Obsessedsportsnut's Blog

So after this morning’s two games, the first set of games of round 1 is finally complete. Here’s a look back at this week’s games.

Biggest Mistake: Serbia’s Zdravko Kuzmanovic handball in the box against Ghana

While the English will argue that Robert Green’s error against the Americans was the biggest mistake, in the overall big picture and given the circumstances, the error wasn’t THAT big.

1) The US only tied the game early in the 2nd half. The English didnt come away with a loss
2) The English had plenty of time remaining to win the game and had numerous chances that it couldn not capitalize on.
3) A tie doesnt screw over the English. They still have two more winnable games against Algeria and Slovenia to advance.

The following handball by Zdravko Kuzmanovic against Ghana was much more devastating.

1) It came in the 85th minute, so the Serbians had very little time to try to get an equalizing goal.
2) Serbia needed a point against Ghana to advance to the next round. Now Ghana has 3 points and Serbia has 0. Unless Serbia can pull a shocking upset tie/win against Germany, it’s very likely that this hand ball play will deny the Serbians passage to the next round.

Best Goal: Germany’s Miroslav Klose’s goal against Australia

close runner up: Brazil’s Macion goal against North Korea.

2nd runner up: South Africa’s Siphiwe Tshabalala’s goal against Mexico for the first goal of the 2010 World Cup.

Biggest Upset: Switzerland 1. Spain 0.

What a shocking win for the #24 ranked Swiss over the #2 ranked Spaniards. Is it nerve-wrecking time in Spain? Not yet, since I still feel this is one of the best teams in the world. I predict they’ll have wins over Chile and Honduras to qualify for the next round.

close runner up: Japan 1. Cameroon 0.While there are 22 spots in rankings between Switzerland and Spain, there are 26 spots between Japan and Cameroon. This was a Cameroon team that was 2nd in the 2008 African Cup of Nations and a finalist in this year’s 2010 ACN. Many people considered Les Lions Indomptables to be Africa’s best bet to advance the farthest in the tournament.

Most Impressive Team: Germany

Germany by far looked the best after their 4-0 win against Australia. Before the tournament, I had written in a previous post that the Germans might struggle from a lack of goal scoring because of poor form by some of their star players.

Well as we can see by this year’s Boston Celtics, you can never disregard great veterans. They always know how to come through in the clutch. Even though, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose had very very bad club seasons, they came through on the big stage and scored Germany’s first two goals.

A very very impressive showing from the Germans.

close runner ups: Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands, South Korea: All these teams got necessary wins against quality opponents and all showed flashes of brilliance. These teams should all have a great tournament.

Most Disappointing Teams: Tie between Italy and France

The French and Italy both drew ties against Uruguay and Paraguay, respectively.

They played ugly football.

Enough said.

Random Thoughts and Musings

1. The most talked about object from the World Cup: the vuvuzela…the most obnoxious object ever created. Can someone please buy me one?

2. According to some reports, the England vs USA game drew more viewers than each night of the first four games of the NBA Finals. It’s finally great to see Americans interested in soccer. You dont know how many friends I have who are watching and following soccer for the very first time.

3. The Group of Death has to be the most interesting group, with Brazil ahead with 3 points and the Ivory Coast and Portugal tied with 1 point, and North Korea with 0.

After the game, I had thought that it will come down to either Portugal and the Ivory Coast advancing on goal differential. Basically, who beats North Korea the most and who loses to Brazil the least. I really dont think they have the ability to beat Brazil. However, I wont be surprised if the North Koreans pull off an upset and either tie/beat the Ivory Coast or Portugal.

4) The Asian teams (except for Australia) look very good, with Japan and South Korea getting wins, and North Korea playing very respectably against the top team in the world.

On that note, I think South Korea has to be a dark horse to make it the late rounds. This is a team that was a semifinalist back in 2002. They are a very strong and well-discipline team led by one of my favorite players in the world, Ji Sung Park. I’m very interested to see how they play on Thursday against a strong opponent in Argentina.

5) The lack of scoring has been an interesting topic around analysts. Out of all 32 teams, only one team, Germany, scored more than 2 goals. Even then, only 3 other teams scored 2 goals. What to make of it? Hopefully its just because teams are being tentative, and dont want to start the tournament off with a loss. Let’s just wait and see if this lack-of-goals trend continues.

Predictions Going Forward

Here are my predictions before the tournament started on who would advance.

After the first set of games, I’ve revised a couple…

Group A: France Uruguay and Mexico
Group B: Argentina and South Korea
Group C: England and the United States
Group D: Germany and Serbia Ghana
Group E: Netherlands and Cameroon
Group F: Italy and Slovakia
Group G: Brazil and Portugal
Group H: Chile Swizterland and Spain