So all 24 teams have now played, 12 matches in with 22 goals scored meaning we're averaging 1.83 goals per game, which would be the lowest goals per game average since euro 1968 (which really doesn't count as there was only 4 teams in it). 1990 had the lowest ever for a World Cup with 2.21. So this is really low for large tournament, but of course its early days, since we still have 40 games to go.

What I will say though in its defense is how much better the defending at this tournament has been compared to the group stages of the last world cup.

I don't think many teams with the exception of NI or Iceland have been ultra negative, most of them have gone for it and have been positive, the defending has just been much much better.

In a way I'm glad, as some of the dross served up by the likes of Brazil losing 1-7 to Germany, Cameroon losing 4-0 to Croatia, Switzerland losing 5-2 to France, Portugal losing to Germany 4-0, Spain 1-5 to Holland etc in the last WC was terrible.

I remember some of the pundits falling over each in the last WC telling us how much "great" attacking there was when in reality the defending was DREADFUL and practically embarrassing, and the pundits telling us what a great attacking coach Van Gaal was because of that 1-5 victory he had over Spain (when it was really Spain imploding).

All 24 teams in this tournament appear to be able to defend (even NI and Iceland who everyone thought would get thrashed), and I think this is a good thing overall as its producing closer matches.

I've never been a big fan of tournaments that have lots of thrashings. The highest score so far has been 2-1.

The defending and the tactical set ups of a lot of teams has been good but I think there has been a lack of pace, decisiveness and clinical finishing with some of the attacking teams too.

I like to see even matches as well as the occasional shock or thrashing. Some of those matches you mentioned were some of the most entertaining for me.

The goals will come soon enough. This has a much different feel to it than the dross that was the 2010 World Cup.

2010 WC was the worst football tournament in my lifetime by a distance.

This has been so so , so far

Its been interesting enough so far. Yes a few more goals would be nice, especially as some of those 22 goals only went in because of total GK incompetence, but not unexpected. The first round of group games in major tournaments have always been about avoiding defeat though, this being even more important this time where 3rd place and 3 points probably gets you through to next round. So the goal ratio should pick up soon

A Guardian columnist wrote the day before Euro16 about avg goals and how, apart from the crazy & entertaining first lot of games at Brazil WC2014, major tournaments always have less goals than the top leagues around the world. Not a bad read

https://www.theguardian.com/football...016-innovation

The standard of attacking play haas been pretty poor as well - quite a few crosses/corners either go straight to defenders or into a space where there is no-one to receive it.

Or straight to Lallana which seems to have amounted to pretty much the same as passing into a waste of space.

But, on the bright side, there hasn't been a 0-0 draw yet.

Not sure you can read too much into it from such a small number of games.
It seems to me that, of the goals that have been scored, there has been an unusually high number of absolute crackers, for this early in a tournament.

Really? I thought all of that was great. 2014 was one of my favourite world cups of all time, partly because of some crazy results like those. I think all that was lacking (and in Euro 2016) was a good 2-2 or 4-3 thriller, like Yugoslavia beating Slovenia in 2000.

I'm sure we'll get more goals as the group stage goes on though. A lot of teams will find themselves in a position where they'll have no choice but to attack much more than they have been. And to be fair in quite a few games so far there could have easily been 4 goals or more.

Even the very small nations are now well drilled and organised.
At club level to many fullbacks want to be wingers and central defenders want to play like they're midfield aces.
What we're seeing is proper defending.

7 goals in the 3 games today bringing the average up to 1.93 now.

There are simply no easy teams or gimme's in this tournament, as Albania have proved tonight.


It was a good world cup but I would argue it faltered towards in the later stages, all four QF's were disappointing, the Holland-Argentina semi was arguably one of the worst matches I've ever seen (possibly the worst match I've ever seen Messi play), the final was kinda 'meh' as well.

The group stages were exicting, I'm just arguing that its not necessarily a bad thing that few teams are leaking a shit load of goals in this tournament as it makes the games more competitive and tighter.

Enjoyed that article, thanks for pointing it out.

This might sound crazy, and yes over the years here on DS I have said some out there things, but apart from the goals, for me the matches have been a bit dare I say it....boring.
There have been the odd bright spark games, Hungary, Italy, and even the Germany v Ukraine had chances at both ends.

However, it is not so much the low scoring that I think is the worry, but the lack of good decent and clear cut chances being created in all of the matches so far.

Now others with the stats might be able to prove me totally wrong, but it does seem that combined both sides seem to only have about four shots that one could class as dangerous, hence why so many games have had scorelines of 1-1, 2-1 or 1-0.
Now one could look at this and say that is a credit to the very high calibre and standard of defending that has been on show, and whilst that is very true, for me the standards of the teams when they are attacking has been very poor.

The crosses and attempted long balls have been in the most part terrible, how many times have crosses either been overhit or straight into the first defender or into the keepers hands? Far, far too many for a supposed top level international tournament for my liking.

If each game for example had even the neutrals on the edge of their seats with chances at either end, then that would be great, but as it is so far, that really sadly has not been the case.

A 4-3, or a 3-2 would be great to see, but that just doesn't seem to be on the cards at this tournament, well unless those happen to be the scores from the penalties in a shoot-out in the knockout rounds.

It's been fine, even the worst game was intriguing as Northern Ireland fought to neuter Poland. Football doesn't need goals and shots and explosions and fireworks to hold the interest, I'd watch basketball for that.

My only issue with the tournament is the lack of danger caused by a group stage format that makes it harder to fall at the first hurdle.

It's all about possession, how many times does team A get 25 yards form team B goal then not see a clear chance so knock it back to centre circle then eventually back to keeper. It's pretty poor fair, out of all the top trump strikers only Giroud and Bale have managed a goal. Lebondowski,Muller,Kane,Ronaldo etc etc have hardly had a sniff at goal.

I wonder how long it will be before the players start blaming the ball or whatever for the lack of goals.

I've enjoyed most of the games. There has been attacking intent on the whole and all games played at a decent pace

That was a legit excuse for the poor football in the South African WC. The ball was flying like a balloon at times with corners, free kicks and long shots flying all over the place.

All the games have been low scoring and close, I haven't seen any team yet that you'd say wow they are awesome, nobody will stop them. Once the knockout stages start though I think the usual suspects will start flexing their muscles.

Plus they did have another excuse the constant racket of those Vuvuzelas droning nonstop.

I'd go along with that. The European national teams in the competition are a lot closer in ability and defensively organised. So we should not be expecting massive scorelines unless one team is affected by injuries or sending's off. I think it a good testament that having 24 teams in the competition is about the right number. Anymore and we will be seeing some lesser teams getting thrashed in the group stages.

Lack of goalsscorers = lack of goals.

How many stellar goal scorers are playing? Poland have one but he's had poor service and played poorly. Spain have a striker issue. Germany are playing a non-striker as their Number 9. France have only got Giroud. Italy's forwards are bang average. The Netherlands aren't playing. Belgium are Belgium...

England have relatively a very decent batch of strikers but have started with primarily the most tired one up front and supply from out wide has been patchy at best, even when the forwards aren't taking corners.

The other reason is that it's the opening couple of rounds of fixtures - the goals will flow as soon as teams have to play for a win, are relaxed, are out or a combination of all three.