Today I have some random World Cup thoughts.
1. How come Germany manages to over exceed expectations at the World Cup. I can't remember the last time they had a "bad" World Cup. Of course, they don't win it every year, but they seem to always do well or better than expected. This WC is a good example. They were seen as a young, inexperienced team. Remember that England beat them 5-1 less than two years ago.
Take a look at their record, it is unbelievable. From 1954, they have appeared in every WC and reached the quarter finals or better in every one except 1978. Since 1982, they have been champions once, and reached the final another three times as well as two semi finals...including this one.
The more I look at their record, the more amazed I am at how good it is.
2. How come England is deemed a "world power" in football? Based on Germany's record above and England's poor record in the WC and Euro's, it just doesn't make sense. Yes, we won the World Cup, but that was 44 years ago and on home soil. We haven't won anything since. A semi final in the 1990 World Cup and a semi final in the Euro's in 1996 are the best we can offer.
3. The game is too fast for the officials. I don't blame the officials for many of the mistakes they have made. It's just physically impossible for them to see some of what happens. Take the Tevez offside goal against Mexico for instance. The linesman has to look at the player kicking the ball. At the instant he kicks it, the linesman has to swivel his head or eyes to Tevez to see if he is offside or not. How long does it take to move his head/eyes? I don't know, but let's guess that it is 2/10ths of a second. Now take into consideration that a soccer player is moving at about 9 yards (27 feet) a second if they are moving quickly and this is only exascerbated if the defender is moving in the opposite direction trying to play him offside. So a quick estimate is that the player can move 5.4 feet during the time it takes the linesman to move his head/eyes from the ball to the player. Actually, I am continually amazed at how many of the offside calls are correctly made by linesmen.
4. See my last post - All the diving. acting, cheating, etc. is slowly turning me off the game.
I hope the Spain v Germany game is a good one later today.
