England might not have been brilliant but....

[Barmby Rover]

if you watched the game this afternoon England should breeze through the goup stages. Algeria and Slovenia were at best Championship level if not lower. They were awful for World Cup standard. Nobody has impressed yet, let's see some proper football next week with a bit of luck.

[CusworthRovers]

I think it's a typical world cup tourny. Very cagey opening games, whilst teams get used to the surroundings of Sth Africa and their opponents. Nobody wants to lose their opening game, as they are immediately under more pressure come the next game.

The quality will improve, and to be honest bar just 2 games, the quality has been there IMO.

Whilst you might get a freakish mis-match (of which there shouldn't really be any) in the opening group games, I expected as ever there would be draws or the odd goal win. Get a goal and protect it for 3 points is the norm for the openers, and if drawing then protect that first and foremost.

In the 2nd round of group games, teams get a feel of what they need to do, and then go for it. This generally opens up play.