By my reckoning only the Nigeria-Iran has been a real snoozefest; most of the games have been beautifully entertaining

- Ghana-USA delivering another cracker

-Messi scoring a Messi goal

-Germany being Germany

-England being England but not quite as drab

-Pepe being Pepe

-The RVP & Robben show

-Almost every country playing without inhibition

Hopefully Belgium can prove to be the real deal today.

It's been pretty great, even the 0-0 ticks a box as you can't not have a dull draw. All we're really missing that I can think of is a long-range thunderbolt goal so far.

For a second our household thought Raheem Sterling had ticked that box. We certainly celebrated as though he had anyway!

Agree with all of this - so exciting!!!!!!
I am a soaps girl, but they come second place to the WC! Have watched almost every game and its been a very open, fluid competition so far.

Long may it continue!!

Have we had a goal direct from a free kick yet actually? That's another if not.

Ditto.

Well it certainly doesn't help when 'GOAL' flashes in the corner of the screen and the score changes!

No there hasn't.

It's been entertaining so far, but as a lover of free kicks and long-range goals I've been a bit starved.

Amongst other things, we still need a penalty save, a pitchside kafuffle, a 30 yarder, a very controversial goal, a sheik running onto the pitch and a proper giant killing result... Plenty of time to tick those off, though!

You can tick off that one with France's 2nd goal against Honduras, if you're Jonathan Pearce.

I'm tipping Honduras vs Ecuador for the pitchside ruckus.

If you are drunk on television

I think the matches so far have been among the best for any opening few days of a World Cup.
It's sad that the (understandable) political/social unrest has prevented it from being the giant carnival we might have expected in Brazil. Then there's the shadow of Blatter and his corrupt cohorts in FIFA over the entire proceedings. Sort of takes the gloss off things..in my opinion..

A killing result will be Germany against Russia in the Round of 16 (if Russia make it)

I've watched every World Cup since Italia 90 and this is by far the best start I've seen to any of them.

Goals galore, plenty of attacking intent, open matches, lots of incident - it's had almost everything and we haven't even finished the first week yet.

I've been watching World Cups since 1970, and this one (so far) has been the most open I can remember for years. Not sure if it will surpass my personal favourite (1982) though. Mind you, anything would be better than 2010 which was just awful. terrible games, no atmosphere, bloody vuvzeles drowning out anything remotely sounding like cheering. Althoug he best team did win, which is not always the case.

My only fear is, that when the competition gets into the latter stages, and the fear of losing creeps in, teams tighen up and games suffer from it. I think it was same for 2006.

Oi, 2006 was a brilliant World Cup. It had some amazing games and a very worthy final, which delivered pretty much on everything - two amazing teams, goals, drama, red card, penalties.

I'm no expert but I definitely agree that it was dire in SA. Usually I don't think the location matters all that much, but that proved the exception.
Apologies to any South Africans.

2010 and 2006 both had 2.27 and 2.30 goals per game respectively, both very low, thankfully we're averaging around 3.

It's been a great start but the knockout stages are where things really get exciting. There's been world cups in the past where the group stages have been pretty poor and then one game will kick things off. This time they've hit the ground running.

I just hope they all haven't peaked too soon
Especially Netherlands & Germany

I've really enjoyed all this so far even the 0-0 wasn't all that bad yesterday. First world cup I remember was when I was 9 (1982) - this one is proving to be a cracker.

It's been great so far, with most teams going out with a positive approach to the games and i hope this continues to the final!
However, there are a couple of negatives for me.
1 - Such a medicore Brazilian team lacking in style and flair. Without Neymar, they'd have no chance at all!
2 - The small numbers of European supporters. I thought a World Cup in Brazil would have seen large numbers going over.

The thing I find most baffling about Brazil is that with a country that produces such skillful and talented players as if they're just coming off a conveyor belt, Fred is the best centre-forward available for selection. It's incredible that is the best they can do.