This morning’s World Cup round-up sees us review matches ranging from last night’s games all the way back to Monday evening, as eight more competitors (and Mexico again) took to the pitch ahead of next month’s tournament in South Africa. Results may vary…

Holland coach Bert Van Marwijk -expected to announce his final 23 tomorrow- used the Wednesday friendly against Mexico as a final test for some peripheral squad members as well as giving a handful of the more experienced heads Robin van Persie, Dirk Kuyt, Johnny Heitinga and Rafael Van Der Vaart a run out, whilst also allowing his Champions League final participants a well-earned rest.

The Oranje emerged victorious by two goals to one, courtesy of a first-half goals brace from van Persie. Mexico made a real battle of it in the second forty-five, with another Premier League striker- recent Manchester United signing Javier Hernandez- replying with a goal that ultimately proved to be nothing more than a consolation. Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Andrés Guardado were upgraded from bench duty against England, with the latter’s display particularly incisive.

France set out a full strength side to face the might of Costa Rica and eventually the experience of Les Bleus was more than enough to bring home the bacon, or pastries, or frogs legs or [insert rudimentary false stereotype here], as they chalked up the second 2-1 victory of the night.

Franck Ribéry picked himself up from the heartache of missing last weekend’s Champions League final by scoring his country’s first goal with substitute (and debutante) Mathieu Valbuena rounding off the scoring from outside of the box. According to the match stats, France dominated the game, with over 60% of possession and 26 shots on goal (a large proportion chalked up by future earmark Yoann Gourcuff).

One other point of interest was the 45 minute first half run-out given to William Gallas. The Arsenal man’s place in the squad for South Africa is still under question due to a calf injury picked up in March and with the cut-off date for inclusion imminent, last night was a useful chance for boss Raymond Domenech to test his centre half’s fitness.

Two nights ago was a much more sombre affair altogether, beginning with a 0-0 draw for Cameroon away to Georgia. With the likes of Sebastien Bassong, Geremi, Rigobert Song, Alex Song, Jean Makoun and Pierre Webó all playing, manager Paul le Guen -aside the understandable absence of recent Champions League victor Samuel Eto’o- fielded a strong side. With two of the leanest defences in European qualifying (Holland & Denmark) in their World Cup group, drawing a blank against Georgia is hardly a positive for The Indomitable Lions.

Recovering from the news of an African team preparing for the first ever World Cup in Africa with a lacklustre performance we bring you …oh darn, another 0-0 as Nigeria and Saudi Arabia fought out this floundering contest. While coach Lars Lagerback gave trials to some of the more inexperienced members of the squad there was still room for the likes of Nwanko Kanu, Joseph Yobo and Danny Shittu to name but a few, but all in all, it’s a result that will only disappoint Nigeria.

Bob Bradley, meanwhile, prepared his USA national side by fielding mainly fringe players (*) at home to non-qualifiers Czech Republic; however, the fringe flopped as Bradley’s boys were downed 4-2. With two more friendlies to go one imagines that the squad has been whittled down to the final 23 and some of the bigger name players will get their practice in, starting with Turkey on Saturday.

(*)A cavalcade of the United States best players including the likes of Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard and Michael Bradley were all given the day off while Carlos Bocanegra and Jay DeMerit continued in their recovery from injury.

Another Monday night stalemate saw World Cup qualifiers Greece and North Korea play out a 2-2 draw. Greece gave game-time to some of their stronger players (including Sotirios Kygriakos, Theofanis Gekas, Georgios Samaras and Angelos Charisteas) while Korea DPR also set out what looks to have been an experienced side.

Jong Tae-Se, heard of him? No, I didn’t think so – though to be fair the folks in his own country won’t have either, unless they pull off the coup of the century. All the same, he thundered home an impressive couple of goals on Tuesday night, in a display that suggests if you need that ultra-cheap bench warmer in your fantasy teams, he might be a good final reserve. Wiki gives him a reasonable track record too – aided to no end by two 4 goal hauls (against the titans of Macau and Mongolia) in his first two international appearances. Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast: be warned. Greece’s goals came courtesy of Charisteas and Kostas Katsouranis, with oodles of help from some terrible set-piece defending from the Koreans.

Ireland may still be smarting from the whole Thierry Henry saga, but they showed enough pride and passion in battling to a 2-1 victory over World Cup qualifiers Paraguay. La Albirroja put out a strong side including Premier League stars Roque Santa Cruz and Paulo Da Silva while Dortmund striker Lucios Barrio scored the only Paraguayan goal of the game, on his debut no less.

Tune in this weekend for more friendly round-ups as we start to approach the home stretch, with the World Cup now just over two weeks away.