2009 FIFA Confederations Cup

I'm a huge sports fan; I especially enjoy soccer. I wouldn't normally comment on sports here, but I just found this so amazing. The 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup is currently taking place. This tournament is contested every four years, the year before the World Cup as a sort of dress rehearsal for the hosting country. In comparison to the thirty-two teams competing for the title of World Cup Champion next year, only eight teams compete in the Confederations Cup: the host country (South Africa), the reigning World Cup Champion (Italy), the reigning North American champions (United States), the reigning South American champions (Brazil), the reigning Asian champions (Iraq), the reigning African champions (Egypt), the reigning European champions (Spain), and the reigning champions from Oceania (New Zealand). In soccer tournaments, teams are typically split up into groups of four or five and each team in each group plays each other team in their group once or twice, depending on the tournament. In this tournament, there are two groups of four teams, Group A and Group B. Each team in each group plays each other team in their group once. The teams receive three standings points for a win, one point for a draw, and zero for a loss. The top two from each group then advance to a knockout round, in which the winner from one group plays the second-place from the other. The winners of those games play for the championship.




Okay, so that's how the tournament works. Here's how it went. Group A is comprised of Spain, Iraq, New Zealand, and South Africa. Group B includes Egypt, Italy, Brazil, and the United States. Group A's games and standings went on without significance, with Spain winning the group and South Africa coming in second. Group B, however, began with Brazil edging Egypt 4-3 and the United States falling to Italy 3-1. The second group of games had Brazil creaming the US 3-0 and Egypt upsetting the World Champions 1-0. At this point Brazil have six points, Italy and Egypt have three apiece, and the US have zero. Now, going into this final round, the US still have a chance; the final games are Brazil-Italy and US-Egypt. Should Brazil defeat Italy and the US defeat Egypt, Brazil would have nine points, and Egypt, the US, and Italy would each have three. The first tiebreaker is goal differential. That's just number of goals scored minus number of goals given up. The second tiebreaker is goals scored. So, at this point, Brazil has clinched advancement, and the only way the US can advance is for Brazil to defeat Italy, thereby clinching first place, and the US defeat Egypt, each by a wide margin so as to lower Italy and Egypt's goal differentials and raise the US goal differential. At this point, Italy have a GD of +1 and a GS of 3, Egypt have a GD of 0 and a GS of 4, and the US a GD of -5 and a GS of 1. For the US to advance, first of all, they'd have to defeat the dark horse Egyptians and Brazil would have to defeat the Italians, and secondly, each game would need to turn out such that the US defeat Italy and Egypt in tiebreaker. This is incredibly unlikely, considering the bad losses the US suffered and their poor position in GD and GS.




Can you guess what happened? Yeah, I wouldn't be writing this otherwise. Brazil beat Italy 3-0 and the US beat Egypt by the same score. This, first of all, are the results needed for the US to tie Italy and Egypt point-wise, but even more remarkably, the GS and GDs lined up so they actually advanced, despite such poor showings in their first two matches. These results brought Italy's GD to -2 and GS to 3, Egypt's GD to -3 and GS to 4, and the US GD to -2 and GS to 4. First tiebreaker, GD, eliminates Egypt. Second tiebreaker, GS, gives the advantage to the Americans. Wow. The likelihood of that happening is incredibly slim. Anyway, as Group B's runner-ups, the US advance to knockout; they face Group A champions Spain tomorrow at 8:30 South African Time; that's 12:30 MDT for us here in Utah. The game will be broadcast on ESPN. I'll be sure not to miss this exciting matchup between the lucky Americans and the Spanish, who currently occupy the top spot in the FIFA rankings.


2009 FIFA Confederations Cup


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