The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Discussion Thread

[Sas]

Playing keepings off crocodiles is the national past time.

Actually, didn't somebody from your side claim they expected to knock England out at the quarters?

Probably, I'm sure a lot of people in this country are claiming Australia will win.

6 DAYS!

 

[Diver0001]

Probably, I'm sure a lot of people in this country are claiming Australia will win.

6 DAYS!

I'm prediciting Germany and Serbia to go through in group D.

R..

 

[Sas]

I'm prediciting Germany and Serbia to go through in group D.

R..

Australian sports fans are rarely realistic

The first Australian match is on a public holiday here so I can get up at 4.30am and watch the match

 

[thanksforallthefish]

Australian sports fans are rarely realistic

The first Australian match is on a public holiday here so I can get up at 4.30am and watch the match

OH we aren't realistic

I doubt i will be able to watch it as the wife gets back from OS and i think she will want to dive

 

[Sas]

OH we aren't realistic

I doubt i will be able to watch it as the wife gets back from OS and i think she will want to dive

Yes I imagine so! I'm up in Mt Gambier when it is on, so it's going to cut into my cave diving a bit... but this is only on every four years!

Tensions are high at work between the various team supporters... and on my FB page... at any mention of the Cup :shocked2:

 

[Deefstes]

Australian sports fans are rarely realistic

Indeed, they even fancy that their rugby team is any good

But seriously, I'm expecting Australia to oust Serbia out of Group D. In fact, I suspect that Ghana will be bigger opposition for them than Serbia.

 

[thanksforallthefish]

Indeed, they even fancy that their rugby team is any good

But seriously, I'm expecting Australia to oust Serbia out of Group D. In fact, I suspect that Ghana will be bigger opposition for them than Serbia.

OOO ... they are fighting words !!!!!!!

 

[Deefstes]

Hehe, but let's not make this about rugby. I still think Australia has better chances of making it out of the group stages than South Africa.

On Sunday I'm watching the game between Serbia and Ghana live. The winners of this game will probably end up the most likely competition for Australia to get through group D (I'm assuming Germany will go through).

The geek in me did some statistical analysis on the groups and the various teams' FIFA ratings. Not sure if non-geeks would find this interesting but here goes.

I calculated the average rating for each group and the values are as follows:
Group A: 807.5
Group B: 888.75
Group C: 926.5
Group D: 928.75
Group E: 891.75
Group F: 797.75
Group G: 1000.25
Group H: 1013.25

This would suggest that either Group G (with Brazil and Portugal) or Group H (with Spain) could be considered the "group of death".

But a more telling exercise though is calculating the standard deviation for each group. In other words, what is the average difference of each team compared to the mean?

Group A: 286
Group B: 189
Group C: 110
Group D: 119
Group E: 241
Group F: 316
Group G: 568
Group H: 374

This breakdown shows how evenly matched the teams in the various groups are, with lower values indicating a closer match. It would suggest to me that Group G is actually the merciless "slaughter house" (imagine that game between Brazil and North Korea!) and the true "group of death" would be Group C or Group D.

So in my opinion there are six teams in this World Cup who are really going to have to fight teeth and nails to make it through the groups stage. These are USA, Algeria, Slovenia, Australia, Serbia and Ghana. And to make it even more interesting, very little head-to-head data is available for the teams in question.

Can't wait for the games to start!

 

[Sas]

You're awesome Deefstes! Keep up those kinds of posts anyway if you have the time

 

[Deefstes]

You're awesome Deefstes! Keep up those kinds of posts anyway if you have the time

OK, so that means:
a. non-geeks find it interesting; OR
b. you're a geek, Sas