Something is wrong.. this is what I wrote on my FB note yesterday... The two games today only serve to raise further misgivings..
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I owe my loyal readers the truth: not good so far.
Teams more afraid to lose than eager to win, vuvuzelas taking crowd participation out of the game, few moments of magic, too many key players coming in banged up or simply unable to play at all, players almost to a man who can't- so far- bomb the goal from outside the box and get even close (balls sailing by miles from the goal!), etc. Pretty much every game ends 1-0 or 1-1. Goals often scored due to goalkeeper miscues... Clearly superior teams unable to make that difference count.
Except for Argentina which had the most chances of any team and Germany, which was by far the most ruthless turning chance after chance into goal, few teams have really actually tried to win a game! This is a World Cup so far on pace to end with the lowest goals per game of any (and that will say something to those that remember 1990). So far in this World Cup average goals per game is about 1.5 which is far lower than any other WC (1990 2.2). THe difference with 1990 is that unlike that Cup teams are not using fouls to prevent scoring but aren't fully committing to attack or are simply unable to score even with possession of the ball. Worse yet, in my experience it is in the early part of the WC that you tend to see more goals! Its still early but anecdotal evidence would support the conclusion that the ball- at least in South Africa- is not working that well perhaps due to the altitude: there are hardly any shots on goal that are close even though these are some of the best in the world. Basically we are seeing games without more than 3 or 4 real scoring chances at all lets not mention goals. Many of the goals we are seeing are in fact from goalkeepers misplaying or misjudging the ball. When you take these out of the equation how many goals are there? Its not all about the goals but nobody who watches soccer regularly would argue that the level of play at this World Cup is anywhere near that of say Champions League soccer... Usually its the group round that sees the more open flowing soccer and scoring as the heavyweights pounce on the minnows. Perhaps things will change tomorrow...lets hope so...or rules changes will be necessary (something I've been advocating taking a look at for a while...). The fear of giving up just ONE goal and having no chance to get it back is leading countries to take every possible measure not to give up that goal leading to a stunted game. It will be interesting to observe what Brazil and Spain, the two favorites, are able to muster.
What we are seeing is teams are so afraid to concede that first goal that they are hardly going on the attack at all. Cameroon earlier today started without its talented #10 in the lineup. If only he had started and partnered up with Eto'o it might have been an entirely different story but Cameroon only really went for it the last 10 minutes against a very inferior opponent (known to be inferior coming in having lost its last four friendlies!) and this is typical of this World Cup.
Ultimately one may support country X or Y but any fan of the game wants to see a great and exciting World Cup and as Argentine sports writer Horacio Pagani noted today in a Clarin video note "This World Cup, so far, is in debt with people."
