South Korea does well as America goes soccer-crazy
Yes, the Americans have gone crazy. Why? They drew with England. So, they're treating it like a win. Well, they don't know much about football, do they? Okay, so England goalie Robert GREEN slipped up, and I bet he feels terrible. Number of Google hits for “Robert Green goalkeeper”: 1,110,000 (17/6/2010). Number of YouTube videos: 173. Most are from Americans making fun, but a few are older from West Ham fans. Rob Green is a GOOD goalkeeper most of the time. Unfortunately, he also has the horrendous statistic of being the first England goalkeeper to get sent off: in a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine that England lost 1-0. However, he also played in the match England won 5-1 against Croatia that saw them succeed in their qualification attempt. So he has a mixed record.
Let's look at the other matches. The first game was between South Korea and Greece. Both sides have done surprisingly well in previous football tournaments – South Korea got to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup (in South Korea and Japan) and Greece won Euro 2004 in Portugal, shocking the world by defeating the host nation in the final.
The South Korean goalscorers were 29-year-old Manchester United player PARK Ji-Sung, whose nickname is ‘double-hearted oxygen tank’ (source: Fifa.com) and 30-year old LEE Jung-Soo, who plays in Japan. It was a clean game, with only the Greek Vasileios TOROSIDIS getting a yellow.
Second: Argentina versus Nigeria. This match ended up a disappointing 1-0 to Argentina. You'd expect this team to do much better. Of course, England fans aren't upset that they're in bad form, especially with Diego MARADONA coaching the team. Boo! Maradona is known for his 'hand of God' goal that halted a previous World Cup attempt by England.
Gabriel HEINZE is Argentina's 32-year-old goalscorer. Sadly, he has nothing to do with Tomato Ketchup or Baked Beans. Internationally, he's done well, and is the second defender to score in the tournament (along with Mexico's Marquez). In fact, the Marseille player has scored three international goals in his career.
There were only two yellow cards in this game – one to each side.
The final game of the day, as you should know, was England versus USA. Stephen GERRARD scored a fantastic goal after only four minutes: the fastest so far of the tournament. Just before half time, American Clint DEMPSEY got lucky with the goalkeeper to level the scores. There were six yellow cards – three for each team – in this game.
Goals per game: Mean – 1.4, Median – 2, Mode – 2, Range – 2
Cards per game: Mean – 4, Median – 4, Mode – 1,2,4,6,7, Range – 6
12/06/2010
11/06/2010
Day One: 11/6/2010
The surprise is: France fail to shine!
What do you think about vuvuzelas? I want one, but being an Englishwoman in Scotland, I'd not get one with an England flag on it. The vuvuzelas sound awesome the first time you hear them. After a while, however, your brain is filled with the sound and you start to get a headache. According to Wikipedia, they can get up to 127 decibels! A few vuvuzela stats:
50,000 were shipped to the UK before the World Cup. On the day it was announced that South Africa would host the World Cup, 20,000 were sold in the country. They are incredibly popular, multicoloured things that even children find easy to play, and sound like a horde of angry bees. However, they have been part of South African tradition for ages. We will certainly be hearing more of these in the future – both at football matches, and in the news.
Back to the game. First, South Africa versus Mexico. It seemed like a relatively boring game, but at least goals were scored! Four yellow cards were given out, two per team. Mexico used all three of their substitutes, while South Africa only used two.
South African goalscorer Siphiwe TSHABALALA (yes, I did copy-and-paste his name) is 25 years old, and plays for the Kaizer Chiefs! Yep, the band really is named after a South African football team. I didn't know that either. He was also named man of the match.
Mexican goalscorer Rafael MARQUEZ is slightly older, at 31, and plays in Spain for Barcelona, so you know he's good. Unfortunately, one good player does not a good team make, which is why Mexico's international reputation needs a bit of work.
In the second game, France and Uruguay were disappointing – especially France, who you'd expect to do well. They came to a 0-0 draw. All-in-all, seven yellow cards were given out, one of which was a second yellow that got a Uruguayan sent off.
The sent-off Uruguayan is Nicolas LODEIRO, who's only 21 years old! He plays for Ajax in the Netherlands, and has only played five games for Uruguay. It looks like that won't be increasing any time in the future, since he received his second yellow.
There was an Asian flavour to the refereeing in this match, with Japanese referee NISHIMURA Yuichi. He is 38, and the Fifa website lists his hobbies as 'golf'. He's into his seventh year of refereeing. His first assistant is also Japanese, and the other is South Korean.
Goals per game: Mean – 1, Median – 1, Mode – 0,2, Range - 2
Cards per game: Mean – 5.5, Median – 5.5, Mode – 4,7, Range - 3
Tomorrow: Three games! Group B kicks off, along with the first half of group C.
What do you think about vuvuzelas? I want one, but being an Englishwoman in Scotland, I'd not get one with an England flag on it. The vuvuzelas sound awesome the first time you hear them. After a while, however, your brain is filled with the sound and you start to get a headache. According to Wikipedia, they can get up to 127 decibels! A few vuvuzela stats:
50,000 were shipped to the UK before the World Cup. On the day it was announced that South Africa would host the World Cup, 20,000 were sold in the country. They are incredibly popular, multicoloured things that even children find easy to play, and sound like a horde of angry bees. However, they have been part of South African tradition for ages. We will certainly be hearing more of these in the future – both at football matches, and in the news.
