FIFA Confederations Cup 2013 - Official Discussion Thread

[minionofmidas]

1-1. Spain are content scoring once. Tahiti save their goal for very late this time. (One can dream...)

[Hash]

Hopefully Spain treats this as one of their matches where they don't care and the greatest team ever (Tahiti) upsets them with a tie (or a win!).

[Keystone Phil]

Spain won't run up the score. They'll "only" win...

Spain -  5
Tahiti -  0


I'm more interested in the amount of possession Tahiti has. Maybe 10%.

[minionofmidas]

80% is the highest 'possession rate' recorded that I could find evidence for in a few minutes searching, not counting these two evident errors.

Barca lost a CL game with almost that level of possession this year, of course (to Celtic, in the group stage).

[Keystone Phil]

A friend of mine pointed out that Spain will probably aim for 7-0 to best Nigeria's total and goal difference in this match. Very good point but I'm sticking with 5-0.

[Lief 🗽]

TODAY WE ARE ALL TAHITIANS

Let's hope the forces of good triumph over the forces of evil.

[Lief 🗽]

NOOOOOOOO

[NewYorkExpress]

Pick for the Uraguay-Nigeria Game

Nigeria 3
Uraguay 2

[Keystone Phil]

Only 1-0 in the 23rd minute! Woo!

Prediction for the late game:

Nigeria -  2
Uruguay -  2

[Tender Branson]

Spain now up 4:0 ...

[Tender Branson]

The Spanish have no mercy ... see -> Mayas, Aztekes ... and now Tahiti.

[doktorb]

Stop, stop, they're already dead.

[Keystone Phil]

Torres misses a penalty kick. Scores a goal a minute later. 9-0 Spain.

[Keystone Phil]

10

This is supposedly the largest winning margin at a senior FIFA tournament.

[Lief 🗽]

Spain continues to be disgusting. Hopefully Brazil destroys them in the final.

[Keystone Phil]

Uruguay won 2-1 but still are only third in the group on goal difference. Spain will surely beat or at least draw with Nigeria but even if Nigeria won, Uruguay might overcome the goal difference. Nigeria is currently +4. Uruguay is at 0. If Nigeria somehow beat Spain by two, Uruguay would have to score seven. Not impossible against Tahiti.

[Keystone Phil]

De Rossi suspended for tomorrow's match (already known) and now Pirlo has an injury that will force him to miss the Brazil game. Might be out for the rest of the tournament.

[Keystone Phil]

Italy-Brazil is supposedly "at risk" due to escalating protests. It's especially sad that the entire tournament might be suspended. This, of course, means the World Cup in Brazil is also in jeopardy which I totally wouldn't mind. I'd love to have the tournament here and I think we'd be the frontrunner to host it in the event of an emergency. We already have the infrastructure. I just don't want to see the Confed Cup abandoned.

[minionofmidas]

If that really happened, they'd definitely give it to somewhere in the Americas. (Remember 1986?)

[minionofmidas]

Checking stats, Tahiti did have a single shot on goal in the match. Anybody know whether that was an actual chance to score?
Also, Spain made do with just 62% possession.

[Keystone Phil]

If that really happened, they'd definitely give it to somewhere in the Americas. (Remember 1986?)

Of course. I think they'd aim to take the games out of South America and with Mexico surely not in the running, I don't see how they'd go to any country other than the U.S. Brazil would still have to be allowed to qualify automatically but would that mean the new hosts automatically get in? I'd point to the 1986 example but I'm pretty sure te tournament wasn't moved just a year in advance.

There were a few times when Tahiti charged forward and Spanish errors allowed them a chance to score. As for Tahiti's possession, I'm pleasantly surprised that they had that much of the ball. I certainly didn't think they'd have more of it than Uruguay.

[minionofmidas]

I didn't see it, but possession stats alone are not much of an indicator how a game actually went. Having the ball 60odd% of the time in a smashing win is a very different ballgame than having it 60odd% of the time in a game in which you were behind for a considerable stretch - these stats sometimes amass because the one side is content defending the result and the other can't think of what to do, thus passing between defenders a lot. Succesful tackles stats tend to correlate with winners far more (and very rarely hit as high as 60% - basically anything over 55% is a game you have no business not winning. I didn't find that number for this game.)
The even higher shares up to 80% that occasionally occur in the CL, the Premiership and the Primera División (but not, ever, in the Bundesliga and the Serie A, where the actual difference in quality between the 3rd from top and the 3rd from bottom tends to be less) presumably can happen only when you're totally outclassing your opponent and playing in a style related to the Spanish national team's and are behind and facing an opposition stonewall anyways.

[minionofmidas]

If that really happened, they'd definitely give it to somewhere in the Americas. (Remember 1986?)

Of course. I think they'd aim to take the games out of South America and with Mexico surely not in the running, I don't see how they'd go to any country other than the U.S.

I just realized you were talking about the US and not Italy the first time around when you said "we".
Silly me.

[Keystone Phil]

If that really happened, they'd definitely give it to somewhere in the Americas. (Remember 1986?)

Of course. I think they'd aim to take the games out of South America and with Mexico surely not in the running, I don't see how they'd go to any country other than the U.S.

I just realized you were talking about the US and not Italy the first time around when you said "we".
Silly me.

Oh! Yes, typically when I say "we," I'm referring to my team. You know, a real team. But when talking about hosting, I'm all about the tournament coming to the U.S. I'd love for it to be in Italy though. Gives me even more of a reason to go.

[Хahar 🤔]

If that really happened, they'd definitely give it to somewhere in the Americas. (Remember 1986?)

Of course. I think they'd aim to take the games out of South America and with Mexico surely not in the running, I don't see how they'd go to any country other than the U.S. Brazil would still have to be allowed to qualify automatically but would that mean the new hosts automatically get in? I'd point to the 1986 example but I'm pretty sure te tournament wasn't moved just a year in advance.

Argentina is a country that comes to mind as an option, but I assume they don't have the infrastructure to make it happen. It would certainly be adding insult to Brazil's injury to move it there.