Garland Of Edelweiss

Most people reckon Argentina's 2-1 win over Ivory Coast was the best game so far, with the South Americans looking powerful and polished and the Africans living up to their reputation for being a tough team to play against. Just about the only first-round damp squib has been England's laboured victory over Paraguay, a dull game in every sense. Given the huge expectation that follows England everywhere, this was a disappointment only mitigated by the performances of the last two World Cup winners—France and Brazil—when their opening games finally came around. France could only manage a scoreless draw with Switzerland, and had the Swiss possessed a tiny bit more finishing prowess, they might have beaten the 1998 winner. Quite a few of the team from two World Cups ago are still playing for France and they look like a tired outfit in need of new blood.

Brazil's 1-0 win over Croatia was enlivened by a goal of pure quality from Kaka, though it was the most quiet and inauspicious of starts from the perennial tournament favourite. No real change there—Brazil generally starts slowly and goes through the gears as the tournament progresses—but the withdrawal of Ronaldo midway through the second half was possibly significant. Ronaldo stands level with the great Pele as the top Brazilian goal-scorer of all time, with 12 goals from 14 matches. At least, he did until the Croatia game—now he has 12 goals from 15 matches. Most people expect him to overtake Pele in this tournament, and a lot of football fans are not sure whether they really want him to, but he can't score if he doesn't play. He played in the opening game but hardly got a kick, hence his early retirement. He only needs one goal to go past Pele and two to reach Germany's Gerd Muller, record World Cup goalscorer, with 14. At the moment, Ronaldo does not look like a player in form, much less a World Cup record-breaker. But watch this space—this is one of the most interesting of all subplots within the greater World Cup story.