It's been a funny old World Cup so far.

There's been plenty of entertainment in some of the matches but others have been a little bit dull to say the least.

You only have to look at the paltry number of goals that have been scored to see that defence is king for many of the teams and consequently their strikers are having to feed off scraps.

I think it's a case of teams being too concerned about not losing rather than going out for victory and that's perfectly understandable during the group stages.

Lets face it, at the moment it's all about doing what you have to reach the second phase.

For me, Diego Maradonna's Argentina have been the best of a bad bunch.

They have so much attacking talent in the likes of Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain and when their firing on all cylinders I think they can be unstoppable.

Sadly though all the other nations look terrified of making a mistake and that's never conducive to easy-on-the-eye, free-flowing, attacking football.

I'm sure that will change as the tournament progresses because teams such as Brazil and Spain also have an abundance of fire power in their attacking armoury ¿ and that's we all want to see at this tournament.

Germany started off with a crushing defeat of Australia and then suffered a surprise defeat against Serbia yesterday morning. But what people must realise is that they have a very young team this time around and therefore will find it difficult at times. Yesterday was just one of those days at the office for them.

Serbia can play and their somewhat surprise win emphasised that no country should be, taken for granted these days.

From what I've seen so far Ghana appear to the strongest of the African sides even without Chelsea's Michael Essien who is missing through injury.

Their opening game win of Serbia was a cracking result for them and I think they may have what it takes to get out of their group.

I'm licking my lips in anticipation for Brazil's match against the Ivory Coast tomorrow.

If the Ivory Coast are able to dictate the play then they may be able to get something out of the match, but for me, Ghana still have the best chance of advancing the furthest.

The defending champions, Italy, have suffered a big blow in losing Gigi Buffon in goal for them because of back injury. He was absolutely instrumental to their successful 2006 World Cup campaign.

I fear for Marcello Lippi's men because while they have plenty of experience they're a very old team and I don't see them threatening to defend their title this time around.

France have again flattered to deceive people, everyone has talked about them but under the current coach, Raymond Domenech, they can't seem to get it together.

When you see Thierry Henry sitting on the bench when he should be in the starting 11, it makes you wonder.

Spain loss was devastating, they have been a good side for many years but always seem to get stage fright and aren't able to deliver the goods.

Uruguay have done very well thus far, but I think at times you have to remember who these teams are playing and how good they are.

But credit to them, they have done their job, but when it comes time to playing the bigger teams we will see what they are really made of.

They did have an impressive win over South Africa and can go someway but I still don't think they have any genuine championship hopes.

The likes of Holland and Argentina and the nations that will continue to be the front-runners until they are stopped, or stop themselves.