Finally, some soccer to truly make me smile. I even squealed once. (See if you can find an ESPN soccer journalist admit that in print.)

Germany is playing with a newfound lightness and joy – first exhibited in the 2006 World Cup they hosted – that seemed only to grow stronger out of the unfortunate loss of star midfielder Michael Ballack to injury. Without Ballack, the play opened up, looking more Dutch than German in its creativity and fluidity, and resulting in four goals from four different goal scorers: Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose (who could have had at least three more), Thomas Muller, and Cacau.

Germany is always a force in World Cup soccer, but OMG. I can’t wait to see more of this team.

Australia, on the other hand, can get an early start on packing up. Their allegedly expert defense was picked apart, and not just because of the German’s masterful attack. They simply didn’t measure up, and Ghana is likely to make a meal of them, as well.

One sour note: The officiating thus far in the tournament has been exceptional, with nothing more than the rare missed tripping call. But the red card that sent off Australia’s Tim Cahill, killing any chance of Australia surviving the group stage, was absurdly harsh. As a strong supporter of the doctrine of Fair Play, I’m all for cracking down on dangerous play, but this was a standard reckless challenge, worthy of no more than a yellow card. It tore the heart out of an already disheartened Aussie side.

My prediction was: Germany. Final result: Germany 4-0.

The highly skillful Serbian team played well but ultimately fell victim to their surplus of cynical play, first by going down to 10 men at 74 minutes when Aleksandar Lukovic was shown his second yellow card and was sent off for a flagrant holding, then when they were penalized by the first penalty kick of the 2010 World Cup after a pointless hand ball in the box by Zdravko Kuzmanovic.

I’d predicted a barn-burner and we didn’t quite get it in the goal count, perhaps due to first match nerves on both sides, but we did see quite a lot of attacking play, plenty of shots, and even a goodly number of thrilling shots on goal. Ghana will be bolstered by the win, so I’ll repeat my prediction of more goal-scoring for their next match.

My prediction was: Ghana. Final result: Ghana 1-0.

I’ll confess that I didn’t have much emotional stake in this match. I’m not familiar with any of their players, and I consider them both to be the also-rans in Group C behind England and the United States. That said, I found the match to be extremely dull. The highlights were an Algerian free kick that was one of the first free kicks on target in this tournament and had to be deflected over the crossbar by the Slovenian keeper and a red card for Algeria for a flagrant handball that forced Algeria to play the final 20 minutes or so with only 10 men. Even the goal was less than stunning, more a matter of poor positioning by the Algerian keeper than stunning finishing by the Slovenian captain.

That said, Slovenia’s win puts them on top of Group C, ahead of both England and the United States, both of which have yet to play the Slovenians, so a scouting report could be useful. The Slovenians (as did the Algerians) played well-organized, disciplined soccer with an emphasis on possession. There were few shots on goals and few offsides for either team, underscoring that these are not attacking teams. The US and England should be able to hold either team scoreless when they face them, but will face a determined defense they may find it hard to score against.

My prediction was: Slovenia. Final result: Slovenia 1-0.

Unlike other so-called “World” tournaments, the FIFA World Cup is truly an international championship, with every nation of the world having the opportunity to compete. If you’ve watched the World Cup, however, you’ve probably noticed that there are not 230+ countries playing. In fact, in recent decades, what we know as the World Cup has featured 32 teams. The reason is that what we call the World Cup is actually the World Cup finals, the culmination of three years of qualifying play involving more than 200 nations. Here’s how those 32 final teams are selected.

The FIFA World Cup, I’m sure you know, occurs every four years, just like the Olympics. The cycle begins with a three-year long qualification phase. In qualification, the soccer world is organized into six continental zones ( (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe) which are called confederations. The US, for example plays in CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football, along with countries including Canada, Mexico, Honduras, and Trinidad & Tobago.

The teams in each confederation play one another over the course of three years leading up to the World Cup finals, and the teams with the best record in each confederation earn one of the allotted spots in the finals. Each confederation receives a different number of spots in the finals, depending upon the relative strength of soccer in the region. For the 2010 World Cup, for example, CONCACAF had 3 spots, and Europe (UEFA) had 13.

Qualifying is typically completed by the December before the World Cup finals, which begin in June.

That’s how the teams get to the finals. Read how the competition is structured once they reach the World Cup finals.

The tournament we commonly call the World Cup is actually the FIFA World Cup finals, where the top 32 teams to emerge from three years of qualifying matches compete on the world stage for the championship. Here’s how the World Cup finals competition is structured.

