SuperStar or SuperFlop?

David Villa - Hit! 4 great World Cup goals including the superb winner against Portugal.

Torres - Miss! Unless he turns up his magic in the quarter-final and beyond, this has been a very disappointed World Cup for him.

Iniesta - Hit! Super performance in the middle of the Spanish midfield.

Rooney - Miss! Did he ever turn up? I don't see Rooney in this World Cup at all.

Kaka - Still has a chance to make it a hit! Brazil is playing well and he is contributing, but not really standing out from the pack.

Maradona - HIT! HIT! HIT! Silenced his critics, team is playing magical football, and has great relationship with his team! Excellent coach.

Messi - Hit! Has been doing everything except scoring. Hitting the posts, running at defenders, making assists, and lighten up the tournament.

Ronaldo - Miss! He has a quiet World Cup by his high standard. Relatively poor.

Lampard - Miss! Never hit the form of Chelsea. Never did and never will.

Gerrard - Miss! Never going to make it alone trying to lift up the very poor England side.

Xavi - Moderate. Respectable so far in the Spanish shirt, quiet by his standard but still holding the midfield together for Spanish team.

Rivery - Miss! Joke! Forget about France.

Evra - ... Miss! Forget about it.

JiSung Park - Hit! Scored once and made Asians proud by qualifying for the second round away from home for the first time. I didn't expect too much from him, but he did enough to earn a Hit.

Higuain - Hit! I am not sure if he would be first choice. Now that he is, he is taking his chances with both hands. It is very easy to score a lot of goals in this Argentinian side, and he is my vote for top scorer in this World Cup.

English Shame

England played worrying football in the first 3 group matches. Then they got destroyed by a bad refereeing decision and a quick and smart young Germans team.

Rooney was missing throughout the tournament. The Manchester United Ace was anonymous yet it seems that England has nobody else to replace him? Has Mr. Capello forgotten about Crouch? He should had been given some minutes in the games, he could probably contributed.

England just don't have too many new talents to match the Germans. The future looks bad.

Capello had only 44 per cent of players in the Premier League to choose from.

A coach can only work with the tools available to him.

Capello never had those tools, in Sunday's 4-1 defeat by Germany or before.

Germany's team contained four players from their side which beat us 4-0 in the Euro Under-21s final 12 months ago.

We had one - James Milner. Where are our rising young stars, who will form the spine of the England team for years to come?

A few months ago when Germany coach Joachim Low was thinking of throwing the likes of Mesut Ozil and Jerome Boateng into World Cup duty, Capello was trying to persuade Jamie Carragher and Paul Scholes out of retirement.

That is nothing against those two warhorses who have always served their country with distinction. And it is nothing against Capello - what other choices did he have?

No, it is a sad indictment on the lack of English players coming through and for that you have to look at the clubs and the way our game is run.

England have just been crowned Under-17 champions of Europe. How many of those will be in the full squad in a few years? None probably. Maybe one or two at best.

But once these starlets get on the pro circuit, it seems clubs would rather buy average foreigners instead of investing in home-grown talent. It may have made the Premier League the best division in the world, but it has turned England into one of the poorest national sides.

I'm not moaning about the influx of quality overseas stars. Players like Gianfranco Zola, Jurgen Klinsmann, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit et al, who have all improved our game.

But there are a number of foreign stars who manage to earn themselves contracts, even though in reality they are no better than the English-born players denied a chance.

That is because their club is either swayed by the glamour of an exotic-sounding signing or his willingness to do a job for far less money than the home-grown rookie IS demanding.

The lack of English players is not all down to managers. Chairmen and owners must carry some of the responsibility too.

Managers are given little time to nurture home-grown talent. At many clubs, youth policies are not high on the list of priorities. And maybe you can understand why.

I mean if Arsenal are not providing one player for Capello's 23, and often no Englishmen at all in their Premier League matches, why should other clubs bother?

Competing in the Champions League is all that matters to top clubs. That is why they prefer expensive foreigners to cultivating local young stars.

And the ironic thing is that, despite this, the Germans - or rather Bayern Munich - still did better than Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in last season's competition.

Germany taught us a lesson on the pitch but we also need to learn from them off it. It was not so long ago the Bundesliga was reportedly dying on its backside, unable to pay the high wages and attract big names.

