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Germany takes third and a little trivia for ya
July 09, 2006I’ve been on a little hiatus. I know, I’m a slacker.
If it weren’t for my mom (one of about five readers) calling me to ponder why I hadn’t blogged in a while, I probably wouldn’t break down this third place game today.
Basically, Germany won 3-1 over Portugal because Bastian Schweinsteiger is a stud. He scored two goals on brilliant strikes, and another free kick he took was deflected in for an own goal.
Germany proved to be amazing in this World Cup — both in undertaking the enormous task as host and in their play on the field. They have some young talent that will take them far in the coming years.
Now onto a quick gripe. Do we really need a third-place game? What’s the point? I didn’t see the Broncos and the Panthers facing off in any pre-Super Bowl contest earlier this year.
The soccer can be fun to watch because nothing is at stake, so there’s not a lot of emphasis on staying back on defense.
I guess it’s another game to sell tickets to, and in this case, a way for Germany to impress the home crowd one last time. But it’s something I wouldn’t be too sad about if it bit the dust in the future.
Here’s a 2006 World Cup quiz I saw across the AP wire today. Take some time out to jot down answers, and tell me what you get. I’ll put my score at the bottom.
Oh, and check back tomorrow and the next couple of days, when I write about Italy-France and the best and worst of the 2006 World Cup.
World Cup Quiz
By The Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — How closely were you watching the World Cup? Here are 20 questions to test your knowledge and see how far you get through the tournament:
Round One (one point each)
1. Who was the Dutch star left on the bench during the Netherlands’ second-round game against Portugal?
(a) Edgar Davids
(b) Clarence Seedorf
(c) Ruud van Nistelrooy
(d) Jaap Stam
2. How many times in the last 16 years has England been eliminated from a major tournament on penalties?
(a) 2
(b) 5
(c) 6
(d) 3
3. How many players named Andriy were on the Ukrainian squad?
(a) 7
(b) 4
(c) 9
(d) 2
4. Ahead of Saturday’s third-place game, what was Miroslav Klose’s goals total for two World Cup tournaments, 2002 and 2006?
(a) 7
(b) 12
(c) 10
(d) 8
5. Who was the only player from Brazil’s magical quartet held scoreless at the World Cup?
(a) Kaka
(b) Ronaldinho
(c) Adriano
(d) Ronaldo
6. Which game had a record four red cards?
(a) Spain-France
(b) Argentina-Germany
(c) Portugal-Netherlands
(d) Italy-Australia
7. Who became the first English player to score at three World Cups?
(a) Michael Owen
(b) Sol Campbell
(c) Gary Neville
(d) David Beckham
8. Who came off the bench to score Australia’s first World Cup goal in a 3-1 come-from-behind triumph over Japan?
(a) Harry Kewell
(b) Tim Cahill
(c) John Aloisi
(d) Josip Skoko
———
Round Two (two points each)
9. How many World Cups has Italy coach Marcello Lippi participated in as a player and coach?
(a) 1
(b) 5
(c) 4
(d) 2
10. Who scored the first goal of the 2006 World Cup?
(a) Miroslav Klose
(b) Lukas Podolski
(c) Paulo Wanchope
(d) Philipp Lahm
11. In his final World Cup before retirement, Zinedine Zidane sat out which game through suspension?
(a) Switzerland
(b) South Korea
(c) Togo
(d) Spain
12. Trinidad and Tobago defender Dennis Lawrence plays for which English League Two club?
(a) Chester
(b) Torquay
(c) Rochdale
(d) Wrexham
13. Which of these Argentina stars did not score in the 6-0 victory over Serbia-Montenegro?
(a) Carlos Tevez
(b) Juan Riquelme
(c) Lionel Messi
(d) Hernan Crespo
14. In which World Cup venue is the Fritz-Walter-Stadium?
(a) Stuttgart
(b) Hanover
(c) Nuremberg
(d) Kaiserslautern
———
Quarterfinals (four points each)
15. Who was the only U.S. player to score at this World Cup?
(a) Landon Donovan
(b) Brian McBride
(c) Clint Dempsey
(d) Eric Wynalda
16. Portugal advanced to the semifinals for the first time since?
(a) 1930
(b) 1950
(c) 1966
(d) 1986
17. When was the last time Brazil failed to reach the semifinals of the World Cup?
(a) 1994
(b) 1986
(c) 1990
(d) 1998
18. Which Dutch coach did not take part in World Cup 2006?
(a) Marco van Basten
(b) Ronald Koeman
(c) Dick Advocaat
(d) Leo Beenhakker
———
Semifinal (six points each)
19. Which Brazil player broke the record for most minutes without making a foul in a World Cup (386 minutes)?
(a) Juan
(b) Lucio
(c) Ronaldinho
(d) Cafu
20. Which of these teams were involved in the lowest-scoring shootout in World Cup history?
(a) Portugal-England
(b) Ukraine-Switzerland
(c) Germany-Argentina
(d) Argentina-Mexico
———
Final (10 points)
21. On the way to reaching the final, Italy conceded only one goal. Who scored it?
(a) Brian McBride
(b) Milan Baros
(c) Cristian Zaccardo
(d) Andriy Shevchenko
———
Answers: Round One
1— c
2— b
3— a
4— c
5— b
6— c
7— d
8— b
Round Two
9— a
10— d
11— c
12— d
13— b
14— d
Quarterfinals
15— c
16— c
17— c
18— b
Semifinal
19— b
20— b
Final
21 — c
———
SCORES:
Less than 10 points — Don’t come back in 2010.
10-20 points — Decent effort, but not likely to get past first round.
21-30 — Potential quarterfinalist.
31-45 — Major contender.
46-58 — The title’s yours.
I scored a 51. Just in case you care, I missed questions 3, 9, 13, 14.
Posted by Zach Duncan at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Comments
Zach - I scored a 38, I know, it's no 51 ... FYI, I have been reading your blog too, so chalk your grand total up to 6! I thought that you had some very colorful commentary. I'm just sad that we have to wait another 4 years ...
