(06-25-2010, 04:07 AM)kandrathe Wrote:(06-24-2010, 05:55 PM)Jester Wrote: They finished last in their group... that contained *New Zealand*. This World Cup is just full of surprises.Is it just me, or is this showing that the method of grouping and counting points for advancement is wrong? I would think the finals should have the best teams, right?
I disagree. France and Italy each played three matches in the World Cup finals, and weren't able to win any of them. They don't deserve a free pass into the round of 16. It's not like they were stuck in impossible groups. France and Italy were the ones that were supposed to be tough to beat in their groups. Everyone expected Italy to suddenly wake up and make plays when they were facing a real chance of being eliminated in the third match, but instead they lost to Slovakia. The French team had completely lost faith in their coach and probably wouldn't win if you gave them another 10 chances.
Certainly you can outplay a team in soccer for most of the game and they can happen to score the goal and win the game, but no changes to the tournament format would change that. If you are going to bother holding a tournament, you have to reward the teams that actually win their matches instead of the teams who should have won or may be playing below their potential.
Edit: The tiebreaker system is indeed screwy though. The good thing about it is encourages more aggressive play in a sport that desperately needs it. But if two teams end up with the same number of points and the one who beat the other fails to advance, that is a bit odd.