There appear to be three sorts of games at this World Cup. There are the games in which the stronger team batter the weaker team (Spain, England, France). There are the shocks, in which the stronger team are undone by opponents that are slightly better than anticipated (Saudi Arabia, Japan), and there are the fairly evenly matched games in which nothing much happens (the others). This was very much in the third category.
The temptation is to come up with a tenuous grand theory as to why this should be. There is barely any data but, still, let’s indulge ourselves. Could it be that all three types of game are the result of the lack of preparation time, four weeks compressed into four days?
