FIFA WORLD CUP: What an excellent opening day for one of the toughest and most competitive tournaments in the world!  Host country, Germany, was a part of history, beating Costa Rica in the highest scoring opening game in World Cup history, 4-2.  And Ecuador, despite some controversy regarding the legitimacy of their being in the tournament, beat Poland, 2-0.  See the recap of Day One here.  Let’s see what the second day of opening round games brings us:

GROUP B

*England VS. Paraguay
*Trinidad and Tobago VS. Sweden
GROUP C
*Argentina VS. Ivory Coast

NHL: Game Three of the Stanley Cup Finals takes place up North in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  And guess what?  The Edmonton Oilers think that G Dwayne Roloson can make it back for the series.  This would be great news as the Carolina Hurricanes have had an easy go of it since Roloson has been out.  Keep watching and keep that ear to the ground.  The Hurricanes are leading the series 2-0.  The puck drops tonight at 8PM EST and will be shown on NBC here in the States.  Woo hoo!  Primetime for the NHL… gotta build that profile up.

MLB: News on Albert Pujols - he actually said he could be back in two weeks!  Of course, he did go on telling the press that it could be three, four, six weeks even.  Basically, he isn’t going to rush himself back.  Smart move.  Roger Clemens is on his way back, but young fireballers - Kerry Wood and Rich Harden - are both back on the DL after serving time on the list earlier this season.  If I were Wood or Harden, I’d bother Clemens and ask how he did it for so long.

*Texas Rangers rookie pitcher, John Rheinecker, looks to continue to go undefeated for the season (2-0), facing the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.  Rheinecker currently has a 1.77 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and has only given up one walk in 20.1 innings.  One walk!  That’s some pretty impressive control.  However, let’s see how good that control is when the rookie faces the likes of Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. 

*A few pitchers look to follow the footsteps of the New York Mets’ Tom Glavine and Red Sox’s Curt Schilling and win their ninth game of the season.  Mike Mussina (8-1) of the New York Yankees will try to do it against the Oakland Athletics this afternoon.  The St. Louis Cardinals’ Jason Marquis (8-4) matches up against the Milwaukee Brewers to try to win his ninth game.  The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Brandon Webb takes the hill for the third time in trying to win his ninth… maybe the third time is a charm?  Webb will face the New York Mets and their improved lineup.

BOXING: Antonio Tarver and Bernard Hopkins get it on tonight in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Light heavyweight champ, Tarver, has to be considered the favorite, if only because Hopkins is 41 years old now and lost his last two fights.  It is thought that this will be Hopkins’ final career fight and will hang it up out of the ring.  For 11 years, Hopkins dominated the Middleweight division and left it all in the ring.  It would be nice to see him go out with a victory.

Enjoy the games!