World Cup 2010 -- And Then There Were Four

We are now at the semi-finals for Worldcup 2010, and it has been an interesting run. As usual there is always controversy over sportsmanship, diving (aka simulating), officiating, and finally goal-line technology. But over all I think it has been a good event.

The quarter finals did bring a lot of drama to the event, mostly in the Ghana-Uruguay and Spain-Paraguay matches. But now we are down to our final four teams:

• Germany vs Spain
• Netherlands vs Uruguay

World Cup 2010 -- Cards and Bookings

I've been very confused by the bookings in the 2010 Edition of the World Cup.  I thought there was an unusually high number of yellows and reds throughout the matches I've seen.  But, when I looked at the Fifa Stats page, there had only been an average of 3.9 cards per match (as of June 22).  The 2006 Edition of the world cup set the record for the most bookings over the period of the tournament.  Using the info from wikipedia, there were over 340 yellows and 28 reds for the whole 64 game tournament, over 5.4 cards per match!!  This astounded me.

Granted the we are only 2/3 done the group matches, so there is an opportunity to exceed that number.  Conversely I have been also surprised by many of the non-bookings as well.

More Later....
G

World Cup 2010 -- Less Confusion

After watching more matches, it seams that the referees have becoming a bigger x-factor. I've seen some pretty incredible calls, and some even bigger non-calls.  I expect officiating to play a part in football matches, but in this World Cup it's a bigger part than normal.

I'm not asking for video replay, but maybe could do one thing similar to the NHL. The NHL has added a second referee in addition to the two linesman.  I don't expect a single referee to see the entire pitch the entire match, but an additional set of eyes couldn't hurt.

Let the players decide the outcome of the match not the officials.

More Later...
G.

World Cup 2010 -- The Land of Confusion

WOW!  The 2010 Edition of the World Cup has me befuddled.  I'm less than .500 on my picks for the matches. World Cup 2006, I called 39 of 48 in the round-robin, 6 of 8 in the round of 16, 3 of 4 in the quarters.  My 2006 World Cup went pear shaped in the semis.  But the 2010 Edition!?!?! Makes me wonder if I even knew anything about football.

• Spain loosing to Switzerland
• Greeks winning over Nigeria 
• Americans drawing England

I didn't call some of the other drawn matches, there is still a lot of football to play but, I have to re-study my data, and will reset my thinking for the next rounds...

There has been some very exciting football, but just not what I expected or predicted... Time to watch more matches....

For now ¡Vamos México!

More Later...
G.