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The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

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    The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

    This is the game to watch. Every World Cup, this meaningless match is played. Some people don't even bother watching. Only pride is at stake.

    But sometimes, that makes it one of the best games of the tournament.

    My first experience of the match was the excellent France 4 Belgium 2 game of 1986. Free-flowing football, goals, excitement. It was better than the semi-finals and the final.

    In 1990, England were involved! We ended up with 4th place after a 2-1 loss to Italy. There were more goals in 1994 when Sweden took Bulgaria apart 4-0 and in 1998, Davor Suker claimed the Golden Boot with the winner in a 2-1 victory for Croatia over Holland.

    In 2002, it was probably the best of all time. Turkey 3 South Korea 2, and the fastest ever goal at the World Cup - 10.8 seconds for Hakan Sukur!

    And last time, there was more entertainment than the final (although it lacked a good old-fashioned headbutting incident), when Germany beat Portugal 3-1 in a pressure-free, fun game to watch.

    Even in the past, there were goals - 1982 had the excellent Poland and France sides meet (3-2). 1966 pitted Eusebio against Yashin as Portugal beat the Soviets 2-1.

    So, watch out this year - this "meaningless" game never fails to entertain!

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    #2
    The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

    Not to mention France 6, West Germany 3 in 1958, with Just Fontaine scoring four goals!

    The World Cup's leading goalscorer has often played for the third place winners... Fontaine, Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Lato, Suker...

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      #3
      The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

      And Schillaci and Klose as well.

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        #4
        The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

        I couldn't disagree more. Goals are only exciting when they mean something, and free-flowing football is similarly devalued if there's nothing riding on it. The only 3rd place play-off I enjoyed watching was USA 94, for Hristo Stoichkov's increasingly desperate attempts to get a goal to finish top scorer.

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          #5
          The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

          Etienne wrote:
          I couldn't disagree more. Goals are only exciting when they mean something, and free-flowing football is similarly devalued if there's nothing riding on it. The only 3rd place play-off I enjoyed watching was USA 94, for Hristo Stoichkov's increasingly desperate attempts to get a goal to finish top scorer.
          Fair enough.

          Mind you, it's interesting that South Korea lost in 2002, by the score of 3-2, because there are 2 other memorable matches from past World Cups which had them losing by the same scoreline.

          1986 - Italy 3 South Korea 2 was a great game, where the Koreans outplayed the Italians, and only a dodgy winner from Altobelli (in off his arm) won it for Italy.

          1994 - Germany 3 South Korea 2 - the Germans were almost pegged back by the Koreans. It was a great game to watch.

          ------------------------------------

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            #6
            The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

            trimster wrote:
            Not to mention France 6, West Germany 3 in 1958, with Just Fontaine scoring four goals!

            The World Cup's leading goalscorer has often played for the third place winners... Fontaine, Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Lato, Suker...
            It's going to happen again, with three of Villa, Klose, Scheijder, Forlan and Suarez due to be involved in the 3rd-4th place playoff.

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              #7
              The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

              For me, the 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching for the last 5 minutes.

              It is funny, how some are more important than others. Croatia's 3rd place win was extremely important to them, while Bulgaria was more concerned with not puking from the hangover of hangovers they had in NYC. For Turkey, the question can always be what is worth more, winning a Euro or finishing 3rd in a World Cup.

              This World Cup, it will only be interesting for Klose's records; if Uruguay barely lose then seeing Suarez and wondering what he would've meant to the team in the Final; or to see how many cheeky fouls the Dutch pull on the Spanish.

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                #8
                The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                A lot of people at the time were of the opinion that Italy - England would have produced a great WC final in 1990. To be honest most matches in Italia 90 would have been better than that final.

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                  #9
                  The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                  I love the third place play-off, especially if a striker is going for the Golden Boot.

                  As Etienne mentioned above, Stoichkov's efforts in 1994 were memorable. I can't remember clearly, but wasn't there an incident near the end of the match when he was clear through on goal and Ravelli, the Swedish keeper, saved his shot? I think Stoichkov glared at him as if to say, "Why didn't you let me score you bastard?"

