Do we overreact when our team's knocked out?
Post categories: World Cup 2010,ÌýWorld Cup Have Your Say
| 20:30 UK time, Thursday, 1 July 2010
This topic was discussed on World Cup Have Your Say on 2 July 2010. .
Eight teams are left standing in the World Cup, which means the hopes of 24 sets of fans have been dashed by their country's elimination.
The reaction to defeat has ranged from resignation to the inevitable to national soul-searching, self-flagellation and the sort of government intervention we've been debating in the last day in Nigeria and elsewhere.
Take a look at Gabriele Marcotti.
He argues that the massive doom-laden inquisitions into a nation's eliminated team are only prompted by a couple of key moments in two or three games ...
It's curious to note that, ultimately, these inquests and state-of-the-game reflections are prompted not by broad trends but by a few poor performances over a couple of weeks. Given the low-scoring nature of soccer, you could reverse a single incident or officiating decision and conjure up a whole different perception of these teams and, by extension, the health of the game in each nation. What if English goalkeeper Robert Green hadn't spilled the ball against the United States? What if Italy's Simone Pepe had buried that clear-cut chance in the dying seconds against Slovakia?
That hasn't stopped the media and fans in defeated countries running a detailed inquest into their failure.
Do you agree with Gabriele Marcotti? Should "big countries" accept that not everyone can get to the final?
Or do you think a World Cup exit for a team which should do better deserves detailed examination of the game, top-to-bottom, in that country?
