DUTCH, ITALIANS AND GERMANS MOST IMPRESSIVE SO FAR

D. Ray Morton, 18th June 2014.

Germany's Thomas Müller's hat-trick against Portugal makes him top goalscorer and brings his total World Cup goals to eight, now level with the legendary Diego Maradona

Since our last post about Italy's victory over a game but predictable England, we have seen every World Cup team in action now. We have seen Belgium, many peoples' "dark horses" to go far in tournament. We watched as Germany impressed against a self-destructive Portuguese side unable to get the best out of Cristiano Ronaldo. France and Karim Benzema strutted their stuff against violent minnows Honduras and Argentina, thanks to a moment of magic from none other than Lionel Messi, put away a resolute Bosnia & Herzegovina side. Mexico and Brazil were the first two teams to play their second match yesterday and the hosts/favourites failed to impress in a nil-all draw.

Having seen everyone, the three most impressive teams have been Italy, the Netherlands (who thrashed champions Spain) and Germany with Thomas Müller in top poaching form. Italy deserve credit in that they took care of England despite missing Gianluigi Buffon in goal and having to field a back four that had question marks hanging over it. The likes of Matteo Darmian and Gabriel Paletta have been steady, however. There is no doubt that the Netherlands' hammering of Spain has been the stand-out performance of the competition and Germany, though Portugal really were masters of their own undoing, were firm and incisive.

Brazil are a team that should be worrying at this point. Mexico managed to hold them to a scoreless draw thanks to a fine performance from goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa but the seleção were hardly unlucky in their stalemate. Fred had another poor performance and this time there was no cheap award of a penalty. A matter of concern is that the only real back-up for him is former Manchester City flop, Jô. Provided a team can keep Neymar occupied out left, Brazil are offering very little in attack at the moment and must be counting their lucky stars that they were handed such an easy victory in their opening match thanks to some shady refereeing. Things will have to be shaken up and serious consideration must be given to starting the likes of Willian and Fernandinho, players who could offer more creativity than Paulinho, Luiz Gustavo or Ramires.

Tonight's games see Louis van Gaal's Netherlands against Australia (5pm GMT), Spain with a chance to bounce back against Chile (8pm GMT) and Croatia's chance of redemption against a dull Cameroon side (11pm GMT). Vicente del Bosque's defending champions are hanging in there and need a massive performance against Chile. Though many have them written off after their embarrassing opening defeat, they have the quality within their squad to fight back and they could still take that second place position. Assuming Brazil win their group, a repeat of the 2013 Confederations Cup final of Brazil versus Spain would be a mouth-watering second round prospect. Many expected they would not meet until the tournament decider on July 13th but now it is looking like neither team are good enough to win this thing outright.