Exceptional Photos - Oil in the Gulf

Titan Terry! This is Pure Class

As Slovenia's substitute, Zlatko Dedic, prepared to pull the trigger, there was only one thought in the mind of John Terry. It was to get his body, any part of his body, in front of the goal.

If he took one, so be it, if it hurt, he would shrug it off, as he always does. So Terry climbed to his feet and threw himself, full length, in front of Dedic like a Secret Service agent shielding bullets from the presidential motorcade.

There are certain images that are made for the slow motion replay, that reveal, frame by frame, the measure of a sportsman. The montage of unencumbered determination displayed in front of England's goal after 68 minutes yesterday was one such sequence.

Head first: John Terry courageously dives across as Slovenia substitute Zlatko Dedic fires goalwards late in the game, an example of the fighting spirit which saw England through

When Dedic made to shoot, Terry entered the picture from the left, his arms at first outstretched and then pulled to his side to better propel him towards the target. Now diving, he literally clawed at the air to arrive even a fraction of a second quicker and then, as the ball was released, he thrust his head forward and down, as if breasting a tape, every sinew in his neck stretched in a doomed attempt to deflect the ball from its trajectory.

Glen Johnson, behind him, made the block anyway, but Johnson sensibly covered his privates as he did so. There was no such consideration for Terry, who landed on his right shoulder, his right arm twisted behind his back, his prone figure a tableau of total abandon. He hit the ground with all the grace of a felled telegraph pole.

Friends reunited: Capello hugs Terry at the final whistle

And in that instant, unless Fabio Capello has iced water in his veins, he would have murmured a silent thanks for Terry, the extraordinary footballer.

He has made his judgments on the man and it would seem he is not alone in his disapproval. Yet any condemnation of Terry, any disparagement of his human failings or the clumsiness of his machinations, should always be tempered by an acknowledgement of his worth to the team.

This is why Capello chastised him for some ill-considered opinions expressed this week, but stopped short of the ultimate act act of disciplinary action . Send Terry home and England would surely have followed; maybe today.

England is a Joke

Before the World Cup, there were even talks that this is going to be England's year to win the world cup. And that Rooney is going to be the wonder kid in the tournament.

After 2 games and some horrible 180 minutes of football, England is not a laughing stock in the World Cup. Green's butter fingers against USA, and then a totally uninspired and weak performance against Algeria have made all the wrong head lines for the country that is supposedly invented the beautiful game.

A few months ago, Rooney was setting the Premier League ablaze.

Now the fire is out.

It was incredible to watch a player of such talent make so many elementary errors.

And he compounded it all at the end by saying sarcastically to TV as he came off: "It's nice to see your home fans booing you."

Well, what did he expect after another World Cup failure that took us back to 2006 where we stank the place out?

What did he expect from fans who had paid good money to come out to South Africa to follow their team?

Only to be rewarded with this rubbish.

Yet the men around him were not much better. And still no sight of Joe Cole.

Instead, when Aaron Lennon was replaced, we had Shaun Wright-Phillips again.

And when Emile Heskey went, we got Jermain Defoe.

And then Peter Crouch for Gareth Barry.

Cole must have done something seriously wrong we don't know about to upset Capello.

And what gets into Frank Lampard in games like this?

A colossus for Chelsea, he seems to shrink when he puts on an England shirt. And all this against an Algerian side rated a modest 30th in the world.

An Algeria playing their first World Cup since 1986 courtesy of beating Egypt in a play-off.

An Algeria who had gone into the game on the back of a disastrous run in which they had lost five of their six warm-up matches.

An Algeria who, in this spell, had conceded 12 goals and scored just one - a penalty in their only victory, a 1-0 win over UAE.

An Algeria who boasted 'household' names like Rangers' Madjid Bougherra, once of Crewe, and relegated Portsmouth's Nadir Belhadj and Hassan Yebda.

And others from Slavia Sofia, Nacional Madeira, Sochaux, Bochum and Valenciennes.

And an Algeria who shamed the so-called cream of the Premier League.

What are the England fans to make of it all?

They had been warming up all day down at the cafes and bars with vast expectations of what England might do later in the evening.

They had congregated in their thousands round Mitchell's Waterfront Tavern where a huge screen relayed Germany's match with Serbia.

