The World Cup Controversy thread (renamed)

[t00fri]

Bad luck Fridger
... but you have to admire Spain's strategy. They completely shut down and starved Germany of any real opportunity to get into the game. -- This was the perfect strategy against a team like the Germans. A real masterclass in control and short passing...and quite "chess-like" in terms of strategy.
I don't know if I saw more than a dozen times when they passed the ball more than 6 inches from the ground. Great one-touch controlled football.

Looks like Paul the Octopus' winning streak continues though... assuming he's still alive!! (I hear there's been death threats! )

Well I completely agree and right after the first half (0:0), I already pointed this out above. Many analyses by German football experts agreed that currently Spain is the world's best team. The replacement of Mueller by far less dangerous players was considered only as a minor effect.

It was also stated that Spain played by far their best game of the WC 2010 against Germany, while Germany did not have their best day. Don't forget, for example that Spain lost against Switzerland! Such fluctuations at the level of only ONE goal difference always happen. Germany also had a number of dangerous goal chances. Yet Spain definitely played the better game.

Fridger

[Chuft-Captain]

...But the goal is arrived with the rest ball (angle). After the goal, In the successive and more easy occasions to make goals, their have failed in passing the ball (Pedro-Ni?o). Against a cynic Holland they must be more incisives.

I agree. After so much obsessive and continuous passing by Spain, you' would think it would be automatic for Pedro to pass the ball to Torres, but IMO he chose not to see or pass to Torres who was un-marked in an open goal, because he saw a chance for personal glory by scoring himself (striker-syndrome).

[TERRIER]

...But the goal is arrived with the rest ball (angle). After the goal, In the successive and more easy occasions to make goals, their have failed in passing the ball (Pedro-Ni?o). Against a cynic Holland they must be more incisives.

Yes I have to agree - despite all their possession Spain couldn't score a goal in 'open play', they relied on a corner (angle ) kick, the Pedro breakaway was a terrible wasted chance. Did you notice that he was substituted almost immediatelly after the incident? Spain will have to watch out because the Netherlands have got a lot of things in their favour including luck - Van Persie was surely offside for the 2nd goal v Uruguay, and did you see Van Bommel's studs running down the Uruguayan's leg just before their first goal? In fact he has done very well not to receive a red card so far, considering bookings received by Klose and Mueller during this tournament. Somehow his repeated fouls never seem to earn him a yellow card.

P.S.
Is Paul the Octopus consulted also for the final?

I think he's only been used for Germany football results, so I guess he'll predict the 3rd place play-off. If the death threats are true maybe it's time his talents were used to predict much more important things than football.

I say they should put the octopus in. After all, he's got eight legs and is good at getting through small gaps.

Perhaps it was a good thing for his sake that he did'nt play against Spain - I think their skillfull passing game would have tied him in knots

[Chuft-Captain]

P.S.
Is Paul the Octopus consulted also for the final?

Despite death-threats, rumours of Paul's death were wildly exaggerated.
Through my contacts in FIFA I have acquired evidence from an emergency German training camp which suggests a new role for Paul in the near future:

[t00fri]

I love to cook octopus dishes

F.

[Reiko]

I love to cook octopus dishes

F.

Takoyaki!

[t00fri]

I love to cook octopus dishes

F.

Takoyaki!

One Japanese variety that I used to get often for breakfast(!) in Ry?kans was

RAW octopus.

After picking this slimy mess up with your chop sticks it gets longer and longer gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

As a "workaround" , I used to carry along a little plastic bag, specially for dumping the raw octopus. Thereafter, I used to visit one of the many fine bakeries and bought some decent sweet somethings... Moreover I asked my Ry?kan hosts for some ?? to enjoy some good instant coffee in my car (replacing the canonical fish soup)

Fridger

[Chuft-Captain]

Hope you didn't scald yourself. ?? in a car sounds a little dangerous.

[t00fri]

Hope you didn't scald yourself. Boiling Water in a car sounds a little dangerous.

The ?? was of course safely transported in a thermos flask.

F.

