CERRITOS, CA (smt) - Defending World Cup champion France (0-1, 0 pt) was shocked by France Jr., otherwise known as Senegal (1-0, 3), 1-0 in the opening match of World Cup 2002 in South Korea. Senegal, a former colony of France, has most of its players playing professionally in France. Defending champs have historically had trouble in their opening round game and France will now need help to win the group. Denmark (1-0, 3) got a late goal to beat Uruguay (0-1, 0), 2-1, to tie Senegal (0-0-1, 1) with three points in Group A. Cameroon dominated the first half but ran out of gas as Ireland (0-0-1, 1), without controversial captain Roy Keane, earned a 1-1 tie. Germany (1-0, 3) played like the Germany of old, outclassing Saudi Arabia (0-1, 0) in every aspect, 8-0. Miroslav Klose had a hat trick that saw four goals in each half, five on headers, to put Germany on top of Group E with three points.

Argentina (1-0, 3) held off a fiesty Nigeria (0-1, 0) team, 1-0 while Sweden (0-0-1, 1) and England (0-0-1, 1) battled to a 1-1 tie in Group F, the "Group of Death". South Africa (0-0-1, 1) rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie a stunned Paraguay (0-0-1, 1) team on a controversial penalty kick in extra time. This allowed Spain (1-0, 3) to take the top spot in Group B with a 3-1 victory over first-time entry Slovenia (0-1, 0).

TALE OF TWO HALVES: Cameroon 1st half; Ireland 2nd half- Ireland was literally an inch away from scoring the go-ahead goal as Cameroon's GK just pulled the ball before it completely crossed the goal line. England 1st half; Sweden 2nd half- England captain David Beckham, recovering from a broken bone in his foot, left in the 2nd half. England's GK had several great saves on point-blank opportunites, including one in extra time.

WHAT IS A PK?: Parguay was denied a PK opportunity in the first couple of minutes but South Africa was given questionable one in the 90th minute and that tied it 2-2. Slovenia, after cutting the lead to 2-1 late in the 2nd half, was not given a potential game-tying PK. Minutes later, Spain was given a gift one (the Spanish players never even called for one!) that put the game out of reach, 3-1.

GOALS: Of the 16 teams that have played, only 3 have failed to score (Nigeria shut out for the first time in its history). Thanks to Germany's eight goals a total of 25 goals have been scored (3.1 avg/match). You always know that World Cup soccer is fun to watch but you tend to forget after four years how "world class" the play is. The speed and the major differences between World Cup vs MLS (yeah, I know there are many) are the speed, one-time shots and passes (no settling and shooting here), and finishing. Of Germany's 25 shots, 14 were on goal; of Denmark's 10, 7 on goal; of Argentina's 20, 9 on goal; of France's 15, 9 on goal. And this means there have been some great saves.

As for the pool, we unofficially have 23 entries with a 1st-4th prize breakdown of $110/60/40/20. Unofficial team distribution and individual picks are up. After the first eight matches (five non-tied matches), 16 people are tied for 1st with 4 points with the other 7 tied with 3 pts. No one picked Senegal's huge upset. With 40 more matches left, the field will slowly separate as the first round progresses the next two weeks.

I will probably email updates every three days for this round-robin stage and update the web page every afternoon/night with standings. Check the discussion board for what is new on the homepage.

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An amazing start...
Scott HW