This has been an incredibly good World Cup for Latin America and, yes, for the USA. As Father Orthoduck looks at the World Cup standings, he is quite surprised at the number of Latin American teams that are in the top two slots of their groups. Meantime, this has been a very bad year for the European teams. It is as though Europe has been falling in a soccer black hole. The current standings are:
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| Uruguay | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Mexico | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| France | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| South Africa | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| Argentina | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| Korea Republic | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Greece | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Nigeria | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| Slovenia | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| USA | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| England | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Algeria | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| Ghana | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Germany | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Serbia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Australia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| Netherlands | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Japan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Denmark | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Cameroon | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| Paraguay | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Italy | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| New Zealand | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Slovakia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| Brazil | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| Portugal | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Côte d’Ivoire | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Korea DPR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| Chile | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Honduras | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
As you can see as you look at the standings on a Sunday evening in the GMT-5 time zone, the teams that look likely to make it into the next round include Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and Chile of the Latin American teams. The USA (WOO HOO) looks like they could make it in. But, the teams that do not appear to be making it in include France, Greece, England, Serbia, Denmark, Spain, and Slovakia. That is quite surprising. And, who would have expected Italy to be ready to go to the next round? A quite surprising year all around.
US is composed of the cardiac kids.
England is kicking themselves and France is in some kind of meltdown.
Have to give a tip of the hat to the Kiwi’s.
Gooooooooooooooooal!
And the Vuvulezas go “BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!”