Day one of the World Cup is now complete and so far it has been an absolute pleasure.

The opening match saw hosts Germany defeat a valiant, but overmatched Costa Rica 4-2 in Munich. A few of my Costa Rican friends were at the game. They obviously knew Germany was going to win but they said it would be a thrill just to be there regardless of the outcome.

4-2 is a 28-14 scoreline in football terminology for you soccer haters out there that claim there's little to no scoring in soccer. I was hoping Costa Rica could keep it at 3-2, but Torsten Frings hit a 40-yard bullet late in the game.

Having a (-1) goal differential would've been much better than a (-2) coming out of game one for the Ticos, but at least they've gotten their most difficult game out of the way. Goal differential bit them on the butt in the 2002 World Cup and prevented them from making it to the Round of 16. Hopefully the same won't happen this time around for our Central American friends.

Ecuador just defeated Poland 2-0 in a game that saw the Polish looking completely uninspired. Once Ecuador got their first goal, they were totally in the driver's seat for the rest of the match. I don't know why so many picked Poland as a sure thing in this game because they've looked quite dull the last few times I've seen them play. Not to mention this total embarrassment of a goal where Poland got scored on by Colombia in a recent friendly off of a punt from the Colombian keeper!

That was the last game of the day and now GROUP A currently is ranked like this:

1. Germany : 3 pts : 4 goals : 2 against : +2 goal differential
   
2. Ecuador : 3 pts : 2 goals : 0 against : +2 goal differential
   
3. Costa Rica : 0 pts : 2 goals : 4 against : -2 goal differential
   
4. Poland : 0 pts : 0 goals : 2 against : -2 goal differential

England vs. Paraguay @ 8 a.m.

Trinidad & Tobago vs Sweden @ 11 a.m.

Argentina vs Ivory Coast @ 2 p.m.