The View from Germany: Early goals, early wins

June 13th, 2006 | by: WC Bob |

The first eleven World Cup matches are in the books and what an eleven matches they have been. The competition thus far has seen some exciting games and no shortage of goals – 27 at the end of Monday. There are a couple of trends that I have noticed watching these games. The first is the number of goals early in games.

Four of the eleven matches have seen goals scored within the first ten minutes of play. Eight of the matches have had a goal scored within the first 26 minutes of play.

These early goals are proving to be huge. In only one of the matches – Australia against Japan – has a team come back to win after trailing.

From my point of view the tournament has also been exciting because teams are playing to win. There’s only been one draw in the first 11 matches. In 2002, there were a total of 12 draws in the first round, which averaged out to 1 in 4 opening round games ending in a tie.

With some teams sitting in comfortable position the strategy is bound to change and we might start to see more draws, but at this point in the World Cup it would be hard to complain about what we have seen on the pitch.

Are there any other trends or stats that you have noticed?

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zé

More trends than stats:

Players getting pretty tired after the 1st half. Yeah, that usually happens during matches, but the difference between the two halves is being too big on mostgames IMO.

Players slipping on the grass all the time. Some pretty awkward moments.

No penalties yet.

The Shadow is getting annoying by the day. The one on that Australia x Japan match was awful.
http://ecuador.worldcupblog.org/ Trent

I think the very early goals have a negative effect on matches (from a neutral fan perspective, that is). Nevertheless, thre have only been a couple of clunkers so far (ENGvPAR, USAvCZE), which is awesome.
Karl

I noticed too there haven’t been any penalty kicks yet, although Ghana probably should have had one.

No red cards either (a good sign).
http://danielfranklin.blogspot.com Gallivanter

Er, wasn’t there a red card (2 yellows) during the Sweden-Trinidad match?
dila

well,the weather there is certainly hot~ ive noticed the players trying to get drinks from off the pitch whenever they can..
Louie

Things i noticed.

1. Is it just me or are the players a lot friendlier? everytime there is a foul commited you see players going over and playing with each others hair or high fiving.

2. the camaras are always shooting the coaches, during important plays.

3.the balls fly a lot further. there are more shots from beyond and more MADE from outside of the box.

4. The Big teams have not met up to par. argentina Portugal, Italy, Germany, England, holland have left us aking questions.

5. African teams have all lost but are doing way better than we expected.

6.GAmes are not starting when they are scheduled

7.more players are hurt or getting hurt on their own. Or by little fouls. No huge fouls have hurt anyone.

that’s all for now.
Alessandro

I’ve noticed a huge ammount of yellow cards in the games i’ve seen. Refs are being very strict not only about kicking the ball away but also about fouls in general. this is going to affect many teams later on when players start getting one game suspensions. after how many yellow cards do you get it?
http://paraguay.worldcupblog.org Daniel

I didn’t see yet a big goal celebration from any team (like Bebeto’s swinging the baby and that stuff).

Let see what Brazil can offer…
El Nelson

We have not seen any of the heavily-favored teams lose in their first game. Perhaps teams have learned not to show up to the pitch asleep or hungover in the first match a la recent examples like France and Portugal in 2002. Sweden was lucky to escape with a draw because Hislop was unconscious in the net, but the Swedes played well they just couldn’t get that first goal. I’d say England and Portugal and even Italy were lucky to win their games.

I expected at least one of the powerhouse teams to flub up its first game. Then again, there is that Croatia vs. Brazil game coming up. :) Safe to say that would make up for the slack.

Also, as others have noticed, midfielders are making nice with the Teamgeist ball from distance (Essien had the right idea late vs. Italy). It will be fun to see teams follow suit and jack these balls from distance.
Claude

I think second place in group B is wide open thanks to Sweden not being able to score against T&T. Don’t be surprised to see perhaps Paraguy come out of that group.

The African countries can pack their bags, none of them will advance.

I’d love to see Brazil come in second in their group and have to meet one of the top European countries in the second round. What I’d really like to see is the impossible and that is Brazil exiting in the first round. We all have our dreams.
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