1 31-May France Senegal 0 - 0
2 01-Jun Republic of Ireland Cameroon 0 - 2
3 01-Jun Uruguay Denmark 1 - 0
4 01-Jun Germany Saudi Arabia 2 - 0
5 02-Jun England Sweden **1 - 0 **
6 02-Jun Paraguay South Africa 1 - 0
7 02-Jun Argentina Nigeria **2 - 2 **
8 02-Jun Spain Slovenia **1- 2 **
9 03-Jun Croatia Mexico **1 - 0 **
10 03-Jun Brazil Turkey **2- 0 **
11 03-Jun Italy Ecuador **1 - 0 **
12 04-Jun China PR Costa Rica **1 - 1 **
13 04-Jun Japan Belgium **1 - 1 **
14 04-Jun Korea Republic Poland **1- 0 **
15 05-Jun Russia Tunisia **2- 0 **
16 05-Jun USA Portugal **0 - 2 **
17 05-Jun Germany Republic of Ireland 1 - 1
18 06-Jun France Uruguay 2 -1
19 06-Jun Cameroon Saudi Arabia 2 – 0
20 06-Jun Denmark Senegal **2 - 0 **
21 07-Jun Sweden Nigeria **1 - 2 **
22 07-Jun Spain Paraguay **0 - 1 **
23 07-Jun Argentina England **1 - 0 **
24 08-Jun South Africa Slovenia 1 - 2
My wild guesses:
(Don’t take this to Ladbroke’s! 
)
1 31-May France 2 Senegal 1
2 01-Jun Republic of Ireland 1 Cameroon 2
3 01-Jun Uruguay 2 Denmark 2
4 01-Jun Germany 3 Saudi Arabia 0
5 02-Jun England 2 Sweden 0
6 02-Jun Paraguay 1 South Africa 0
7 02-Jun Argentina 4 Nigeria 0
8 02-Jun Spain 2 Slovenia 0
9 03-Jun Croatia 0 Mexico 0
10 03-Jun Brazil 3 Turkey 0
11 03-Jun Italy 2 Ecuador 0
12 04-Jun China PR 2 Costa Rica 0
13 04-Jun Japan 0 Belgium 3
14 04-Jun Korea Republic 1 Poland 3
15 05-Jun Russia 2 Tunisia 0
16 05-Jun USA 0 Portugal 4
17 05-Jun Germany 2 Republic of Ireland 0
18 06-Jun France 3 Uruguay 2
19 06-Jun Cameroon 3 Saudi Arabia 3
20 06-Jun Denmark 2 Senegal 0
21 07-Jun Sweden 3 Nigeria 0
22 07-Jun Spain 1 Paraguay 0
23 07-Jun Argentina 2 England 2
24 08-Jun South Africa 2 Slovenia 0
Just watched the USA lose 0-2 to Netherlands. The Dutch keeper had an incredible game; it was nice to see the USA create some quality chances. The American defense looked pretty flat and was beaten fairly often although I don’t know how much of that to attribute to David Regis, who is probably not a starting back.
**1 31-May France Senegal 0 - 0
Just in qualification, in case the experts write me off as a total prat 
I don’t think Senegal has a prayer in any circumstances but this one… the World Cup opening game is usually the most dour and unadventurous game of the tournament.
Some of you may have seen a world cup Excel wallchart knocking about.
Well, I put my above results in and filled in the rest with more predictions. Here are my predicted teams getting though:
Second Round:
France
Denmark
Spain
Slovenia (!)
Brazil
Turkey
Portugal
South Korea (I’m fairly confident about this, for some reason)
Cameroon
Ireland (no Germany!)
England
Argentina
Italy
Croatia
Japan (largely due to easy group and home advantage)
Russia
Quarter Finalists
France
Brazil
Cameroon
Italy
Spain
Portugal
England
Japan (!) (predicting beating Russia on penalties in second round)
Semi-Finalists
Italy
Portugal
France
England (largely due to easy 2nd round and 1/4-final, because of other predictions)
Final
Portugal
France
Tough final to call, but I give it to France
pan
If I remember rightly, the way this usually goes is that the fancied Europeans and S.Americans tend to play it very tightly for the first group games. Throw in the humidity and pretty alien circumstances and, maybe, Euro teams will under perform, at least to start with. My guess is the rest will go at it like a shit off a shovel from the off. That’s the theory out the way.
Here are tonights lottery numbers:
1 31-May France Senegal 2 - 0
2 01-Jun Republic of Ireland Cameroon 0 - 0
3 01-Jun Uruguay Denmark 0 - 0
4 01-Jun Germany Saudi Arabia 2 – 0
5 02-Jun England Sweden 2 - 1
6 02-Jun Paraguay South Africa 3 - 1
7 02-Jun Argentina Nigeria 2 - 2
8 02-Jun Spain Slovenia 2 - 0
9 03-Jun Croatia Mexico 1 - 0
10 03-Jun Brazil Turkey 1 - 1
11 03-Jun Italy Ecuador 1 - 0
12 04-Jun China PR Costa Rica 1 - 1
13 04-Jun Japan Belgium 0 - 0
14 04-Jun Korea Republic Poland 0 - 0
15 05-Jun Russia Tunisia 2 - 0
16 05-Jun USA Portugal 0 - 2
17 05-Jun Germany Republic of Ireland 1 - 0
18 06-Jun France Uruguay 2 - 0
19 06-Jun Cameroon Saudi Arabia 3 - 1
20 06-Jun Denmark Senegal 2 - 0
21 07-Jun Sweden Nigeria 0 - 1
22 07-Jun Spain Paraguay 1 - 1
23 07-Jun Argentina England 1 - 2
24 08-Jun South Africa Slovenia 2 - 1
Kabbes, you’re calling England to top their group and Argentina to lose to France in the last 16. This isn’t entirely implausible as England tend to raise their game against decent opposition but my biggest problem is your prediction of four European teams in the semi-finals in a tournament played outside Europe. Four European teams last reached the semis in 1982, when the tournament was played in Spain and Brazil and Argentina got knocked out in one fell swoop in the second group stage by Italy (remember the funny system in Espana '82?).
