Australia
Nickname: The Socceroos
FIFA ranking: 20
How they got here: Cruised through, after switching from Oceania to the Asian confederation -- which meant that they no longer had to win a play-off against a South American team to qualify.
Record in previous tournaments: Knocked out at the round of 16 in 2006 -- their best-ever finish -- after a controversial game against Italy.

Algeria
Nickname: Les Fennecs (the desert foxes)
FIFA ranking: 30
How they got here: Won a tiebreaker with Egypt after the two teams ended qualification tied at the top of their group.
Record in previous tournaments: Have appeared at the World Cup twice, in 1982 and 1986, and went out at the group stage both times.

Argentina
Nickname: The Albicelestes, after their white and sky-blue shirts
FIFA ranking: 7
How they got here: Made hard work of things, including a humiliating 6-1 loss to Bolivia, but eventually qualified thanks to narrow wins in their last two games.
Record in previous tournaments: Have won twice before, in 1978 and 1986.

France
Nickname: Les Bleus. They wear blue. Nobody said that they were imaginative.
FIFA ranking: 9
How they got here: Finished second in their qualifying group, and then won a playoff against Ireland thanks to Thierry Henry's hand.
Record in previous tournaments: Won the whole shebang for the first and only time in 1998.

Um. Hi there, to the four people who are actually still reading this after an extremely lengthy hiatus. As an explanation, I went back to school and it sucked up pretty much any free time that I might have had in which to watch soccer, let alone write about it. But I have now graduated (yay!), and the World Cup is about to start (double yay!

Manchester City 2-3 Liverpool
Oh, that was just gorgeous. Ok, not Liverpool going behind 2-0 by halftime, or Xabi Alonso practically having his ankle taken off by Zabaleta. (And seriously, what is it about him that encourages people into dangerous tackles?) But everything after that was great.

Aalborg 0-3 Manchester United
A goal for Wayne Rooney, two for Dimitar Berbatov, thank you very much. Let's all just forget about that weak draw with Villareal, shall we? I think it's safe to assume that Celtic are going to be eliminated at the group stage, as per usual, and based on this performance Aalborg really aren't much of a threat, so no worries until the knockout rounds start.

On the one hand, I am insanely busy right now. Booo. On the other hand, I finally have Setanta set up at my new apartment so I can watch the games properly. Yaaaay. So here we go...
Manchester United 2–0 Bolton
Yes, okay, that penalty was ridiculous. I'm not even going to try to defend that.

Manchester United: Drew with those Chelsea bastards.
Liverpool: Drew with Stoke. Stoke.
My team: Made it to the playoff final and lost on penalties.
I: Do not want to talk about it.

Liverpool 2-1 Manchester United
Ok, see, this is why it's not such a great idea to like both Liverpool and Manchester United. Because yeah, I wanted United to win, and Berbatov to be amazing on his debut, and Wayne Rooney to score a hat-trick or something. And instead I got Rooney marooned out on the wing, an own-goal for Wes Brown, and the Edwin van der Sar Comedy Experience.

Not that long ago, I think I was complaining about this summer having been boring in the footballing world. Apparently things were just building up quietly, though, because all in the past week everybody appears to have lost their damn minds. Managers are being sacked right and left (or not being sacked; nobody is really sure), and even more bizarrely, England are winning games!

Oh Liverpool. It is too early in the season for you to suck this badly. First the fiasco of Champions League qualification, then Gerrard and Torres both get hurt, and then an anemic draw against Villa, just to finish things off.
Meanwhile, United didn't have a Premiership game this week, because they were too busy losing to Zenit St.

Manchester United 1-0 Portsmouth
Ok, now I feel like the season has started properly. I was quite happy to have missed last weekend's games and particularly United starting off by drawing at home to Newcastle. I know that they drew against Reading to start things off last year, and still won the league, but come on.

1. Toronto FC finally won a game -- not only that, but it was an away win! And a game they really shouldn't have won at all. They were missing a bunch of players, and they had a grand total of two shots on target -- but one of those was the only goal of the game, a gorgeous free kick by Chad Barrett.

Yeah, I know it's been quiet around here lately. But frankly, there hasn't been much that I've felt like writing about. I'm choosing to ignore Toronto FC's terrible run of form, and the transfer window is no more exciting than it was a month ago, which is to say, not at all.
But finally, we have some games that actually matter.