One weekend gone, four more to go.

Sorry ladies, leave the remote alone, grab the credit card and head off to the shops.

There's still 47 games to come.

If that doesn't launch a flood of letters to Sports Mailbox, then nothing will!

But don't be mistaken, this is men's month. We're all in football paradise and we'll stay there until the final ball is kicked on July 11.

Of course, millions of females around the world, many of whom show little interest and normally don't follow the game, will watch the action but it's unlikely they'll show the same kind of passion, unbridled elation and suicidal depression which will overcome the men when their team wins or are booted out of the competition.

And it's doubtful that many of the wives and girfriends in England will have been crying over their coffee as their partners were hurling beer bottles at the TV screen after goalkeeper Robert Green made one of the worst blunders in World Cup history, failing to grab a tepid shot from Clint Dempsey and then helped it into his own net.

So far, that's been the most memorable and astonishing incident over the last three days.

Ultimately it cost England victory over a country more engrossed in the NBA finals and rounders – sorry, baseball – than the only sport that really matters.

Keep the letters coming!

Fair enough, the US have come a long way since they beat England in the early 1950s in one of the game's biggest upsets.

But they haven't beaten their rivals across the pond in a competitive match since. And if not for Green's horrible howler on Saturday, they probably wouldn't have grabbed as much as a point.

Not that England, picked by the supreme optimists to go all the way, deserved anything more than a draw.

Once boss Fabio Capello stuck the bumbling Emile Heskey in his line-up, hopes of a win were about as likely as Green being selected for the next game.

But even Heskey emerged with less egg on the face, despite missing the best chance of the match, than the man between the sticks.

Enough of England, the mesmerising play of Lionel Messi in Argentina's 1-0 victory of Nigeria, the stunning goal by Siphiwe Tshabalala's in South Africa's wonderful performance against Mexico in the game that opened the tournament and the slick, overwhelming performance by Germany, who always save their best for major tournaments, were among the highlights.

As for statistics, four players have already seen red and only one ref has seen fit to award a penalty despite some dubious tackles inside the box.

Apart from that glorious goal by Tshabalala, there haven't been too many spectacular shots and no goals from free kicks. And that might have something to do with the new Jabulani ball which manufacturers claim is the most perfectly designed since any before it.

Don't tell the goalkeepers, some of whom have described it something akin to a beachball.

That FIFA would wait until their showpiece event to introduce the most important piece of equipment in the game is beyond belief.

Swerving left and then right before ballooning over the bar, it certainly doesn't look perfect.

Not that Green could blame the ball. Nor Algeria's keeper Fauzi Chaachi who failed to get to the softest shots by Slovenia's Robert Koren.

But that's the nature of the game.

Brilliance and blunders are all part and parcel of football. Brace yourself for more magic and mistakes over the next four weeks.

And sorry ladies, this is only the beginning!