EN World World Cup blog

[STARP_Social_Officer]

OK. New prediction. I'm going to get SOMETHING right if it kills me.
3. Germany
4. Portugal

He shoots, he scores! One match to go. Way I see it, I have a 50% chance of getting it right. Viva La France!

 

[Jdvn1]

Italy hasn't been a scoring machine

I said this last week, to a friend, because I don't think of Italy as a high scoring team. They certainly have a convincing defense, right?

And he looked at me, surprised. "Three goals against Ukraine, two against Ghana and the Czech Republic." No 6-0 wins, but still a good scoring record.

Certainly, not a low scoring team.

I ended up calling the Germany-Portugal game, including the score. Which rarely happens with me. I expect France to win, but I can't betray Italy. I'm going to call Italy to win, 2-1.

With a victory, surely he overtakes Platini as France's most famous ever football player; and possibly, the earlier Pele-Maradona discussion of the World's best football player will become Pele-Maradona-Zidane disucssions.

Why don't you think Ronaldo would be in there? Though, I suppose, Ronaldo can't hold a light to his countryman Pele.

 

[Jdvn1]

3rd/4th place match

Something occured to me the other day, though I could be wrong about this.

Someone had mentioned earlier that the format of the tournament is silly--that there should be more games (ie, best of 2, 3, etc) in each round and to do away with the third place match.

The big disadvantage of this that I can see is that it messes with the goal scorer of the tournament. Like, as it is now, the top four teams have the best chance of having a player be the top scorer of the tournament (and to claim that coveted prize), since they play the most games. If it were a best of n, then any other team would have absolutely no chance to get this. (as it is now, tied for second includes Argentine and Brazilian players) If you did away with the third place game, that'd mean the top scorer would most likely be from the top two teams. The setup, now, allows for a larger number of teams to at least have a chance for this.

Then it occured to me that the loser of the third-place game kind of gets shafted.

To my knowledge, international rankings are based on number of wins and loses. A team that loses in the semi-finals and then loses the third-place game (ie, Portugal, technically fourth place) suffers two loses, but a team that loses in the quarter-finals (ie, Brazil) only suffers one loss. That puts an advantage in international rankings to the quarter-final losers over the fourth place team.

Not that there's necessarily a huge difference, and not that it matters a lot, but it's certainly an odd quirk that the fourth place team would have that happen.

 

[Keith Robinson]

Germany 3:2 Portugal.

Hey, pretty good call

I didn't get a chance to drop by and post my prediction for that match, so I thought I'd get one in for the final, which I'm really looking forward to.

2-1 to Italy. France to score first.

Here's hoping for a classic game

 

[Klaus]

With a victory, surely he overtakes Platini as France's most famous ever football player; and possibly, the earlier Pele-Maradona discussion of the World's best football player will become Pele-Maradona-Zidane disucssions.

Those Pelé-Maradona discussions happen only beacuse the public at large never heard of Garrincha, who almost single-handedly won the 1962 World Cup for Brazil. I wish there was a YouTube link for anything on Garrincha. His footwork was a wonder to behold.

Below Pelé and Garrincha, there's a second-tier of football legends where I'd include Maradona, Romário, Ronaldo and Zidane.

 

[Keith Robinson]

Garrincha

Arguably the greatest player of all time, though completely overshadowed. Sadly, died an alcoholic and destitute and destined never to get the accolades he was due. IIRC, didn't he have deformed legs or something like that?

 

[Klaus]

He was called "angel with crooked legs", yes.

And lookee lookee what I found:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search=garrincha&search_type=search_videos&search=Search

 

[Jdvn1]

Below Pelé and Garrincha, there's a second-tier of football legends where I'd include Maradona, Romário, Ronaldo and Zidane.

I suppose that's a very Brazilian answer.

Saying that there's a definite tier between Pele and Maradona is quite a stretch.

 

[Crothian]

Wow, now it goes to a shoot out

 

[Jdvn1]

Italy wins! Awesome!

WOOOOOOO!