The ‘neutral’ venue vis-a-vis European and South American teams makes it even harder to call than usual but I think that teams who try to play at a high tempo throughout the match could suffer in the conditions. Ireland certainly fall into this category as do England to a lesser extent. The conditions will suit teams that are comfortable on the ball, can pass it around and attack in quick bursts rather than seeking to apply constant pressure. This might suit the South Americans.
Overall, my money is still on Italy and France though, who are capable of playing a possession game but are also good without the ball.
man, it all really rests on that Argentina - England game. As explained above, I have chosen to be optimistic on that game (what the hell). A win vs. Sweden and a draw vs. Nigeria and lo! England top the group and Argentina have to play France.
France beating Argentina? Eminently plausible.
After that it’s just a matter of the way it plays out. Brazil have not been that good in the build up, so I fancy them to lose to France in the quarters (see how important it is for England to win the group? Avoid France, avoid Brazil). What other South American team are going to threaten?
I only have five Euro teams in the quarters; they just happen to avoid eachother in such a way that I foresee four of them making it through:
France 1 0 Brazil
Cameroon 1 2 Italy
Spain 1 2 Portugal
England 3 0 Japan
I too balked at the four European semi-finalists, but three out of four isn’t that rare (IIRC 90, 94 and 98 all had three out of four being European). It’s just the way it turns out from my predictions of the group games.
pan
Ah sorry - I have France 1 - 0 Brazil but in my actual prediction (for my work tournament), that’s really 0-0 with France through on penalties.
Quite a few of the later stages games will go to penalties, so actually all predictions are a bit of a crap shoot anyway.
pan
Kabbes, you’re right - I was going to mention that a lot seemed to hang on the positions after the group games. All the same, France could have a hard road ahead of them if they win their group.
I reckon that one of the SA teams will get to the semis but it’s just a hunch. Maybe if I went match by match, it would come out differently. I think I have that spreadsheet somewhere so I’ll let you know what happens.
So no pressure on England, they might as well go home if they don’t win their group.
It’s all gone quiet over here…
I don’t know about others, but I’m having difficulty keeping up with all the warm up matches. So I’ve given up. For those interested and in the dark, England began their Eastern Campaign yesterday with a magnificent one-all draw against the giants of South Korea. It’s all down hill from here.
As best I could see, the game was only notable for the ascendancy of Owen Hargreaves into the role we used to call ‘utility player’ but now termed ‘doing an Ulrika (Johnson)’ – i.e. Sven trying him out in every position - and the deeply irritating South Korean crowd, who seemed to shriek in unison whenever the ball left the centre circle – yer didn’t used to get that down the Lane. Sven did his usual Trafalgar Square move at half-time (“All Change !”). It ended, dismally:
Big Girls 1 Big Girl’s Blouses 1
BTW, it looks like the spread sheeting has been sorted so I thought I’d volunteer for the fiddly table-updating thing. I won’t be upset if I don’t do it but I’m there if needed…errm, who is doing the spreadsheet cos I did have an inking Coldie was heading West soon ?
For a second, my heart leaped, but then I realised that you meant South American teams… 
Gp
And to think Holland practically fielded a B-squad for that match…
The possibility of the abbreviation causing confusion occurred to me when I posted but, for some strange reason, I dismissed it. I wonder why that was;).
Now that’s just plain mean…
Yes, when the Yanks take the Cup you’re going to feel terrible that the Clogboys couldn’t make the trip.
Well, yeah, that too.
But easily beating a team that DID qualify was sort of confrontational, I guess. Grrrrrr.
Maybe Europe needs to work on it’s seeding process?
And yes, if you only invite Europe and South America, then it’s not really a World Cup anymore, right?
An interesting article from USA Today on the Netherlands match:
Can the USA play Netherlands every week?
1 31-May France Senegal 2 - 0
2 01-Jun Republic of Ireland Cameroon 0 - 2
3 01-Jun Uruguay Denmark 0 - 0
4 01-Jun Germany Saudi Arabia 2 - 1
5 02-Jun England Sweden 1 - 0
6 02-Jun Paraguay South Africa 2 - 1
7 02-Jun Argentina Nigeria 2 - 2
8 02-Jun Spain Slovenia 2- 1
9 03-Jun Croatia Mexico 1 - 0
10 03-Jun Brazil Turkey 2- 1
11 03-Jun Italy Ecuador 1 - 0
12 04-Jun China PR Costa Rica 1 - 1
13 04-Jun Japan Belgium 1 - 1
14 04-Jun Korea Republic Poland 1- 0
15 05-Jun Russia Tunisia 2- 0
16 05-Jun USA Portugal 0 - 3
17 05-Jun Germany Republic of Ireland 2 - 1
18 06-Jun France Uruguay 3 -1
19 06-Jun Cameroon Saudi Arabia 2 – 0
20 06-Jun Denmark Senegal 2 - 0
21 07-Jun Sweden Nigeria 1 - 1
22 07-Jun Spain Paraguay 0 - 1
23 07-Jun Argentina England 2 - 0
24 08-Jun South Africa Slovenia 1 - 1
Now that Roy “Brilliant Timing” Keane has argued his way out of the Irish squad, how does that affect Irish chances of success?