It seems South Africa have a mountain to climb to get out of the group now, and whether they have the morale and ability to beat France is in serious question.

I enjoying last night's game between Brazil and North Korea. Forgetting the regime they represent, the North Koreans played gallently and had one of the most fantastic defenses until Brazil finally broke through. Their ending goal was extremely surprising.

Quote: Original post by phantom

Quote: Original post by LessBread
The US won a moral victory.

Wait.. wut?
I'm not even sure how you can have a moral victory in football (certainly not if you draw because the goal keeper made a mistake), but that aside even if that was the case killing the game off with a subsitution like that is hardly fitting for a 'moral' victory.

So, I say again; wut?

Payback for the Gulf of Mexico! [grin]

The pregame hype suggested a US loss but we eked out a draw. After the game the spirits of the US team were up and those of the English team were down. So if you must, put an "e" at the end of moral to make sense of my claim. The US won a morale victory. Regarding that late substitution, the ref blew the whistle before it happened so quit crying about it. [grin]

On the subject of the "subdued" nature of the tournament:

World Cup 2010: Negative tactics and caution are causing goal drought

Quote:
...
At the end of Spain's shock defeat to Switzerland, which may actually prove to be the moment at which the tournament caught fire, there had been a total of 1.56 goals per game.
...
Opta's statistics, which measure the opening round of games against the same stage at the last three World Cups, show that the goal per game ratio compares poorly. In Germany in 2006, it was 2.44, in Japan-South Korea in 2002 it was 2.88 and at France 98 it was 2.31.

When David Pleat bumped into Uefa's technical director, Andy Roxburgh, in an airport lounge today, the former Scotland manager, who is a member of the Fifa Technical Study Group of experts who are touring South Africa to analyse tactics and preparations, summed up the first round of games in one word: "Cautious".

"Teams are playing very deep and getting lots of bodies in front, so when you get to the last 30 yards there are very few times when you get someone free in space," said Pleat. The propensity for 4-5-1, allied to the natural caution of teams under huge pressure to avoid defeat, has led to tentative games with teams cancelling one another out.
...

I was more surprised by the Swiss goal against Spain than by NK's goal against Brazil.

Nice one, Diego!

Greece just scored their first goal in a Mundial, ever! Neither team is playing well so far, but Greece might be able to win the match if the keep playing as they did between 30-45'. (Nigeria is playing with 10 players)

Just to throw some kerosene in the fire - I'm a-rootin' for the rootin'-tootin' US of A. Seriously - it's about time yous guys came out of the closet.

USA should make it to the next round; them and England are clearly the strongest teams (on paper at least) in that group.

Indeed - in their group at least. I was kind of dismayed by (happy about?) the draw with England, though - didn't expect that at all. Also, the pool I'm in got pretty much screwed up with that particular result :D.

:) :) :)

Quote: Original post by phantom
USA should make it to the next round; them and England are clearly the strongest teams (on paper at least) in that group.

Right. The question is who is going to go top... because the runner up in group C are set to play the winner of group D in the next round, and the winner of group D is likely to be Germany. England had better hope they come in top as their route to the semi's could be a lot easier.

F451

In theory, and based on the last game, England should come top but it's likely to be on goal difference alone.

I expect both sides to win their remaing two games but unless the USA start attacking the goal some more then they are likely to win with lower score lines.