Wednesday results

So the biggest result is undoubtedly coming out of the beautiful and artistic city of Florence, where host nation Germany received an artfully applied 4-1 smackdown at the hands of Italy. Offhand, I can't think of a World Cup host getting beaten quite so badly so close before the start of the finals. A day or two ago, I wondered about how the dropping of Christian Woerns might affect the Germans; apparently the answer is that they're going to concede a lot more goals. Surely the German press is cooking up a right roasting for Jurgen Klinsman even as I speak.

At least Germany was playing away from home against a world class opponent. That's more than can be said for France, who were beaten 2-1 by non-qualifiers Slovakia in the Stade de France, scene of their extraordinary triumph eight years ago. In my opinion, this result is much worse than the Germany-Italy match; I mean, a full France team gearing up for a major tournament should be able to dispose of a team like Slovakia quite easily. Instead, by all accounts, their performance sucked ass. A lesser manager might be having second thoughts about his player selection and tactics; however, Raymond Domenech is apparently made of sterner stuff.

But let us not dwell on the negative! The US triumphed 1-0 over Poland in a match played in a blizzard. An opportunistic Clint Dempsey goal won it for the Americans. I'll be posting fuller thoughts when I... er... watch it this weekend. Ditto on England's 2-1 triumph over the Uruk-hai.

Good days too for Croatia, who came back to beat Argentina 3-2 and Portugal, who easily sailed through Saudi Arabia. Brazil managed to emerge from Russia without any injuries or outbreaks of hypothermia. And Spain just edged a thriller against Cote d'Ivoire, who surely have served notice that they will be contesting Group C to the fullest.