The World Cup Format

The World Cup finals consists of a group stage and a knockout stage. The 32 finalists are placed into eight groups of four teams each (see The Draw below). In the group stage, each team places each of the other three teams in its group in a round-robin mini-tournament. Matches in the group stage can end in a draw. The top two teams from each group (see Scoring below) advance to the knockout stage, and the bottom two teams from each group go home. The group stage occurs over the course of about two weeks, with several matches being played each day in venues .

In the knockout stage, the winner advances and the loser goes home. There are no draws in the knockout stage (see Scoring below). The knockout stage comprises several rounds of single elimination competition – the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and the championship – which occur over the final two weeks of the World Cup finals.

Scoring

In the group stage, a win is worth 3 points, a draw is 1, and a loss is 0. The two teams with the top point totals in group play are the group winners and advance to the knockout stage. Point ties are decided by goal differential, which is number of goals scored minus number of goals allowed.

In the knockout stage, it’s a win or lose proposition, so matches cannot end in a draw. If teams are level on goals at the end of regular time, two full periods of 15 minutes each are played. If teams are level on goals after the extra time periods, then the match is decided by a penalty shootout.

The Draw

The 32 teams are placed into eight groups through a somewhat random draw. The top seven teams plus the host team are seeded and placed together into one “pot.” The remaining 24 teams are separated into three additional pots, roughly by geography. The teams are then randomly drawn from the four pots into the eight groups, Group A getting one team each from Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, and Pot 4, and so on for the other seven groups. This system ensures that the top teams won’t face each other in the group stage.

Australia have some international stars on their team, most notably Tim Cahill of Everton, and they’re a decent team. But Germany is packed with international talent and is one of the four teams (along with Italy, Argentina, and Brazil) that can always be counted on to perform like a champion on the World Cup stage. This is an easy choice for me: Germany.

This could be a barn-burner. Ghana is arguably the best team in Africa, and Serbia is a world top 20 team that qualified strongly and has something to prove after their poor performance in the 2006 World Cup. Ghana will be hurt by the loss of Chelsea star Michael Essien to a knee injury, but they have the depth they’ll need to prevail here.

My prediction: Ghana.

With the England and US playing to a 1-1 draw, Algeria and Slovenia will be battling for a win and the full 3 points that would mean to the winner. A win here and an upset for either of these teams over the favored US or England teams could propel one of these underdogs out of the group.

Algeria is not known for their offense, but should play a solid defensive game. Their goalkeeper isn’t well-known outside of the country; he’ll have to be solid (particularly in the later games against US and England).

It would be easy to underestimate Slovenia, a new and small nation making only its second appearance in a World Cup, but they had to beat Russia, a top 10 team, to get to the Cup finals. They’re a defensive team, too, but will need to get goals in this game from their two forwards, Milivoje Novakovic and Zlatko Dedic, to have a hope of getting out of the group.

My prediction: Slovenia.

I couldn’t be happier about being wrong. Nevertheless, I’m compelled to point out that, despite the score, England were the better team on the pitch. It was only the incredibly poor fortune of hapless English goalkeeper Robert Green that allowed the American goal and draw.

The first half pace was shockingly fast in both directions. The US seemed to be trying to exploit the perceived weakness of England’s defense by sending frequent early balls from their defensive half into the attacking space, hoping that forwards Jozy Altidore or Robbie Findley could run onto them. Wayne Rooney was nearly invisible in the first half, with the early goal coming from Steven Gerrard off of an Emile Heskey assist, and Heskey providing most of the remaining English attack.

I had doubts early on that even the very fit US team would be able to maintain that pace for 90 minutes, but both teams slowed the pace in the second half and began to let the ball do more of the work. Rooney played a much more prominent role in the second half, finding space and opportunities both on and off the ball and making life difficult for US center defender Oguchi Onyewu. Only the consistently impeccable positioning of US goalkeeper Tim Howard kept the US alive in the second half against a relentless English barrage.

It’s a much needed point for the US, and could spark their confidence for what will almost certainly now be an appearance in the Round of 16.

My prediction was: England. Final result: 1-1.

Argentina serve notice in the first 60 seconds when forwards Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez combined in an attack that nearly resulted in a very early goal. Three minutes later, Messi dribbled through 4 defenders and sent a cross in to Tevez, who tapped it wide of goal. Finally, in the 6th, Gabriel Heinze sprinted into the box unmarked on a corner kick and headed the ball into the upper corner for Argentina’s first goal.

It turned out to be the only goal of the match, despite plenty of lively attacking play on both ends of the pitch. Argentina certainly seemed the more capable side, but Nigeria played competently if not as well organized. Nigeria’s best threats came from quick counterattacks and their forward’s lightning fast changes of direction with the ball. They could still be a force in this group. I’m looking forward to the Nigeria v South Korea match.

My prediction was: Argentina. Final result: Argentina 1-0.