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Tournament Pool Update
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Brazil (7-0) is the

2002 FIFA World Cup

Champions

 

Tuesday, July 2, 2002       
Issue 18.5.2 "Reflections..."
http://www.HWCI.com/worldcup
GERMANY TO REGROUP AND HOST IN 2006
Race to finish won by Puna

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt) - Brazil won the battle of World Cup powers but this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for Germany after the aged group lost in the quarterfinals in 1998.  Six hosts have won the Cup and Germany hopes to be the seventh (their second time).  Co-hosts Japan and Korea amazingly kept the streak alive of hosts reaching the second round with South Korea finishing fourth and Japan ninth.  France had the worst performance ever for a defending champ, going goalless.  Brazil, who struggled to qualify, will once again have to do battle in the tough South American qualifying as defending champions now won't get a free ride to the next World Cup. 

Despite all the upsets, it was still a European and South American team in the final for the fifth straight year and Euro/SA teams taking five of the top six positions.  All five participating confederations (excluding OFC who didn't have a team qualify) had at least one team in the Round of 16 with UEFA (Europe) leading with 9 (of their 15 teams).  The CAF (Africa) once again (same in '98) had just one of five teams make the Round of 16.  They had lobbied to increase their allotment from five in '98 but I guess it's a good thing they didn't.  If not for the co-hosts, the AFC (Asia) would've been embarrassed with China and Saudi Arabia finishing 31st and 32nd (0-6, zero goals, -21 GD combined!).  The CONMEBOL (South America) had a disappointing year, placing just 2 of five teams in the Round of 16.  CONCACAF had a blockbuster year placing 2 of 3 teams in the Round of 16 (w/Costa Rica a respectable 1-1-1) and the US advancing to the quarterfinals.  Maybe they'll gain a fourth spot or at least have a playoff for it.  I still think the OFC should get one entry into the World Cup instead of the playoff with CONMEBOL.  Then again, besides Australia, who else is there? 

It's hard to believe 31 days of soccer are over.  BTW, South Korea rightly won the Most Entertaining Team award.  But it boggles my mind that Oliver Kahn (GER) won the Golden Ball Award (like the MVP award).  He did make a critical mistake that cost Germany the Cup and gave up two goals in the final.  I would've picked Ronaldo (who got the Silver Ball; Korea's Myung Bo Hong got the Bronze Ball) for first with Kahn second.  In 1998,  they did the same thing giving Ronaldo the Golden Ball despite his nonexistence in the final that Brazil lost!  Oh, well.  Now, here are my final observations:

EXCUSES: Let's see, there was the holographic gold tinted ball that teams had to get used to.  Or it was the poor refereeing, that did a good job at first even carding players for dives, but was uneven the rest of the tourney with the linesmen all needing laser eye surgery.  But the biggest excuse was the season.  Due to the rainy season in southeast Asia, the finals were moved up 2-3 weeks.  This then gave players playing in the top leagues a mere few weeks to recover and I think the quality showed.  Teams like South Korea, however, had 2-3 months to prepare as a team.

COVERAGE:  We all know ESPN sucks.  But did they have to settle for the poor broadcast signal and 14-15 second delay (compared with Univision)?  And the announcers, well, I did like Tommy Smyth and all his rantings.  Jack Edwards, though, needs an original thought once in a while.  And once again, ABC didn't show the cup opening ceremony nor the closing ceremony and trophy presentation.  Thank goodness for Univision.

REDEMPTION:  Ronaldo (BRA) erased the nightmare of the 1998 final with 2 goals and nearly scored in every match (6 of 7) and won the Golden Shoe with 8 goals.  Ireland coach Mick McCarthy got rid of captain Roy Keane and defied critics by leading them into the second round.  David Beckham, whose red card in '98 contributed to England's loss to Argentina in the Round of 16, redeemed himself among English fans by scoring the game-winning goal (PK) in their 1-0 defeat of Argentina.

FINAL STATS:  Nine teams rallied to win (9-39-13, 3 0-0 ties)- just six in '98.... three golden goals- just one in '98... seven goals in the last two matches bumped the total to 161 goals- off from 171 in '98... no red cards in the last 7 matches, no penalty kicks in the last 8 matches (18 both years- 17/18 in '98, 13/18 in '02)... 13 of 18 knockout matches were shutouts- just 6 in '98... every team in the Top 20 except Brazil had at least one tie... Brazil (7-0), Spain (3-0-2), and Ireland (1-0-3) did not lose a match- France, Italy, and Belgium did so in '98... only 5 teams had more than 2 wins- 7 in '98... there were 14 ties in the Round Robin- 16 last year... Brazil came from Group C- France also came from Group C in '98... 7 teams were winless- 12 in '98... Ireland had 3 ties- 3 teams did so in '98.

WOW:  Checking the FIFA.com website, Rafael Marquez's (MEX) flying headbutt into USA's Cobi Jones got a four-match suspension.  Portugal's Joao Pinto (red card vs Korea) though, is suspended until further notice.  He is alleged to have hit the referee who gave him the red card.  Germany looks like it will be the first Round of 16 World Cup team to play as it takes on Bulgaria on August 21.  The first World Cup team to play before that will be South Africa against Madagascar on July 21.  In "The Other Final", the two worst teams in the world battled with host #202 Bhutan beating #203 Montserrat, 4-0, in front of 10-25,000 fans, depending on the report.  Bhutan is the newest FIFA member and once lost to Kuwait, 20-0, while half of the country of Montserrat and its only soccer field were destroyed by a volcano eruption in 1995.  After a logistical nightmare of 20 cities with 20 stadiums in 2 countries separated by water, things will be back to normal in 2006 with just 12 stadiums and one country.

WATCH OUT:  Turkey finished third and is poised to top it in 2006 with the motivation to please the many Turkish immigrants in Germany.  Were the USA, South Korea, and Senegal performances flukes?  As young teams, the experience should prove very beneficial in 2006 but the strange land and shortened break hindered a lot of European teams.  The France era ('98 WC, '00 Euro) is over.  Brazil looks to be the favorite again unless Argentina figures out what went wrong.  With all their talent and potential, Africa is a disorganized mess. 

In the pool, PUNA (Tina M) won the pool on the final match, the first time this has happened in HWCI history. PUNA was helped when France (picked by 6 to reach the final) and Argentina (by 12) failed to advance.  DANNY BOY, who finished two pts off the lead, will be forever wondering why he picked China in two matches and to reach the Round of 16 (5 points lost).  DIMPLES who finished three points off also picked China in two matches.  BERNISAM UNITED FC needed all the upsets to happen as she finished 0-for-the-Final-Four but still got fourth place.  FLYING ELVI's poor Round of 16 picks (just 9 of 16) prevented him from taking Germany's success to a money spot.  Interestingly, all four winners are first-time (NCAA or World Cup) HWCI pool entrants.  This unique pool format has worked well for the second straight time so I doubt if I'll be making changes for 2006.  Unlike the FIFA Bud Challenge Pool (which somehow I came out on top) where points were confusing and most people forgot to enter the 2nd round picks.

Here's a recap of the 2nd Quadrennial HWCI FIFA World Cup Pool:

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Deutschland!...
Scott HW

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