The champions are out!
Everyone was surprised today. I would have thought Italy would have played better, as England did yesterday. But they did not, and lost to a team that have never been in a World Cup before: Slovakia!
“As things stand now, reigning world champions Italy would join 2006 runners-up France in failing to progress from the group stage. This would be a FIFA World Cup first. Never before have the two finalists from the previous tournament been knocked out in the group stage the following World Cup. This even includes years in which the runner-up did not qualify.” - Fifa.com in Paraguay vs New Zealand matchcast (emphasis mine).
Interestingly, Paraguay lost their last three matches when the score was 0-0 at half time. This time, they have drawn against opponents New Zealand, but their previous good results put them through to the next round. New Zealand have had three straight group-stage draws now. The last time this happened in a World Cup was in France, 1998, with Belgium and Chile.
During the Italy/Slovakia game, one of the ITV commentators said this: “Kopunek never has to kick another football in his life again. He can bore his grandchildren forever." This was after Slovakia had gone 3-1 up. He had scored in an unmarked goal - something a lot of other players have failed to do this year. While the final score was eventually 3-2, this was still a game for the Slovaks to be proud of.
My predictions only came half-true in group F thanks to Italy's poor performance.
Next up, Netherlands – already through – took on Cameroon – who were already out, so I only watched the Japanese game. If the Netherlands had lost, Japan might have been able to go first in their group, but that wasn't the case. Japan took the lead in their game with two fantastic goals from free kicks, and although Denmark got one goal back, they were unable to emulate Italy as Japan got a third goal. It's the first time Japan have gone into the last 16 from the group stages away from home. So in this group, my predictions proved correct.
We now have quite a few players competing for the Adidas golden boot; top scorers are: Argentina's Higuain, Slovakia's Vittek (3 each) and Elano (Brazil), Honda (Japan), Villa (Spain), Fabiano (Brazil), Gyan (Ghana), Donovan (USA), Lee Jung Soo (South Korea) and Forlan (Argentina) with two goals each and the chance to increase that score. Nigeria's Uche and Australia's Holman also have two goals each.
The current qualifiers are from the following continents: South America (Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay), North America (Mexico, USA), Europe (England, Germany, Netherlands, Slovakia), Asia (South Korea, Japan), Africa (Ghana). So the only unrepresented continent is Australasia, whose two teams are already out of the competition.
Now there is no chance that the world champions will win this year, so the World Cup is open to everyone who has the will and ability to go for it.
Goals per game: Mean – 2.16, Median – 2, Mode – 2, Range – 7
Cards per game: Mean – 4, Median – 4, Mode – 5, Range - 9
Predictions for tomorrow: Brazil are already through, and I think Portugal will also win as they have too-big a goal difference against Ivory Coast. Then Spain and Chile will go through from group H.
No comments:
Post a Comment