Holland 1 Serbia Montenegro 0; Mexico 3 Iran 1; Portugal 1 Angola 0

It's day 3 and this day was not full of bad surprises, but full of good ones.

Group C
Holland 1
Serbia Montenegro 0

First, I must admit that I didn't see this match. So I have go with the measly high lights that I saw during half time of the Mexico Iran match.

Arjen Robben, plays for Chelsea, the wealthiest football club in this world. Arjen Robben is very young and Arjen Robben is very very good. But goes bautzman defence mode, time to time...

In Chelsea, he often plays in a system where he is forced to stay wide as Jose wants him to stay there and play as an orthodox winger. Even in this "limited" role, he is an outstanding player whose pace and touch is itching to be released. With the arrival of Ballack and Sheva next season, we all might be treated to the best team ever to be assembled with a lot of Russian money. But as for the moment, let us enjoy the wonders of the new age dutch football by no other than my favorite striker of all time...the one and only Marco van Basten.

With the promising youngster of Robben as well as the player heralded as the next Bergkamp, van Persie creating magic in the middle, van Nistelrooy as the lone striker up front, and Snyder defying age to do some damage, holland was in on this match from the get go (or so I've seen).

The only goal came from a flick loop pass from van Persie, which cruelly yet delicately goes over the serbian defence and in tandem with Robben beats the offside trap. Off to the races and in a footrace, only Ben Johnson on Human Growth Hormones can catch up. He catches up with the pass, leaving the defence in the dust and the charging serbian goalie was left wondering what just happened behind him as the ball is received by the net.

And from this point on, it was the Arjen Robben show. Robben just kept on taking it to the serbian defence on the left flank. Robben unleashes a thumper, Robben slaloms through 4 serbians, Robben just taking a piss out on the left hand side. It was his coming out party and he made the best out of it.

Although more goals could have "Robbenned", Dutch will be happy with the result and Serbians were unimpressive in their first and perhaps their final debut. If you have been watching the news, Montenegro and Serbia are now a separate country, which can only mean that this is the only time we will witness this team play.

Well, well well. Mr. Mourinho, are you going to unleash the boy wonder with no hair next season and is the answer going to be...No way Jose?

Group D
Mexico 3
Iran 1

My friends and I just played a cup match (11v11) and celebrated our 2-1 victory with an ice cold lemonade and Mexico V Iran.

And what a dull match it was and even without the Iranian president popping in to watch his team play.

It wasn't that dull, but I just thought it was dull. Maybe I was slightly sun stroked...

1st goal: Brilliantly executed set play, starting from a free kick on the deep right, glanced off mid air by number 10 of Mexico and there is Omar Bravo to steer it home.

2nd goal: An Iranian cross from the left, a mix up in the box and the iranian defender gets one back.

3rd goal: Iran, to my surprise has kept it up with the burrito nation for the first half. You have to get excited that Iran has 3 players in the Bundesliga (Hashemian, Mahadavikia, and Karimi) and in my mind the best hope for an Asian country to progress deep (I mean, not that deep, silly) in the tournament. But what I saw today is that there is now a huge chance that FIFA will decrease the number of teams involved from the next world cup. Asians are still not good enough to have 4 teams and Iran proved it today. As 2nd half performance did not match the one 45 minutes earlier.

Sweetest of passes came from the 2nd half substitute Zinha and it lands neatly into the path of the storming Bravo. He calmly tucks the ball into the back of the net. Game, set and match.

4th goal:
Icing on the cake, an extra bitch slap to take it to show your wife that you've been a good husband. Zihna takes the ball into the crumbling Iranian defence, passes it to the right flank. A deft one-two as Zihna welcomes the perfectly and I mean perfectly timed cross with his head for the 3rd goal.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad game...Watch out for the chimichanga bombers in the later rounds. They look the business.

Group D
Portugal 1
Angola 0

Portugal is sexy. Something about the country, the language, the women, the players, the uniform, and basically the fact that they went to the 2002 final in their own country, only to lose to the ugliest football side in recent years and they are hell bent on doing some damage with big Phil at the helm.

The sexiest thing about Portugal has to be their midfield. Deco, C Ronaldo, and Figo. Hot, spicy, and ex World Footballer of the year. So it's very easy and reasonable to forget that maybe Portugal's most dangerous player aren't those three, but their lone striker, Pauleta.

He's uncool. He's the type of guy who would hang out with your father. He just doesn't ooze anything sexy, rather he is going back and forth between dull and non-existent.

But why, oh why he scores those much needed goals. Under big Phil, portugal has adopted a style where the key men, Deco, Figo, and C Ronaldo will set Pauleta whenever possible. After that, they themselves will take their pot shots at goal. The first goal was classica Pauleta as Figo, who I must say has become a much better footballer than he won the World Football Player award 4 years ago (but more on that later) takes the balls and taps the ball in front of the oncoming angoland defender and himself drives right behind him. As Figo looks up from the left side of the penalty box, Pauleta is already in the middle. But this is where Pauleta pays his bills. He goes in towards the goalie and goes back to create enough space to invite Figo's low cross which he fires into the angolan net. Don't underestimate your father's fishing buddy. He actually might be the coolest guy you would ever meet.

As for Figo, he has now become the maestro that he never was in his prime. He has lost what he was most famous for, was his blistering pace down the flank. I guess he knew that to prolong his career as a footballer, all he had to do was to use his other skill and that is his football smarts. This is probably very similar to a flamethrower of a pitcher, after serious abuse of his rotator cuffs decide to use his precision and becoming an altogether a smarter pitcher towards the end of his career. So the great transformation of Luis Figo is on display, so if you get a chance, check it out.

By the way, Angola looked hot for the 1st half but decided not to play in the 2nd half. I'm worried that no african team will make it into the knockout phase of the tournament...

Ryu's "I know it was just the perfect strike" goal of the day:
To Mexico's Zinha's last goal for the Mexicans. You can feel that it was absolutely perfectly timed, perfectly struck, and perfectly satisfying.

Tomorrow: Yes, the japs will be battling it out with the criminals from down under, kristen's favorite boys take on another group of africans, and albert and his boys take on the manufacturers of strangely good beers.

Watch it.