The eighteenth World Cup has now had ten days to thrill and excite, enthrall  and enrage. That it has done this in universal sunshine and harmony of the like the United Nations could only dream of, has meant a thoroughly enjoyable atmosphere.

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Add to this the quality of the football we have seen and one can consider this at least the most entertaining World Cup in the last thirty years. A number of factors have come together in Germany 2006. The first worthy of mention is the quality of play from virtually all of the nations present. In each and every game we have seen some moments of real quality. Even within the inevitable 0-0, one can point to the heroics of Shaka Hislop in Trinidad and Tobago’s draw with Sweden and the system Angola employed to shackle the FIFA’s 4th ranked team Mexico.

What this World Cup has also shown is the fallacy of those rankings: with the Mexicans ranked 4th largely because of the lack of strong opponents in the CONCACAF qualifying group. The paucity of strong opposition is not the only reason for the peculiarities which the ‘rankings’ through up. Other examples are the Czechs ranked 2nd but comprehensively outplayed by Ghana in Cologne on Saturday, while the team that has shone brightest so far – Argentina – are ranked 8th.

FIFA can be forgiven for this but the example of the Czechs is a salient one for those suggesting some of the big guns have started slowly. It is an unwritten rule of World Cups that the team which begins well in its first game are unlikely to produce such performances further into the competition. So as good as the Czechs were against the US, they were outwitted and outmuscled, by Ghana. The loss of a single player: in their case the towering Jan Koller, can have a massive effect. What this also means is that there is hope for those who have started slowly: the likes of Brazil and England.

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Moving on a further factor that has heightened the enjoyment of the competition thus far is the spirit in which it has been played. With Italian midfielder De Rossi’s elbow on McBride being the exception that proves the rule, there have been remarkably few explicitly dirty or cynical moments. Diving has been at a minimum, and, crucially, rarely rewarded. While there has been the odd over officious referee the standard overall has been high and again this has contributed.

One last factor is that major players, without necessarily playing well, have made significant moves towards the latter stages. The only real shock so far has been Ghana’s victory over the Czechs but anyone who say the game could not say it was wholly surprising. The ubiquitous presence of the Kaiser – Franz Beckenbauer at every game seems to have pervaded the whole tournament. His calming presence as a player seems to have been replicated in the organisation of the tournament and at the moment there are no detractors.