The World Cup

What's more fun than watching Pau Gasol and Derek Fisher fall on the floor like they've been hit by a steam engine? That's right! Watching two groups of 11 people each doing the same thing for 90 minutes with the non-stop mind-numbing ear-drum-bursting hum of vuvuzelas in the background! It's the World Cup! Can put numbers to the World Cup? Yes we can! For example:

Vuvuzelas have been measured at 127 decibels. A referee's whistle blown as hard as possible is 122 dB. That means one Vuvuzela is over 3 times as loud as a whistle (decibels are on a logarithmic scale). So we can't even hear our falling fouls.

There's an average of 1.86 total goals per game so far. In the "boring" american sport baseball there are about 9 runs per game. In a "boring" canadian sport (hockey) there are over 5 goals per game. Heck, even in the last World Cup there were 2.44 goals per game in the opening round.

Say you wanted to watch goals and not just listen to quirky british announcers (a plus for soccer), when should you watch? Lets look at goals by minute broken in to 15 minute groups:

It's clear from this that the end of either half (bins 3 and 6) is the best time to watch. Just don't tune in for the middle of the first half, because only three goals have been knocked in during that stretch. More specifically, the 79th minute is the best time to watch because 4 goals have already been scored then (yes, more than in the 15 minute stretch during the first half).

Notice that there have been no goals scored after the 90th minute. That's because soccer doesn't always use overtime. Already more 1 point ties have been handed out than 3 point wins (16 to 15). Which means "nil-nil" games for all of us. I think it might be time to start watching more baseball.