World Cup 2010 Blog: “Which Continent Will Win World Cup 2010?” plus 2 more

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• Which Continent Will Win World Cup 2010?
• The Dreaded Penalty Shootout
• Do you know your World Cup Trivia?

Which Continent Will Win World Cup 2010? Posted: 22 May 2010 10:17 PM PDT Predicting which of the 32 qualified teams will take home the biggest prize in football is a tricky thing. There are always a few favorites, a number of strong teams that are always close, and a few dark horses that make predictions even harder. Maybe there are just too many possibilities to make a clear prediction, so let’s make it a little more simple: Which continent will produce the World Cup winner? This history on this is perfectly divided. There have been 18 previous World Cups. Nine have been won by European teams, nine by South American ones. This being the 19th, one of those could step up and claim the lead for themselves … or the unexpected could happen and a country from outside of the Big Two could break their duopoly for the first time. Side note: I’m not 100% sure that duopoly is a word, but spellcheck isn’t underlining it, so I’m calling it good. Spellcheck is the Scrabble dictionary of the 21st century, validating conveniently made-up words. Here are the countries from each continent (or confederation if you prefer FIFA words): - Asia (4): Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea - Africa (6): Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa - North and Central America (3): Honduras, Mexico, USA - South America (5): Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay - Oceania (1): New Zealand - Europe (13): Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland Fun fact that a lot of you already know: No European team has ever won a World Cup hosted outside of Europe. Fun fact that you all had better know: South Africa is well outside of Europe. Discuss. And leave your answer in the comments. We’ll count them up at some point and see how well the community did at narrowing the winner down to at least the right major land mass. Also, if you haven’t filled out your World Cup bracket yet, do it. Do it now.

The Dreaded Penalty Shootout Posted: 22 May 2010 08:38 AM PDT The dreaded penalty shootout. After 120 minutes of exhausting play finishing in a draw, 10 players are chosen to step up to the penalty spot and try to beat the goalkeeper from 12 yards. It sounds simple, but it isn’t. Each player is under immense pressure. The world is watching him kick the ball. The weight of a nation is on his shoulders. And because of this, sometimes the best players miss penalty kicks. It’s all about staying calm under pressure. There is nothing more agonizing then watching your favorite team in a penalty shootout situation. You know that with one mistake your team risks elimination. However, I must admit, that whenever my favorite team isn’t involved I don’t mind watching penalty kicks. From a neutral point of view, they can be fun and exciting. Sometimes when a game is tied in extra time I hope for a shootout, just for a little fun. But when my team is involved, I hate the damn thing and whoever thought up this cruel way to resolve a draw. Penalty shootouts were only introduced in 1970, when a new method was needed to resolve draws at major tournaments. Because of the ever-growing influence of TV on football, the old replay method was no longer feasible. How could you draw a game and then say “stay tuned for the replay next week!”. And the other method, the coin toss, was even more ridiculous. How could you decide a winner simply based on the way a coin fell to the ground? So, this penalty shootout method was implemented. The first shootout at a World Cup finals didn’t take place until the 1982 tournament in Spain when West Germany prevailed over France. After that, penalty shootouts have been more and more prevalent at the final tournament. Statistically speaking, out of the 16 single elimination games at the World Cup you can expect anywhere from 2-4 penalty shootouts based on past history. It isn’t a bad number, and up until now there have never been more than 4 in one World Cup (thankfully). So while you may despise the penalty shootout, unfortunately, it is inevitable. You can expect to see some in South Africa this June. Here are the videos of all the shootouts from 2006:

Do you know your World Cup Trivia? Posted: 22 May 2010 06:36 AM PDT Are you going to be watching the World Cup this summer and fear that you don’t know enough about it’s history? Do you want to impress people while watching the games by bringing up random facts and notes? Or do you simply want to increase your already vast knowledge of the beautiful game and simply seem like a walking version of a soccer encyclopedia? Well, here’s a good website for you. I came across this website which has trivia quizzes on every World Cup from Uruguay 1930 all the way to Germany 2006. The quizzes are pretty fun, because most of them contain facts that many people don’t know. Did you know that in 2006 in addition to practicing set pieces in training Didier Drogba and his Cote D’Ivoire teammates practiced dance moves? Did you know that in 2002 Ronaldo adopted this ridiculous hairstyle because his son was mistaking Roberto Carlos for him on tv? Did you know that India withdrew from the 1950 finals because they weren’t allowed to play barefoot? This website has countless facts like that for all World Cups and in addition to trivia they of course have general World Cup records and statistics. In general, it’s a very good website to make you seem like a Soccer Einstein this summer and impress your friends.

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