Back to the game. First, South Africa versus Mexico. It seemed like a relatively boring game, but at least goals were scored! Four yellow cards were given out, two per team. Mexico used all three of their substitutes, while South Africa only used two.
South African goalscorer Siphiwe TSHABALALA (yes, I did copy-and-paste his name) is 25 years old, and plays for the Kaizer Chiefs! Yep, the band really is named after a South African football team. I didn't know that either. He was also named man of the match.
Mexican goalscorer Rafael MARQUEZ is slightly older, at 31, and plays in Spain for Barcelona, so you know he's good. Unfortunately, one good player does not a good team make, which is why Mexico's international reputation needs a bit of work.
In the second game, France and Uruguay were disappointing – especially France, who you'd expect to do well. They came to a 0-0 draw. All-in-all, seven yellow cards were given out, one of which was a second yellow that got a Uruguayan sent off.
The sent-off Uruguayan is Nicolas LODEIRO, who's only 21 years old! He plays for Ajax in the Netherlands, and has only played five games for Uruguay. It looks like that won't be increasing any time in the future, since he received his second yellow.
There was an Asian flavour to the refereeing in this match, with Japanese referee NISHIMURA Yuichi. He is 38, and the Fifa website lists his hobbies as 'golf'. He's into his seventh year of refereeing. His first assistant is also Japanese, and the other is South Korean.
Goals per game: Mean – 1, Median – 1, Mode – 0,2, Range - 2
Cards per game: Mean – 5.5, Median – 5.5, Mode – 4,7, Range - 3
Tomorrow: Three games! Group B kicks off, along with the first half of group C.
10/06/2010
Day Zero: 10/6/2010
There are 32 teams in the World Cup, including the unlikely appearance of North Korea. Their last (and only other) World Cup was in 1966, when they surprised everyone by getting through to the last sixteen. They're in with Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast this year, though, so it might not happen again. Plus, one of their goalkeepers is usually a striker. Unfortunately for Kim Jong-Il, he misunderstood the rules. Tough.
Before the games begin, I took a look at all the players in the teams. I worked out which countries each played for, and worked out which were the most popular. In the style of 11 points, here are the top 11 countries for players to play in during the year.
Tomorrow – statistics from the first day of play. Goals per game, cards per game and anything else I can make up!
Before the games begin, I took a look at all the players in the teams. I worked out which countries each played for, and worked out which were the most popular. In the style of 11 points, here are the top 11 countries for players to play in during the year.
- North Korea, unsurprisingly. 20 players usually play in North Korea, and they are all on the North Korean squad. What is surprising is that three North Korean players don't play here! One is in Russia, and two are in Japan.
- Mexico is equal eighth with two other teams, with 21 players who usually play here. This is because most of the Mexican team play in their own country, and the rest is due to South Americans for the most part. However, a few USA players also spend most of the year in Mexico.
- Greece shares eighth place, and like Mexico, most of the Greek team play in their own country. However, a few teams around the world have the odd player in the Greek league. These are almost all European, but one of the Algerian players also makes his money there.
- Portugal is the final team to be equal eighth. It's surprising that they are not higher. Ten of these are Portugese, but the rest come from various South American countries. No Spanish players work here, but by contrast, six Portugese players work in Spain.
- Japan come seventh, with twenty-five players, thanks to nineteen of their squad's players staying in their own country to take part in Japanese football. If you want to know more about Japanese football, check out the anime series Giant Killing on Crunchyroll! The other six players who work in Japan are from the Korean nations and Australia.
- The Netherlands are a surprise sixth! 34 players usually work here when not playing for their country. Of these, only nine are actually Dutch, with most of the others coming in small groups from countries all around the world! The largest group is five Danish men who take part in the Dutch league.
- France come bottom of an unsurprising top five, with 45 players. Only eleven Frenchmen on the World Cup team this year play in France, but it's popular around the world, especially in the French-speaking country of Algeria. Seven Algerians play in the Ligue Francais.
- Spain is next up. 59 world cup players ply their trade here, and twenty of them are Spanish. The other three members of Spain's team all play in England. La Liga is famous worldwide, of course, with incredible teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid, so it's no wonder so many footballers choose to play here.
- Italy comes an honourable third place, with 79 players here. Again, Italy has some brilliant teams, such as AC Milan. All of Italy's squad members play in their own country – Italy is one of only three nations where this occurs – the other two are the final pair on our list.
- Germany slips in next with 84 players, thus only just beating out Italy. Again, all the German squad play in their own country.
- England, finally and triumphantly, come in top. 114 footballers from around the world play here, demonstrating its popularity around the world! With so many good teams able to compete for the top spot in the Premiership, and often a few surprises as well, everyone wants to play here. Apart from Germany and Italy, only Japan, North Korea and Uruguay have no team members playing in England.
Tomorrow – statistics from the first day of play. Goals per game, cards per game and anything else I can make up!
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