So the England Zombies are looking more like Fast Zombies again. If I've bored you by talking up James Milner, I'd like to take this opportunity to claim my bragging rights. Here's something interesting; back at the weekend, in the depths of self-loathing, the Obscurer published a table showing the teams with various statistics, including shots on goal. It struck me that England were looking rather good on that, and that the top four looked mostly like a plausible semi-final line up. So I've put together a spreadsheet ranking the teams by shots on target/matches played.
Data source here. Having fifa.com in my browser history makes me feel dirty for some reason.
That puts England 5th in the world - quarter finals again - but ahead of all the three possible opponents in the second round, Germany (7 on target/game vs. 7.333 - Google Spreadsheets is lax about sig figs), Ghana, and Serbia, and well ahead of the Netherlands and Italy. Further, out of the top four, Spain aren't looking a cert to qualify out of their group, and they have an even worse tradition of World Cup choking than we do. This may be daft, sunshine and beer optimism; but it's daft, sunshine and beer optimism with data.
Update: Well, would you look at that.
3 comments:
Out to Argentina in the QFs it is, then.
Uruguay is third! Add that they haven't allowed any goals yet in WC play and it may be as well that it'll be the US that meets them, not England.
Having fifa.com in my browser history makes me feel dirty for some reason.
Somebody accessed Harry's Place on my computer yesterday.
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