World Cup Fever!!!

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Iran v Nigeria is the first disappointing game of the tournament so far. Maybe there'll be a grandstand finish to rescue it from ignominy?

There wasn't

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Haha. Nope. Only five shots between the two sides were on goal. Nigeria has to be pretty disappointed with almost 71% of possession and only nine shots.

[Bilbo1967]

Is there much excitement about the USA's first match coming up this evening?

[HomeInMyShoes]

Lots of excitement. At least in the US amongst those that care about football. For the most part no though. Neither team is expected to do much in the tournament. I'm not sure why, but then given that Greece is #12 and USA is #13 in the world might give one a glimpse at the quality of team perhaps. The news from the South is that USA is being gifted a free pass out of the group stage with Portugal's huge loss which might be true, but they still have to draw against Portugal and take care of business and not lose huge to Germany. Pepe is out for the match against USA now and potential injury has two previous USA dragonslayers out for the Ghana match. Anything other than a W and a 2-goal win is a huge disappointment for them now from most talking about the game.

We'll see. I think the 'injured' Ghana players are older and slower and that is underestimating the depth of Ghana. I think the USA has an easier time of it in the rankings column given the quality of competition they usually play:

Last few matches
2-2 Mexico
2-0 Azerbaijan
2-1 Turkey
2-1 Nigeria
0-2 Ukraine
2-0 Korea

Not much powerhouse schedule outside of Mexico (draw) and Ukraine (loss). Klinnsman as coach is interesting and should provide some good vibes on the big stage.

This should be interesting.

[HomeInMyShoes]

For giggles, I took a look at current FIFA ranking and the qualification process for the World Cup 2014. Here's a table shoiwng the number of participants and average FIFA ranking and the number of participants in the six federations.

 5  36.6  52  Africa
 4  52.3  43  Asia
13  11.2  53  Europe
 4  23.5  35  CONCACAF (New Zealand (#97) played against Mexico in the play-in)
 6  10.5  10  CONMEBOL (Uruguay played against Jordan in the play-in)
 0  97.0   8  OCF (New Zealand (#97) played against Mexico in the play-in)

Note: OCF plays a home-away play-in against CONCACAF for the last of four qualifiers amongst the two federations and CONMEBOL plays a home-away play-in against Asia for the last of the ten qualifiers between the two federations.

[Bilbo1967]

Wow. 31 seconds in and a goal for the USA!

Good goal as well!

[HomeInMyShoes]

That was certainly quick.

[Salgueiros]

Lovely foot work from Clint Dempsey!

[HomeInMyShoes]

That was rather fortunate by the USA. Based on the stat line they deserved to lose outside of an early and late goal after Ghana had equalized.

Portugal will be an interesting match. The USA control their destiny now.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Today's prognostication...

Belgium 3 - Algeria 0
Brazil 3 - Mexico 2
Russia 2 - Korea 0

It's hard to gauge the Korean team. They are wildly inconsistent. As likely to lose 4-0 to Ghana as beat Greece 2-0, but they have been mainly on the losing side this year. I don't see that changing here.

[Salgueiros]

USA are getting us used to dramatic finals (remember the game against Algeria in South Africa?).

They are always a uncomfortable team to play against. It will be a complicated game Sunday, but just the fact we won't be playing with Hugo Almeida makes me less pessimistic. He is the most useless center forward we have. And not playing with Pepe might be a goood thing (he is a good center back but definitely too prone to get red carded).

[HomeInMyShoes]

Ouch. Algeria scores on the penalty and my predictions for the day are already fit for the garbage can. :P

[Salgueiros]

I think Brazil will win easily today. Maybe a 2-0 or even 3-0.

Russia 2 Korea 1

I am already watching the Algeria game, and Algeria scored. Now that is a surprising result so far. Belgium is packed with good players, but also with some shaky ones (Verthongen and Van Buyten). Still think Belgium will win.

[Salgueiros]

And I hope karma does a wonderful service to Mr Mueller in the elimination stage. That theatrics before Pepe red card was a shame (not that I think the red card was undeserved, but if Mueller did not act there would be no reaction from Pepe).

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Ouch. Algeria scores on the penalty and my predictions for the day are already fit for the garbage can. :P

Ha, welcome to my world! I'm flying with my predictions; I gave a bonus prediction before the tournament started that Romelu Lukaku of Belgium would be top scorer of the tournament. What did he do today? 55 anonymous minutes before he was subbed off

Still, on the basis that fools never learn, here are my predictions for the rest of the evening;

Brazil 2 v 2 Mexico
Russia 1 v 2 South Korea