Sure, Ukraine played in a relatively soft World Cup group. Tunisia and Saudi Arabia are hardly futbol powers that leave opponents quaking in their boots. So we shouldn’t be too surprised that this morning, Ukraine advanced to the second round with a 1-0 victory over Tunisia. Right? Or should we be surprised? The supposedly weak and feeble Ukraine was toasted in its opener, 4-0 by Spain and everyone pronounced Ukraine dead on its 2006 World Cup arrival. The only difference is that Ukraine miraculously survived. Can’t say the same for the US. And if you’re wondering, yes, we saw the report on Jurgen Klinsmann taking over for Bruce Arena. But faithful Big Lead readers were already pondering this prior to the Ghana loss.

Ukraine defeat Tunisia by a hair to continue their adventure at the World Cup (World Cup Blog)
On Monday, We Invade Switzerland (World Cup Blog)