Wednesday June 14, 2006
World Cup after six days
Sports
- Posted by Rob (#1) on June 14, 2006 20:13 CEST
Now that we've been able to see all teams play at the World Cup 2006, favourites and disappointments are starting to shape. Nothing is in the clear yet, every team can still throw it all away or recover. Still, here's my take:
Group A
Germany to win the group. They're not good, but they've won already and play at home. That should be sufficient. Ecuador to be second. They will be able to take on Costa Rica and in a group with Germany six points will be enough for second place.
Group B
England to win. They won against Paraguay, Sweden sucks this year and Trinidad and Tobago can achieve anything but winning the group. Although Paraguay is not disappointing just yet, I still expect the Swedes to get through as second.
Group C
Holland to win. We shouldn't have to lose against them and I am still convinced we can do better against Ivory Coast than they can against Serbia and Montenegro. Therefore we'll make it to the top on goal difference. Argentina of course, takes second place.
Group D
Portugal to win. Compared to Mexico's performance against Iran, they disappointed against Angola. But they will win the one-on-one. Mexico to be second place, then.
Group E
Czech Republic to win. They overclassed USA more than Italy overclassed Ghana. They'll do it. Italy second.
Group F
Brazil to win. Doh. If Australia can draw against Croatia they might very well be second, and I think that might just happen for the Socceroos.
Group G
Tough, tough. France disappointed, I still don't know about Switzerland and South Korea didn't impress but did bag three points, to lead after one game. You know what, I'll take a risk and say they win the group, killing France this Sunday. Switzerland takes second place.
Group H
Spain to win. They never seem to win tournaments but damn, they're off to a good start. I do actually think Ukraine can take both Tunisia and Saudi Arabia so considering their just-finished two all draw, Ukraine takes second place.
1/8th Finals
That would then produce, including predictions in bold:
Germany-Sweden
The Netherlands-Mexico
England-Ecuador
Portugal-Argentina
Czech Republic-Australia
South Korea-Ukraine
Brazil-Italy
Spain-Switzerland
Which could very well create some historical quarter finals:
Quarter Finals
Germany-The Netherlands (is there any more heated confrontation?)
Czech Republic-South Korea
England-Argentina (okay there might be one)
Brazil-Spain
And then Holland can meet their arch enemies of the past decade, the Czechs. We've played them at almost every qualification and end tournament for decades, it seems.
Semi Finals
The Netherlands-Czech Republic
Argentina-Brazil
Final
The Netherlands-Brazil.. dum-ti-dum. No idea how that would end actually, but I do think that although my predictions seem amazingly generous to Holland, we can actually take all of Ivory Coast (they're not that amazing), Mexico (kicked their arse in friendlies with a second rate team), Germany (aging and not that impressive either) and Czech Republic (came ahead during qualification, manageable). The alternative opponents? South Korea, Australia.. please. We can reach the finals!
(I reserve the right to amend this post with a new prediction later in the tournament up to and including after the final, pretending as if these predictions never took place.)