2010 FIFA World Cup

Paraguay vs. Japan......who will win?

noobvious said:

Paraguay vs. Japan......who will win?

My guess is that it will end with 11 meters and Japan will win.

msdos622wasfun said:

Do you guys basically feel the way I do about the USA/Ghana game, the notion that yes, USA was beaten, but just marginally? I don't deny that Ghana is strong and put in two goals, but it seems like we had just as many opportunities as they did, the only difference being that USA's attacks on goal were just barely nipped in the bud while being extremely close to the target at the same time. And hey, it went into overtime as well, which just shows that the U.S. could not be easily beaten.

I guess I felt like it could have gone either way. That's why I think the United States is slowly improving and making progress. I can only hope that the trend continues and they will become even stronger opponents in future cups.

I agree, I think they did well. I remember in the past there was a gap between the football / soccer played by the US team and the rest. This time around I think they showed to be competitive. They were eliminated at a stage many other traditional and not so traditional football countries were too. They did a good job

Now, the biggest problem in this cup seems to be the referees. I don't know if it is because we can now see everything with so many cameras and the mistakes, although not so many more than in the past, are easily visible right away (including the giant screen at the stadium).

The solution is that FIFA needs to move from the 19th century and allow instant replay for the refs. They don't need to allow it for everything, just goals and off-sides. That should eliminate 80% of the problems and wrong calls.
Their argument that there is no money to implement it in lower levels is BS. Who cares? Implement it for the World Cup and go from there. I think the pressure will mount now that so many wrong calls were so evident and could have changed the result of several games.

On to the penalty shootout we go!

AlexRD said:

whs said:

noobvious said:

Paraguay vs. Japan......who will win?

My guess is that it will end with 11 meters and Japan will win.

My guess is that its going for penalty

That's what whs means, in German penalty kick is called Elfmeter or Elfer (Elf = 11), due to the distance they are shooted from.

Officially penalty kick is called Strafstoß (Straf = penalty, stoß (in this context) = kick, letter ß = double s), but in all my years here in Germany I think I have never heard people use that word. It's Elfer here

Sorry, I just love to share and learn trivial pieces of information...

And Paraguay advances!

Paraguay wins. Penalties put the players under a lot of pressure, always...I was wondering, how did Kari bet on this one?

After long and tedious negotiations, we (I and the CEO of our family) reached an agreement. She agreed to let me to continue sleeping in the same bed with her, I agreed not to bet in this tournament any more.

But, of course, had I made a bet, it had been Japan wins in regular time.

Kari said:

After long and tedious negotiations, we (I and the CEO of our family) reached an agreement. She agreed to let me to continue sleeping in the same bed with her, I agreed not to bet in this tournament any more.

Nice argument not to bet anymore, haha