The World Cup So Far
Talk about your slow starts, I have not seen so many top seeded teams stumble on the Football pitch construction in all my World Cup watching years. The first game of note was the France – Uruguay game which ended in a 0-0 draw. Easily one of the worst games of the World Cup so far, neither side wanted to lose it seemed and the game played out in a very dull manner. The French then went on to lose their second game against Mexico 2-0, a terrible start.
While Germany did play very well in their opening game, they did lose their second game to Serbia who did not look particularly threatening going forward. That loss compounded with the sending off of their talismanic striker, Miroslav Klose, means the Germans will need a win and nothing else in their final game against a plucky Ghana side.
England have been a massive disappointment also. They have been suffering from a lack of creativity and a lack of passion. They started so brightly, scoring against the USA in the first four minutes of their opening game. However, since then they have been devoid of ideas and have had to settle with two draws. They should be Slovenia and go through, but they should have beaten the USA and Algeria also. Things look dire.
Both current World Champions, Italy, and European Champions, Spain, have also looked ordinary. Italy have, like England played out two draws. One with Paraguay, who do look a decent side and one with New Zealand, which is an astonishing result for the latter side. Spain managed to lose their opening game with Switzerland and now have to play a couple of decent Hispanic teams in Honduras and Chile to progress.
Despite all this, Argentina, Holland and Brazil have all played very well it must be said and have secured their passage to the Round of 16 knock-out stage. Portugal also look like they are heading through after a strong display against North Korea. What this does do, I suppose, is set up some tantalising final group stage games. I will be watching with interest.
Comments are closed!