The general WC 2010 thread: is this a good World Cup?

gerd

gerd

Retired Footballer
8 January 2002
Over the moon
KRC Genk, Spurs
IMO there need to be a general WC thread apart from all the threads about individual countries.

If mods don't agree...well this thread will soon disappear.

I know it's early days, but what do you all think about the quality of the football until now.

I personally find this an extremely boring World Cup until now.
I saw a superb German team against (a very weak) Australia and a half decent Argentina and Ghana and that was it for me.

Is it because the really good teams will become better (best example: Italy, they were really poor against Paraguay, but if they start poor they tend to go far in the tournament)?

Is it the ball?
Is it the height (but surely not everywhere, yesterday's boring Italy match was in Cape Town, that is sea level...).
Or is it the fact that most players are knackered after a very long season...

Your opinions please.
 
You forgot to mention the vuvuzelas! :P

Personally, its still early to judge. You can see teams don't want to get beat in their first games and hence why the poor quality matches we've seen. To add to that, the players would need to adapt to the ball as well.
 
I dont like the tournament too till now,Vuvuzela is making me crazy,and the games are too boring also,the leauges end month ago and if i compare the club team matches between these WC matches now,there are huge differences the football the teams play..

gerd said:
I saw a superb German team against (a very weak) Australia
Click to expand...


Do you really think France or Italy could score 4 goal and miss % 100 4-5 goal position against Australia??
 
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I think people are complaining too much about the Vuvuzela.
It's true that you don't hear the fans...i also think it kills the atmosphere...but this is typical for South Africa and the tournament is played there...to the South Africans Vuvuzela's are an essentiel part of football...well let them have it...this is their World Cup.
 
so far the world cup only started but i feel many teams play very much tactical...with only aim not to loose..

i hope we will see more risking teams than tactical prepeared players who fear of being injured or to loose first..
 
Well, for the game, it is not so bad, we see both tactical games and good games (germany !!) and also african teams that really want to do well (South Africa) or Asian teams (Japan).
This is also tru that there are not a lot of goals, but who cares.
I prefer watching a dipusted 1-0 than a boring 6-0.

For the background, it's different.
The vuvuzelas are killing me, i cut my tv sound before watching if not, after 15 minutes, my hears are dead.

But we might have a great world cup, and maybe a surprise on the 11th of july if "great teams" continue to play as the did (France, Italy, England).

I'd say holland to win this year
 
I hope with all my heart that Vuvuzelan will be banned. I know players, coaches and TV complained about it, I hope Murdoch & co will use their power and let the FIFA ban those horns.
 
I don't mind the vuvuzelas I tune them out when I'm into the game.

Hoping there will be more scoring and exciting play in later games. So far Germany has really only played exciting for me of the games I've watched. Korea was pretty exciting too but didn't see the whole game.
 
I wouldn't read too much into the opening game, in terms of quality of the tournament. Remember a lot of teams are simply trying not to lose the first match (even if it's not against the biggest team) as that makes qualification very difficult.
 
IMO a big part are the referees...
in many games they stop the game, because of some pussy fouls.
then a team gets a free kick in the midfield and the opponant can reset their defense...
that annoys me ;)

for example watching paraguay vs italy was not as that bad, because i saw a game and not just midfield freekicks ;)
 
First of all I think this is a fuckin boring WC even if the only first matches were played.

What caught my attention? Just fouls. Especially ferocious tackles to opponent players' calves. It's horrible to watch them in slow motion. May God save footballers.

My only wish is watching some long range goals, nothing else.
 
From the games I've seen only Mexico, Argentina , Germany have played neat passing football.

Much of the rest is dreadful. The goals per game is already well below that of Germany 2006.

Why is this ? More defensive cautious coaches. Players have just a couple of weeks to prepare together ? Players are tired at the end of their club seasons ?

Unfamiliarity with the ball ? It has been used in the Bundesliga this season, MLS and Argentina Clausura and certainluy the German players had no problem with it.

Altitude of some games ? Players are tired more quickly and because of the smoothness of the ball and less drag (ie no seams to create vortices that drag on it) ir flies more and bounces higher on what are quick drying pitches.

The Dutch players said that they felt tired by just a few sprints and that the pitch dried very quickly.

Excuses. Perhaps. But if it is the ball in part then that's a cock up on FIFA's part.

Also the stadium atmosphere is poor. I;ve only barely managed to hear some of the unique chants ie from the Oranje army and Korean drummers.

The vuvuzela is a constant annoying drone which bears no relation to what is happening on the pitch.

Hopefully the tournament perks up. At the moment it is reminiscent of that awful WC in 1990.
 
Any team wants start the WC with a lose, that's a fact. So i hope better matches in the next round because the nervousness of a first match will be gone.

About the vuvuzelas, they are annoying!
 
ALBICELESTE2010 said:
Unfamiliarity with the ball ?
Click to expand...

