Simon Hill

And we've already seen, you know, one blowout with Curaçao being smashed 7-1.

But, you know, is it nice for those nations to have their moment in the sun and play the World Cup?

Yeah, I can't argue with that.

Again, I think it's largely about money that we've got an expanded tournament, but we've seen some shocks so far.

Spain failing to get past Cape Verde.

Belgium only getting a last gasp equalizer against Egypt earlier on today.

Brazil being held by Morocco, even Australia, if you want to call it a shock defeat in Turkey.

So it's been a World Cup that's produced a few surprises so far, but as the tournament builds and we get towards the pointy end, I have no doubt that the usual suspects will emerge.

Well...

I have to say that in America, we spent the first five days doing our sort of regulations and our training for the Green and Gold Army in Los Angeles.

And there wasn't really much of a buzz about it in LA, apart from when the opening game took place, which was Mexico, of course, lots of Mexicans in Los Angeles.

So they were out with their colors on.

But yeah, there wasn't much hype about it in LA.

There's been a bit more in Vancouver.

But last night, I have to tell you that we went to the local pub hoping to watch the Sweden-Tunisia game.

And most of the TVs had the UFC on from the White House.

So that was a little bit disappointing.

We did find a pub eventually that had the football on.

But yeah, look, this is a part of the world that is not as obsessed with football as the rest of the world is.

And it's not a surprise to anybody to learn that.