CERRITOS, CA (smt) - If you were to rank the top five Brazil and Germany teams of all-time, this year's squads would not make the cut.  Yet, in this unpredictable and crazy World Cup, the first-ever cup meeting between these two giants will take place early Sunday morning.  So with all the top teams falling the two teams left standing have the most rich histories of soccer.  So here are my thoughts on the World Cup thus far.

MOST EXCITING TEAMS:  FIFA had this poll up and after some thought, I think South Korea was the most fun to watch.  They created so many chances but like most up-and-coming teams, their finishing is something they still need to work on.  The match vs Italy was the best match of the tourney, in my humble opinion.  Senegal and Brazil are also up there on my list.

MOST BORING TEAMS:  England is number one.  They played two good halves out of 10 and had the ugly matches vs Argentina and Nigeria and couldn't do anything with a man up against Brazil.  Chemistry problems plagued possible darkhorse Slovenia, who went 3 and out.  China and Croatia both lacked excitement and apparently, talent.

BEST GOALKEEPER:  Oliver Kahn of Germany, hands down.  More importantly than his 0.17 GAA and five shutouts and 18 saves, he has made two beyond great saves early in the matches vs USA and Korea that kept the match scoreless.  Germany has never trailed and that is why Germany keeps getting stronger as the match progresses.  Honorable mentions go to our own Brad Friedel (2 PK saves, 20 saves, 5 matches) who had a how-to-GK exhibition vs Korea and Turkey's Rusto Recber had 10 of his tourney-leading 26 saves against Brazil that kept Turkey in the match.  Jae Woon Lee of Korea has also had a great tourney with 22 saves in a tourney-high 597 minutes (0.45 GAA).

BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER:  I'd pick Brazil's Ronaldo who is really punctuating that his comeback is complete and leads the tourney with six goals.  Teammate Rivaldo also scored in five straight matches and has an assist.  The R & R combo has been fun to watch.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER:  With one match left, for me, it's a tossup between German teammates Michael Ballack (3 goals including 2 game-winners, tourney high 4 assists) and Kahn.  Germany will certainly miss Ballack who's out of the final for accumulating two yellow cards in the second round which leads me to....

DUMB RULES:  With each referee left to his discretion on when to pull out the yellow card, the two yellow cards in 3-4 matches is dumb.  It is also ridiculous that a player who gets two yellow cards in one match not only misses the rest of the match but the next match as well.  There should be an oversight committee to rule whether or not the two yellow cards were severe enough to miss an additional match.  I mean, what if a player gets a yellow for diving and another for delay of game.. that deserves 1+ games suspension?  There's already an oversight committee to rule if a red card is deserving of 1 or 2 matches so why not add this to their agenda?

RANDOM STATS:  17 red cards (2 each for Paraguay, Turkey (same match) and Portugal (same match)) have been handed out- none in the last five matches... 18 penalty kicks taken (13 for 18, 72%)- none in the last six matches... England scored all six of their goals in the first half of matches... Korea scored five of their six goals in the 2nd half or overtime of their matches... just 154 goals have been scored (2.48 gpm) and unless 17 goals are scored in the next two matches, Korea/Japan 2002's total will fall short of France '98 (2.67 gpm)... five of the 14 matches have gone to overtime with three golden goals and other two ending with the penalty kick shootout tiebreaker... there have been just three 0-0 ties (FRA-URU, NGA-ENG, and ESP-KOR in Quarterfinal)... 12 of 16 (75.0%) knockout matches have been shutouts including the last five.. teams scoring first are 37-9-13 (62.7%), with three 0-0 ties) winning the last four matches.

FINAL (Sun): GERMANY - BRAZIL , Yokohama, Japan, 4:00 am PDT

Brazil (6-0) has advanced primarily due to their defense, believe it or not.  Germany (5-0-1) excels at defense.  This will probably negate the fact both teams have scored more than 13 goals in their six matches.   Brazil will try to become the first team to win seven matches in one World Cup and get their record fifth championship.  Germany will try to tie Brazil's total of four championships.  Germany has at least one more day of rest than each of the second round opponents and will once again have a day of extra rest than Brazil.  Brazil will be at full strength while Germany will be without Ballack.  The problem is, Brazil has got get one past GK Kahn.  Here's hoping for not another USA '94 final when there was a scoreless tie between Italy and Brazil that went to PKs.  Since 4 of the last 5 matches have either been 0-0 or 1-0, I guess I'll give it to Brazil, 1-0, though I'd hope for more goals.

Consolation (Sat): KOREA - TURKEY, Daegu, Korea Rep, 4:00 am PDT

This match is usually entertaining as teams don't have much to lose.  Usually, the underdog comes out gunning while the "favorite" puts in their subs. In this match, both are underdogs and could lead some exciting end-to-end action.  Both teams would covet "3rd Place".  The loser better watch out though as teams finishing 4th have had trouble in the next World Cup.  Since France repeated their consolation match from '82 to '86, fourth-place teams Belgium (11th in '90), England (did not qualify in '94), Bulgaria (28th in '98), and the Netherlands (did not qualify this year) have had trouble duplicating their efforts.  Even the last two winners (Sweden failed to qualify in '98, Croatia 23rd this year) have done poorly the next World Cup.  As co-hosts, Korea has much more to prove and, egad, a 3rd place finish seems likely... let's say a 3-1 victory- I'm tired of these 1-0 matches!

In the pool, the tiebreaker (total goals in 3rd Place and Final matches) only matter for bragging rights.  The big question is who will win first?  FLYING ELVI is in 6th place and a German victory gives him his first-ever pool title and $110.  Otherwise, current leader and first-time entrant PUNA will take home the top prize.  DANNY BOY and DIMPLES will take either 2nd/3rd or 3rd/4th.  BERNISAM UNITED FC will hope to cling onto her $20 by rooting for Brazil.

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Sunday decides winner of pool...
Scott HW