FIFA will NOT add extra referees to the World Cup
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
FIFA has decided it will not add extra referees to monitor possible controversial goals as in the case of France and Ireland's qualifying match. This is definitely a step in the wrong direction for FIFA who rightfully is taking a lot of flak for how that match ended. They need to ensure the integrity of the game is preserved by ensuring that cheating during the game doesn't occur.
The next ruling they'll have to decide on is the use of instant replay. I feel they have to have this as an available option for referees to use in case of a critical call in a game. It may be limited to only cases of deciding if a play was a goal or not, but some is better than none at all. If FIFA decides that they don't want to add instant replay, I feel that they would effectively be ignoring that three referees cannot cover every inch of field and events such as Henry's handball. I think the comparison is justified that all major sporting events have adopted some level of instant replay to help the officials review close and controversial calls. I hope FIFA does the right thing and goes in favor of that decision to use it.
Labels: 2010, FIFA, handball, instant replay, referee, world cup
posted by Anthony @ 3:46 PM,
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World Cup 2010 - Pot 2, 3 and 4 - Team Analysis
I haven't found much information on a lot of the teams in these groups, but ESPN has an article which can be found here that goes into a little more detail than I could.
I'll add a few points in addition to what they said about a few teams.
Netherlands: The Dutch were the only team to win every one of their qualifying games despite losing Edwin van der Sar in goal. They showed they can dominate the group stages in EURO 2008, but not much has been seen from them after that. One of their big playmakers Robin van Persie will be coming back from surgery just before the start of the World Cup. I don't think that will hold them back with the depth of their roster. All that aside, they should be a very strong team to go up against.
Portugal: A well rounded team headed by the ever dangerous Ronaldo. He needs to be healthy by June in order for this team to be a big threat. 
Ivory Coast: This team has some of most prolific African players today in Didier Drogba and the Toure brothers. If there's one African team I see making a move, it's this one. A lot of people have been questioning whether any African team will make an impact on this World Cup and I have a feeling one of them might.Pot 4 consists of Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, and Honduras. I call this the "feel good" pot where I think if one of these teams starts to get on a roll, they could be in for a deep run past the group stages.
Labels: 2010, pot four, pot three, pot two, south africa, team analysis, world cup
posted by Anthony @ 2:54 PM,
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World Cup 2010 - Team Analysis - Pot 1
South Africa: The host nation gets the automatic bid into the World Cup. They did better than most expected in the Confederations Cup. They'll get a big boost from the home crowd so they will look to ride that wave to a few wins.
Brazil: As I mentioned in the previous post, Brazil should be the favorite to win in the World Cup. They're a solid team on all fronts and it'll take a perfect performance from their competition to take them down. 
Spain: They broke their long standing image of an underachieving team by winning EURO 2008 and they've put up an impressive qualifying performance being the only team to win every one of their qualifying games. They're a hot team with a prolific goal scorer in David Villa and a very solid midfield. I see them continuing their dominance into the group stages.
Italy: The defending world champions are back with a seed, but this isn't the same team as we saw in 2006. It has definitely aged and has the highest average age of a team in the World Cup at 27 years and four months. They've added some youth since the last World Cup in Giuseppe Rossi who made a splash in EURO 2008. They should fare well in the group stage, but in the later stages they could run into trouble with younger and quicker teams.
Germany: After a heartbreaking finish during that epic semi-final match last World Cup, Germany has proven they can be a contender on the world stage. Now they'll have to prove it without the home crowd. They have almost the same cast of players from four years ago, but without the veteran goalkeeper. 
Argentina: With the infamous Diego Maradona at the helm they have an experienced World Cup coach to help them out. On the other side, they barely qualified with a win in their last game. It'll be up to Lionel Messi to lead the team through the World Cup (I can't believe he's only 21 years old). 
England: I'm always curious to see how England will do in the World Cup. They always boast great talent that play in the Premier League, but have yet to make a deep run in a tournament. As long as they play as a cohesive team, I see no reason why they can't make that late run. 
France: They got a helping hand to qualify for the World Cup. Their top player behind Thierry Henry, Franck Ribéry, has been struggling with a knee injury and has missed playing time in qualifications, but should be fine by this summer. I'm going to be looking at him to be facilitating the big plays for France and if he struggles, I think France will too.Tomorrow I'll break down Pot 2 teams.
Labels: group analysis, pot one, seeded teams, south africa, world cup
posted by Anthony @ 11:02 AM,
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World Cup 2010 Draw - Group Selections
The stage for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is about to be set this Friday, December 4th at noon Eastern Time. For those unfamiliar with how the groups are decided, FIFA separates all of the qualifiers into 4 "pots" based on the confederation they belong to. From there they are drawn into the groups that will play each other in the world cup.
- The first pot consists of the qualifying teams based on FIFA rankings with performances in the past two finals tournaments to create a group of eight seeds plus the host of the tournament. These teams are: South Africa (the host), Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England, and France.
- The second pot includes the rest of the qualifying teams from the UEFA confederation (European teams) which include: Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, and Slovakia.
- The third pot combines the CAF (African teams) and the CONMEBOL (South American teams) which includes: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay.
- Lastly, the fourth pot combines the confederations of AFC (Oceania and Asian teams) with the CONCACAF (North and Central American teams) which have: Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, and Honduras.
For the World Cup there are 8 groups (Groups A-H). These groups will consist of one randomly selected team from each of the pots. With all that said, it'll be exciting enough to see how the draw turns out and which of the groups will be deemed the "group of death" (the group with the most talented teams).
I'll break down the teams further in my next post.
I'm extremely excited to see how the draw turns out and even more excited to see some world class soccer being played this summer.
Labels: 2010, FIFA, group selection, south africa, world cup
posted by Anthony @ 12:07 AM,
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