As can be seen clearly, this has been a defensive minded World Cup so far. 14 games have ended 1-0 and 7 games so far (including all pre-quarter finals) have ended goalless ( Japan v/s Paraguay penalties were taken as a 0-0 result).
26 games out of 56 have been decided by a goal difference of just 1.
14 others were draws, out of which 6 were goalless.
In fact, the only team that has by a single goal on more than one occasion is Chile, which was touted to be one of the most attack-minded teams of the tournament!
31 of the 48 games have seen two goals or less, whilst only three games have seen five or more goals.
What has caused this decline in goals? I remember a time when Arsenal were called the ’1-0 Arsenal’ as they grinded out result after dull result, one after the other. Is this similar?
One of the factors involved is obviously the Jabulani ball. It really seems to be as bad as it has been made out. Does anyone remember the dip it took on Ronaldo’s free-kick yesterday against Spain? Casillas almost spilled that one and pushed it back right in front of him towards a lurking attacker. Luckily for him and Spain, the defense got to the ball first. Green’s blunder against USA was another high profile error. There have been several more as well.
The argument you might make here is, if the ball is so difficult for keepers to handle, then why have we still seen so few goals? It has turned out that teams are very wary when keeping the ball. They know pelting their shots from long distance is almost certainly going to end in disappointment, given the ball’s weight and spin. More shots have ended in the crowds than seems worthy of a national team player. But they might not be to blame after all.
Only on a couple of occasions has the ball actually done enough to bring despair among goalkeepers though, most notably Maicon’s goal.
The other reason is that the smaller teams, or the more unfancied ones, have come to realize that the best way to attack is actually counter-attack. Teams like DPR Korea have understood that the drill is to defend and defend deep, pull out the oppositions’ players, and hit them on the break. While it has worked pretty well for some more than others, you cannot expect many goals to go in when the opposition has every man behind the ball. (Note that the comparison to DPR Korea does not stand ground as they let in seven goals against Portugal – but you get my gist).
When you see the attack-mindedness of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, in fact most of the South American countries, all the weaker teams can do is to come onto the field with a defensive mindset, looking to dry out the goals before snaring away a chance or two of their own. No doubt a good tactic – something that Jose Mourinho would be proud of, probably – but that’s what has caused the dearth of goals at this World Cup so far.
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