guardian blog

9.50am: My view, for what it's worth: off the pitch the World Cup has been great - the opening draw with Mexico gave a triple espresso shot to the whole of South Africa and everyone I've met has been friendly and impassioned about the tournament. On it, I've been disappointed with what I've seen so far. Probably this is down to a few factors:

* The number of teams playing 4-5-1. That's not necessarily a negative formation - but when you play it with two deep-sitting central midfielders it tends to be.
* The weaker teams are better organised than ever before.
* The fact that in football it's easier to defend than attack. Club teams have months to work on attacking play and combinations; international teams have a few weeks a year.
* The ball and how it moves at altitude and sea level. On this blog yesterday, our football correspondent Kevin McCarra argued that the ball was the same for both sides. This much is true. But when you talk players in the mixed zone, they tell you that they'll kick or throw the ball to go a certain distance and it flies a lot further than they expect ...

Posted By: SCC 28, Jun 15, 09:55:07