It was a bad day for........

Arne Friedrich as he decided to run his own offside trap three yards behind the other three members of the German defense.

Per Mertesacker - first goal - and Christoph Metzelder on the second marker didn't look too smart either. Mertsacker was caught ball watching while Metzelder decided it was time for a bad Tony Adams impersonation.

Jose Porras didn't have a chance on any of the four German goals but nevertheless it is not a great start to the tournament for the Costa Rican keeper.

The Polish midfield was unimaginative and pedestrian against Ecuador. They moved the ball well until they hit the Ecuadorian midfield and then it all went pear shaped.

Tim Borowski was given the job of replacing Michael Ballack but he failed to establish himself in the game against Costa Rica.

It was a good day for....

Bayern Munich's Philip Lahm who has struggled with injuries for the last year or so. He was the unlikely scorer of the opening goal and set up the third German goal. He got forward to support the attack and linked well with Bastien Schweinstieger on the left hand side in the first half.

Miroslav Klose and Paulo Wanchope both notched doubles in the first game but failed in an attempt to become the first player to score a hat trick in the first game of the World Cup finals.

Torsten Frings went close in the early stages but waited until the 87th minute to unleash a goal of awesome power. Taking a ball coming across your body is not easy but to hit the ball as well as he did - well that was quite something. Not dissimiliar to a winning goal by Arie Haan of Holland against Italy at the 1978 World Cup I thought.

The refererring crews handled the first two games exceptionally well. Take a bow Horacio Elizonda, Dario Garcia, Rodolfo Otero, Toru Kamikawa, Yoshikazu Hiroshima and Kim Dae Young.

Agustin Delgado set up the first goal for Ecuador with a near post flick from a long throw-in ala Bolton and scored the second one. I wonder what Gordon Strachan has to say about that performance.