New Zealand goes home without a loss; Italy goes home without a win. And that’s the opposite of what most people would have predicted. Well done, All Whites.
Indeed Domenech seemed determined to leave whatever dignity he had left on the pitch. He refused to shake hands with the opposing manager and then proceeded to give him a lecture (apparently relating to comments Parreira made about how France qualified i.e. Henry’s handball).
I’m pretty sure Lippi stormed off in a huff as well, he seemed to be off down the tunnel before the Slovakian manager even had chance to get off the bench.
The swapping of shirts is less likely to happen when one team is sitting on the ground in tears and the other is running around the stadium like a bunch of looneys. In the case of the Italy vs. Slovakia game there is the added factor that the Slovakian players would probably want to keep their shirts as a memento of the biggest victory in their country’s history.
Denmark looked old, so very old. The days of We Are Red We Are White, We Are Danish Dynamite are long gone by now. It’s time for them to rejuvenate the team to regain their dynamic play. Though that alone won’t cut it nowadays; the positional play has improved so much that perfect ballhandling and precise passing is more important than ever to keep possession and advance through the opposing formation.
You can still play successfully a game oriented on counter-strikes but how far this can carry you, depends first on your ability to gain the ball. Its application, however, has been hampered by the referees in most games so far. Teams that prefer the occasional explosive foray towards the opponent’s box are certainly not favoured during this Cup.
I don’t know if this is another reason for the poor performance of the African teams but their tactical stagnancy definitely is. And the progress of the South American teams in this area is an eye-opener. Chile and Brazil play a system that’s at least as sophisticated as Spain’s and Chile’s is less dependant on top-notch players. That’s why I am looking forward to their clash; there is no doubt who fields all around the better players and when things go normal, a Spanish victory won’t suprise anyone. But I hope that we will see a tactically innovative approach of Chile’s coach to counter the Spanish superiority. I guess, Red Fury can hardly wait to see if they succeed.
Very, very well done, indeed.
As a German, I am always reluctant to count Italy out; they have won against us with an explosion of quality often enough after some - at best - mediocre performances that I still expected them to somehow get back into the game once again. And they almost did. But this time they paid for their minimalism because they can’t step up their performance any longer as much as they were able to a couple of years ago.
They are now in the same situation Germany was (half) a decade ago: we had to accept the fact that we had lost contact to the progess in football so much that our traditional advantages alone couldn’t win us anything anymore. Our education of young players was archaic, our training outdated and focused too much on athletics, our coaches were too provincial to open up their horizons and far too many relevant positions in the clubs where held by foreign players.
All of this is true for present-day Italy too and while we have already done the turn-around, they have yet to take the first step.
No idea on exact numbers, but it happens. Off the top of my head, Lionbet and Netbet went bust last year, and Sporting Options collapsed a couple of years back. I just Googled and found this story:
Anyway, that’s sort of beside the point. What I meant was that it’s a myth that the bookie always wins, i.e. will make a profit on every game. Some people seem to believe that bookies always take enough bets at the correct odds that they will make a profit on every game, horse race or whatever regardless of who wins.
That would be impossible. There are “good results” and “bad results” for bookies, just as there are for punters. But a competent bookmaker will make sure that in the long run they are making money.
Just like a casino - the casino doesn’t win money on every spin of the roulette wheel. If someone drops a few chips on 17 black and that comes up, the rest of the losing chips on the table aren’t likely to cover the payout. But overall, over thousands of spins, the casino wins.
That’s not just a shady online sports book, it was a big chain.
Harry Redknapp was saying Tottenham had already been scouting him out on BBC last night.
I love corny puns (or word-play, or whatever the hell it is).
Last night on the BBC the back-up commentator (Martin Keown IIRC) said “He’s playing like a Rolls-Royce tonight.” About 5 minutes later the main commentator said “I just got that.” 
Apparently he’s playing for CKSA Moscow at the moment for just 6 million EUR over 4 years. Bargain.
ETA: On the other hand, there have been lots and lots of players from lesser-known national and club squads who starred in single international tournaments, got signed by big clubs, and promptly did nothing. Karel Poborsky, anyone?
Speaking of corny puns and word play, the punnic warriors in some sports blogs and MBs are really pulling for a Paraguay - Netherlands match, since Paraguay is famous for its orange crops, and Netherlands is known as “The Clockwork Orange”
You could say that they can’t wait to start squeezing all the juice the word combinations would offer…
I thought the Kiwis were really good in their first two games, but i was actually a bit disappointed with them in the last game against Paraguay, especially in the second half.
With Slovakia ahead of Italy, New Zealand knew they needed to win, and i didn’t think they threw enough people forward in an attempt to get a goal. And they didn’t press Paraguay hard enough when Paraguay had the ball. Sure, such a strategy can create holes in your defense, and leaves you open to a counter-attack, but when the consequences of a loss are the same as those for a draw anyway, what do you have to lose? They just seemed, for much of the game, to be as content as Paraguay were with a draw.
At the half: nil-nil Brazil & Portugal, while Cote D’Ivoire has only a 2-0 lead over NK; they’ll need a lot more in the second half if they’re going to catch up to Portugal on goal differential, even if Brazil does pull it out.
Brazil are through, so they’re just tapping the ball around. Lets see for the second half.
Portugal was only up 1-0 at half against North Korea. If Brazil put up a few goals against Portugal and CIV add a few more, it could happen. Wouldn’t bet on it at this point, but stranger stuff has happened.
The second half of the Brazil-Portugal game has been dull as fucking dishwater. Almost as interesting as watching a training session.
The game was boring. Brazil didn’t need to win do the pressure was off. They seemed sloppy, taking shots at the goal from too far. They also seemed to be missing a lot of passes between themselves.
I should have expected that the Brazil-Portugal game would be boring. Og, it was awful. I can’t believe I watched the whole thing.
If Spain and Switzerland both win 1-0 this afternoon, we could see a 3-way tie (including tiebreakers), in which case one team will be dropped via coin flip. How do they do a 3-way coin flip?
Of course, I think Spain will draw or lose to Chile.
Brazil v Portugal game was fine. I got caught up on some much needed sleep in the first half and then did some work during the second half. Pub game today is Chile v Espana. Can’t wait for that one.
I don’t think that works. Spain have better goal difference, and Chile already beat Switzerland so would finish above them due to the head-to-head result.
Spain actually would go through on goal difference in the 1-0 case (their aggregate score would be 3-1, to 2-1 for both the Swiss and the Chileans), and then Chile would go through on its head-to-head result with Switzerland. See my dissertation on the previous page.
Thanks guys. You may not believe this, but I was a math major.