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.

 

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).