I'm staying neutral on the whole vuvuzela issue

Some like the loud buzzing noise of the long plastic horns and some go so far as to watch the games with the sound turned off. FIFA president Sepp Blatter is deciding not to Karcher them because the vuvuzela has become an ingrained part of South African football culture and it didn't make much sense to "Europeanise an African World Cup". I think the vuvuzela gives a distinctive character to soccer matches in that part of the world, and you don't have to be from South Africa to get a vuvuzela in your team's colours and blow it during your team's games.

Our first game against Slovakia is mighty close but in the meantime, I was able to take down the following from a few more games. First on the list was two rather progressive monarchies: Netherlands, who made it to the final in 1974 and 1978 but lost both to the host nation, and Denmark, whose flag is similar to the design on Serbia's kit. As usual, several players were cautioned over the course of the game. Daniel Agger (who is playing for Denmark) scored the first own goal of the tournament. Netherlands won the match 2-0, but I'm now more worried about Agger's life though because of what happened to Andres Escobar, a Colombian defender who was fatally shot 10 days after scoring an own goal during the 1994 tournament.

In the tenth soccer game I've watched in the space of less than 72 hours, Japan and Cameroon were on the pitch. Neither team, according to the commentators, was in the best form but Keisuke Honda scored the only goal in the match for Japan in the 39th minute, making this their first World Cup win away from home soil, and it was also the first time Cameroon was defeated in a World Cup opening match. As usual, there were yellow cards dished out including one in injury time.

Then, defending champions Italy took on Paraguay. The final score was 1-1 and the dreaded yellow card was shown twice in the second half.

I'm really dreading the whipping the All Whites are likely to receive tomorrow, especially because we had three difficult opponents back in 1982 and we have three almost-as-difficult opponents this time.