Is it possible that we might see Japan (especially) or to a lesser extent Germany playing to loose that fixture on Saturday? The games in the other group kick-off at 12 so the results will be known before the 2pm kick-off of Japan vs Germany. If China top group A then Japan may think their chances in the semis are better against China than Croatia (if that's how things fall, China may lose to Indonesia) and therefore be better off finishing 2nd in Group B.

If you have been around footy long enough you will have seen/heard these kind of discussions. Rarely you see it play out - however you might see them rest a few and use some of the players that might not be starters if it were the Grand Final IF that is how they were thinking. I think they will just always go for the win though.

I'd agree with Troy, it's possible they might tank, but I don't think it'll happen. See what the prof reckons after Saturday's game at Box Hill Nth.

There are a few other possible permutations to think about though - Sri Lanka are at least an even chance to beat Croatia, which would put them both 1-2, and theoretically if they were able to beat them by enough they could move to second place (though I haven't worked out how much they'd need to win by, it's probably 10+ goals) and have a shot at the winner of Germany vs Japan. Then also, if Indonesia can pull off an upset over China they'll take second spot.

A bigger issue might be that teams have to play a side next Friday they've already faced, as with every other year - it took scrapping and rearranging the final round draw to stop it happening with Finland and China from memory, plus another couple of sides (I don't remember which exactly).

But if we end up with the ladders being:

A - China 3-0, Croatia 1-2, SL 1-2, Indonesia 1-2
B - Germany 3-0, Japan 2-1, Pakistan 1-2, India 0-3

Then you might tip the semis to go Japan def China, Germany def Croatia, SL def India and Indonesia def Pakistan.

If this is the case, next Friday has Japan and Germany in the final (fine), but China vs Croatia, SL vs Indonesia, and India vs Pakistan... all repeats of an earlier match. Which is probably not what the teams would want. So possibly they'll argue for a reshuffle of who plays who on that day, if it's just classification playoffs. Or maybe not, who knows, if you have a match like SL vs Indonesia again maybe they'll appreciate the chance to show they've improved during the tournament. I guess we wait and see at this point.

I'm thinking Croatia will beat SL, which would mix things up a bit more.

Yeah - obviously my scenario above is only one of the possible outcomes, so may not happen. At this point I'd say Croatia vs SL is a 50/50 shot, should be a good game.

India may also beat Pakistan, the German coach having played both reckoned they'd be relatively evenly matched. His words were basically that Pakistan were bigger but the Indians probably went at it harder (and kept up with the Germans for the first quarter at least) - so I'll be interested to see how tonight goes.