Taking Stock of the World Cup Field

tsfrank

After two weeks of nonstop soccer, with all the passion, controversy and histrionics that go with it, the first phase of the World Cup is finally complete. With Switzerland's 2-0 defeat of South Korea this afternoon, the final slots were filled in the Round of 16. So before the second phase begins, we have a break of exactly, let's see, 20 hours to take stock of what has transpired at Germany 2006 so far.
Forty-eight matches were needed to whittle a field of 32 entrants down to 16, and after all that, the surprise is that there were practically no surprises. All the top seeds advanced with little trouble, leaving the usual big fish — Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Germany, England and so on — still very much in the thick of it and almost all the minnows going home.

This is in marked contrast to Korea/Japan 2002, when several unfancied and untraditional teams, like South Korea, Turkey and the United States, went far.

But back in one of soccer's European homelands, almost everything has proceeded according to form, and the 16 remaining teams make up pretty much the same field you would have seen starting a World Cup in 1970: the usual contingent from Europe and South America; a surprise package or two from Africa and Oceania; and one team from the North and Central American region: Mexico, and definitely not the United States.

The only teams' presence that might be termed something of a surprise is that of Ecuador, which beat out Poland to advance to the Round of 16, and Ghana, which surged past the Czech Republic to go forward.

Neither of them are given much chance in their next matches, however: Ecuador must play England, and Ghana will go up against mighty Brazil.

Other teams impressed with their pluck and effort, like Trinidad and Tobago, Ivory Coast and Angola. And at least one was remarkable for its utter flatness and inability to respond to pressure: the Americans.

Unfortunately, however, the main story at the World Cup so far is not the wizardry of a particular player or the mastery of a particular team, but rather the spate of officiating errors and controversies.

Markus Merk, the German rated the world's top referee, made a hash of two successive matches: Brazil-Australia, in which the Aussie player Harry Kewell chased him down as he left the field and directed a stream of invective at him, and Ghana-United States, in which he called a nonexistent foul against the American defender Oguchi Onyewu; the resulting penalty-kick goal won the game for Ghana.

The English referee Graham Poll lost control of the Australia-Croatia game and actually gave out three yellow cards to a single player, somehow forgetting that you're supposed to eject the player at two.

The Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo overruled his own linesman's offside calle and allowed Switzerland to score an insurance goal that crushed Korea's chances of advancing. And on and on stretches the litany of officiating kerfuffles at the tournament.

Whether the referees remain the unwanted focus of everything in the knockout stage that begins tomorrow is unclear, but we will start to find out at 10 a.m. New York time, when Germany plays Sweden in Munich, and at 3 p.m., when Argentina plays Mexico in Leipzig.

Among the games to watch, the German-Sweden match tomorrow could be a complicated affair for the Germans, who have been on an unexpected roll and who have had the entire host country partying in support. France-Spain on Tuesday will likely be a good one to follow to see whether Spain continues its tradition of crashing out early and disappointingly. And then there's Tuesday's match up between Ghana, the pride of Africa and Brazil, which is starting to show the brilliance it has long been famous for.