Friday Feature: World Cup
By Sports Analyst Dylan M.
Why the Favorites Lost
No one could have predicted this year’s World Cup outcomes. Italy, France, and Brazil’s early eliminations left fans shocked; Italy was the 2006 World cup winner and some thought a contender. In 2008 with almost the same team, they struggled in the Euro Cup and scraped past mediocre teams in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. In the group stages they looked lackluster and scored late in the games if at all. Their performance was almost as bad as France’s.
France had issues on and off the field, and when the entire team went on strike, the French team almost sealed their fate. In the past, teams that go on strike before the World Cup rarely go past the group stages. For example, Portugal, before the 1986 World Cup, went on strike and, right after, lost to Morocco who currently is 70th all time, as compared to Portugal’s 3rd place ranking.
Brazil, on the other hand, did nothing wrong until the Quarter Finals. They played with style, passed the ball, well and potentially had the players to win the tournament. Unfortunately, Brazil had one problem and it showed in the Netherlands game. They became frustrated and actually conceded an own goal, letting the Dutch team slowly amass pressure on the defense.
Who Will Win
The Spanish will have their work cut out for them when they play a Netherlands team that beat Brazil. The Spanish scrape by in each game. They won by a score of 1-0 against Portugal, 1-0 against Paraguay, and 1-0 against Germany. The Netherlands have a high scoring offence that has been more creative and less selfish frontline that has a even distribution of goals while the Spanish only have three goal scores. My prediction is a 2-1 Netherlands win in the 2010 World Cup.
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Why the Favorites Lost
No one could have predicted this year’s World Cup outcomes. Italy, France, and Brazil’s early eliminations left fans shocked; Italy was the 2006 World cup winner and some thought a contender. In 2008 with almost the same team, they struggled in the Euro Cup and scraped past mediocre teams in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. In the group stages they looked lackluster and scored late in the games if at all. Their performance was almost as bad as France’s.
Brazil, on the other hand, did nothing wrong until the Quarter Finals. They played with style, passed the ball, well and potentially had the players to win the tournament. Unfortunately, Brazil had one problem and it showed in the Netherlands game. They became frustrated and actually conceded an own goal, letting the Dutch team slowly amass pressure on the defense.
Who Will Win
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