Firstly, my apologies for the lack of recent bloggage. I've been in South Africa covering the All Whites for New Zealand's Radio Sport, and the days have been long and full. But enough of that. Group F. Let's have a wee look.
New Zealand's draw with Slovakia has obviously captured the imagination of everyone back home. Before Tuesday's game, our most famous Winston was controversial politician Winston Peters. He's now been well and truly usurped by the newest kiwi sporting hero.
Reid's an unassuming chap. Even after his last-gasp heroics, he was full of composure, deflecting any praise the way of his team-mates and insisting the job is only half-done.
The first thing this result did was remove any remaining doubt that New Zealand would be the whipping boys of this World Cup. What it's also done is given both the team itself and the New Zealand sporting public two more football matches to look forward to with relish. Regardless of what happens against Italy, the All Whites will still be alive before the final group match against Paraguay.
To say the All Whites weren't heavily favoured at the tournament is an understatement of gigantic proportions.
Sports Illustrated labelled them comfortably the worst team at the tournament.
An Australian betting agency's booklet says even the All Whites own mothers wouldn't back them to get any points.
And another magazine I leafed through incorrectly identified the New Zealand captain as Nelsen Ryan, rather than Ryan Nelsen.
They're taking a bit more notice now.
The Slovakians were utterly deflated with this result. The looks of despair and long faces after the game told the story of a side who thought they'd comfortably account for a footballing minnow and even when they discovered that succumbing them was a bit trickier than they thought, still found a goal to take them ahead. But then they sat on their lead and were punished for it by Reid's late, late show.
Having said that, Marek Hamsik and Vladimir Weiss look the type of players who will cause problems for opposition defenders at this tournament.
In their first game, Italy looked a bit sluggish to me and the fears their class of 2006 may now have too many miles on the clock were given weight. Formerly imperious captain Fabio Cannavaro was easily beaten in the air for Paraguay's goal and his growing frustration was evident as the game progressed. They missed Andrea Pirlo and Gianluigi Buffon's back injury is also a worry.
After drawing with supposedly the top side in the group, Paraguay will fancy themselves to go through to the knock-out stages. Their match with Slovakia on Sunday takes on crucial importance following the identical stalemates in the first two games.
One look at the gridlocked points table tells you Group F is wide open.
