" Upsetting " World Cup

[Flubber]

I know its just the first games and most of the favorites can still advance but

Senegal 1 France 0
USA 3 Portugal 2
Korea 2 Poland 0
Japan 1 Belgium 1

I wonder if this is one of the most suprising first sets of games ??

Also I was wondering if some of the people who had a consistent rant over the fact that there were too many weak non-European teams will fess up and admit that the rest of the world is catching up and perhaps European representation is just about right ( 15 teams is it not ?). The current record of European qualifiers stands at 5 wins and 6 losses with 5 draws so they are hardlyy showing any dominant strength.

With the exception of the embarrassment of the Saudis 8-0 loss, I believe that the largest margin of victory is 2 goals so we are seeing some good close games.

I don't doubt that Europe remains a very strong region but these results suggest that anyone complaining that Europe deserves even more representation is misguided at best.

[Jay Bee]

If I were Sepp Blatter (the unspeakable horror! ), I would try to cut the number of European teams down to 10 or so. There is already a European Championship, and the way it's now in the final rounds is just another European Championship plus Argentina and Brazil.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Maybe in order for Euro to compete they should have an EC team instead.

J/k

[mark13]

Yeah, agreed entirely. I think European representation is spot on - the African teams have proved themselves more than worthy, and the Asian hosts have both done themselves proud.

I honestly think the Saudis just had a bit (lot) of an off-day, I don't think they're quite as bad as they looked against Germany (they won their qualifying section, ahead of teams like Iran).

And the US weren't bad either, I suppose.

Though just to nitpick, it was Japan 2-2 Belgium, and not 1-1 - personally I wouldn't call that an upset, having seen Japan previously, but still.

[Thorgal]

Japan 1 Belgium 1

Japan 2 Belgium 2

[Arrian]

Didn't Ireland just tie Germany, 1-1? That would be an upset, no?

-Arrian

[C0ckney]

Not really, both teams played very good football, a draw was the fairest result

Besides Germany have gone crap lately

[Imran Siddiqui]

The only undefeated conference in this year's World Cup so far is CONCACAF, which is 3-0 (Mexico, Costa Rica, US). Shouldn't we get an extra spot from the Europeans?

[Inverse Icarus]

i dont follow soccer at all but AMERICA WON.

[Arrian]

Hopefully, they'll win a little bit more, and people will start to take an interest in soccer. It's a great sport... much more so than some others which dominate over here.

-Arrian

[Hagbart]

Originally posted by Jay Bee
If I were Sepp Blatter (the unspeakable horror! ), I would try to cut the number of European teams down to 10 or so. There is already a European Championship, and the way it's now in the final rounds is just another European Championship plus Argentina and Brazil.

In this WC there are 15 euro teams. Are you saying that you would remove 5 of these teams? And replace them with what? Honduras? Canada? Tibet? That would lower the quality very much.
Which euro teams should it be? Holland is not even at this WC, and i see Holland as the best of the teams in the world, that did not qualify.

5 of 10 countries in the COMMEBOL (South American) group qualified for the WC. Thats 50%.
15 of 51 countries in the UEFA group qualified for the WC.
Only < 30%. It is unfair to lower this even more.

I think that 15 teams from europe is fine.

[Solly]

There should be eight more spots available, and at least seven should go to European sides.

[Imran Siddiqui]

There should be eight more spots available, and at least seven should go to European sides.

BWAHAHAH!

If there were 8 more spots, no more than FOUR should go to the Euros. They don't deserve it, as shown this year.

[Solly]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

There should be eight more spots available, and at least seven should go to European sides.

BWAHAHAH!

If there were 8 more spots, no more than FOUR should go to the Euros. They don't deserve it, as shown this year.

Says an Asian living in the Americas.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Who knows that European teams aren't at the higher quality they used to be. Europe is fading as other continents rise.