World Cup Group Stage Results
Well the Group stages of this South African World Cup has finished, and there have been some shocks along the way. Europe is fairly under-represented going into round two, compared to previous competitions. Perhaps the most unexpected early exits were France, who were riddled with self-doubt and internal political problems; and Italy, who just never seemed to get going this time. For an achingly long time, it appeared that England may throw away a once in a generation opportunity to excel, by drawing all three group games and exiting stage right. However, they mustered up a good performance against Slovenia to secure a 1-0 win, which could easily have been 3-0 or even 4-0. But it wasn’t, and left them thoroughly exposed to the result of the USA – Algeria match. USA scored an injury time winner off a rebounded shot, which propelled them to the top of the gorup and “easy street”, and which rather sadly saw Slovenia get dumped out. England slide into the death match route to the final now.
Some commemtators have said that the USA, with their injury time goal, effectively knocked England out of the World Cup. The route for England to reach the final is now a minefield of arch enemies, starting with Germany. If – and it’s a big if – they do beat Germany, the following match is likely to be an on form (but rather insipid) Argentina. I haven’t bothered to look at semi-final possibilities, but a World Cup final showdown will probably end up including Brazil, unless any more shockers materialise.
It was nice to see an African team – Ghana – get through to the second round, along with a couple of the Asian nations, South Korea and Japan. And now there are some tasty games on the agenda: England v Germany is always a good one (pity England always lose them in World Cup competitions!); Spain v Portugal; and Argentina v Mexico. Should be fun.
FIFA’s Official World Cup Site has a summary of positions after the Group Stages.
And the fixtures for round 2 are as follows:
Uruguay v South Korea
USA v Ghana
England v Germany
Argentina v Mexico
Holland v Slovakia
Brazil v Chile
Paraguay v Japan
Spain v Portugal
Hopefully, the soccer goals will come thick and fast – and in England’s game will all be scored by England! How’s that for impartiality! I somehow don’t think that will come to pass however, and expect a very nervy and tense game.
