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Following prairiecac's insistence that there oughtta be a World Cup thread (and lo...!) I'm going to bump with my fearless predictions:
Group A (Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador) - I'm already thinking I'm going to be extraordinarily Eurocentric here, and the hosts will win this group at a canter, but second'll be dependent on the opening match for Poland/Ecuador. I have a feeling it'll go the way of Germany's near-neighbours.
Group B (England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden) - should be fairly cut 'n' dried. England and Sweden - however, in what order? England never beat Sweden, but will probably score more against the Caribbean first-timers; so if it's a draw between them England for top.
Group C (Argentina, Serbia, Cote d'Ivoire, Holland) - one've two groups of death; this one's going to cut hard, and unfortunately as much as I'd like it to be otherwise, as I always support African teams and the Ivorians have an amazing talent in Emmanuel Eboue (best RB in the world as soon as Cafu retires, I reckon,) I think two of the tournament favourites (Holland, Argentina, in that order) will see their experience push them on.
Group D (Mexico, Iran, Angola, Portugal) - Portugal to win, continuing the Europe theme. Angola were pretty much dreadful in the African Cup of Nations, and have a squad deeply inexperienced, but they'd still be my best bet to take points of their former colonial rulers (a la Senegal/France.) Iran have some thoroughly decent players and are probably the best Asian federation involved, but I think Mexico will probably trump them to second.
Group E (Italy, Ghana, USA, Czech Rep.) - Group o' Death II. Euroes again, I feel; experience and acclimatisation making the difference. Italy are always a good outside bet for the title, but do tend to start slowly; they could be caught on the hop, to the extent of drawing, by both Ghana and the US so possibly coming second. The Czechs are still a very strong team, and were the best at Euro 2004, so I anticipate what will probably be Pavel Neded's final finals to go with a bang.
Group F (Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan) - Brazil to cruise, Croatia to scrape through with around four points. Sorry, astro. Could be wrong, of course - Guus Hiddink is probably one of the three best managers in the world or so, so he could defy the odds.
Group G (France, Switzerland, Togo, S. Korea) - France will win the group, but second could be interesting. The Swiss were surprisingly impressive in qualifying, Togo terrible in the A.C. of N. and Korea amazing last W.C. So, scratch Togo, and Korea are without the inspirational Hiddink and haven't the prep they did in '02. Switzerland second.
Group H (Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia) - Can't see past Spain to walk this, but given there's always one African team in the last 16 I do feel the Tunisians could scrape past the Ukraine, Sheva and all. They also have much greater experience in international tournaments, so yeah.
That sets a last 16/Q-Fs of:
Germany v. England \
Holland v. Mexico / Germany v. Holland
Czech Rep. v. Croatia \ Czech v. France
France v. Tunisia /
Sweden v. Poland \
Portugal v. Argentina / Sweden v. Argentina
Brazil v. Italy \ Italy v. Spain
Spain v. Switzerland /
===>
Semi's
France v. Holland
Argentina v. Italy
Final
Holland v. Italy with, eeeeh, maybe the former to win actually.
So, follow just how wrong I get that over the Summer. |
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for the americans among us i'd be suggesting you need to beat ghana, and that is unlikely to be a straighforward task. then draw with italy, or the czechs, again neither easy tasks, and hope it is against the loser of their respective clash, and that ghana lose to - or draw with, better - everyone else, too...