SLOVAKIA 0-2 PARAGUAY

This weekend has been difficult.

I had to work the Saturday and, to my eternal frustration, this work took me to deepest, darkest East Sussex. A lovely part of the world, sure: but a part of the world that took me away from live football for the first time in 23 matches.

Consider this both a confession and an excuse: I missed my first live games of the World Cup yesterday (Saturday). I'm catching up with them as fast as I can, but this could not have come at a worse time.

The group games are still coming thick and fast, and Tuesday sees the beginning of their final rounds - i.e. four games a day for four days. I cannot afford to fall any further behind.

This is not simply important for the good of immediacy and relevance. It is also imperative for my sanity. Trust me: watching Holland 1-0 Japan when you already know the outcome is agony.

Slovakia versus Paraguay was the last of the re-runs to consume my time and, surprisingly, this was less painful than expected. Mainly thanks to a couple of lovely goals from the South Americans.

Having said that, Tshbalala remains my favourite. But with every game I find myself hoping that somebody will dislodge him. It would be odd to look back and think it never got any better than the first goal of the tournament:



Returning to the game in hand, this was my first World Cup experience of Martin Keown on co-commentary duty. For a pundit who I think of as smart, considered, at times even erudite, he was disappointing. He has a nasty habit of simply saying what he (and we) can already see - "he's hit that with the outside of his foot, into the corner of the goal" - like he's on 'Catchphrase'.

THE STORY SO FAR

Match of the tournament: Spain 0-1 Switzerland

Player of the tournament: Diego Forlan (Uruguay)

Goal of the tournament: Tshabalala (South Africa v Mexico)