World Cup 2010 Thoughts

Mike’s Soccer World Cup 2010 Thoughts – Week 1

Well, the World Cup is now well and truly underway. So what have we learned so far?

Not a lot to be honest – but the early Group stages, apart from throwing up a few surprises, never tell us that much. I guess a lot of teams are still settling in and often the emphasis is on not losing matches rather than playing to win in the earlier games.

Whilst a defeat can be a disaster in Game 1, it is not necessarily fatal – supporters of the Spanish team take hope!

The opener of South Africa and Mexico was a heart warming affair all round and looked a certain draw for all those followers of statistics.

No host nation has ever lost the first game in the tournament and the Mexican team has never won their first World Cup game. The teams duly obliged with a 1-1 result.

Mexico looked very impressive when they completely outplayed France in their second match and the French may be taking the early plane home.

Argentina struggled to score in their opener but they should have had a hatful. They maintained their 100% record with a comfortable win over South Korea and, if their defence improves, must have a real chance.

England and the USA played out a hard fought draw, largely thanks to a dreadful goalkeeping error by the English goalkeeper, and then England played in what must be the worst match of the competition so far – a thrilless 0 – 0 draw with Algeria. Awful!

The Americans again showed great resolve when they came back from being down 2-0 to draw level with Slovenia, leaving the Group wide open.

Germany demolished the Aussies in what was one of the best team performances in the tourney so far and then they managed to lose to Serbia. What is going on?

In the bottom half of the draw, the Dutch impressed me (but they never seem to make it all the way) Italy were sluggish to say the least, Brazil did what they had to do against a brave N Korean team whilst the shock result of the openers was Switzerland’s defeat of post tournament hot favourites, Spain. These things happen.

So the juggling for position has begun and we have some cracking matches coming up.

I am going to embarrass myself and show my pre Tournament selections for the last 16 teams. Please don’t be offended if I have overlooked your side, it’s just my opinion and actual results so far suggest I may be way out.

France and Mexico

Argentina and Nigeria

England and USA

Germany and Australia

Holland and Cameroon

Italy and Paraguay

Brazil and Portugal

Chile and Spain

How about posting your own forecasts or comments – with the benefit of hindsight.

As the Group stages pass and the knock outs begin, the real football starts as teams cannot play for a draw and must go for the win. That is when class begins to show.

I’ll let you have my up to date thoughts in a few days time and perhaps share some more detailed analysis with you.

Editors Note: Mike is a longtime member at My Poker Blues and resides in England.

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