managed to secure a comfortable win over Denmark. Japan played competently in a somewhat forgettable game against Cameroon, but used a first half goal to take a 1-0 victory. Not surprisingly, Holland is a prohibitive favorite in this matchup.

Spain vs Switzerland

First major upset on the championship, the Swiss embarrassed the mighty Spain, Gelson Fernandes scores the only goal in the game and Switzerland takes the three points and Spain an embarrassment.

Friday was the start of the World cup with 2 games on the schedule, the host team South Africa against the Mexico and Uruguay facing France.

England should have won their opening game against the United States, but had to settle for a draw due to the now famous miscue by goalkeeper Robert Green. Green’s blunder has been dubbed ‘The Hand of Clod’ by the always quick witted UK media, a reference to Diego Maradona’s legendary ‘Hand of God’ goal for Argentina against England in the 1986 World Cup. All of the hoopla over Green’s ‘soft’ goal has obscured the fact that England played pretty well against a highly underrated US side. At the time, there was some concern about their relative lack of offense in the game but that doesn’t look like much of an issue in context of what has been to date the lowest scoring World Cup tournament in history.

With a number of highly ranked teams getting off to a slow start in World Cup play, there was some expectation that Germany could suffer a similar fate against an Australian team known for solid team defense. It didn’t quite work out that way—Germany scored just 8 minutes into the game and shredded the ‘Socceroos’ defense throughout the contest en route to a 4-0 victory in the Group D opener for both sides. Germany looked nothing like the boring, methodical team that they’re often accused of being as four different players scored goals in the lopsided win.

The World cup 2010 kicked off with a marvelous opening spectacle and a jam packed stadium.