World Cup 2006: England’s football team are too nice, they don’t commit enough fouls. The England strikers are ineffective and rate poorly.

These are not my personal views on the the England football teams performances so far in this World Cup. They are facts, based on statistics created by ESPN soccernet.

The website provides access to all sorts of statistics for every football player and every football Nation in the World Cup. The stat’s I referred to, I found interesting from an English perspective. The statistics highlight England as bottom of the table for fouls committed, for all those sides that have already played 3 group games in the World Cup. Angola currently top the table.

There is not one England forward listed in the top 50 rated forwards in the World up to date. Doesn’t say a lot for England’s chances does it? Fernando Torres is the current number 1.

A few other statistics that I found of interest:

Germany have the top goalscorer and the most assists.

England top the leaderboard…. with the best rated referee, Graham Poll.

The top rated goalkeepers are Shaka Hislop and Woon-Jae Lee

If you find an interesting statistic, please let me know by adding a comment.