England have fluked their way to 2 wins, with Sven Goran Eriksson suffering criticism for his substitutions in the first game against Paraguay, by three former players who have never given anyone the chance to judge their managerial nous. Meanwhile, the manager's lack of emotion has again been cited in the reactions to the match against Trinidad and Tobago.
England fans have behaved in Germany, but less so at home according to Angela Foster's piece in the Guardian's comment is Free section.
Elsewhere, Dave Hill's deification of Peter Crouch shows no sign of abating in his paean to the gangly one, even in the light of Crouch's apparent dreadlock-abuse in scoring England's first against the might Soca Warriors.
Anglo-centrism aside, the first week has seen Spain thump Ukraine, Argentina thrash Serbia & Montenegro and Brazil, well okay, Brazil limp past Croatia with Ronaldo looking like he was thinking about his next bockwurst and Adriano appearing to take his lead from his senior colleague.
As far as the TV coverage is concerned, BBC are winning hands-down for me. Okay, Ian Wright is almost as irritating a presence as he ever was on the pitch and Mick McCarthy's refusal to learn any player's name which exceeds a single syllable is embarrassing, but compare it to ITV.
There you have Terry Venables trying to convey tactical know-how in the manner of someone either suffering from one-too-many in the Green Room, or the early onset of Alzheimers. Couple that with "Big" Sam Allardyce who was surely the inspiration for Mike Bassett. If only Sam had Bassett's moustache. Or footballing acumen. I'm still waiting for Robbie Earle to offer an opinion rather than bland cliches and as for Andy Townsend, well, words fail me.
That said, there is something weirdly captivating about ITV's coverage. I think it might be close to the so-bad-it's-good classification that has been awarded to such films as "Escape to Victory".
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