Game 1:  Germany 4 : 0 Argentina

• Germany: A great offensive display from Germany, especially on the counter-attack. Thomas Müller just seemed to be everywhere at once, and Klose once again proved his positioning is great. Bastian Schweinsteiger also particularly impressed, his passes cutting through the Argentinian defense to find his teammates. Offense aside, the German defense was very solid today, playing compact and not allowing anything through the middle. Going forward the Germans will be hurt by Müllers suspension due to him reaching the yellow card limit, but have enough offensive players on the bench (Cacau, Mario Gómez) to make up for it.

• Argentina: They had some decent attacking chances, but the defense was particularly shaky today. Too much space at the back, coupled with Germany’s great counter game lead to the big defeat. Argentina seems to lack a creative player in the middle — a la Xavi — who can provide Messi and the other forwards the ball, so they won’t have to keep making plays, but just score goals. Going forward they still have one the brightest futures. Messi, di María, Agüero, Otamendi and Pastore are all under 23 years of age, so Argentina will undoubtedly be one of the best teams in the world for a long time to come.

Game 2:  Spain 1 : 0 Paraguay

• Spain: Deserved the win after battling it out with a very tough, defensive Paraguayan team. David Villa had a good performance again, scoring yet another game-winner as well as scoring at least a goal in the last 4 games for Spain. However Spain still relied on the middle a little too much, trying to barge though, when the wings had more space. With the introduction of Pedro, a greater amount of wing play changed the game and they got the winning goal. Going forward, Spain will have to be on their toes, they were almost caught on the counter by Paraguay today, and will have to really watch their defense as Germany has proven to be lethal on the counter-attack so far.

• Paraguay: Good performance from Paraguay today, they had a perfect plan for Spain, defending well and using their fast players to counter-attack. Paraguay also had a few good chances to take the lead — coming close on the counter and towards the end of the game — but they just couldn’t convert.  Going forward, most of their defenders (aside from Alcaraz and Torres) are 30 or over, but they should find new new talent and as the team plays in a great system, they will always be a tough challenge to overcome.