I mean, in the semifinals teams played not to win but to avoid errors.  Thats why we have those great games but no goals. Is this a premonition of a horrible lack of goals during Germany World Cup?
125962
Not necessarily. In the World Cup, the only teams who will be thinking about that will be the actual contenders like Brazil, Germany, and England, but all other teams will most likely go on attack quite frequently because they really don't have much to loose. Think of a country like Holland: They have great striking power (Van Nistelrooy) and have almost no chance of actually winning. So, why should they not give it everything they have and just try to not make mistakes, rather than not make mistakes and just try to not lose.
665772
I think is a huge mistake, as shown in the first world cup game Lehmann could do nothing in the goals received from Costa Rica, but Lehmann is not in trouble only because his teammates have been doing a great deffensive and offensive game, besides he has no presence in the field when he is on it.\n\nKing Khan  presence is no doubt impressive when he is in the field: he rules!
649325
i h8 u. no jk jk, i really didn't care who won, but if they put lionel messi in you German fans would have been CRUSHED! so HA! not our fault that the Germans killed our goalie so we couldn't put in Messi beacuse we couldn't substitute anymore.\n\nwait. why am i saying "we"? i'm not even argentinian. ah well. : ]
676632
i dont think brazil are playing at their best, but i think all the lower ranked teams are having a real go in this world cup. aus played quite well but we all now that brazils defence isn't the best in the world. i think offensively brazil havn't been at their best but this maybe just because they havn't played any big teams.  i think when they play some of the bigger teams such as england, italy germany etc uboth teams will go out there to score goals. the 2 teams brazil have played so far have been quite defensive so its been quite difficult for brazil. i think wither argentina or spain will win it tho
604463
I think they do in a bottom line situation. Many of the favoured teams have started slowly or been a little disappointing. Who really knows how that match would have gone or played out if they had a better referee. He truly was terribly inconsistent today and effected the game greatly. I think he had both teams in fear by half time and that must have had an effect in how they played their game. I think the coach needs to find better combinations on the field. Totti, Del Piero and others have played together in previous world cups but are hardly ever on the field together to lead with experience. Del Piero was in place to score on many occasions, however the ball didn't get to him all that often.
625213
brazil is not gettin favored by fifa. I have watched the brazil games and there have been no questionable calls...like in other games, today in the korean game..the scorer was obviously offsides, I don't think the ref's are favoring one team, they just aren't doing a good job.\nI enjoyed the last world cup more, just because Oliver Khan showed how good of a goalie he is, and this year he's not playing.
267663
Yes.  Championship games usually end in penalty shots if no goals are scored in regulation or sudden death.  I take it you guys lost by the question.  Enjoy the World Cup!
218757
Very unlikely, although many people still look at GermAny more for their awesome reputation rather than current playing ability.\n\nThis is more like the the Euro 92, which they hosted. Although they reached the final without actually playing well, they lost to Denmark. I expect something similar this year. Germany will reach the semis possibly, but will fall short of winning the trophy.
598658
Because the winning goal is scored due to the awarded penalty that last 5th minute.\n\nIf this penalty kick was awarded earlier in the game, there might be lesser unhappiness among non Italian supporters now. \n\nBesides... the fall by Grosso does look rather exaggerated after watching its repeats... I'm an Italian fan but it does look debatable, the fall and PK.\n\nHow does one judge who SHOULD win or who doesn't deserve to win? Very often a stronger team may fail to score while the weaker team might have other forms of advantages that helped it to score. This applies to almost all scoring games.
607465
Its more of a lack of talent than desire. Most of the people in the U.S. dont even know how to spell soccer, much less play it. Unlike all the other countries in the World Cup, where thats all they do is play soccer. I think we bit off more than we could chew, especially with a #5 ranking that we didint deserve anyway.
605192
Just not good enough to match the higher International standard, as defeats to Portugal and Argentina showed.\n\nThe Confed Cup is a friendly tournament, this is the REAL thing.
429541
Of course, winning by 3 goals during the standard play time is faaar better than winning on shoot outs.Italy won by luck and everybody knows it.But in the 1998 world cup,France won over Brazil 3-0 with 2 beautiful headers from Zizou.This victory deserves more laurals and accolades than winning by luck.Its fortunate that ppl hav understood this.
451444
Not one single opposing player scored on Italy for the entire WC in regular play.  I seriously doubt Ziziou or anyone else would have done that with only 10 minutes left.\n\nEdit:\nSome good points below me that indeed the Italians could have lost in the final moments of the game (not including the fact Zizou would have been in the shoot out).  What I want to know is how much some of you would have bet money on it.\nYes Italia did well in the Germany game, and lets not forget the Australians against South Korea (I think it was against SK).  It's just not likely is all.
648141
That is just rubbish. The Australian teams fitness allowed them to run all over Japan in the final stages of the game and take advantage of the cracks that started to appear. They played the game until the final whistle, didn't assume the game was won or lost, just kept playing and deserved their win.\n\nBrazil are a great team but in the game of football/soccer, anything can happen. Great teams can lose, mediocre teams can upset them with wins and draws. Brazil don't play perfectly every game, they are human no matter how many super stars they have. You are only as good sometimes as your opposition allows you to be. Perhaps that accounts for Brazil not winning that particular game.\n\nJapan lost that is all there is to it. Beaten by the better team ( my boys) on the day. No bribery no nothing. They were simply defeated. accept it as all of us have to when our teams are not successful.
651564
yeah... must be more pressure and more panic causes them to win. they lose against the not-so-good teams because they probably are more self confident and don't try as hard as they would if the team were say, Brazil.
599282
With a performance like today's, no, we'll never win the World Cup.\n\nWe should decline to qualify for World Cups in Europe.  Not sure what it is, but in our last 7 matches in World Cups in Europe, we're 0-7 with 3 goals scored and 16 surrendered.
638701
I'm no expert but it did seem to me that the ref was biased in favour of the home team.  This might've been understandable in the days when the Germans were far and away the cleanest players, but now they're not much better than the average bunch of sneaks and crybabies who play international soccer.