Hi Maria!

Group B is over and Argentina is on top (no surprise) with South Korea joining them in the round-of-16 which was not expected. Nigeria underachieved and Greece did what they do (defend and not much else). I love Greek food and Medford's own Maria Menounos is a complete dime but Greek soccer is garbage in my book. They're like a very poor man's Italy: defending the whole time and not even trying to get a goal, even when they desperately need it to go forward (like today).

Greece

Best moment: 2-1 win over Nigeria in the second match. One of the more shocking results in the tournament so far, that nobody has talked about.

Worst moment: The game vs. Argentina. No shame in losing to Maradona's all-star team but it is deplorable to not start attacking when all you need is one goal to advance. Nigeria helped them out but the Greeks have nobody but themselves to blame.

Best result: See above.

Worst result: 2-0 loss to South Korea. With a better showing in the opening match, they would have advanced.

Final tally: 1 win, 2 losses; 2 goals scored, 5 goals against.

Best player: Dimitrios Salpingidis, who scored the first World Cup goal in Greek history, also the game-winner vs. Nigeria.

Worst player: I don't blame the players, I blame coach Otto Rehhagel. The second-longest tenured coach in this World Cup, helped the Greeks pull off a miracle with the Euro 2004 title but it's time to change it up boss.

Palermo shows Greece the door

Argentine forward Martin Palermo came on for Diego Milito ten minutes ago and he put it away with a rebound of Messi's shot.

Argentina wins 2-0. As Shimer said, "good riddance to another poor defensively driven team."

Maradona and Co. will play Mexico at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in what should be one of the best round-of-16 matches.

Poor Messi can't buy a goal

It's not going out on a limb to say that Lionel Messi will score a goal in the 2010 World Cup, but at the moment he's mighty snakebitten.

He just turned a couple Greek defenders but his rocket went off the left post and bounced out.

1-0 Argentina in the 87th minute.

2-2 Nigeria-South Korea in the 87th minute.

Demichelis says Goodbye Greece, hello Nigeria?

Things just became very interesting for the last part of these matches since Argentina finally got a goal.

Defender Martin Demichelis hammered it in after another corner, giving his team the 1-0 lead in the 77th minute.

Now all Nigeria needs is another goal (and a win) with Argentina hanging on and they're through. Greece is done, I'm sure of it and Nigeria seems like they might bag one more.

Obafemi Martins should have scored but he tried to get too cute and his chip bounced helplessly wide.

2-2 South Korea-Nigeria in the 82nd minute and 1-0 Argentina in the 83rd minute. I wish I was at a bar with two tvs (on both games), I can't write fast enough!

Argentina sniffs a goal

The world's greatest player, Lionel Messi, almost opened the scoring in this snoozefest between Argentina and Greece. His free kick from about 35 yards was hit without a ton of power but plenty of bend. Greece's goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas made a nice diving stop on it.

Off the corner, Tzorvas made an even better save on midfielder Mario Bolatti, who truthfully should have placed it rather than just crush it into the goalie's stomach.

0-0 in the 73rd minute.

Park Chu-Young scores first goal off direct kick

South Korean forward Park Chu-Young probably just put his country through to the knockout stage with a memorable goal: a bending ball off a direct free kick in the 49the 49th minute. It's nice to see a strike off a set piece since it's the first one in the 2010 World Cup; seems like most haven't even been close.

Nigeria now needs a three-goal swing to advance.

Greece-Argentina still scoreless in the 60th minute and South Korea is up 2-1 in the 60th minute.

Second half underway in both matches

Both games have restarted and Greece should be up 1-0 since its lone forward Georgios Samaras had Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Romero down and out.

The forward's first shot (right-footed) was blocked by the defender but he regained it and shot wide with his left foot.

Halftime for both matches

It's halftime for South Korea-Nigeria and Argentina-Greece.

As it stands now with South Korea tied 1-1 with Nigeria and Argentina-Greece scoreless, South Korea would be the team to go through with Argentina.

The ultra-defensive Greeks need a goal (and a win) to jump ahead of North Korea. For Nigeria, they'll need a win and a goal from Argentina (along with a win).

Of the three teams that could advance with Argentina, Nigeria is the one I'm rooting for most since it'd be nice to see another African team besides Ghana (hopefully). I hate the Greeks' style and couldn't name more than one or two players on South Korea so I don't have any feelings towards them either way.

Jung-Soo ties it up for South Korea

Unlucky break for Nigeria. Uche hit the post with a beautifully struck shot from outside the box.

When South Korea regained possession, they earned a free kick from the side of the box and made the most of it as defender Lee Jung-Soo connected with his foot (after trying to head it) for a goal.

Nigeria also picked up two more yellow cards: midfielders Yussuf Ayila and Chinedu Ogbuke both had messy tackles. Ogbuke will miss the next match, provided his team has another one to play.

1-1 Nigeria-South Korea in the 45th minute.

0-0 Greece-Argentina in the 45th minute.

Yellow cards all around

Players in both games just picked up yellow cards: Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama for going outside the box and tripping Park Ji-Sung right outside the box. Greek midfielder Kostas Katsouranis was booked for pulling down Sergio Aguero from behind.

Greece stopped a shot by Aguero off a rebound that otherwise would have gone in. Maradona sat both Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain but he did start Messi (don't ask me why). We'll see if he inserts his other two most dangerous offensive players.

0-0 Greece-Argentina in the 36th minute.

1-0 Nigeria in the 37th minute.

Uche does what he has to do for Nigeria

It didn't take long for Nigeria to get the goal they needed on their end; defender Chidi Odiah crossed a bouncing ball in front of the goal to midfielder Kalu Uche and he slotted it home with a one-timer for a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute.

Now all Nigeria needs is a goal from Argentina and if things hold up like that, they'll improbably move on.

0-0 Greece-Argentina in the 19th minute. The Greek goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas just made two good saves that led to Argentina corner kicks.

1-0 Nigeria in the 20th minute.

Group B live blog

Argentina vs. Greece and Nigeria vs. South Korea have just kicked off and Group B is particularly nutty since all four teams can still advance.

It's not official but with six points entering today and a +4 goal differential, Argentina is all but booked into the knockout stage (that's why I assumed that earlier today).

Figuring out who will be second in this group is much more difficult: South Korea and Greece both have three points.

Nigeria doesn't have any points but they can move on if they win (very possible) and Argentina beats Greece (very likely).

Got it?