Germany always looks great. People blow/blew Ballack's injury way out of proportion. They have plenty of depth on that roster. The biggest question mark before this game was guys like Podolski and Klosse who have been pretty bad for their club teams. Well, they are still excellent on an international level, especially Podolski.
As for Ghana; they are especially young and inexperienced. They are dynamic and have some things going on, but it took a red card and a penalty for them to get on the score board. I wasn't overly impressed with their play. I think Serbia looked terrible though. Serbia really had high hopes of moving on too, so I'm sure they are very disapointed.
With Slovenia, I wouldn't want to play wide open against the US or England. Both teams respond very well under those conditions. I think Slovenia has to pack it in and play defense the whole game and hope that a lone striker can sneak in a goal.
I think the US have it pretty much planned out how they are going to play the rest of their games, but England is in trouble with their current lineup. Lampard and Gerrard are not suited to play together. Lampard is actually an excellent defender so I'd force him to play holding midfielder. At times, he has played defense for Chelsea under less than ideal situations. Gerrard is a pretty awful defender so just let him continue to play attacking midfielder. I know a lot of people will call for Heskey to be removed, Gerrard to play CF and play a guy like Garreth Barry, but Heskey actually had a great game against the US except for his miss 1 on 1 against Howard. At the same time, Heskey did nothing to get Rooney involved in the game, which is the only reason he starts. I'd give Heskey another shot, but if he hasn't gotten another assist, I'd move Gerrard up and put in a true holding midfielder. Another issue with England is on the left wing. I'd say Joe Cole is going to be playing a lot more at left wing. SWP is awful. Milner was awful and is typically average. Joe Cole is much better and he'll be playing with his teammate Ashley Cole on the left. I also really don't care for Glen Johnson and I'm a Liverpool guy. Quite frankly, I think he leaves the defense in bad situations when he goes so far up. He is highly skilled with the ball, but with Liverpool Macherano covers his ass a lot. On England, there is no holding midfielder so you're leaving the defense prone to a counter attack. I think Glen Johnson left Aaron Lennon sitting in the corner not sure where he should go because Johnson kept on moving forward. Aaron Lennon is extremely talented. Let him work on the left by himself and Johnson should only offer support. Not take over the whole right side.
Either way, I'm still waiting for a good game, fun, high scoring game. I expect one of the Ivory Coast, Portugal, Brazil games to offer that. A nice 3-2 game is when soccer is at its best.