FIFA World Cup 2010: Why Are There So Few Goals So Far?

After having to work for two days of my holidays it's back to lie-ins and taking things easy today, although I've got a feeling that I'll end up doing more at home than I had to do in work. I know there's a lot of paint in the shed and a house that needs painting too.

Thankfully, my brother-in-law will be calling to rescue me for a game of golf at five this evening although I haven't picked up a club in over two years and I'm not sure how good or bad I will be.

As the World Cup continues to disappoint almost everybody who is watching it, I thought that I would take a look at the entertainment offered to us in the early stages in the last few World Cups.

So far in this tournament we have seen 23 goals in 14 games with only the German victory having more than two goals. In World Cup 2006, there were 39 goals in the opening 16 group games, in 2002 there were 46 goals in those opening 16 group games, in 1998 there were 38 goals in those 16 group games, and previous World Cups had fewer teams in them.

So it would look like the ratio of goals per game is much lower this time unless we get a host of goals in the last two group games of round one tomorrow. As good as Spain are, I don't expect to see 15 goals in the matches between Spain and Switzerland and Chile and Honduras. It's hard to say what the cause of the lack of goals is but it has been suggested that the new ball is playing some part in it as players struggle to cope with it.

The most impressive team so far for me have been Germany, and they have being using that new ball in their domestic league since March, which may possibly tell us why they have played so well. But then again, it might just have been that Australia were very poor.

From what I have heard the ball has also been used in the Spanish league and we will get to see exactly how Spain play with it today. It's very difficult to imagine that the lack of goals can be attributed to a ball, though, and maybe it's just that too many teams are playing negatively.

Yesterday's games were hardly an improvement—five goals in three games and very little exciting football on offer. New Zealand did very well to score an injury time equaliser against Slovakia, and the Portugal game against the Ivory Coast was a bit of a bore as it finished 0-0.

We all expected to see Brazil turn it on against North Korea, but they really struggled to break them down. A mis-hit cross by Maicon gave them the lead before a very well worked goal from Elano doubled it, but the Koreans pulled back a late consolation which I thought was deserved.

We can only hope that teams will start to play when they need results and the final round of group games will give us some excitement at last. There really isn't too much else to say about the World Cup for the moment.

In Arsenal news, Barcelona still can't keep their mouths shut as they say that their move for Cesc has hit a "tense calm." If you can call being told that Cesc is not for sale and we don't want to hear another word from Barcelona on the matter a tense calm, then they are right.

Meanwhile, another man who finds it difficult to keep his mouth shut is Arshavin and he says he is resigned to Cesc leaving Arsenal. I wish he would take a long holiday and keep his mouth shut for a change. 

If the reports in the media are to be believed, Lorient's Koscielny is desperate to join us and we have supposedly made a few offers for him. I don't know how good he is but we have a desperate need for centre backs at the moment and that's the position he plays in.

If his club have told us that is definitely not for sale then we have to back off, but if they have told us that he is not for sale at the price we have offered then we can make another offer. We have to be seen not to act like Barcelona and try to sign a player regardless of his club's wishes.

It would appear that Gallas is in negotiations with Juventus about a move to them and although it was widely reported last week that we had released him, there has been no word on the club site yet. I would imagine that his contract ends on June 30 and that we will see no more of him as an Arsenal player after that.

Another player rumoured to be on his way to Arsenal is 24-year-old PSV and Netherlands attacking midfielder Ibrahim Afellay, who has supposedly been a target of ours in past and we are meant to have made a bid for yet again.  As long as the boss continues to admire players at the World Cup, they will be linked with Arsenal so I suppose we had better get used to it.

I suppose I should mention our new second jersey, which was unveiled yesterday. The general consensus is that although it's good to have a yellow jersey again it would be better if the other colour were blue instead of redcurrant and in my personal opinion I think we should lose the pinstripes as they make it seem too much like a baseball shirt.

I was given a link to all of our away kits going back to the 19th century, and I'll put them on tomorrow's blog. It's interesting that the yellow is quite a recent colour and white was the prevailing colour for a very long time.

In the fantasy football, ReZnuK is still leading the way in my league but only just as there are a lot of others teams breathing down his neck. My team isn't doing so well but I'm hopeful that my players will do a little better for me in the second round of group games which start tonight. Don't forget that you can make transfers before those games and I've made mine already. That's it for today.

Here's a look at our 7-0 victory over Slavia Prague a few years ago in the Champions league.

See you tomorrow.