World Cup Soccer: Spain 2 Chile 1

A surprising game that could have gone either way. Torres is not up to his tournament winning form and should be rested next match. I hope they do so. David Villa can handle the load.

In the Honduras vs. Defensive Switzerland game, Honduras had a few chances and could have won but go out with pride, eliminating a European team that beat Spain, and proving that they deserved to be at the World Cup (many thought Costa Rica a better team).

World Cup Soccer: Brazil 0 Portugal 0

I would say that this was a cynical draw -- except for the 8 yellow cards that the two teams accumulated. Those yellow cards could hurt them later.

Cote D'Ivoire went out in style, but should have tried to get more goals. The entire tournament would have been different had Drogba not broken his arm just a few weeks ago.

World Cup Soccer: JPN 3 DEN 1

I expected this game to be won by Danish-style total football with midfield domination, lots of goals, and every player playing a full 90 minute marathon of movement and it was -- but it was the Japanese playing total football. Paraguay, watch out! Ref was bad, slightly below the very low refereeing standards set at this world cup, but not the worst.

In the other match, Holland cruised to a win against a good Cameroon side who scored only from the penalty box.

World Cup Soccer: NZ 0 PAR 0 (SLV 3 ITA 2)

I had been hoping for NZ to score 1 goal in a wide open match, but that did not happen.

Meanwhile, the Italians showed that they never deserved the last World Cup (they should have been eliminated by Australia).

The 2006 World Cup was rigged in Italy's favor but results in this World Cup show that the top 3 European leagues are ENG, GER, and, at the top, SPAIN. FRA, ITA, and Holland are in the second tier. I will update these stats when the opening round is complete.

World Cup Soccer: Australia 2 Serbia 1

Australia have now been cheated out of 2 World Cups, with 2 red cards in 3 games in South Africa and 11 yellow cards in 4 in Germany 2006. They were eliminated by a penalty kick in Germany in 2006 and effectively by the red cards and a penalty kick in 2010.

World Cup Soccer Red Card: USA 1 Algeria 0

Donovan's game winner in the 91st minute was one of the best in the history of US soccer, but this game shows yet again that FIFA must install instant replay and position an extra official behind each goal. The USA should have won by 2.

World Cup Soccer: Nigeria 2 South Korea 2

The Africans came into the match with a poor understanding of the referee, but both teams played a good, clean, and entertaining game.

World Cup Soccer: South Africa 2 France 1

South Africa needed to win by four goals to advance, but at least salvaged their pride. The same cannot be said for France.

World Cup Soccer: Spain 2 Honduras 0

Perhaps Torres should still be recovering from his knee injury. Great chances but no goals for him. Great play by Spain.

World Cup Soccer: Portugal 7 N Korea 0

Great game for Portugal. North Korea will play hard in their final game, which is against CIV, who will try to score 7 goals against them.

A quick word about corner kicks

When taking corner kicks, especially with a soccer ball that is difficult for Caltech to understand, place one player on the far side, just in case the ball travels too far.

So far, I've only seen Japan do this.

World Cup Soccer Red Card: CIV 1 BRA (3)

If Brazil continues to be treated as favorably in the rest of the competition as it was today, it will surely win the World Cup. This reminds me of 4 years ago, when the Italian football association needed -- and got -- a world cup win in order to avoid an investigation of league corruption.

Makes you wonder what Brazil has to hide.

Drogba did have a moment of brilliance.

Brazil had a goal scored by a player who touched it twice with his hands. The Univision commentator said, "if Maradona's goal was scored by the hand of God, then this one, with two handballs, featured both of God's hands."

Kaka got thrown off with a red card only after the Brazilians taught the CIV players how to dive in order to get the referee's attention. If the ref had yellow carded a Brazilian early in the match for diving, the game would have been different -- but CIV might have won, and FIFA cannot allow that.

World Cup Yellow Card: ITA 1 NZ 1

Melissa: "It's their Miracle on Ice" Semi-pros beat the heavily favored pros.

"This is pathetic. The theatrics are really sad."

Italy tried to cheat in order to win this game and their cheating only managed avoiding a loss.

World Cup Soccer: Denmark 2 Cameroon 1

One of the cleanest and most beautiful games played so far. These teams and their fans are world class in terms of sportsmanship and politeness and civilization.

World Cup Soccer Red Card: Australia 1 Ghana 1

Just as in 2006, Australia is felled by a blatant miscall and a penalty awarded. In 2006, Australia was eliminated by a penalty kick unfairly awarded to an Italian professional bellyflopper.

World Cup Soccer: Holland 1 Japan 0

A very good match, one of the few so far, and one that might have seen many more goals except that both goalies were very good.

World Cup Soccer: England 0 Algeria 0

England have to score another goal and to play better as a team -- but at least they're not France...

World Cup Soccer Referee: Slovenia 2 USA 2

In a World Cup filled with poor refereeing decisions, this was the worst. Great play by team USA opposed by a referee from Mali who hated them. Referees do sometimes hate team USA.

World Cup Soccer: Germany 0 Serbia 1

The boring team won again, but Germany should have been more aggressive. The only bright side is that the result means everyone in the group could still advance.

The Italian Strategy

In a computer game, the Italians would have the following abilities:

1) Acting. Any opposing foul turned into a yellow card. Any opposing yellow card turned into a red card.

2) Entitlement. Preferential treatment by refs in every game.

3) Catenaccio. Number of goals scored by each team are divided by 2 and rounded down.