Reflections on Groups E, F and G

Group E has really let me down. Okay, it was a long shot picking Denmark to defeat The Netherlands. I thought they could do it, or at least draw. But that 2-0 win will likely put the Dutch on top of the group in the end. I had Denmark in first place.

Also, I can't believe Japan pulled off a 1-0 win over Cameroon. I missed both these matches so I can't really comment on any of the performances.

Group F also totally let me down as Italy failed to capitalize on several opportunities for goals against Paraguay. But that's what Paraguay does, they bunker down defensively and wear down the other team. They played Italy to a 1-1 draw, which has to be considered a good result for the South Americans.

Elsewhere in that group Slovakia had a hard time scoring on a very poorly organized New Zealand defense. Their keeper made several mistakes based on the half of the match that I saw and their defense couldn't communicate either with him or with each other. They finally got their goal, but not until the 50th minute. Then New Zealand grabbed one back in the third minute of extra time at the end of the match. Slovakia should have won, but they really should have been up by more than one goal by the time New Zealand scored.

Group G did just what I expected although I would have liked Portugal and Ivory Coast to at least score on each other instead of finishing in a 0-0 draw.

Brazil didn't execute the proper dismantling of North Korea I was hoping for. They were held scoreless in the first half by a very defensive minded Korean team. Brazil finally got on the board in the 55th minute, then again later in the second half. North Korea got one back in the 89th minute (a really nice goal too), but I don't know what they were thinking in the 87th minute when they were down 2 goals, got a corner kick and only put 5 players in the box. At that point you throw in the kitchen sink, your goalkeeper should be down there trying to score. Who cares if Brazil scores on a counter attack? You were already down two with less than 5 minutes to play.

This has been a very low-scoring World Cup so far. There have been only 23 goals in 14 matches and only two matches with more than 2 goals and only one team (Germany) to score more than 2. Compare this to four years ago when there had been 31 goals at this point with four teams topping the 2 goal mark. Eight years ago there had been 40 goals at this point in the tournament (8 of them coming from Germany in their rout of Saudi Arabia). In France 1998 there were 32 goals through 14 matches.

I wonder if this is the result of FIFA's insistence on developing a new ball for every World Cup, when the players all complain about its weird flight path and unpredictability. The thinking is that this will make for higher scoring matches, but it seems the opposite is true as strikers can't get the ball on target. Or is it the low scoring the result of teams not wanting to take big chances so early in the tournament?

Additionally there have been 6 draws thus far compared with two in 2006, three in 2002 and five in 1998. I hope Spain can snap us out of this malaise tomorrow afternoon.