FIFA World Cup 2010
Well the World Cup is about to start, so here go the predictions
Group A
Tight group but France South Africa to come through
Group B
Argentina at a stroll and then Nigeria
Group C
England will top the group followed by the USA
Group D
Germany, then Australia
Group E
Holland and Cameroon
Group F
Italy and Slovakia
Group G
Brazil and Ivory Coast (yeap bye bye Ronaldo)
Group H
Spain and Chile
A quick look at this and I have a bad feeling, there are no real teams standing out at the moment breaking the hold of the top teams and while there is always a slow starter, I think Portugal will fall at the first hurdle, but no other surprises.
In the Round of 16 I see wins for South Africa, England, Germany, Argentina, Holland, Brazil, Italy and then Spain. I think Argentina, Italy and Spain may have a tough time in this round, with maybe Cameroon or the Ivory Coast good for coming through instead.
In the quarter finals I have Brazil, England, Germany, and Italy. England may get the hosts SA in this round so that could come down to a penalty shoot out or luck falling on SA. Spain could again drop out in this round, really now Im not seeing them as favourites for the Cup, they will have too many slippery ties.
In the Semis Brazil will have a win over England, and Germany will fall to Italy again.
The final is all for Brazil, with Italy left behind this time and Germany taking the third spot. Its all that simple really.
Most goals scored in the first series could be either Italy or Argentina just because of the teams in their group. With Brazil as winners I also have to go with them as top scorers.
The first nil-nil will be South Korea Vs Greece.
Now having said all of that Id better put my money where my mouth is, so off to Paddy Power.
But before I go one final thing to say, Im useless at predicting soccer scores so if I just go flip mode and reverse all the scores (or winners) Ive predicted in a spreadsheet then I get a semi final line up of
South Korea V Paraguay
Mexico V Portugal
And the winners of the 2010 World Cup will be Mexico. So there goes another each way bet.