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                    #10
                    The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                    It seems that there is always at least one team in it for whom third place would feel like a great achievement. Unfortunately, the other team may be totally demoralized by not being in the final. Turkey-SKorea seems like a match in which both teams would be in the former category.

                    But I'm afraid this one is going to feature a very motivated Uruguay team vs shattered Germany or Spain team. Germany was motivated last time because it was in Germany and because the feeling seems to have been that they'd done very well to get that far, but after whipping England and Argentina, they've got to feel like this is really a great opportunity and losing to Spain will be devastating. And I can't imagine Spain feeling like third represents any kind of step forward for them. But Uruguay barely got into this tournament (playoff with Costa Rica), so third would be a great result. Fourth is a great result too, but surely they want to go out on top. Like winning a bowl game in college football.

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                      #11
                      The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                      The 3rd place playoff has all the dramatic tension of playing your Uncle Edwin at bowls on a Sunday afternoon at the local club.

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                        #12
                        The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                        That's not very descriptive.

                        What sort of character is this Uncle Edwin and what kind of relationship does he have with me and the family at large? Depending on the backstory, the number and nature of the family secrets and how much money is to be gained or lost by inclusion/exclusion from his will, that could be a very dramatic afternoon.

                        I'd like to learn about bowls. There's a bocce court right across the street from me. That's the same or similar, isn't it?

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                          #13
                          The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                          Similar in broad brush, but not really.

                          Uruguay also have Forlan in with a shout for the Golden Boot.

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                            #14
                            The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                            Does the winner of the Golden Boot actually get a gold boot?

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                              #15
                              The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching



                              I very much doubt that it is solid.

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                                #16
                                The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                If Klose gets it i'd like to think they'll give him a left boot to match that one

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                                  #17
                                  The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                  mafu wrote:
                                  If Klose gets it i'd like to think they'll give him a left boot to match that one
                                  Me too. And a gold jester hat, for some reason.

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                                    #18
                                    The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                    Considering the number of goals Klose scores with his head perhaps a golden head would be more appropriate?

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                                      #19
                                      The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                      I couldn't disagree more. Goals are only exciting when they mean something, and free-flowing football is similarly devalued if there's nothing riding on it.
                                      And yet, in the preceding posts, it was pointed out how many top scorers played for teams that came third. It's not true that nobody remembers who came third. I bet many people here, and many other anoraks, will have memorised the winners of third-place play-offs. The game would be meaningless if nobody cared to remember.

                                      As for the idea that a game is worth watching only if there is something riding on it, that is a pretty cynical view of football, and it would be a great argument for doing away with mid-table league fixtures towards the end of the season.

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                                        #20
                                        The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                        I'm still angry, 20 years on, about the way the Third Place Play-Off was treated by the English media in 1990. The television coverage was completely flat and grudging, and nobody seemed to think it mattered when Shilton made a complete twat of himself giving that goal away. I was thinking "Come on, you cunts, play up, you could be third in the world here!" but the attitude seemed to be that caring about third place was somehow beneath England's dignity.

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                                          #21
                                          The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                          ...and I think Uruguay will give a shit, much more so than Spain or Germany, and will therefore win it. (And I hope Forlan gets a hat-trick in the process, cos I stand to win £300 if he gets the Golden Boot...)

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                                            #22
                                            The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                            And so it will be Germany vs Uruguay, a repeat of the 1970 3rd-4th place match which the Germans won 1-0.

                                            By the way, Diego Forlan said in an interview yesterday that it is an important game to them and that "everyone remembers what happened in 1970". He also said he'd sacrifice winning the Golden Boot for 3rd place.

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                                              #23
                                              The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                              Forlan/Suarez v Klose/Muller? This might be a fun game for betters, as opposed to a better game for funsters.

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                                                #24
                                                The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                                Golden boot? They should award this:

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                                                  #25
                                                  The 3rd/4th Place PlayOff is always worth watching

                                                  Ideally, I would like to see Klose and Forlan, and their respective teams, strike a pact to let each other score at least three goals each in order to keep Villa and Sneijder off the top of the pile.

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