The Carnival

So,the World Cup began an enthralling fashion,with South Africa sharing the spoils with Mexico in the opener.But,somehow most of the games have not really managed to live up to the expectations.There have been just too many of these 0-0 and 1-0 scorelines.So far, only Germany have managed to win in style and with something to spare.

Yes, the opening match was also a draw,but it was full of the "End to end" stuff,and anyone could have got 3 points in that game.Now,compare that to the France-Uruguay match,which didn't even have 5 shots on goal.It was almost boring to watch that game.France just lacked the creativity to beat the "not so great" Uruguayan defence.I think they sorely missed Malouda.The tactics were baffling,who the hell prefers Abou Diaby to in-form Florent Malouda?? France will have to do a lot of hard work to match their last World Cup's heroics.

And then there was this England's draw against USA.Yes,Rob Green made a bad mistake,but lets be honest,how many times did England really threaten Howard's goal?? You can almost remember no such instance.In fact it was US who came closest to winning the tie,with only a combo of Green and the goalpost denying them. Aaron Lennon was lively on the right,but he simply can't deliver any good crosses that England frontmen craved for.Left side was poor,with Capello trying two right-footers in Milner and Wright-Phillips in that slot.Neither was at all effective.And why Peter Crouch is so under-rated by England is a huge puzzle.His goal-scoring record is way better than that of Emile Heskey,and he is also better in the air,but still,for reasons only known to him,Capello has always preferred the aged,and too slow Heskey.

After all those frustrating games,it was refreshing to watch Germany in full flow yesterday.The way they passed the ball,made those runs off-the-ball,and simply bamboozled the Australians was awesome to watch.Although Klose and Podolski got the praise,I fell the young Brigade of Mesut Ozil, Muller,and Badstuber was brilliant.Especially the sublime touches that Ozil showed and the stinging runs he made in the Penalty-area were superb.This is guy is really going to end up at a big Club,sooner rather than later.Thomas Muller exactly showed why he was preferred over Klose and Mario Gomez for Bayern Munich throughout the season.But,one think I didn't like about them was the role Bastian Schwinesteiger played.Yes,he controlled the midfield well,alongside Khedira.But,that role doesn't really do justice to his Sublime skills and Dazzling pace.He did his job with thorough efficiency,yes,but it was rather like a Jon Obi Mikel or Toulalan,rather than a Ronaldo or a Messi.We don't want Schwini to play that unspectacularly,but we want to see him bursting through the defences,unleashing his fierce shots.Only after that,Germans will be The Most feared and Respected Opponents in this World Cup.