Much, much better

What a difference a day makes? It was a day of firsts. The first hat trick of the tournament, the first ever tournament goal for Greece, Mexico's first victory over France and the first day when all three games had a winning and a losing team.

The second round of the World Cup Group games got underway last night with the hosts defeat and continued with a superb display from Argentina. Higuain scored the first hat trick of the tournament as South Korea were on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline, despite pegging the Argentinians back to 2-1 at one point.

Next up we had Greece playing Nigeria. Nigeria took a lead but a stupid reaction by Kaita when a throw in went against him, saw his dismissal. Soon after that Greece scored their first ever goal in the World Cup Finals, when Salpingidis hit a shot which was heavily deflected past the Nigerian goalkeeper. Their second goal came in the second half and the match officials displayed excellent application of Law 11. A Greek player was injured, lying in an offside position but outside of the goal area and was certainly not interfering with the defending players. As the shot on goal was made, the goalkeeper saved it but pushed it out to Vasileios Torosidis who scored easily.

Referee, Oscar Ruiz played a fantastic advantage following a challenge just outside the Nigerian penalty area. He allowed play to continue and this found 3 Nigerian attackers facing 2 Greek defenders. A shot on goal by Aiyegbeni Yakubu was blocked and with the goal at his mercy, Chinedu Obasi missed the goal.

The final game of the day produced yet another surprise as France, Champions in 1998, laboured against a well organised Mexico team. The French offside trap was sprung in the 64th minute and Hernandez skipped past the advancing goalkeeper before playing the ball into the empty goal. Their second goal came from the penalty mark following a lunging challenge by Abidal.

So now France face the prospect of beating South Africa in their final Group game and still being eliminated if Uruguay and Mexico draw their game.