Looking at the upcoming schedule for the next couple of days, it seems that the schedule has been slightly altered, perhaps for ratings? Last night was the 2nd match for SA and Uruguay in Group A. So usually, it would be France and Mexico in the 1st for today. But they're the last match today. First match features SK and Argentina. (Which would be an 8.30pm start time in Korea). Then it Greece-Nigeria, and last France-Mexico. Tomorrow, on the 18th, we have a Group D match (Germany-Serbia) coming in before either Group C match (Slovenia-USA and England-Algeria). On Saturday the 19th, we have Netherlands-Japan (Group E) first. Then it's Ghana-Australia, followed by Cameroon-Denmark. It seems that they rescheduled certain matches to be in primetime back home (SK-Argentina, England-Algeria, NED-JPN). There's no way it happened by chance. However, I can't seem to find when this was done. Does anybody know?
Well, I have a schedule that I got before the cup started and it has the same schedule that is scheduled now. Must have been before the cup started?
It's the original schedule from December 2009, it wasn't changed. German wikipedia entry from before the draw, note the kick-off times: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fu%C3%9Fball-Weltmeisterschaft_2010&oldid=67611373
That schedule actually does have the normal setup other than for tomorrow. Even then, according to that schedule, the England match would be the middle one and USA would be in the last match. Do., 17. Juni 2010, 13.30 Uhr in Polokwane A4 – A2 -:- (- Do., 17. Juni 2010, 16.00 Uhr in Johannesburg (Soccer City) B1 – B3 -:- (- Do., 17. Juni 2010, 20.30 Uhr in Mangaung/Bloemfontein B4 – B2 -:- (- Fr., 18. Juni 2010, 13.30 Uhr in Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth D1 – D3 -:- (- Fr., 18. Juni 2010, 16.00 Uhr in Kapstadt C1 – C3 -:- (- Fr., 18. Juni 2010, 20.30 Uhr in Johannesburg (Ellis-Park-Stadion) C4 – C2 -:- (- Sa., 19. Juni 2010, 13.30 Uhr in Rustenburg D4 – D2 -:- (- Sa., 19. Juni 2010, 16.00 Uhr in Durban E1 – E3 -:- (- Sa., 19. Juni 2010, 20.30 Uhr in Tshwane/Pretoria E4 – E2 -:- (-
Obviously not. The English don't have to play at 1:30pm CET unlike Germany and neither have Italy or Spain.
Indeed, I only looked at group D - sorry. It seems they finalized the schedule immeadiately after the draw then, that's the version from December 5th 2009, and now England is at 20:30: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fu%C3%9Fball-Weltmeisterschaft_2010&oldid=67629303 I doubt they would have Germany play at 13:30 if their only concern was ratings, though.
May they felt England was the better choice in the night game and a 7.30a ET/4.30a PT would be too early for the USA match. Who knows really? But transparency is always a good thing.
They always arrange the schedule so the most attractive/popular game (for example today France/Mexico) is set for prime time (in Europe--which this year is the same as in South Africa). Look back at the schedule: slovakia-new zealand, algeria-slovenia, etc. were the first games. The more anticpated games (usa-england) the late ones.
A few tweaks were made once the draw happened in December: For the record: Match 3 swapped with 4 7 swapped with 8 18 swapped with 20 24 swapped with 25