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.
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