I wonder why no one is talking about this
Through 16 games of the World Cup we've seen some spectacular play. The truly surprising thing is the number of long range bombs we've seen from players. Shots that have occurred from way, way out.
There have been some truly spectacular goals and almost goals... Fring's goal as well as Rosicky's goal stand out... but let's not forget Rosicky's second shot that hit the post or Totti's blast from 40 yards out (which I think is still arcing upward). Kaka's goal against Croatia was from fairly deep as well. It looks like FIFA's desire to get a ball that changes the game might, finally, have worked. It hasn't impacted the scoring yet, which is unfortunate. Through 16 games the average goals scored was 2.4375... That's actually up a bit from the last World Cup. I expect that, as teams start scouting more, they'll realize how many of these goals are being scored and they'll tell their players to start shooting from further out. That should provide us with more midfield scoring as well as opening up space for the forwards as defenders are forced to worry about attackers in a wider area.
Let's hope that the trend continues and we see more of these spectacular shots as they provide great highlights and don't require the intricate build up play that sometimes gets bogged down.
Edit: After a careful culling of the memory, I've found the following goals
Lahm: First goal by Germany, just outside the corner of the 18 yard box
Frings: Dead center, roughly 30 yards out
Beckham: Technically an own goal but probably shouldn't be... from way outside the corner of the 18 yard box
Rosicky: Second goal of the game... Roughly 25 yards out
Pirlo: First goal of the game... Outside the corner of the 18 yard box
Cahill: Second goal... Roughly 20 yards out
Kaka: Roughly 25 yards out
Ahn: Game winner against Togo... Roughly 25 yards out
Lee: First goal against Togo... Free kick
Villa: Free kick against Ukraine
That's 10 goals out of 39 or roughly 25%... pretty remarkable and, except for the Lee and Beckham goals, they were all in the run of play which is even more remarkable.
3 Comments:
Other than the horrendous Team USA performance this World Cup has been immensely entertaining. Every game, even the ones you would think might be less than quality, have been awesome. Hislop and Robben were spectacular in their games. Australia's comeback against Japan, Saudia Arabia's comeback against Tunisia only to be scored on at the end for the draw, Beckham's goal that I think goes in off the far post even without the OG flick, the lack of diving and whining compared to what we see on a regular basis at the club level, Poland's rebound against Germany only to have their hearts broken in the 92nd minute (Boruc was amazing), and really only one terrible call by a referee (Ukraine's red card) and fortunately it didn't affect the outcome, just all around great efforts, close games for the most part, good officiating, phenomenal crowds (especially Germany-Poland where I felt like I was there). This is why TiVo was invented, so I can watch 5 hours of World Cup soccer every night when I get home from work. I haven't gotten anything else done but, fortunately, Sheryl is into it as well. And I know everyone says this but there's a reason everyone says this...Ronaldinho is AWESOME! I think he could make backgammon exciting.
Ah yes... I forgot the lack of diving, or, to put it into technical terms, "Simulation". There have been a couple other refereeing snafus but nothing major.
My only complaint is that the Messing and Balboa team of commentators are flat out horrible. Messing insisting that Japan should have been called for a foul on their goal against Australia was ridiculous. And what was the deal with O'Brien talking about politics for 20 minutes during the Mexico/Iran game?
Thank god Harkes/JP have the best non-USA games... They're fantastic.
Spoilers for NED v. IVC below....
You can add Gerrard and one of the Kone's from IC to the list. Zakora for IC almost had one and Van Persie's free kick was nice too.
On a side note, Drogba's second (cumulative) yellow card was crap. Not that it matters unfortunately.
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