Quarter-Finals Summary

Confederation status

Confed	Tm	2R	QF	P	W	D	L	Pts	G+	G-	GD	Win%	Pts%	Pwr
CSF	5	5	4	22	12	6	4	42	29	16	13	68%	64%	78%
UEFA	13	6	3	32	13	10	9	49	40	28	12	56%	51%	44%
CONF	3	2		11	2	4	5	10	9	13	-4	36%	30%	33%
AFC	4	2		14	4	3	7	15	14	28	-14	39%	36%	31%
CAF	6	1	1	20	4	6	10	18	17	24	-7	35%	30%	25%
OFC	1			3	0	3	0	3	2	2	0	50%	33%	21%

Intra-confederation games (e.g. Spain-Switzerland, are excluded)

What a difference a day makes actually 30 little hours. CSF was seating pretty with 4 teams in the quarters and reasonable match-ups for all four (maybe not Paraguay). Thirty hours later, Brazil lost a close one to the Netherlands, Uruguay miraculously managed to advance past Ghana and crash all African dreams what followed was most unexpected, we all knew that Germany was no pushover, but I don't think that even the biggest German fan expected or even dreamed of a 4:0 trashing of Argentina. As many expected, Maradona managed to prevent Argentina from winning the WC. The way Germany played against the, even a good Argentina team might have had problems; the point is that Maradona made it very easy for Germany.

UEFA had made great steps forward, but since my formula doesn't give extra credit for Quarter, Semi and Final wins (just the regular Win% and Pts%, CSF is still comfortably ahead. Maybe the formula needs to be adjusted. CONCACAF managed to edge AFC for third place mainly due to the fact that it had one less team in the WC – sometimes, less is more.

There is no other way to say it – CAF is overrated. Even with six teams in the WC, they only managed to advance one team to the second round, while three teams finished winless and last in the group. CAF has never been able to advance more than a single team. While consistency should count for something (CAF has advanced a single team since 1986), the poor success rate over this time – only 25% advancing and over 46% finishing last and winless should give FIFA a hint.

The argument of "give them a chance and they'll prove themselves" fails; since 1998 when CAF allocation was increased to 5 teams (4 WCs), CAF teams have advanced 19% of the time and finished last and winless 43% of the time (9 out of 21). During this time, no other Confederation had more teams finishing last and winless (AFC also had 9). With the exception of OFC (only two teams during these 4 WCs) no other confederation has had less teams advancing from the group stage (AFC also had 4).

Yes, the fans of the CAF teams are, for the most part, entertaining and they do add color to the event. However, I'm sure that the same is true for many Pacific Island nations, should we increase OFC allocation to 2 teams? The quality of the fans shouldn't determine WC spot allocation Team quality and the good of the game should.

Observations

UEFA only qualified 6 teams to the second round, probably its worse performance ever; all six had to play each other in the round of 16. From that point on, UEFA teams have not lost an Inter-Confederation game. Before the Quarter-Finals CSF teams had a single Inter-Confederation loss compared with 12 wins; in the Quarter-Finals there 0:1:3 and by all rights should have lost all four games.

The last time a CSF team advanced farther than both Brazil and Argentina was 1954. Some things to consider about 1954:

• All CSF teams advanced from the group stage.
  
• The highest finishing CSF team was Uruguay.
  
• Uruguay reached the Semi-finals.
  
• Brazil was eliminated in the Quarter-Finals.
  
• France failed to make it out of the group stage
  
• Italy failed to advance out of the group stage after a shock defeat to a UEFA team in a 5 goals game.
  
• England was eliminated in the first knock-out game while giving up 4 goals.
  
• A team from Korea lost a game 7:0
  
• The Semis had 3 UEFA teams
  
• Three of the Semi-Finalist failed to make the top 8 in the previous WC.
  
• Uruguay faced the team that beat Brazil in the Semis
  
• Germany (OK, West Germany) was in the other Semi-Final
  
• Germany lost a game in the group Stage to a UEFA team.
  
• In their first 5 matches, Germany scored 4 or more goals in 3 matches.
  

All of the above are true about 2010 – in 1954, Germany won the world cup and Uruguay finished 4^th.

South Africa Review

The people were great hosts everything and every time. I also enjoyed the fact that whenever I was carrying or wearing my Israeli Flag people of all nationalities wanted to take pictures of it (either with me or themselves holding it). Some of the street vendors even offered to buy it from me or trade for another flag. Aside from the great encounter with the people of the Bafokeng nation, we also had a wonderful chance meeting at a road side stand near Pilanesberg. Adi noticed a man selling corn by the side of the road so we stopped and bought some corn roasted over wood. It turns out the man was from Mozambique and it moved to South Africa several years ago to avoid the civil war.

Our hosts in Jo'burg were great and very helpful and the guest house Adi found for us was outstanding. We managed to make more than a few friends at a local coffee shop where we had coffee and sometime breakfast most morning. I think that the security concerns were overblown. Just like any big city around the world, there are places you should go and places you shouldn't. If one uses common sense and learn the routes to take, there should be no more problems than any other major metropolitan area. I feel sorry for the people that missed the World Cup due to fears about security.

In all the stadiums we have been to, there wasn't a scoreboard or clock – you don't realize how much you miss it until it is not there. It also looks like FIFA gave the organizing committee a break on the facilities. Ellis Park is a very nice stadium and as far as I can tell, well located, however inside the stadium, the amenities are not what you would expect from a world class stadium. In Loftus, getting in and out of the lower level via a narrow tunnel is borderline dangerous. Royal Bafokeng stadium is one of the hardest Stadiums to get to. It has less than 45 thousand seats a good number of the fans where there hours before the US – Ghana started and yet we were stuck in a traffic jam 77km from Rustenburg almost 3 hours before the game started – None of these are world cup level.

Without a doubt the low point of the world cup was the vuvuZevel (I should trademark the name). Before anyone says anything; yes, I'm a hypocrite – there are four vuvuzelas in my suitcase, in my defense, I never used one in a stadium or while fans were celebrating. Considering the Ghana – Uruguay game instead of being able to hear the fans supporting Ghana for the last two minutes of the game we would have been able to enjoy this for 120 minutes. Could this have had an impact on such close game? We will never know, what we do know is that Ghana totally dominated the game while the fans were supporting them in the last few minutes. Bottom line, vuvuzelas are just like farts – when you are the source it doesn't seem bad at all.

On my last day in South Africa and wend to the Sterkfontein Caves which are part of the Cradle of Humankind site. I wish I had gone there sooner and had more time to stay. I guess this is one more reason to visit South Africa again.

Trivia

Spain (54 games so far) and Netherlands (41 games so far) never faced each other in the world cup.

The two PKs missed (actually saved) in the Spain Paraguay Quarter-Finals match was only the second time in which two PKs were missed in the single game (not including PSO). The First was Argentina – Mexico in 1930 (the only WC game with 3 PKs).

Germany is about to overtake Brazil as the team with the most games played (so far both played in 97 matches) and is likely to be the first team to reach the Century mark. Brazil however, still holds a commanding lead in wins (67 vs. 59) and has fewer losses (15 vs. 19).