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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In the buildup to the World Cup, the Brazilian football catchphrase of "Jogo Bonito" — The Beautiful Game — was drowned out by the bangs of frantic construction work and the shouts of angry protesters. Not now.

The football — it's been open, attacking and packed full of goals and great moments — is doing all the talking.

Neymar kicked Brazil into gear, Robin van Persie soared and scored with one of the most spectacular headers you'll see, and Argentine wizard Lionel Messi conjured up a little left-footed magic at the Maracana. Thomas Mueller hit a hat-trick for Germany, and the first round of group games isn't even done yet.

It's not just the big-name teams either. There was Costa Rica's pulsating comeback to sweep past a highly-rated Uruguay team and Switzerland's last-gasp winner over Ecuador.

"All the games we're watching, there's a lot of open play, there's a lot of beautiful goals. It's just wonderful to be here, isn't it?" Netherlands fan Paul Rolleman said as he walked — with a party-inspired hangover, he confessed — under perfect blue skies along Rio's famed Copacabana beach.

Half-expecting patched up stadiums and large street demonstrations, many worried that the return of the World Cup to the spiritual home of football after 64 years could be the most troubled in recent memory. But with a bunch of goals — 41 in 12 games after Germany's 4-0 win over Portugal on Monday — and no major backlash from protesters so far, it could turn out to be the best in over half a century.

"High-scoring games, this is what fans are waiting for," United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. "They want to see goals."

And they have. From Sao Palo to Salvador, from Cuiaba in the vast Brazilian interior to the golden sands of Rio de Janeiro, the goals have flown in. The World Cup is averaging over three a game. At that rate, it will be the highest-scoring since Brazil began its love affair with the tournament and — with a 17-year-old Pele up front — won the first of its record five titles in Sweden in 1958.

There have been no draws in the first 12 games and only four teams out of the 24 who played failed to score. Jogo Bonito, first made famous by Pele, is rubbing off on everyone, it seems. No one is "parking the bus," as the Europeans say, or playing defensively here.

"There's none of that. No game has been boring," German fan Andre Lien said, adding with a sulk that he had to head back home for work on Tuesday following Germany's opener.

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, previously defensive in his approach to howls of disappointment from home fans, is playing with three strikers at the World Cup. The Netherlands made a mockery of pre-tournament criticism of their formation switch with blisteringly fast, attacking play to blow away defending champion Spain 5-1. Even Bosnia, the World Cup debutant, aggressively took the fight to Messi and Argentina — as coach Safet Susic promised they would.

"This is how we play football," he said. "We don't know any other way. And I don't want my players to play any other way."

The fans have reacted by filling stadiums or fan fests and embracing the carefree culture: A group of middle-aged German men in super-tight swimming costumes played football on Copacabana Monday morning before heading for the big screen TV.

Of course, it's still early days. Organizers can't let down their guard. There was a moment at Itaquerao Stadium in Sao Paulo last week when Brazil's opening night seemed to hang by a thread — or an electrical wire. One section of the floodlights in Sao Paulo flickered off, then on, then off again. Disaster loomed. The lights came back on, stayed on, and Neymar rescued Brazil with a double as the home favorite came back from 1-0 down to beat Croatia 3-1.

There have also been sporadic protests — police clashed with protesters not far from Rio's Maracana on Sunday night while Messi and Argentina beat Bosnia —and some logistical problems. In the northeastern city of Natal, torrential rain and flooding is threatening the World Cup experience.

But on the field, at least, the tournament has met the early challenge and more. Brazil's only worry is if the goal-happy World Cup can keep up this breathtaking pace for a month.

"It's a big party," Netherlands supporter Rolleman said on Copacabana. "But I do need to get some sleep now."

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AP Sports Writers Jim Vertuno, Tales Azzoni, Mike Corder, Karl Ritter and Stephen Wade contributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a furor from angry Republican lawmakers, the White House said Monday that the Internal Revenue Service engaged in a good faith effort to find lost emails from an IRS official whose division processed applications for tax-exempt status by politically oriented groups.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest called criticism from Republican lawmakers about the missing emails, quote, "far-fetched" and "not particularly believable." The IRS says the emails to and from the official, Lois Lerner, disappeared when her computer crashed in 2011.

The IRS acknowledged last year that agents improperly scrutinized applications by some conservative groups. Documents have shown some liberal groups were also flagged.

Earnest said the IRS has produced 67,000 emails to and from Lerner. He said the IRS has tried to track down missing e-mails through other sources and those that have been recovered have been provided to Congress.

Earnest said speculation questioning whether the e-mails were actually lost "is indicative of the kinds of conspiracies that are propagated around this story."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign buyers of U.S. Treasury securities increased their holdings in April to another record high even though China cut back on its holdings for a third straight month.

The Treasury Department reported Monday that total foreign holdings rose 0.2 percent to a record $5.96 trillion, up from $5.95 trillion in March. It marked the ninth consecutive monthly increase.

China, the largest foreign buyer of U.S. Treasury debt, reduced its holdings for a third month, cutting them by 0.7 percent to $1.26 trillion. Japan, the second largest buyer, boosted its holdings 0.8 percent to $1.21 trillion.

Foreign demand for U.S. Treasury debt is expected to remain strong this year, helped by more borrowing certainty given the congressional agreement to suspend the debt limit until March 2015.

The agreement on the debt limit means that another standoff over raising the debt ceiling will put off until next year. A standoff in August 2011 rattled financial markets and the political gridlock prompted ratings firm Standard & Poor's to slightly downgrade its AAA rating of U.S. debt for the first time in history.

The monthly Treasury report showed that holdings by Belgium dropped 3.9 percent to $366.4 billion while holdings in the Caribbean banking centers including the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, fell 1.3 percent to $308.4 billion.

Russia, which had been trimming its holdings of U.S. Treasury debt for five straight months, increased them in April to $116.4 billion, up 15.9 percent from March but still below the recent high of $149.9 billion last October.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Hundreds of Albanian police, backed by armored vehicles, stormed a lawless southern village Monday after suspected marijuana growers allegedly fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine guns at officers during a drug raid.

Police said no one was hurt in the hostilities in and around Lazarat, a major marijuana-producing center 230 kilometers (140 miles) south of the capital, Tirana.

Gangs based in Lazarat are believed to produce about 900 metric tons of cannabis a year, worth about 4.5 billion euros ($6.1 billion) — roughly half of the small Balkan country's GDP. Over the past few weeks, Albanian authorities have launched a nationwide operation to uproot the cannabis plantations.

Around 500 lightly armed police, including special forces officers and the country's police chief, surrounded the village of 5,000 overnight after a smaller force was repelled over the weekend.

A police spokeswoman said officers took control of the village Monday after exchanging fire with nearly 30 armed men hiding in a four-story building complex. Spokeswoman Laura Totraku said the gunmen fled Lazarat and headed for a nearby mountain, pursued by police.

But more than three hours later, sporadic gunfire was still heard in the village. Authorities advised residents to stay indoors, while scores of police in body armor guarded the entrances to Lazarat.

Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri urged the gunmen to disarm and surrender.

Police destroyed seven plots with some 10,000 cannabis plants and 1,000 young trees ready to be planted. They also found six burnt barrels believed to have stored previously collected drugs and "other considerable amounts of unpacked narcotics."

Albania's private A1 channel said its TV crew covering the Lazarat operation was robbed at gunpoint by masked men who also burnt their vehicle.

Marijuana-growing gangs in the village have long seen themselves as beyond the reach of the law. In 2004, shots from the village forced an Italian drug-spotting helicopter to make a hasty retreat.

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Hektor Pustina in Lazarat contributed to this report.