You never know :( Oliver Kahn, their best goalkeeper is retired, and Michael Ballack is not playing in the FIFA World Cup :( They still have some remaining good players, though.

They still have a very good team, especially if Klose manages to get out of the no goal gloom that's been hunting him for quite some time. 

Also the young player, Muller, has done some very good matches for Bayern. If he can have a similar performance for Germany, I think they'll score a fair share of goals.

yay i'm up tomorow!

Allez les Bosh!! degomez ces kangooroos!

(and to ease your scoresheet, you might want to order it by groups now no? :p (also it doesn't appear well in my browser but, well i'll just have to follow the thread!)

oh and if you happen to be in french cities this month... avoid going to the big screens at key plazas on the days algeria plays... if they loose, all the suburbs kids will go on a demolition rampage.... and if they win... well samething, they are there more for destroying shops than the actual game...

So far there hasn't been a game truly worth watching. Maybe the Dutch are the first to change that...

Everyone is more excited when their own national team is playing..

Personally I really enjoyed the SKorea - Greece and USA - England matches and thougt they were well worth it (maybe that's because I was rooting for SK and USA), while imo Argentina was only good for 10 minutes.

Of course I expect a grand performance from the Netherlands, like always in group phase, and even more so if Robben can play. Ger-Aus probably will be bad for my heart again though, hope the "Socceroos" know football well enough to accept that Germany is supposed to win at this game according to Lineker's famous quote ;) .

btw, does Green's howler stand as an own goal ?

unfortunately not, I count it as an honorary own goal, heh

It didn't officially count as an own goal. But given that his contribution accounted for more than 90% of the goal, I think we can consider it to be an own goal itself