World Cup Day 2: Dutch Delight

The Netherlands were the main headline of yesterday's action as Arsenal traitor and current Manchester United star Robin van Persie gave us an early nominee for goal of the tournament. The two time Premier League Golden Boot winner turned himself into The Flying Dutchman to equalize with Spain. While the header was beautiful, we cannot forget the perfect pass from Davey Blind. Without his picture perfect delivery, van Persie never would have wowed us with his world class skills.

The Dutch were hardly done. Early in the second half Arjen Robben joined the fun with a highlight reel goal of his own. Stefan de Virj then scored his first ever national team goal with a header off a corner. van Persie and Robben would each add seconds to complete the 5-1 rout of Spain.

This is a disappointing opening for the defending world champs, but it isn't the end. They lost their opener in 2010 and that turned out alright for them. That said, they will need to switch things up a bit if they hope to make a run at a repeat. First thing might involve the benching of goalkeeper Iker Casillas. He had a poor showing yesterday and the 33 year old's age might just be catching up with him. Even a new keeper won't solve the lazy center back play, though. Spain will struggle against a heavily attacking Chile squad that made Australia look silly.

Speaking of the South American dark horses, they have to be believing in themselves after a thorough dismantling of the Socceroos (btw, Australia wins the award for best nickname of the World Cup). Their attacking style means that they will challenge Spain's suddenly suspect defense. Should Chile handle Spain on Wednesday, we could see a heck of a match against the Netherlands for the group title.

The other match yesterday saw more officiating errors that thankfully didn't affect the outcome. In a rain soaked affair, Mexico had two goals called back on questionable offside calls. The first came when Giovanni dos Santos thought he had opened the scoring on a beautiful cross, but was called offside in error. The second, also against dos Santos, was a little murkier. On a Mexican corner, the ball appeared to take a deflection off a Cameroon defender, with dos Santos, in an offside position, there to put it in he net.

Oribe Peralta made sure that those calls were irrelevant as he buried a rebound to give Mexico a 1-0 lead in the 61st minute.

The referee mistakes that highlighted the first two matches of the World Cup will hopefully be overshadowed by more beautiful goals like van Persie's and Robben's as the tournament goes forward. Despite this, these problems still remain a black stain on what has otherwise been quite an entertaining first four games. With an average of 3.75 goals per game, nobody can complain with the lack of scoring so far. With more attacking teams taking the pitch in day three, we can hope for that number to increase.

Day three brings us Columbia against Greece at noon. The Greek defense should limit goals in this one, but I expect Columbia to find a way through for a 1-0 victory. Offensive minded Uruguay against minnows Costa Rica at 3pm. Even with Luis Suarez on the bench with a knee injury, Uruguay wins easily 2-0. One of my five matches you have to watch comes at 6pm with England against Italy. This match can go either way and very well could decide who moves on and who heads home. I predict a narrow Italian victory, 1-0 EDIT: Gianluigi Buffon is reported to be out for Italians. The loss of their starting keeper means England are more likely to score. I'm switching to a 1-1 draw. Finally, at 9pm Ivory Coast takes on Japan. These two teams each have a lot to prove and I doubt much will separate them. I call for a 1-1 draw.

Enjoy the full slate of matches today, and I'll be back with more tomorrow.