germany 1-0 poland. oliver neuville’s late goal saw off ten-man poland…
for our friends in the world’s largest archipelago, here’s your concise reporting with no self-indulgent musings (even in the title of this post).
don’t forget, folks, this is the WORLD cup, which involves the 32 nations from around the world, thus, each game get as much commentary as the next one. saudi arabia and tunisia deserve our love just as much as do the top teams in the world.
would you like it if indonesia somehow ever made the world cup and then were given a lack of respect from people such as yourselves from some other nation half a world away…?
13 Comments
man, germany basically is qualified for the 16 round, i am excited to see how far they will go. as we all observed from 2002, having home field advantage can produce miraculous results.
Uh, I think our friend in the world’s longest archipelago—assuming he’s actually there and not just using a proxy—is Korean.
“as we all observed from 2002, having home field advantage can produce miraculous results.”
and so does having one of the best squads in the world cup tournament
(meaning Germany this year - not Korea in ‘02 to clear up any ambiguity)
peace.
oh sorry. to clarify, i meant having a very strong team AND having homefield advantage, i wouldnt be surprised to see them in the final.
Personally, I’ve enjoyed the longer commentary. Keep on writing! I wait four years for the Cup to come around and I want to bask in it as much as possible.
Could it be that Germany earns its fourth star this year?
Germany have a distinctly average squad, no more than 2 or 3 world class players, a dodgy defence and an unproven coach.
They’re going out in the last 16.
danger mouse, you might be right, but i am more reluctant to say that because of the home field advantage. historically, home field advantage plays a huge role, not only in the momentum of the game, but also in how the game is officiated as well. when korea received a few favorable calls last world cup, there were criticisms, but during those criticisms all the other occasions of home field officiating bias from previous world cups also were mentioned.
personally, id say koreas 2002 team was definitely worse than the 2006 germany team, and so germany wil go farther than just the 16round
True enough, davelee, but it’s easy to overstate the importance of home advantage.
Though it undoubtedly made a huge difference to Korea’s campaign in 2002 (and that is not an allusion to refereeing decisions. For what it’s worth, I thought the only Korea game where the refereeing was really poor was against Spain), the World Cup has been won by the host nation on just 6 out of 17 occasions.
Germany used up all their luck by getting to the final of the 2002 World Cup. And then some.
agreed danger mouse, you make very concrete points. isnt 6 out of 17 occasions a really good statistic that only proves that home field advantage is huge though? more than one third of the teams hosting the world cup has won it all.
to clarify, i dont mean to say germany will take it all, just that they will go farther than 16round.
“isnt 6 out of 17 occasions a really good statistic that only proves that home field advantage is huge though?”
The six teams that have won as hosts are England, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay and France. Of those, Germany (until recently) and Italy could reasonably have been expected to win any World Cup held in Europe; likewise, perhaps, for Argentina at a World Cup held in South America.
By this utterly conjectural measure, home advantage has provided a decisive edge to just three teams.
So I go over to a buddy’s house to watch the soccer matches on his brand new Sony plasma TV and enjoy some pizza, mind you this is the first chance I got to watch any of the games live and immediately notice the vivid shaded/sunny field. It’s kind of annoying to see the soccer field in Germany half shaded and half sunny, ugh. Luckily that won’t be a problem in Korea.
–Remort
The real disappointment for me is how bad the English squad looks. They will get into the 16, but it is more by accident than by good play.
Danger Mouse, I think Germany is playing solid ball. Not their best, but solid. They’ve been a disappointment in recent years, but hopefully this is a bit of a turning point for them. I’m hoping they go all the way, but I wouldn’t be suprised if they get knocked out in the quarter- or semi-final.
Remort, that has actually been a pretty big issue, as FIFA wanted to close the dome for a few matches during midday so the broadcast would look better. however it causes a greenhouse effect and it gets even hotter in the stadium. several teams have already complained about the heat. the closing of the dome is excellent for broadcast companies and viewers worldwide, but not for the players themselves.