Official FIFA 2010 World Cup Discussion

[BB73]

I said at the outset I didn't expect any of them to get out of their groups...I am actually a bit surprised Ghana is in the position they are in, but it does look like they will be the only ones.

Nigeria has no points, but if they beat South Korea today they'll advance if Greece loses to Argentina. It's not easy to lose a pair of games and still almost control your own destiny. :tongue2:

 

[Jake]

Here's an interesting article about what the North Korean players might be experiencing.

Cry for North Korea - Bill Archer Blog - Soccer Blog - BigSoccer

I've been following the "England" forum on that site since just before the Cup began. Those blokes were quite confident going into our match, and watching the anger bubble to the surface over two matches has provided good comedy.

I can't wait to see what happens if they lose tomorrow and fail to advance.

 

[OHSportsFan]

And France scores their first goal of the tournament, avoiding a USA/France '98 type of performance (1 goal in 3 games). Damnit.

So, I guess that was France's first goal at a World Cup outside of Europe since 1986.

Didn't qualify in 1990 (Italy)
Didn't qualify in 1994 (US)
Champions in 1998 (France)
0 in 2002 JapKorea
2nd place in 2006 (Germany)
1 in 2010 (S.A.)

 

[Bucklion]

Nigeria has no points, but if they beat South Korea today they'll advance if Greece loses to Argentina. It's not easy to lose a pair of games and still almost control your own destiny. :tongue2:

Yeah, that's bizarre. Likewise yesterday they were saying it's still possible for Chile to win their first 2 games (they did) and still not advance...that would be equally weird.

 

[BB73]

Complicated scenarios for Group B. The winner of the group faces Mexico in the Round of 16, while the runner-up will play Uruguay.

Two teams from each group advance. A team gets 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw. The first tiebreaker is goal-differential, the next is goals scored.

Team.........Pts..Goal-Diff..Goals-Scored
Argentina.....6......+4..........5
S. Korea......3......-1..........3
Greece........3......-1..........2
Nigeria.......0......-2..........1

At 2:30 ET, Argentina plays Greece on ESPN and Nigeria plays S. Korea on ESPN2.

Argentina advances unless they to lose by 3 goals to Greece AND South Korea wins by enough to make up the rest of the goal differential.

South Korea probably advances with a win (they will unless Greece wins by a larger margin, but not enough to kill Argentina's goal-diff), and they advance with a draw unless Greece defeats Argentina or gets a high-scoring draw.

If Greece wins by 3+ goals, they advance for sure. If they win by less than that, they advance unless South Korea also wins by at least the same margin. Greece can advance with a draw if Nigeria beats South Korea, or if South Korea also draws but Greece scores more goals today.

Nigeria, with zero points, actually advances with a win if Argentina beats Greece.

So, assuming Argentina wins, South Korea will finish second if they don't lose to Nigeria.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

Team.........Pts..Goal-Diff..Goals-Scored
Argentina.....6......+4..........5
S. Korea......3......-1..........3
Greece........3......-1..........2
Nigeria.......0......-2..........1


Nigeria, with zero points, actually advances with a win if Argentina beats Greece.

If Nigeria wins 1-0 and Greece loses, wouldn't South Korea win on the count of more goals scored?

EDIT - and thanks for putting together the scenarios. I considered doing it, but it seemed like too much work. Much easier to sit back and criticize.

 

[BB73]

If Nigeria wins 1-0 and Greece loses, wouldn't South Korea win on the count of more goals scored?

EDIT - and thanks for putting together the scenarios. I considered doing it, but it seemed like too much work. Much easier to sit back and criticize.

Nope - a Nigeria win and a Korea loss mean that Nigeria gains at least 2 goals in the differential, and that tiebreaker is used first.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

Nope - a Nigeria win and a Korea loss mean that Nigeria gains at least 2 goals in the differential, and that tiebreaker is used first.

Crap. No idea what I was looking at.

 

[BB73]

An early goal for Nigeria. Good news for Greece, who only need a draw if Nigeria beats S. Korea.

 

[IronBuckI]

Hmmm. Tried watching the Greece-Argentina game on ESPN Mobile TV. The video of the Greece-Argentina game is showing up, but the audio for the S. Korea-Nigeria game is playing. Univision Mobile is showing the S. Korea-Nigeria game, but, obviously, it's in spanish. If I only had two phones, I could watch Univision and listen to ESPN. Of course, the feeds wouldn't sync anyway, so...crap!

 

[BB73]

Papadopoulus got some treatment for a bloody lip that makes him look like a pillow-biter.

 

[OHSportsFan]

Nigeria has no points, but if they beat South Korea today they'll advance if Greece loses to Argentina. It's not easy to lose a pair of games and still almost control your own destiny. :tongue2:

[tee]

I mean, ya gotta be kidding me. Losing the first two and still looking good to go through to the round of 16. Is this a joke?

[/tee]

 

[BB73]

S. Korea tied it up late in the half.

 

[jlb1705]

One thing that's bugging me about ESPN's coverage: They seem to be going out of their way to not use the term "caps", opting instead for "international appearances".

 

[Bucklion]

One thing that's bugging me about ESPN's coverage: They seem to be going out of their way to not use the term "caps", opting instead for "international appearances".

Probably because the causal fan in America has no clue WTF a "cap" is. I'm not justifying it, but I imagine they are trying not to lose their casual fans with jargon.