JEDDAH, 9 June 2006 — Arab News has conducted a random survey of the 160 residents in the Kingdom, ranging in age from 16 to 60 and including 10 females, to get their views on the 2006 World Cup which kicks off in Germany today.
The survey questions were: 1. Who do you expect will win the World Cup 2006? 2. Who will make it to the World Cup 2006 final? 3. Tick two countries from each group you expect to top their group? 4. Who will be FIFA World Cup 2006 top scorer? 5. Who will be FIFA World Cup 2006 top goalkeeper? In question 1, 55 percent of the votes went to Brazil as the likely winner of this 2006 FIFA World Cup while Germany got 18 percent, Argentine 13 percent, Spain 8 percent, England 2 percent and the remaining 4 percent went equally to Italy, Ecuador, France and Portugal.
In question 2, however, 47 percent believed Brazil would reach the final match as well as Germany which got 30 percent, 14 percent went to Argentine, 6 percent to Spain and 3 to Italy, France and England.
Question 3 amused the fans as they chose the last two teams to remain standing in each group. In Group A, Germany ruled with 51 percent, Ecuador 26, Poland 15 and Costa Rica 8. In Group B, England leads with 45 percent, Sweden 37, Paraguay 18.
In Group C, the top plum went to Argentine with 52 percent, Netherlands came in second with 42, Cote D’Ivoire 4 and Serbia and Montenegro 2. In Group D, Portugal received 45 percent and Mexico with one percent difference came second, Iran followed with 9 percent while Angola got only two. In Group E, Italy mastered the group with 47 percent, Czech Republic 37, Ghana 9 percent and United States 7. In Group F, 50 percent went from the heart to Brazil, 21 to Croatia, 20 Japan and 9 to Australia. In Group G, France won 48 percent of the votes, Korea 27, Switzerland 17 and Togo 8. In Group H, first place went to Spain with 48 percent while Saudi Arabia was second with 22, Ukraine 21 and Tunisia 9. Brazilian Ronaldihno was the overwhelming choice with 35 percent of the votes in question 4 as this year’s top scorer. Ronaldo from Brazil and Thierry Henry (France) were tied on second place each with 19 percent. Andriy Shevchencko was third with 13 percent, while Wayne Rooney (England) fourth with 7 percent. Brazilian Adriano got 4, Miroslav Klose (Germany) 1 and Fransesco Totti (Italy) 1.
In question 5 where fans voted for the FIFA 2006 top goalkeeper, Brazilian Dida got 40 percent, Jens Lehmann (Germany) 25, Iker Cassillas (Spain) 13, Fabien Barthez (France) 8, Mabrouk Zaid (KSA) 6, Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) 4, Petr Cech (Czech Republic) 2 and the remaining two percent went to Van Der Sar Edwin (Netherlands) and Mohammad Al- Deayea (KSA).