When the Serbians scored, the roar could almost have been heard back in Blighty.

So the 30,000 or so supporters were in full and magnificent voice as they belted out the national anthem.

Throw in the locals who were supporting the Mother Country and no nation has had more fans behind them - twice as many as had made it up north to Rustenburg.

We could have been at Wembley.

Now we just needed the performance to go with it. But it was desperately poor from the outset.

Rooney and Lampard needlessly gave the ball away, David James struggled under a high cross and Glen Johnson miskicked his clearance in the box.

Then Lampard fluffed an attempted through ball to Heskey while a shot from Gerrard (left)

spiralled some 15ft over the bar.

It was actually getting worse. And this from a team that are known for strong starts to either half.

As for James, every time the ball went anywhere near him there were anxious intakes of breath.

Algeria were now running large chunks of the game and looking more likely to score.

With nothing coming from the England midfield, Rooney was forced to come deeper and deeper so further diminishing what little threat there was in front of goal.

The close-ups of the faces of the England fans in the 64,000 crowd told its own story.

It was already looking like being a long night - especially whenever classy Karim Ziani got on the ball.

So we came to half-time with only a 12-yard Lampard shot pounced on by Rais M'Bolhi to briefly raise hopes.

And 55 per cent possession to Algeria.

Dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.

And it didn't get all that much better after the break.

So now we are left to reflect on the sign on the wall of the Green Point Stadium entrance.

Go strong or go home.

Argentina lit up the gloomy World Cup!

Messi has been brilliant too!

Finally, something to cheer about! Argentina 4, South Korea 1. Higuain got the first hat-trick of 2010 World Cup!

Superb all round performance from the Maradona's team.

Man of the Match: Gonzalo Higuain - The Real Madrid forward missed a succession of chances in Argentina's opening game against Nigeria and his place looked to be in some doubt. However, Higuain responded with a deadly performance when scoring three predatory goals against South Korea, even if he was indebted to some expert service from his team-mates. After scoring 27 goals in Spain last season, he now leads the race for the Golden Boot.

Argentina verdict: This was theAlbiceleste at their sumptuous best in attack, with Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez and Higuain a constant threat to a cowering South Korean backline. Defensive concerns remain, particularly given an aberration from Martin Demichelis that allowed Lee Chung-Yong to score, but the lasting image will be a glorious fourth goal that was the best of the tournament so far. Forget those reservations about Diego Maradona as a coach - he appears to be getting the best out of this talented side.

World Cup After Day 6

We are going into match day number 6 today. A few teams have impressed the World in their first match.

South Korea played fluent football and saw them won their first World Cup match away from home. Captain Jisung scoring the 2nd goal!

Argentina outplayed Nigeria for most of the game, but they only managed to score once. Messi was running riot, splitting the Nigerian defense like a knife, but the goalkeeper is saving everything that Messi threw at him. Messi is exciting to watch.

However, Germany is the team to watch now. They played superb football and netted four times against the Australians.

Japan won the match again Cameroon, and Honda was simply superb.

Dutch team is getting there while Italians are struggling. African teams are generally not impressive thus far.

England are not going to go too far. I am not even sure if Rooney will ever score any goal in this World Cup.

And lastly, some of the matches are boring!

World Cup Fever sends Internet usage to record levels

There’s a fever running through the Internet today - World Cup Fever.

Today’s Web traffic has been classified as “Heavy” for the better part of the day, according to measurements by Akamai. At its peak, traffic for News sites globally started a steady climb about 6 am ET and peaked six hours later, at Noon ET, reaching nearly 12.1 million visitors per minute.

And even though the traffic dipped going into the afternoon, it stayed well above normal - registering some 6.5 million vpn, or 130 percent of normal - at 5 p.m. ET. The bulk of the demand in the last 24 hours has come from North America and Europe - but all regions are reporting “Heavy” usage.

The traffic suggests that the Internet was most active during the Mexico-South Africa game and stayed heavy through the France-Uruguay game. It’s also very likely that today being a workday had more people turning to their office computers to follow the action, instead of their TVs.

The day’s traffic far exceeded the previous record of 8.5 million vpm, which was set when Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election.

This is how good Spain is...

Inesta... Xabi... Silva.... Inesta.... Xabi...... Silva..... goal!

Amazing talents.