Quote:
Originally posted by Bozos of Bones:
The system is a bit lacking, because it isn't Sport any more if you have to machinate and scheme to win. Our example: Had we lost the game against Spain, we would have avoided the French and been in the 1st-4th place race, and not in the 5th-9th. I'm not saying football's system is any better.
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I can agree with that to some extend.
But the only way to solve it is to have a system where everyone plays against everyone like in a league and that would take way too much time and that is simply not possible in a world cup. The system is as fair as it can get and is practically same in all team sports events: first round(s) groups, then quarter/semi/(1/8th)/(1/16th) finals. It can lead to machinating (better lose to face team X rather than Y, or better draw so we both qualify rather than only one) but in the long run, it's the best teams that win and not the ones who are best at scheming. I can see exceptions happening sometimes like in Croatia's case here where a team's position does not reflect its performance, but overall it's working well. And this scheming to win isn't really so frequent. In 95%+ of games it's "it's better to win".
Had Croatia lost against Spain and came second, then instead of facing France they would've faced Iceland who... won against France. So you never really know.
[ 02-05-2007, 01:28 PM: Message edited by: ZFR ]