World Cup Soccer: Argentina 4 South Korea 1

Both teams played a beautiful game. It could be argued that South Korea were punished for making it interesting by attacking instead of playing the whole game on defense. I hope that these are the two teams that qualify from this group.

I also think that Messi needs a rest and should not play in the next game.

World Cup Soccer Red Card: Greece 2 Nigeria 1

This game shows that soccer needs instant replay in order to get rid of the acting. Vassilis Torosidis should be suspended. The only good thing is that Greece is unlikely to advance as they play Argentina next (who may go easy on them) and South Korea should beat a demoralized Nigerian team. I had picked Nigeria as the African team most likely to win this world cup.

World Cup Soccer: France 0 Mexico 2

Mexico played a beautiful game and won. I'm glad the agressive team won one (unlike SPA vs SUI).

World Cup Soccer: South Africa 0 Uruguay 3

South Africa could still qualify by beating France in their next match, which I hope they do, as long as Mexico beats Uruguay.

World Cup Soccer: Spain 0 Switzerland 1

Spain is one of the most entertaining teams to watch. I hope they win the cup and that they score many goals the next time they play so well. I hate the boring defensive soccer that is too often rewarded.

Goals by nation that the player plays in professionally

Spain: 7
Eng: 6
Ger: 4
Fra, Mex: 3
Italy, Turkey, Greece: 2
Japan, South Africa, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal (and North Korea): 1

Sure, everyone's tracking which national team scores how many goals. This shows which leagues have the best players.

World Cup Soccer: Brazil 2 North Korea 1

Brazil gets punished for playing 60 boring minutes. They have to hope that North Korea ties one of the other two opponents (I hope North Korea punishes Portugal for playing boring soccer. Brazil v. CIV on Sunday on ABC. I'm looking forward to it.

World Cup Soccer: Cote D'Ivoire 0 Portugal 0

A boring and disappointing game.

BTW, CIV recognizes only its name in French, not its name in English. The
Spanish is Costa de Marfil.

World Cup Soccer: New Zealand 1 Slovakia 1

The highlight of the day and upset of the tournament so far, New Zealand scored a goal for the first time ever and showed that Oceania has a place in the World Cup.

Why Nate Silver's World Cup model is doing so badly

Quick thoughts, but Nate Silver's world cup statistical model is doing badly for several reasons.

1) Soccer is not baseball. It does not have repeated activities that are easy to measure statstically.

2) The World Cup delivers little data. Teams perform differently in the finals than in qualification. Those such as the USA that face poor quality opposition get ranked too high. Others get ranked too low.

3) The Africa factor. The African teams are underfunded compared to, for example, Japan, and therefore naturally perform less well than better funded teams. England's coach makes $9 million per year. The US coach makes $500,000. African coaches make less, and also may have a shorter tenure.

4) A low scoring game can have unpredictable results -- especially in games decided by a red card or penalty kick (or even a free kick).

World Cup Soccer: Great Websites for US Viewers

The ESPN / ABC TV schedule is here (I have it in EST).

This excellent diagram (h/t Glenn Strachan) provides several ways to slice and dice world cup data.

The official site of the world cup finals is here, and the qualifiers are here. Both are large sites with a lot of data, but you have to dig to find it.

Italy 1 Paraguay 1

Italy played the usual boring catenaccio. Paraguay, the number 2 team out of South America, played a far more timid game than I expected, but this bullet to the head is the likely reason.

Italy substituted their superstar goalie out of the game. I wonder how it will effect his confidence. The press was told he had a hamstring injury, but I suspect vicious Italian pique ("I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian soccer").

World Cup: Japan 1 Cameroon 0

Sometimes, African teams choke on the world stage. This was sad to watch, but the Japanese played very well.

World Cup: Netherlands 2 Denmark 0

A strange game. No total football was played by either team. I hope these teams play harder in the future. I had expected a 4-3 win for Holland.

World Cup: Serbia 0 Ghana 1

Serbia played better than I expected them to and Ghana played worse. This game was decided by a penalty kick and a red card. I hope both teams do better in subsequent games.

World Cup: Germany 4 Australia 0

Australia is much worse without Kewell, who is very much like Michael Owen, but I expected more from them. They were brilliant in the last world cup and lost only to Italian cheating.

Germany played a perfect game, but one astute commentator noted that Argentina had a perfect game in the first round in the last world cup and did not win it. Germany's next game is very important and will show whether that perfection lasted only one game.

World Cup: England 1 USA 1

England scored both goals; USA happy with the result. But I expected more from both teams. Sloppy play from everyone but Gerrard, and Gerrard was playing solo too much. The English need better teamwork, and the Americans need better individual performances. Howard is a superstar. I hope he moves to Liverpool FC.

World Cup: Argentina 1 Nigeria 0

I felt bad for Nigeria, a team that has played beautiful soccer in previous world cups. I also expected more from Argentina.

World Cup: France 0 Uruguay 0

As expected, the Euros played boring and defensive soccer. Uruguay, one of the lower ranked South American countries, has potential but little confidence.

World Cup: South Africa 1 Mexico 1

This was a fun game with two good goals and a good lesson on the offsides rule. I think the offsides rule should be changed to "one player other than the goalie between the ball and the net".