World Cup Update, June 18

First off I just want to say Happy Birthday to my Dad, who turns 65 today. My Dad helped get me into soccer as a kid, both in terms of playing it and watching the best play it (living in England during the 1990 World Cup didn't hurt). I'm not sure I'd appreciate World class soccer as much as I do without him, so thanks, Dad. Happy Birthday, and I hope you get to watch some soccer today!

Yesterday's Results:
Belgium 2, Algeria 1
Brazil 0, Mexico 0
Russia 1, South Korea 1

Three thoughts on the games
- Belgium certainly didn't look like a darkhorse candidate for the first 60-70 minutes of their game against Algeria. But once they started bringing on their substitutes, their link-ups became a little bit crisper and their finishes more clinical. Sometimes a team needs a wake up call in their first game. The trick is to survive the wake up call and still get a result out of that game. Mission accomplished for Belgium.

- Mexican goalkeeper Memo Ochoa is (rightly) getting heaps of praise after his efforts in this game to keep his scoresheet clean and earn Mexico a point against the hosts. This is part of what makes Mexico such an enigma: they will struggle against the minnows of CONCACAF (they were about 5 minutes away from not qualifying for this World Cup this time around), but when they get to the tournament and are matched up against some of the best teams in the world, they never appear overwhelmed. They win some, they lose some, but they always simply play their game instead of retreating into a shell and hoping for counters.

- Poor Fabio Capello. In 2010 he was England's manager and his keeper in their first game of that tournament did this:



This time around Capello is coaching Russia, and yesterday his keeper did this:



If Capello (who just turned 68) decides to take on another team and gets them to the 2018 World Cup, he might want to skip the opening match.

Today's Games: 
Australia vs Netherlands (12:00 PM, ESPN)
Spain vs Chile (3:00 PM, ESPN)
Cameroon vs Croatia (6:00 PM, ESPN)
note, all games are available streaming on ESPN3/the WatchESPN app

Updated Tables
Now we are at the point where every team has played at least 1 game (Brazil and Mexico have played 2). So let's take a look at the tables for all 8 groups. A reminder: the number in parentheses next to each team name is the latest FIFA World Ranking.

GROUP A
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	GD	GF	GA	PTS
Brazil (3)	2	1	1	0	2	3	1	4
Mexico (20)	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	4
Cameroon (56)	1	0	0	1	-1	0	1	0
Croatia (18)	1	0	0	1	-2	1	3	0
GROUP B
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	GD	GF	GA	PTS
Netherlands (15)	1	1	0	0	4	5	1	3
Chile (14)	1	1	0	0	2	3	1	3
Australia (62)	1	0	0	1	-2	1	3	0
Spain (1)	1	0	0	1	-4	1	5	0
GROUP C
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	GD	GF	GA	PTS
Colombia (8)	1	1	0	0	3	3	0	3
Ivory Coast (23)	1	1	0	0	1	2	1	3
Japan (46)	1	0	0	1	-1	1	2	0
Greece (12)	1	0	0	1	-3	0	3	0
GROUP D
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	GD	GF	GA	PTS
Costa Rica (28)	1	1	0	0	2	3	1	3
Italy (9)	1	1	0	0	1	2	1	3
England (10)	1	0	0	1	-1	1	2	0
Uruguay (7)	1	0	0	1	-2	1	3	0
GROUP E
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	GD	GF	GA	PTS
France (17)	1	1	0	0	3	3	0	3
Switzerland (6)	1	1	0	0	1	2	1	3
Ecuador (26)	1	0	0	1	-1	1	2	0
Honduras (33)	1	0	0	1	-3	0	3	0
GROUP F
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	GD	GF	GA	PTS
Argentina (5)	1	1	0	0	1	2	1	3
Iran (43)	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Nigeria (44)	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Bosnia-Herzegovina (21)	1	0	0	1	-1	1	2	0
GROUP G
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	GD	GF	GA	PTS
Germany (2)	1	1	0	0	4	4	0	3
United States (13)	1	1	0	0	1	2	1	3
Ghana (37)	1	0	0	1	-1	1	2	0
Portugal (4)	1	0	0	1	-4	0	4	0
GROUP H
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	GD	GF	GA	PTS
Belgium (11)	1	1	0	0	1	2	1	3
Russia (19)	1	0	1	0	0	1	1	1
South Korea (57)	1	0	1	0	0	1	1	1
Algeria (22)	1	0	0	1	-1	1	2	0