THE defensive attitude of so many of the teams in this World Cup has left me feeling a bit disappointed with the tournament so far. There seems to be less exciting football on display than in World Cups of the past.

The European teams, in particular, have been too keen to get ten men behind the ball, keep things very tight and hope something good happens.

The African sides, on the other hand, have been great to watch. They played open, entertaining and attacking football. Their players are as physically strong as any players and once they learn to finish better, they will have a good chance of beating anyone.

Ghana's magnificent performance in beating the Czech Republic was one of the highlights of the tournament and it's great for the game and for Africa that they managed to make it through to the last 16 by beating the US 2-1 yesterday.

They will now face Brazil in the second round next Tuesday in a clash of two attacking teams ? a mouth-watering prospect.

I've also noticed that a number of players have had problems just keeping on their feet. There have been times when players have slipped over in a shooting position.

I think that may be due to the cleats that players have on modern boots. They don't seem to give them the same stability as the old-fashioned boots. When Michael Owen suffered the serious knee injury that will sideline him for the next five months in England's game against Sweden, no-one touched him, his foot just gave way. Maybe those cleats were part of his problem.

Players' techniques also seem to have changed. I've never seen so many wrong-footed tackles as I have in the last couple of weeks. It really is a different game these days.

And the quality of finishing has been generally disappointing ? England's Frank Lampard, usually extremely accurate, must have had 15 wayward shots. Maybe it's the nerves, the training or the World Cup ball. Who knows?

What I do know is that in most World Cups, skill comes out on top in the end, and hopefully that will be the case this time.

A good many people in Bermuda will be watching four fascinating second-round matches coming up this weekend:

Germany will go into Saturday's game high on confidence after a 3-0 win against Ecuador, but they will take Sweden lightly at their peril.

The way the Swedes fought back against England in the 2-2 draw on Wednesday showed what they can do. They play in quite an English style and they have enough quality players, like Freddie Ljungberg and Henrik Larsson, to be a threat to any team.

At the moment, everything is going Germany's way and they enjoyed three victories in the group stage. But you've got to look at the quality of the opposition they faced and the much higher class of teams they're going to have to play from now on.

The Germans play with a very flat back four, which means that one ball can beat everyone ? and that has happened to them a couple of times.

And it's not only their defence they will have to tighten up, their midfield is also going to have to do better to get a grip on games. Michael Ballack is going to have to play out of his skin.

But with four-goal striker Miroslav Klose in fine form, we know the Germans will be able to score goals. In addition they'll have the support of a home crowd, which is like having an extra man.

This should be a real cracker. One thing about Mexico is that they are always prepared to attack, regardless of who they're playing. And that should ensure a great game.

True, Argentina have been very impressive so far, but on any given day, either side could win this one.

Many people have been raving about Argentina's 6-0 thrashing of Serbia and Montenegro and, yes, there is no doubt that the South Americans were brilliant that day.

However, I feel that the Serbs brought some of that on themselves by adopting too cautious an approach. They were more interested in defending than getting forward.

Argentina play in the most European style of any of the South American teams and Serbia's tactics did not present them with a problem. The Serbs just invited the Argentinians to come at them, which proved a bad idea.

In fact, most of the teams who went to Germany to put ten men behind the ball are on their way home now and that is no bad thing for the tournament. Argentina have so many high-class players, like Riquelme and Crespo, they are surely a top contender for the trophy.

Sunday's opener should be a very close encounter.

You have to have a lot of respect for Luiz Felipe Scolari, Portugal's coach and the former coach of his native Brazil, who has now won ten World Cup finals matches in a row.

Dutch coach Marco van Basten may be a lot less experienced, because having been a player of the very highest quality, he knows what is required to win a big tournament.

Holland have a young team, who will rely heavily on the pace of Arjen Robben, the experience of the former Barcelona player, Philip Cocu and the striking threat of Robin van Persie.

Portugal's players have big-match experience, having reached the final of the European Championships just two years ago. And they have several class players capable of tilting the match their way, players like Deco, Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo.

In the end, I think the team who wants it most will come out on top.

If England bring their traditional grit, determination and never-say-die attitude into this match, they can get the result. If they try to play the South American way against Ecuador, then they could be in trouble.

All Latin teams seem to struggle against an aerial threat, so if I were playing for England, I would try and test the goalkeeper with high balls into the box every chance I could get.

The question is whether England will be able to recognise that they can be successful that way. It seems they are prepared to sling in a lot of high balls when 6ft 7in striker Peter Crouch is on the field, but when he's not there they try to play a different way.

Now Owen is ruled out, England may have to turn to young Theo Walcott, who has never yet played a game for his club, Arsenal. Many pundits predicted that England would get an injury and end up in this position, when they questioned Eriksson's decision not to take a seasoned player like Jermaine Defoe. It's asking a lot of a 17-year-old to be thrown into a World Cup.

Ecuador showed their strengths in their opening 2-0 win against Poland. They rested five players against Germany and that is probably why they lost heavily ? they will be a different proposition against England.

And England will have to defend set pieces better than they did against Sweden. The Swedes swung some great balls in, but when you have players like Ferdinand, Terry and Campbell in there, you expect them to be able to deal with it.

And the defensive aberration that allowed Larsson to equalise in the last minute was a classic case of a team being at its most vulnerable when it has just scored a goal. Gerrard scored, England thought they had it won and just lost concentration.