For me it's the main reason. Players aren't familiar to it and every single team except Germany and Argentina had to get used to it for the first 30 minutes. Is this a coincidence with the use of Jabulani in the Bundesliga and the Argentinian championship? I really doubt it. In my view, if a normall, heavier ball is used in this world cup, the games would be very very different, more dynamic and on a much higher level as the master players would swim in their own waters. Now they can't come up with a decent long pass...
Otherwise it's like having an NBA team playing with different, lighter and weirder balls - their scoring % would drop dramatically. Same on this world cup. A good airborne pass or a throughball is done with a heavier ball so it can decrease speed at the desired point. Can't see it here yet.
The secondary reason are those idiotic vuvuzelas that must be banned. It's not that they kill the atmosphere but they also make communication between the coaches and players on the pitch almost impossible and this (as everyone who's played football on a regular basis) could be fatal, especially on such high-level matches.

So far it's a failing experiment by Blater.
I read what he said in the media about the vuvuzelas: "How would you react if a support tradition in your country is banned?"
Well flares and smoke balls are practically banned if not used with special permission... you old greedy f**k.
 
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The whole Jabulani issue is a poor excuse for bad performances.
When the Jabulani first was used in Bundesliga matches the teams didn't suddenly start to struggle. A difference wasn't noticeable at all. Maybe the goalies have reasons to complain (like they always do ...) but certainly not the other players.
And it doesn't take months to get used to a new type of ball. All teams had a decent amount of time BEFORE the World Cup to get a feel for it.
 
everyone is playing ULTRA DEFENSIVE because they saw that style of play can bring big results (Greece 2004; Mourinho style) and when a defending team positions a 9 men block at 35m from goal you can't expect to have a beautiful game, it's all about fighting, running and crossing the ball again and again.. :/
 
I'm loving it! :D

Only bad game so far. France vs. Uruguay. And that was because of a really wet pitch I think which made passes heavy.
 
Isaacx said:
It appears I know nothing about football.
That can't be brazil... I have no words for this.

Spain is our last hope...
Click to expand...

Brazil have played this way since 1994.

And I think the defensive mentality is too pervasive because it is sucessful.

Teams that attack lay themselves vulnerable. Argentina played beautifully at the Copa 2007 only to lose the final to a very cynical Brazilian side (80 fouls in 90 minutes ie trips pulls etc etc).

Portugual fell in the Euro 2004 final exposed by one set piece while being the attacking force in the game.

It was good to see Spain triumph in 2008 playing passing football. Perhaps they can shine. Even Argentina have reverted recently to counter attacking in the pursuit of sucess though the plethora of attacking talent may mean the 4-3-3 is persisted with.

1986 was the last WC finals with consistently good games ie Belgium v USSR, France v Brazil, Argentina v England , Danish dynamite etc etc.

1990 was the worst. 2006 wasn't too bad though. 2010 ??? Still too early but the signs aren't good. :(
 
Its always like this at major tournaments, at least lately.
Teams are more afraid to loose than hunger to win.
As soon as some teams found themselves in dangerous situations the games will get better.
But I wouldn't be surprised if we had some 0-0 with penalties at the next round.
 
I think you guys are being too critical. The worst matches have been the big teams. Watching New Zealand-Slovakia and Algeria-Slovenia, you could see some balanced open games. New Zealand drew on the 94'! Korea also played some nice confident football etc. I thought the 2nd half of the Italy game was quite entertaining. It really opened up.

2006 wasn't that different, except the 'bigs' were flying through the group stages.
 
The_Special_One said:
FIFA presents:

The Boring World Cup 2010

:TTTH:
Click to expand...

Brought to you by Inter Milan®.

On a more serious note, I can't stand the number of misplaced long passes. When the ball hits the ground it goes far further than normal, maybe it's not only the ball but also the turfs. Let's see if Xavi or Cesc have problems with that. :P
 
I thought slovakia nz was a fantastic match, hamsic, stetsav(sp?), and the new young gun of the world cup, valdimir "dnice" wiess(pronounced, vice)!!! that kid is fun to watch
 
Hoping that you will see attractive football from Brazil is very naïve.
I'm exagerating, but i find Brazil after 1982 the most boring team in the world. People complain about Inter, but to me Brazil is much more boring than Inter.

About yesterdays match against the People's Republic of Korea: i liked the Koreans. They had a couple of very good players and i liked their passing game.

FIFA should change the format of the World Cup: an immediate knock-out tournament. There should be other incentives for attacking football. If a match ends in penalties, the team that has had most shots on goal should get a 1-0 advantage for the penalties. That way attacking teams are rewarded.

And people are once again complaining about Greece. Greece were not a great team in 2004, but they played very clever. They fully deserved their win at the Euro. If you are not strong enough, you must be clever...Greece played very clever in that tournament...

When i'm complaing about the tournament, i'm not complaining because teams play too defensive, that seems always to be the case at the beginning of Wordl Cups. But now it seems players have lost their technical skills...you hardly see good long distance shots...the matches seem slow and there is hardly good passing...strange.
 
When i was child during 80's or before as my father says,there was very powerfull National teams slashing everyone with their football (like Barca for example in these days) and there was huge difference between A and B National teams in the game ,when you were watching the game on tv,it was very easy to realize the power differences between 2 teams,,i wonder if we will have same situation again in World Cup tournaments in future or its gonna be just like now forever all the games will end 1-1,0-0 or hardly wins 2-1 1-0...
 
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