Slovakia 1, New Zealand 1

Slovakia shot themselves in the foot with a lackluster 1-1 draw against New Zealand. Winston Reid notched a goal right at the death to draw the Kiwis level after Robert Vittek put Slovakia ahead just after halftime.

Slovakia were the better team, and Slovakia's pedigree makes this draw an embarrassment. Although the Slovaks had 10 corners to the Kiwis' three, Slovakia was all too happy to let New Zealand have 52|PERCENT| of the ball in an effort to sit on a one goal lead. 1-0 would likely be no help to the Slovaks as Italy and Paraguay should both hit three or four goals against New Zealand, but 1-1 is a disaster. Slovakia needed to keep pouring forward and learned a hard lesson instead.

Portugal 0, Ivory Coast 0

This game desperately needed a goal and never got one. Both teams seemed very determined not to lose this game with Brazil also in the group. That's what happened. The second half was OK, with the Elephants nearly grabbing a win in stoppage time, but the first half was unwatchable.

Cristiano Ronaldo picked up a yellow card for Portugal; we'll see if that hurts him later. Didier Drogba came on in the 66th minute, a long-sleeved shirt over his soft elbow cast, but was largely ineffective as the teams canceled each other out.

Brazil 2, North Korea 1

The Koreans held Brazil off for 55 minutes until Maicon scored from an extremely acute angle, catching the goalkeeper by surprise. Elano made it 2-0 before Ji Yung-Nam grabbed a consolation goal in the 89th minute.

The Koreans set out only to defend. We'll see if they open up at all when playing Portugal or the Ivory Coast. If they do, a 4-0 or 5-0 loss could spell disaster for both the players and their families back home. We often use the cliché that a team defends as if its lives depend on it; one worries how seriously those words would need to be taken here.

Injury Watch

Wayne Rooney (ankle) and Ashley Cole (knock) returned to training for England on Tuesday.

Italy #1 Gigi Buffon tweaked his sciatic nerve in the warm up for the Paraguay match and is undergoing further tests.

Third-choice France goalkeeper Cedric Carrasso has pulled a thigh muscle and appears to be done, not that we wre going to see him anyway. French centre-back William Gallas will be re-evaluated Wednesday after re-aggravating a calf injury in training on Monday.

American #1 Tim Howard should be able to keep going despite cracked ribs from a collision Saturday with England's Emile Heskey.