World Cup Group Stage: Round 3

-Game of the round: USA: 1 – Algeria: 0

For the second round in a row, the United States were involved in the most entertaining game, this time a nail biter against Algeria. Needing a win to advance, the US knocked on Algeria's door for most of the game, scoring an dubiously disallowed goal in the first and carving a host of other chances. But the Algerian, through a combination of tough defending, good goalkeeping and just plain luck, hung on until the very death. In the 92^nd minute, Landon Donovan pounced on a rebound and sidefooted home to send the US through and their supporters into delerium.

Runner-Up: Slovakia: 3 – Italy: 2

-Worst Game: Paraguay: 0 – New Zealand: 0

Paraguay were already through and needed only a point to top the group so they were happy to sit back and let New Zealand try and beat them. New Zealand may have played the role of spoiler in its first two games, but lacked the quality to break down Paraguay's solid defense. A recipe for an extremely drab encounter.

Runner Up: Switzerland: 0 – Honduras: 0 (a mystifying lack of drive from the Swiss when a victory might well have sent them through)

-Biggest Upset: Slovakia: 3 – Italy: 2

Slovakia knocked out the holders with a barnstorming performance, showing all of the desire that the Italians lacked throughout the competition. They opened the scoring in the 25^th minute through Robert Vittek and didn't look back. They didn't just sit back after the first either, scoring two more goals, which in the end, proved crucial.

Runner-Up: Australia: 2 – Serbia: 1

-Best Performer (Team): Japan

Very few people fancied Japan to advance against Denmark with the Danes coming off a good win over Cameroon. But the Japanese completely nullified Denmark offensively and maintained possession well in the early stages. They then proceeded to score two beautiful free-kicks which knocked the stuffing out the Danes and hung to ensure their qualification for the knockout stages.

Runner-Up: Spain

-Worst Performer (Team): France

France took the worst performer category to a whole new level this year. After their torrid campaign, I wonder if even French fans might be secretly wishing the referee had spotted that Thierry Henry handball against Ireland that allowed them to qualify. Their players acted with a shocking lack of professionalism and national pride and deserve all the criticism they have been getting. However I do think that the French Soccer Federation deserves its fair share of blame for sticking with a coach who they should have fired after their disastrous performance in Euro 2008. Raymond Domenech had become a whipping boy of the media over the past two years with his every decision questioned as the poor results continued to stack up. The Federation then appointed Laurent Blanc as his successor before a ball had even been kicked at the WC, making even more of a “lame-duck” coach. With that kind of leadership, everything that has happened seems a lot less surprising.

Runner-Up: Italy (how often have both the finalists of the previous edition not even made the knockout stages?)

-Best Performer (Individual): Robert Vittek, Slovakia

Vittek forever etched his name into Slovakian footballing lore by scoring a brace against the Italians and sending his team through in their first ever World Cup as an independent nation. Vittek proved himself a very cool customer with two clinical finishes in the game, first slotting a low shot into the corner of the net from outside the area, then nipping ahead of an Italian defender to get on the end of a cross and flick it home.

Runner-Up: Lionel Messi, Argentina

-Worst Performer (Individual): Thomas Sorenson, Denmark

A game to forget for the Danish goalkeeper who conceded two free-kicks, the first of which (while still a great strike) he might have saved if he hadn't moved in the wrong direction. He almost had a catastrophic blunder in the second half when he practically fumbled a high ball into the net after mistiming his leap.

Runner-Up: Nikola Zigic, Serbia (a spearhead of Serbia's attack looked blunt throughout the tournament, and was particularly dull against the Socceroos)

-Best Goal: Mehsut Ozil, Germany:

Possibly the best goal of the tournament so far came from the boot of Germany's pint-sized playmaker, Ozil, against Ghana. A quarter of an hour into the second half, Germany's Thomas Mueller dribbled down the right-hand side before pulling the ball back to Ozil just outside of the penalty box. Ozil's first touch lifted the ball slightly off the turf as it sat up nicely for him to hit. He hammered it with his left boot out the goalkeeper's reach into the top left-hand corner.

Runner-Up: Keisuke Honda (a fantastic long range freekick that Honda hit absolutely perfectly.)