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Uruguay Vs. Germany 07/10/10 Kamal’s Free Pick and Preview: FIFA World Cup 2010 2:30PM ET (CBC and ESPN)
The FIFA World Cup is down to its final two teams; unfortunately Germany and Uruguay have to settle for the 3rd place match.
Germany lost their semifinal match 1-0 to Spain, in what can only be described as a colossal disappointment. They played the game with a defensive mentality, seemingly with the attitude of “don’t leave any gaps”. This is a good approach if you are Algeria, North Korea or Paraguay but not for a three time World Champion. They were more then happy to give up yards of space in front of them, basically defending their penalty area and only responded after conceding the goal to Pryol, which in its self was down to bad man marking. Spain does deserve the win, but German fans should be angry at their team’s performance in that game. Now they play Uruguay in a game neither really wants to take part in, on the bright side the Germans will be at full strength once again but that is a mere cancellation and just want to get this game over with. Look for another defensive outlook in this one, because the main goal in this game is to come out injury free.
As for Uruguay, they lost their semifinal in a bit more exciting manner 3-2 to Netherlands. However, if we are to be honest here, the game was over with almost 20min left in the 2nd half. Giovanni Van Bronckhorst opened the scoring with a wicked long-range strike that fooled the keeper, but the Uruguayan captain Diego Forlan equalized with a nice goal of his own just before halftime. The break looked to only make the big orange machine even stronger, as goals from the dynamic duo of Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben in the 70th and 73rd minutes sealed the game. The South Americans did pull one back in injury time, but it was too little too late. Now they go up against the Germans with a similar frame of mind, they do get suspended and injured players back but for a game that means absolutely nothing. They will apply a cautious approach and try to get out of this game with no injuries.
Kamal’s Prediction: If I’m to be honest, there should not even be a third place game. This is a moneymaking scheme from FIFA, and has no interest from players, coaches and fans. Both these teams should be on a plane back home, and they will play that way. I do think Germany pull out the win, but who really cares. There are not huge differences in money between the 3rd and 4th place teams. I predict the final score to be 1-0 Germany.
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Previous Fifa World Cup 3rd Place Matches
1970 World Cup: West Germany 1 - 0 Uruguay
1974 World Cup: Brazil 0 - 1 France
1978 World Cup: Brazil 2 - 1 Italy
1982 World Cup: Poland 3 - 2 France
1986 World Cup: France 4 - 2 Belgium
1990 World Cup: Italy 2 - 1 England
1994 World Cup: Sweden 4 - 0 Bulgaria
1998 World Cup: Netherlands 1 - 2 Croatia
2002 World Cup: Korea Republic 2 - 3 Turkey
2006 World Cup: Germany 3 - 1 Portugal
At first, looking at the previous world cup matches starting from the 80's, I was convinced the world cup matches rarely go under, which is still true.
However, looking at the previous matches, exclusively from the 70's, whenever a European team played a South American team, two times it has gone over and two times it has gone under, which means I have no conclusive based on the data.
More recently however, when Germany played Portugal in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, it went over, and so I'm still slightly convinced the game tomorrow will go over.
After all, Germany does have other cup matches to look forward to, and this would be the place to gain a start in showing its strength.
I'm curious to know what you think of historic trend in the FIFA third place matches.