A shocking error from the England’s goalkeeper Robert Green, earned the U.S.A. squad a 1-1 draw in the first match of the South Africa World Cup 2010 group stage.
In two previous blog posts we have presented different methodologies incorporating a variety of correlations, constructed by consultants from Goldman Sachs and J.P Morgan to determine the most probable winners of the World Cup 2010.
As one of the latest Nielsen (2010) studies related to World Cup 2010 reveal, the most buzzed player in the social media is the Ivory Coast striker and star player Didier Drogba (3.40%). He is followed quite at a long distance by the Netherlands star Arjen Robben (1.60%), with Argentinean and world best player in 2009, Lionel Messi on the third spot (1.40%), and Portuguese playmaker Cristiano Ronaldo on the fourth position only (1.10%).
In a previous blog post “Performance in sport: a new era has began” we reviewed the ascent of sport in popular culture, bringing together entertainment, business and healthcare. Football in particular became in the last two decades a veritable industry that started to attract increased attention from analysts and media.
In a previous blog post we presented the Goldman Sachs Investment Research Division report on “The World Cup and Economics 2010”. Besides forecasting football scores and rankings, the report also presents some interesting correlations between the FIFA world rankings and two economic indicators: Gross National Product (GNP) per capita and Growth Environment Scores (GES).