[Totally OT] World Cup prediction thread

[Aquila ka-Hecate]

Sure thing, Nampigai

[Eyes High]

...

btw - is anyone watching Tour de France this year?

Would love to, but don't know when I could actually get the time to do so.

[TheDukester]

btw - is anyone watching Tour de France this year?

This year ... and every year. I'm a cycling fan, though probably less so than I was a few years ago. It doesn't help that two U.S. riders I used to admire — Hamilton and Landis — both turned out to be self-obsessed, delusional, cheating scumbags.

But, anyway, I'm touting Andy Schleck for my darkhorse pick this year. He weighs like 80 pounds; I think his bones are hollow like a bird's.

[chanilover]

Spain v Germany in the final, I reckon!

[Serkanner]

Spain v Germany in the final, I reckon!

Nope. They will meet in the semi-final if they both win their Q-finals

[Sandwurm88]

Okay here are my long awaited predictions:

Uruguay v. Ghana-

Okay this is a match where its like, no matter who wins, they'll just get destroyed by Brazil in the semi-finals. Both these teams shouldn't be in the final eight, IMO England and maybe Mexico or Portugal would be more worthy, but they had much tougher first round opponents. Uruguay will win, because they are pretty decent and they got this guy Suarez who is pretty ridiculous.

Brazil v. Netherlands-

Netherlands is actually an under-the-radar type; they haven't lost once so far, only other team to do so is Argentina. However, come on, have you seen Brazil play?? It will be a close one, and a good game, but Brazil can't really be stopped.

EDIT: Netherlands and Argentina are only teams that haven't lost OR drawn yet.

Argentina v. Germany

Germany destroyed England, unfair goal dismissal or not. They scored like 3 goals on ridiculous fast break where they had like five players downfield, with only the goalkeeper to stop them. Argentina's got Tevez, and Higuain, as well as Messi, who is supposedly "The Best Player in the World". He hasn't scored a goal this tournament, and everyone is like "Oh, he get's triple-teamed every time he gets the ball"..eh, yeah, true, but David Villa is the big show on the Spanish team just like Messi is to Argentina and Ronaldo is to Portugal (to a slightly lesser degree), and he's scored four goals this tournament. In short, another good one, but Argentina wins by one.

Paraguay v. Spain

Spain wipes the floor with them. They had to beat Japan to get here.


I'm not going to include commentary with the rest but I think Argentina will beat Spain, Brazil will beat Uruguay, and Argentina will just knock out Brazil at the end, winning by penalty kicks at the end.

[SandChigger]

Hey, da Wurm is back!

[Sandwurm88]

Yeah! I was in Bermuda for the first week of summer, 'twas fun. Then I went to driver's ed. for a week, and that was mind-numbingly boring. I'm gonna be on the road soon!!!! Yeah, and I'm also being a camp counselor at this camp. And I'm attempting to start a rock 'n roll band.

[Aquila ka-Hecate]

Netherlands 2, Brazil 1.



...etc.

[nampigai]

yea fantastic

now for Uruguay win against Ghana, Germany to win against Argentina - SPain to beat PAraguay and Spain and Uruguay to meet in the finals - I doubt it, but this is what I hope for

[Sandwurm88]

Wow...Netherlands is good!! Damn, I wasn't expecting that, but credit to 'em! They'll trash Uruguay.

[dune stroller]

England and maybe Mexico or Portugal would be more worthy.

Don't know how you reach this conclusion. Mexico And Portugal have both played fine football, yes. But England?
Same old story. They can't walk the walk. It's not wise to believe your own hype.






















D

[nampigai]

England has been utter crap this world cup - I really though Capello had the team sorted out, but at the end I was left disappointed.

Ofcourse the Netherlands are good - imo Brazil has been almost as disappointing as England - and even more arrogant than the same.

Two games today and a prologue of le Tour de France - I'm not in for a sunburn!

[Aquila ka-Hecate]

Good grief. I've just seen Germany annihilate Argentina 4-0 for gods' sake.

This World Cup is becoming very strange.

[nampigai]

strange? why is that - they were runner ups for EURO 2008, and they (Germany) has been IMO the best team in this world cup so far. Even though I'm all in for Spain I think Germany will win it all, and they deserve it too. I just don't get why Müller got the yellow card.

Netherlands vs Germany in the finals - Germany will win.

[Aquila ka-Hecate]

strange? why is that

...

Well, Brazil and Argentina going down to the Netherlands and Germany respectively...but then, I'm not as up on soccer as I used to be. I could be missing nuances but I'd have said Brazil vs Argentina in the final.

Also Italy crashing out early, and that disgraceful English side.

Sigh. A lot's been going on since I last took an interest.

Still, I'm happy that both Holland and Germany made it so far - I'm backing the Orange and my partner wants the Krauts to win, so that would be an interesting match, here at my house.

[nampigai]

England and France has been my biggest disappointment so far. Overpaid brats, that's what they are. And yes there was goal against Germany, but Germany annihilated them utterly.

As for Italy, I had no expectations for them this year. Italy need to find itself again - Cannavaro admitted this aswell.

Germany has been in a process for years, and they are reaping their harvest now.

Brazil haven't impressed me this year, Argentina have done well, but the end, they lack a good manager/trainer, Maradona is crack head.

[Sev]

Germany's demolition of Argentina doesn't quite put the England result in perspective - we were still awful, and Capello has got his work cut out to make us competitive for the Euro's in two years time. Holland's victory over Brazil was surprising and welcome, but Spain have disappointed. Can't really see anything other than a Germany victory, much as I hate to say it, but they've played some great attacking football.

[Serkanner]

Any predictions for this evening's match Holland vs Uruguay? People here start to really become excited that Holland might indeed for the first time take the trophy!

[Aquila ka-Hecate]

Practically the whole of South Africa is hoping for a Dutch win.
Uruguay kicked our asses, after all.

[Serkanner]

Well ... that was the final team from South-America. Again we have a whole European final this year. And for the first time since 1978 we have our team in the final again WOOT! The third time in our history ... we really should win this time!

[SadisticCynic]

Did anyone watch the match for third place yesterday? One of the more fun games since there was less defensive playing.


That last free kick...

[SandRider]

well, god help me, but I'm watching the last bit of the final ...
or it's on the TV, anyway ....

how exciting ... three hours and no score !

I'm confused on this "penalty kick" thing -
is that where the paying fans run onto the field
and kick the players as a penalty ?

[TheDukester]

I'm not paging back through 15 pages of this ... so who did pick Spain?

[Mandy]

I'm not paging back through 15 pages of this ... so who did pick Spain?

Paul, the psychic octopus.