FIFA WC 2014 - Knockout predcitions

"Of the World Cups I've seen with my own eyes, this has been the best. We're in a country where people live and breathe football, where football is a religion. I'm not surprised that we've witnessed extremely attacking football, with a lot of goals and entertainment." – Ivan Zomarano

This is what the former Chilean great has to say about this edition of the world cup. And may I say, this has been the world cup of the upsets too with giants like Spain, Italy, England & Portugal already shown the door. Most of the match level predictions fell flat if you look at the predicted scores and what actually transpired. The group level predictions on who will qualify look a little better.

Group A wasn’t as close as I thought as Mexico played superbly even holding hosts Brazil to a draw.

Group B - Spain put up a dismal show and looked lost in the first two matches which Chile capitalized on. Netherlands played like champions but special mention must be made of Australia. Although the final scores don’t reflect it they played some real good football. The Netherlands-Australia being one of the best encounters this world cup.

Group C – Japan’s performance was below par and Greece scrambled through as predicted but it is Colombia who have put up a splendid show.

Group D -  For Costa Rica to qualify as the top team in a group which has England, Italy and Uruguay is an amazing feat. Uruguay put their act together in the later part and got through largely due to Suarez. Now that Suarez is out, their fate in the world cup hangs in balance. England didn’t get through as predicted. Ital, the old war horse got trapped in its own tricks.

Group E – France and Switzerland got through as predicted although Ecuador game them a scare.

Group F – This group was better than I thought. Argentina got through with ease. But the other three teams including Iran fought well. Kudos to Nigeria for getting through; I am sad for Bosnia & Herzegovina though; they showed promise but couldn’t convert due to the lack of a good striker.

Group G – This group lived up to its expectations and finally got decided on goal difference. Portugal due to their routing at the hands of Germany lost out. Once again a reminder that great players alone can’t win you matches in football, they just provide you the edge but you need a good team to win. USA are looking a dangerous side under their German coach (you know who J). Ghana played well too but were unlucky.

Group H – Belgium topped the group as predicted but Algeria surprised – what a show against Korea. Russia didn’t do as well as anticipated.

 

Here are the predictions for the remaining matches with predictions for the finals and 3^rd/4^th match reserved J

Have Fun!

 

Thank you South Africa for a great great world cup!!!

I have refrained from writing this past month as there was a lot happening around me which kept me preoccupied and then of course there was the World Cup…the only real world cup I would say as this is probably the only event for which each and every country of the world vies for and participates – that includes playing a lot of qualifiers till you reach the last 32 which go into the ultimate battle to be the champions of the beautiful game.


Now that the football extravaganza has come to an end it is time to reflect upon what has transpired in the last one month. I‘ll not go into facts and figures but stick to my takeaways from the World Cup.

First and foremost, the biggest takeaway is the victory of Spain. I had predicted at the very beginning that Spain might win this one which of course nobody believed at that time and not many were convinced even until they defeated the most favored Germany very convincingly like they were playing a bunch of school kids. It is incredible how a team which has scored only 8 goals in the entire tournament managed to be the champions. I personally do not favor the defensive genre of soccer which Italy and now Brazil uses. But Spain might have scored less but their soccer was never boring they played a beautiful passing game all through which was delight to watch. The only chink in their armour was that they were missing another striker apart from the exciting David Villa since Torres was injured and out of touch for most of the tournament. But they never let anybody expose that weakness and managed to cover it up with their beautiful midfield play. Although the entire team played extremely well the following players need special mention: Casillas, Ramos, Iniesta and Xavi.

Spain were the ultimate champions but the revelation of the world cup was Uruguay – what great team work, what great fighting spirit and never-say-die attitude and of course the player of the tournament Diego Forlan – what an incredible player who single handedly inspired the whole team to play the football of their lives. I know many people would start pointing fingers at Suarez for that handball. But honestly, that looked more of an instinctive reaction than a deliberate attempt. I think he got duly punished as per the rules. All this finger pointing is because Gyan wasn’t able to convert the penalty for Ghana. Had he done that everyone would have forgotten the incident. I believe all the booing by the crowd was unnecessary and embarrassing. Suarez I believe is a talented young player with a great future. Somehow Uruguay of Forlan and Suarez reminded me of Chile of Salas and Zomarano – you could never write them off against anyone.

Germany was playing like a dream and at one point even I thought the cup belonged to them. But they somehow lost their game against Spain. Was it psychological pressure because of what the tentacled Oracle predicted or something else….we would never know. But it’s true they were in the best form of their life before Spain left them clueless in the Semis. Muller was one of the best players of the tournament. On paper I believe they had the strongest team.

It would not be fair to leave Netherlands out but compared to Spain they had a much easier path to the finals. And they always have been good enough to be touted as the best team never to have won a World Cup and they kept the reputation alive. The only highlight for me was their win over Brazil. And Robben and Sneijder showed that they were class players but the rest of the team was pretty unimpressive. They might still have won the cup on the shoulders of Robben and Sneijder had they concentrated on their game than on the fouls. Probably it was part of their plan to upset Spain’s flow through some rough play but they overdid it. It is at this point Spain showed how mentally strong they were as they stuck to their game unflustered.

Argentina was my other favorite but they were absolutely clueless in the game against Germany. Messi was difficult to spot on the field; he hardly came near the ball that day much less display the magic he is known for.

This world cup all in all proved one thing for sure that football is a team game and no single Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney or Kaka can make you the Champions. But on the other hand it also proved that if you have one inspirational leader like Forlan, Honda or Gyan and the team is ready to rally around him and support him, you can still certainly make a mark.

Rest France were a shame, Italy disgraceful, Brazil strong but too tied up with their defense, England had the firepower but not the will, Portugal was just relying on Ronaldo, Serbia - I had high hopes and Ivory coast disappointed . But this cup had more positives than negatives – A new Champion, the meteoric rise of Uruguay and Forlan, exciting discovery of players like Gyan, Muller, Ozil, Donovan etc. Honda was a revelation.



Thank you South Africa for a great great world cup!!!

PS: I found this slideshow published by The Huffington Post which IMHO is the most complete summary of the World Cup 2010 : http://huff.to/dAk4Os