Divinity United

Scoreless at half. Netherlands and Spain was the final I wanted to see from the beginning of the World Cup. Not an exciting match so far, but the Dutch are disrupting Spain's passing style. Who will score? Golden Boot to Villa or Sneijder?

I have to say that the early exits of France and Italy, the finalists from 2006, makes for a much more interesting tournament. Well done to Paraguay, Slovakia, Uruguay, and Mexico. The Kiwis did not lose a game and finished ahead of the defending champion Azzurri. A great tournament for the New Zealand All Whites!

The Swiss have just upset Spain 1-0 in the second group H match. In my mind, Spain have what it takes to win the cup, but not if they keep this up. They need to win group H (Honduras, Chile, Switzerland, and Spain) in order to avoid Brasil in the second round, but that assumes Brasil wins group G. Brasil's defeat of North Korea yesterday 2-1 was not as convincing as most expected. See more details of the Spain-Swiss match at BBC Sport .

This is supposed to be a blog about biblical studies, theology and the liberal arts, but considering that the World Cup merely 6 days, 12 hours and >12 minutes away (EDT) and the blog's name, I cannot help but comment. Today's news was full of two big injury reports and a third smaller one. Rio Ferdinand, current captain of England, had a knee injury in England's first South African training session and has been ruled out of the World Cup. Didier Drogba the captain of Ivory Coast and one of Africa's biggest hopes in the first World Cup played on African soil broke his arm near the elbow in a friendly against Japan. He has not been ruled out, but he may not play. And Jozy Altidore of the USA has had an ankle injury. He will most likely make the World Cup. The first two of these injuries to the captains of contending nations may have important consequences. An Ivory Coast without Drogba is unlikely to make it out of the Group of Death (Portugal, Brazil, North Korea). ...