Last Minute Predictions

With the tournament starting tomorrow morning, I figured it was time to hurry up and get some predictions down on paper, or cyberspace in this case. Since everybody has already read too many predictions by now, I’ll just post mine, without explanations.

Group A:

Mexico

South Africa

France

Uruguay

Group B:

Argentina

Nigeria

South Korea

Greece

Group C:

England

USA

Slovenia

Algeria

Group D:

Germany

Serbia

Ghana

Australia

Group E:

Netherlands

Cameroon

Denmark

Japan

Group F:

Italy

Paraguay

Slovakia

New Zealand

Group G:

Brazil

Ivory Coast

Portugal

North Korea

Group H:

Spain

Chile

Switzerland

Honduras

Overall, I don’t really have any crazy predictions, but then again, if you watch a lot of soccer, you find that the highly ranked teams are that way for a reason, they have the best talent.

Without further ado, my predictions for the eliminations rounds are as follows:

Round of 16

Mexico over Nigeria

England over Serbia

Netherlands over Paraguay

Brazil over Chile

USA over Germany

Argentina over South Africa

Italy over Cameroon

Spain over Ivory Coast

Quarterfinals

England over Mexico

Brazil over Netherlands

Argentina over USA

Spain over Italy

Semi-Finals

Brazil over Netherlands

Spain over Argentina

Finals

Spain over Brazil 2-1

Not the most original prediction, but Spain simply have the best team, play the best style, and have the most confidence. I mean, did you see their 6-0 destruction of Poland on Tuesday? They will easily win their group, and score a ridiculous amount of goals in the process. The danger looms from their round of 16 match, where they will face a tough opponent at a very early stage of the tournament. As long as they survive that match, I see them cruising into the finals. As for Brazil, as much as I hate Dunga and his selections, he has them winning and winning and winning, and after all, this is a WC. And since I know Germany isn’t making the finals, that means Brazil is, and…. there’s almost no chance that I’m actually going to be right about any of this. But hey you never know what could happen, Zidane headbutt anyone?

If my predictions haven’t been exciting enough for you so far, get over it, but look forward to my foolishly and recklessly attempting to predict a Golden Boot winner and an all tournament team. If I even get half of them right, I’ll be as lucky as Jules and Vega in the burger scene in Pulp Fiction.

For the Golden Boot winner, I’m being conservative, and going with Spain striker David Villa for three reasons. The first is that Spain scores a ton of goals, and the matches against Chile and Honduras look to be goal fests. Villa simply doesn’t miss chances, and thus will easily score several goals in the group stages alone. The second reason is that I’m not worried about Fernando Torres stealing too many of his goals. El Nino is still working his way back to full fitness, and thus won’t play all 90 throughout the group stages. And even when the two star strikers play together, Villa still scores. That sounded interesting, anyways, reason numero tre is that I except Spain to go all the way, meaning that Villa will play more games than most and thus will score more goals, and yes I’m still not making any interesting predictions.

So, with no explanations, here is my World Cup XI

Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas-Spain

Defenders: Maicon-Brazil, Gerard Pique-Spain, Walter Samuel-Argentina

Midfield: Giovanni Dos Santos-Mexico, Wesley Sneijder-Netherlands, Kaka-Brazil, Xavi-Spain

Strikers: David Villa-Spain, Carlos Tevez-Argentina, Wayne Rooney-England

With Mexico playing tomorrow morning and the U.S. on Saturday, I thought the highlights of U.S.A.’s 2-0 victory over Mexico in the 2002 WC would be fitting to leave you with. Enjoy.