Semi-Finals Summary

Confederation status

Confed	Tm	2R	QF	P	W	D	L	Pts	G+	G-	GD	Win%	Pts%	Pwr
CSF	5	5	4	23	12	6	5	42	31	19	12	65%	61%	77%
UEFA	13	6	3	33	14	10	9	52	43	30	13	58%	53%	45%
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)

UEFA domination post group stage continues. In Inter-Confederation games post group play they are now 4:0:0 and have two teams in the Final. Before the knock-out games they were a very pedestrian 10:10:9 and looking ready to lose another WC spot. Now UEFA is looking for the first out of confederation WC championship, on the other hand, all the UEFA championships have come in the "European" time zones.

On the other hand CSF was at one point (post round of 16) 12:5:1 in Inter-Confederation play and have since gone 0:1:4. Still, getting 4 out of 5 team to the quarter-finals is a very impressive performance that shouldn't be over looked by FIFA

Observations

For this World Cup, FIFA changed the rules about Yellow Cards accumulations. Up to this WC, the YC accumulation was reset after the group stage. This means that if A player got a single YC in the first 3 games and another in the following set of 3 games he would not be suspended. A suspension will only occurred if a player got two YC in a single set of 3 games. This time the reset occurs after 5 games, so we have a set of 5 games followed by a single game. The purpose? To ensure that players will not miss the finals due to two yellows.

Spain was better than Germany today. I doubt that Muller would have made a difference, but we will never know. Muller got one YC in the group Stage and another (probably undeserving) in the game against Argentina. As a result of the rule change he had to seat the game – this is plain wrong. On the other hand a player committing a tactical foul in the 71' of a 0:0 game (which might very well have saved the game for his team) will get to play in the finals even if he got a YC for a foul in the 92' min to preserve a 1:0 win in the round of 16. Made up scenario? No, this is what happen to Ballack in the 2002 WC and he did miss the finals.

Germany would have loved for the rules in 2002 and 2010 to have been reversed. I think that the old rule is correct and the new one just PC to address people that think that the finals is the only thing that matters and getting to the finals happen by magic.

Spain made it to the finals after scoring only 7 goals in 6 games an average of 1.167 goals per game. The only finalists with a worse goal/game average were West Germany 1996 (6 goals in 6 games) and 1990 Argentina (5 goals in 6 games). The winner with the lowest goals/game pre finals is 1996 England with 7 goals in 5 games. They have only given up two goals, both on tough breaks.

Unless something drastic happens in the finals, I would say that Casillas and the Spain defense should be in the team of the tournament. Somehow we need to put Lahm in there but I have no idea who to take out – Puyol as good as he has been was the weakest of the four, but after today's goal, there is no way to keep him out. Many will put Edurado of Portugal or Kawashima of Japan as the GK of the tournament, but in my book Casillas has it, without him Spain might not beat Portugal, is probably out in the Quarters against Paraguay and likely doesn't pass Germany in the Semis.

The Netherland with 12 goals in six games are the second most productive offence this world cup. They also are 6:0:0, Only Brazil 2002 (7:0:0) and 1970 (6:0:0) won the world cup with a perfect record post world war II. Italy in 1990 with a 6:1:0 record, didn't even reach the finals (eliminated by Argentina in the Semis in PSO). That same Argentina team finished in second place with a 2:3:2 record – they are also the only team to advance twice in the same WC after PSO.

Trivia

Since the expansion to 24 teams, this is the first world cup in which all 4 Semi-Finalists have won their group. The only other times this happened was in 1966 and 1958.

Spain (in its 56^th WC game) will face Netherlands (in its 43th WC game) for the first time in the WC.

Good news for Spain, a team from Group E almost always makes it to the Semis, but only won the WC once. 1986 – West Germany, 1994 – Italy, 1998 – Netherlands, 2002 – Germany, 2006 – Italy, 2010 – Netherlands (prior to 1982 there was no group E).

The two occasions that a team from group E didn't make it to the Semis (1982 and 1990), Spain was the seeded team in group E.

With the reversal of the Melo own goal "ruling" (awarded to Sneijder, which I think is a good call), Brazil has no played in 97 WC games without giving up an own goal (if my scan of the records is correct).

 

Germany has passed Brazil in the number of games played (98 to 97) with a third place game left, but they still trail in number of goals scored (210:203). It is very unlikely that they'll be able to surpass Brazil on this count this year.

Klose scored 5 goals in 2002, 5 in 2006 and has 4 with a game to go in 2010. If he scored one more goal in the 3^rd place game he will tie Ronaldo as the all time top scorer in world cup history.

The top scorer in each world cup has most often come from the 3^rd place match up:

2006 – Klose, GER

1998 – Sukar, CRO

1994 – Stoitchov, BUL (Shared)

1990 – Schillaci, ITA

1974 – Lato, POL

1970 – Muller, Ger

1966 – Eusebio, POR

1962 – Sanchez, CHI; Jerkovic, YUG (Shared)

1958 – Fontaine, FRA

1938 – Leonidaz, BRA

Sometimes, from the wining team:

2002 – Ronaldo, BRA

1982 – Rossi, ITA

1978 – Kempes, ARG

1962 – Garrincha, BRA; Vava BRA (Shared)

And in earlier days, the second place team:

1954 – Kocsis, HUN

1950 – Ademir, BRA

1934 – Nejedly, CZE

1930 – Stabile, ARG

The one exception is 1986 when Lineker, ENG was the top scorer.

This time with a game to go the leading scorers (Villa, ESP; Sneijder, NED; both with 5) are in the final. However, the 3^rd place game should have Mueller, Forlan, and Klose with 4 goals each and Suarez with 3. Don't rule out the possibility that one of them will leap to the top.

The record for the most players tied for top scorer is 6 in 1962 when all of them scored only 4 goals.

From 1978 to 1998 the top scorer has 6 goals.