We don't know much, but we can begin to anticipate what might happen. We'll take you inside the numbers of the First 16 Matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
9 games went to halftime scoreless, only 2 of them finished that way.
Gianluigi Buffon, Julio Cesar and Iker Casillas all gave up goals, but 13 other goalkeepers posted clean sheets. Italy's back-up didn't give up a goal once he came on. None of them won Man of the Match. 2 Goalkeepers did win Man of the Match, one of them lost 1-0 the other tied 1-1.
Of the Top 6 favorites (based on odds) only 2 teams won, Argentina and Germany
COMNEBOL went undefeated, winning 3 games and drawing twice. That 2.1 pts per team tops UEFA's 4-5-4 record 1.3 pts per team. Other conference's with draws second (as it should be) AFC 2-0-2 (6 pts) OCEANIA 0-1-0 (1 pt) CAF 1-2-3 (5 pts) CONCACAF 0-2-1 (2 pts). I'll take this time to remind you NO UEFA team has ever won a World Cup off European soil.
Cards outnumbered Goals by more than 2:1. On two occasions substitutes earned second yellows. 51 total cards, 3 second yellows and 1 straight EXTREMELY QUESTIONABLE red.
If you want to bring Siphiwe Tshabalaba, the first player to score in the World Cup, to your FIFA 10 Manager Mode team, be ready to fork over 4.9 million dollars on the transfer fee. Gelson Fernandes, the guy who scored against Spain, will cost you 5 million.
Had you for some reason picked those two players on your ESPNSoccernet.com fantasy team, as midfielders, you would have paid 10 million. Cristiano Ronaldo would have cost you 2.5 million more for 15 less points.
Some more FIFA 10, Mexico went with Oscar Perez over Guillermo Ochoa, they are separated by 13 years and 9 rating points. As for the USA, according to FIFA Ratings there are 15 HEALTHY forwards (not including Donovan who is listed as a forward) that are better than Robbie Findlay, listed as a 64 OVERALL (McBride, Adu, Ching, Cooper, Twellman, EJ, Casey, Razov, Rolfe, Noonan, Jacqua, Wolff, Buddle, Cunningham, Mathis) I will buy the argument that 3 of those guys are midfielders. Bob Bradley obviously does not play video games with his son, who is listed as a 76.
25 goals have been scored, by 24 different players, representing 12 different leagues. But nobody has scored twice. One of the scorers is currently a Free Agent. The EPL leads with 5, followed by German Bundesliga (4) French Ligue 1 (3) Turkish Super Lig and Italian Serie A (2). The other leagues all have 1... South African Premier Soccer League, Spanish Primera, J-League, Mexican Primera, Russian Premier League, North Korean 1st Division, Danish Superliga.
NO PLAYER THAT LED HIS RESPECTIVE LEAGUE IN SCORING HAS SCORED YET, meanwhile only 2 club teammates have scored: Klose and Mueller.
87.5% of the teams in the World Cup did not score multiple goals. 5 teams answered an opponents goal with a goal of their own, 4 of them tied 1-1. North Korea are the only team to score and not take a point. Meanwhile 4 teams didn't score and took points.
After Week 2, we will come back and update the old, and bring in some new. Until then enjoy John Harkes referring back to some anecdote of a game that happened a week ago each time he is asked about something going on in the game he is currently broadcasting.
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