That’s disingenuous at best. They knew no such thing any more than a golfer knows exactly how his ball will roll on the green on his approach shot. You even say as much when you concede that the play is designed to go to either of two players. If that’s the case, they couldn’t have known in advance it was going to a specific guy.
Yes, that’s what you do with strategy plays, you maximize your chances. We are not discussing if the play was made with supernatural, unheard of powers of perfect precision, but if it was a “flukey” goal.
What are strategy plays? I’ve never heard that expression before.
The expression “play” as in a defined passage of play isn’t used in soccer, at least not outside the Americas.
Usually plays from set-pieces (CKs, Free Kicks and even throw-ins) that are pre-designed by the coaching staff and done over and over sometime during training.
If you will, not unlike a point guard in b-ball raising his hand to call a particular play. 'cept in football this normally happens (again) during set-pieces.
Thank you. And yeah, sorry, I realize I got a bit carried away. But, in my defense, this has been a long time coming.
You are right. Judging Spain solely by the WC matches would lead some to false conclusions. Scoring for instance:
2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5
As you can see from there not only did Spain go undefeated, but they won all of their ten matches, scoring a whopping 28 goals and only conceding 5. So yeah this perception that we’re “1-0” team, is simply not the case.
And thank you. I’m sure we’ll need it; the Oranje are no pushovers.
I think you are seriously underestimating how good these people are. They actually have pretty accurate passing over 50 yards. If you took all the other players out of the box, I reckon Xavi could hit Puyol’s head 8 times out of 10 easily. Of course when there are defenders challenging for headers, it’s a lot harder - both to win the header and to direct it under pressure.
Here’s some videos:
Pirlo hitting the crossbar:
Some Beckham crosses
Note how many of Beckham’s crosses there is only one player in the middle to aim at. . yet he picks him out anyway.
We can close the thread - Paul the Psychic Octopus has spoken, it has all been settled, there’s nothing more to say. 
I don’t know how many times he misses, but I’m still in awe of this guy.
I can’t understand why some big club hasn’t got him signed up if only for his free-kick taking abilities.
Poker player Erik Seidel tweeted from the Main Event today:
[QUOTE=Erik_Seidel]
Just checked WSOP rulebook, theres nothing in it that prevents me from playing with a Psychic Octopus as a card protector today
[/QUOTE]
Hold on. The article clearly says that he’s picked every game in which Germany played. But Germany isn’t playing. Something smells fishy. Did he happen to make a call on the 3rd place game? You know, the game that Germany is actually playing in.
[QUOTE=TFA]
Predicting who will take third place, Paul chose Germany to beat Uruguay.
[/QUOTE]
xxxx
They had Paul make two predictions, he picked Spain and Germany to win.
I think Paul is just a lousy front-runner.
I’m gonna go against the octopus on this one and go for 2-1 for Uruguay.
Well rats, no Klose.
I had a feeling there was still more goals in this. Go on Forlan, score another and get the Golden Boot sorted out.
This is one of the best games of the tournament! Both sides seem to care, for some reason.
So close! Kiessling almost there.