Preview: Nigeria vs. South Korea

June 21st, 2010 | by: admin |

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THE BIG PICTURE
It’s all been getting rather serious in the Nigeria camp, with Sani Kaita reportedly receiving over 1,000 death threats since his sending off against Greece. Nigeria certainly haven’t had the tournament they planned. Both sides have been swept away by the quality of Argentina but a defeat to Greece has angered many Nigerian fans who felt their side should’ve played much, much better against weaker opposition. Fortunately the group remains wide open and both nations stand a chance of going through to the next stage with a win. Argentina are expected to beat Greece so this affectively becomes a second place cup final. It won’t fill Nigeria with confidence that against Asian opposition, only one African side has ever come out victorious in 8 World Cup attempts, with Cameroon beating Saudi Arabia 1-0 in 2002. They should be spurred on by the fact they still have a chance despite two group losses and will keeping everything crossed that Argentina can do them a favour on the final day.

WHAT’S AT STAKE
Group B Qualification Picture
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The good news for the Nigerians: Somehow, despite an atrocious tournament, they can still qualify for the knockout stages, and realistically too, with a win here. The bad news: they are without a win in their last seven World Cup matches, losing six of those in the process. If they want to give themselves a genuine chance they have to turn that stat around. They’ll be expecting more from some of their big Premier League stars like Yakubu whilst everyone by now knows what to expect from the South Koreans. They’ll know they can’t rely on Greece to get them a decent result in the other game, so despite a 3 point advantage over the Nigerians, they know just how important a win is themselves.

Bet on Nigeria vs. South Korea

OUR PREDICTION
Despite the romance of Nigeria somehow sneaking through on the final day, I just can’t see them overcoming the South Koreans who are gritty and determined, with a lot of skill to match. They’ll give it a real good go but South Korea will finish 2-1 victors.

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Bense235

Given the Argies are technically thru, South Korea needs a win. Nice to see two defending teams – Greece and South Korea – having to playing offensively. Sure, Nigeria has a chance left, and it ain't infinitesimal. But they would need a 3:0 to advance.
JoseJosue

Nigeria would automatically advance with any victory as long as Argentina wins. Remember their goals would count against South Korea's GD and Greece losing, by definition, means their GD drops.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001137348380 Ssa Bhakta

I think even 1:0 is sufficient.
Greece and South Korea's GD is -1, while Nigeria is -2.
Assuming Arg beats Greece, Greece's GD will be -2 or worse.
And Nigeria, if it wins, its GD will improve to -1 or better and South Korea's will fall to -2 or worse.
So just a simple win for Nigeria is enough I think.
Geoffrey72

Yes, Nigeria and Argentina wins by any score put Nigeria through. Several careless sources I've seen suggested goals scored was the first tiebreaker, not goal differential, so I think that's the cause of the confusion. I was afraid it was a half-baked FIFA scheme to “encourage” more goals. But no, goal differential is still the first tiebreaker, so Nigeria's 0-1 loss to Argentina is better than South Korea's 1-4 loss.
I agree with the article authors that South Korea is likely to win this match.
This is the first of the four truly compelling matches I see in the final round of the group stage, matches between two quality teams where only one is likely to advance. The others are Slovenia-England, Ghana-Germany and Chile-Spain. Well, Chile and Spain could both advance, but even the risk that Chile's 6 points might not be enough makes the match highly compelling.
After that, I see much less drama. Uruguay-Mexico and Brazil-Portugal are all very likely to advance already. I doubt the underdogs will hold back the hungry favorites in U.S.-Algeria and Serbia-Australia. Could be wrong about Australia but I know neither Ghana nor Germany should be expecting any favors from them. Denmark-Japan will decide a place in the round of 16, but neither team looks very strong, so does it really matter much? Italy-Slovakia is only compelling if you're curious to see if Italy implodes. As with the U.S. and Serbia, I'm confident Paraguay and Italy are highly likely to win and advance. Switzerland will beat Honduras and wonder if 6 points will be enough or how the tiebreaks will shake out.