[Chuft-Captain]

Paul has picked Spain to win the final over The Netherlands.

[CAP-Team]

I hope Paul 's wrong

[TERRIER]

I love to cook octopus dishes

Paul has picked Spain to win the final over The Netherlands.

Watching a World Cup report yesterday I saw a Dutch fan's comment on Paul's prediction and he said in very good English "Chop, chop, chop!" - somehow I don't think he meant "hurry up"
BTW Paul has also predicted Germany to finish 3rd.

Meanwhile Paul's fame and success has inevitably caused some people to jump on the bandwagon, and he now has a rival, Mani the Parokeet from Singapore, who has started to make the news. It has predicted Netherlands to win the world cup. However I don't believe in this imposter and am sticking with the Octopus.

[t00fri]

Well, "miraculously", in today's nice game Germany <=> Uruquay, Paul was once more right!

I think both sides played good football, and the 3:2 result leading to the World Cup bronze medal for Germany had plenty of dramatic events.

Of course, I have my own, very private theory about the amazing predictiviy of octopus Paul

Fridger

[Chuft-Captain]

Of course, I have my own, very private theory about the amazing predictiviy of octopus Paul

It wouldn't have anything to do with the number 64 (or 128) would it?

[Fenerit]

Of course, I have my own, very private theory about the amazing predictiviy of octopus Paul

Fridger

One of the two containers is much more hard to be open than other?

[Chuft-Captain]

Less than 15 mins to kickoff in the World Cup Final 2010.

I'm hoping some of these guys are not satisfied with the number of goals they've scored so far in the tournament, and they're finally going to go for it, and try to make their mark.
The Netherlands are going to want to take control early if they don't want Spain to control the whole game, so that means they need an early goal. If this happens, then I think we'll see a very high scoring game (at least 5 goals) and a really exciting ping-pong battle.
OK, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Spain will win 4-3
Scorers for NED:
Van Bronklehurst 1
Sneijder 1
Robben 1
Scorers for ESP:
Pedro 1
A.Iniesta 2
Villa 1

If however, Spain scores first, or it's 0:0 at the end of the first half, then it will probably be a tense and tight low scoring battle, which is what most people are predicting.

[t00fri]

Of course, I have my own, very private theory about the amazing predictiviy of octopus Paul

Fridger

One of the two containers is much more hard to be open than other?

No.

Here is my "private" theory

Being an octopus, Paul is actually very stupid and thus always choses the same container, once he learned how to climb on top of such a container. But so what, one can take pictures from either side of the two containers, so it may look as if Paul makes real choices between left and rigtht. In reality it has been the choices of some clever humans.

Next, the best human, professional approach to predicting the outcome of football games is to borrow the very advanced software that is used for (petty successful) hedge fund predictions! Quite related stuff, actually . So, with all available input fed into such outstanding hedge fund software, the resulting predictivity should be MUCH higher than that of a stupid octopus, who always chooses the same container....

That's possibly what we are seing ...

Fridger

[Chuft-Captain]

Very scrappy and disappointing 1st half. Five or six yellow cards and many other fouls. Let's hope the 2nd half is better, otherwise it's looking like option 2 so far, or even penalty shoot-outs.

[Chuft-Captain]

Well, the Dutch tactic was just to get in there and disrupt the Spanish game as much as possible, rather than playing their own game. Unfortunately that made for a very messy and antagonistic game with most of the dutch team yellow-carded, and 1 sent off.
It was a pity because it was NOT a "beautiful game", and I think the Dutch team is better than that. I guess that was their strategy (and it may have got them a result) but in the end, I think the best team won.

And now for the most important statistic....
Because Spain won...
NZ is the only team not to lose a single match in the tournament!


PS. Oh, and Paul the Psychic octopus has a perfect record for the tournament as well.

[Fenerit]

NZ = never lose matches
Switzerland = the only team capable to beat the Champions
Forlan = World Cup's best player (rightly, imho)
Paul the Octopus seem have been fished in Isle of Elba (Tuscany) and then brought in Germany!.

P.S.
Holland "Karate's player" should have been for red card.