SWITZERLAND 2 TOGO 0

Nice to see the Swiss score their first World Cup goal since 1994. In the portions of the match I watched, Switzerland looked pretty good and didn't have too much to worry about in Togo. Switzerland's second goal, though replays show it was deflected, was still brilliant. However, it was a very predictable result and so I won't waste too much space with it, but the victory served to help France as well after their disasterous collapse against the Koreans. I know full well that French manager Raymond Domench is crazy (look no further than the bizarre eyeglasses frames - always a good yardstick for eccentricity), but even he saw Barthez' lousy goalkeeping yesterday. I don't understand how he can possibly deny Gregory Coupet his shot in goal. Sure, he isn't quite as entertaining, but France can't be too worried about that right now as they have bigger concerns in front of them. The suspension of Zinedine Zidane is a blessing in disguise: much has been made of the fact that Zidane has never assisted a Henry goal, but the reasons for it are pretty clear. Henry is used to receiving the ball first-time at Arsenal, whereas Zidane's style of being a 'playmaker' with no sense of urgency has Henry timing all of his runs poorly. It was no accident that Henry's goal was assisted by former Arsenal strike-partner Silvain Wiltord. Here's to hoping another former Gunner, Patrick Vieira, distributes more to Henry's liking. It's now up to the Swiss to book their second-round ticket and spare the world any further Korea matches for four years, which always seem to involve them getting outplayed throughout the match, staging a freak comeback and having opponents' goals inexplicably dissalowed.

UKRAINE 4 SAUDI ARABIA 0

I saw none of this one, except for a quick montage of Ukranian goals. Bouncing back from a 4-0 slaughtering at the hands of a quality Spanish side is never easy. But nothing could possibly ease that pain quite like a subsequent match against the Saudis. They'll make any team look like world-beaters. Ukraine now only need a win or a draw against Tunisia later this week to advance.


SPAIN 3 TUNISIA 1

Through 45 minutes of hard-driving rain, it seemed as if it only took Spain one match to look as fractured as their country's politics, but their salvation came in the form of an old hero. After Raul had a wonderful second half against Ukraine by playing with the eagerness of a youngster and positioning himself perfectly thoughout that match (as I noticed later on the Univision rebroadcast), it should have been no surprise that Spain's equalizer was created when he followed up on a deflected shot, beating his defender for the goal. And you could feel it coming. The entire second half leading up to that point saw Spain controlling possession perhaps as much as 80 percent of the time. So when Raul leveled the scoreline, Tunisia simply had no answers as the Spaniards kept coming. Just when I was starting to question whether Cesc Fabregas had actually been substituted into the game, he played an amazing 30 yard ball forward to the diagonally-running striker Fernando Torres, who had his marker beat in a sprint and flicked it past the onrushing keeper on the second touch, never once looking up after he received the ball. While the Tunisian keeper perhaps could have done more in either closing down Torres or diving after the ball, Torres' Greek god-like pose after scoring was as appropriate as it was pretentious. He followed this up several minutes later by perfectly trapping a long-ball, once again beating his marker, but getting a little too much foot under it on the bounce and sending it high. He added his last of the match when he was brought down while going for a header in the box and then pounding home the penalty kick under the torso of the hapless keeper, a lucky play thanks to the slick pitch. So Spain are through and have 90 minutes to waste playing Saudi Arabia on Friday. Even goalkeeper Iker Casillas could probably sit this one out.


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I've been meaning to say this for a long time, but Adidas really outdid themselves this go-round with their ad campaign. Yes, I'm getting tired of seeing it more than 10 times a day, but those spots are brilliant and further put to shame Nike's 'Joga Bonito' ads, which are a huge letdown after their Euro 2004 'Ole' commercials, in which Ronaldinho's insane mid-air toe-flick move was on display and Eric Cantona was only briefly seen. Seriously, this time around do we need Eric f***ing Cantona, of all people, to tell us to 'play bootiful?' I'm glad Nike still isn't the World Cup sponsor. And with Adidas' match ball providing some spectacular goals, 'die marke mit den 3 streifen' are on quite a roll this year.