MY WORLD CUP PREDICTIONS

[jenni_blog]

Just for fun, I thought I'd do this. I worked it all out yesterday while watching the boring Greece game.

These are my predictions for the World Cup, all the way through the group stages to the final.

I have predicted which teams I think will win each match, the teams that will advance out of the group stages and the teams that should win each subsequent match in the knockout rounds. Of course I don't know all the teams and I am basing my predictions only on 'gut feel'.

These are the matches that have already taken place:

Friday, June 11
Group A
South Africa 1 - 1 Mexico
Uruguay 0 - 0 France

Saturday, June 12
Group B
Korea Republic 2 - 0 Greece
Argentina 1 - 0 Nigeria

Group C
England 1 - 1 USA

Sunday, June 13
Algeria 0 - 1 Slovenia



Here are my predictions for the winners of the remaining games:

Serbia ties Ghana
Germany beats Australia

Monday, June 14
Netherlands ties Denmark
Japan ties Cameroon
Paraguay beats Italy

Tuesday, June 15
Slovakia beats New Zealand
Ivory Coast beats Portugal
Brazil beats North Korea

Wednesday, June 16
Honduras ties Chile
Spain beats Switzerland
South Africa ties Uruguay

Thursday, June 17
Korea Republic beats Argentina
Nigeria beats Greece
Mexico beats France

Friday, June 18
Germany ties Serbia
USA ties Slovenia
England beats Algeria

Saturday, June 19
Netherlands beats Japan
Ghana ties Australia
Denmark beats Cameroon

Sunday, June 20
Paraguay beats Slovakia
Italy ties New Zealand
Brazil beats Ivory Coast

Monday, June 21
North Korea beats Portugal
Chile beats Switzerland
Spain beats Honduras

Tuesday, June 22
Mexico ties Uruguay
South Africa beats France
Argentina beats Greece
Korea Republic beats Nigeria

Wednesday, June 23
England beats Slovenia
USA beats Algeria
Germany beats Ghana
Serbia beats Australia

Thursday, June 24
Slovakia ties Italy
Paraguay beats New Zealand
Netherlands beats Cameroon
Denmark ties Japan

Friday, June 25
Brazil beats Portugal
North Korea beats Ivory Coast
Spain beats Chile
Honduras beats Switzerland

~~

My predictions for how the groups will look:

Group A
South Africa - 5 pts (will go ahead of Mexico on goal differential)
Mexico - 5 pts
Uruguay - 3 pts
France - 1 pt

Group B
Korea Republic - 7 pts
Argentina - 6 pts
Nigeria - 4 pts
Greece - 0 pts

Group C
England - 7 pts
USA - 4 pts (will go ahead of Slovenia on goal differential)
Slovenia - 4 pts
Algeria - 0 pts

Group D
Germany - 7 pts
Serbia - 5 pts
Ghana - 2 pts
Australia - 1 pt

Group E
Netherlands - 7 pts
Denmark - 5 pts
Japan - 2 pts
Cameroon - 1 pt

Group F
Paraguay - 9 pts
Slovakia - 4 pts
Italy - 2 pts
New Zealand - 1 pt

Group G
Brazil - 9 pts
North Korea - 6 pts
Ivory Coast - 3 pts
Portugal - 0 pts

Group H
Spain - 9 pts
Chile - 4 pts (will go ahead of Honduras on goal differential)
Honduras - 4 pts
Switzerland - 0 pts

~~

Knockout Stages

Saturday, June 26
South Africa beats Argentina
England beats Serbia

Sunday, June 27
Germany beats USA
Mexico beats South Korea

Monday, June 28
Netherlands beats Slovakia
Brazil beats Chile

Tuesday, June 29
Paraguay beats Denmark
Spain beats North Korea

Quarter-finals

Friday, July 2
Netherlands beats Paraguay
Germany beats South Africa

Saturday, July 3
England beats Mexico
Spain beats Brazil

Semi-finals

Tuesday, July 6
England beats The Netherlands

Wednesday, July 7
Spain beats Germany

FINAL

England vs Spain

WINNER: SPAIN



Am I living in a dream world?

Comments

[aglaiya.livejournal.com]

Sorry! I hope this will NEVER happen!

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

It probably won't! But doing it helped me to see how difficult it is going to be and the most important thing for OUR teams is that the ones we HATE cannot make it out of the groups! *bites nails*

I'm already wrong about today's games so far. I would have thought the opposite would happen. So the way things usually go for me is that I will get half right and half wrong. We will see.

I did go with 'gut instinct' rather than wishful thinking for this. Otherwise the outcome would have been MUCH different! :)

[aglaiya.livejournal.com]

It will always different from what we want.

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

That is the only sure thing! :(

[only21grams.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind Spain winning whole thing. Some of these will never happen but it's good to dream. ;)

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

If I guessed all right and didn't bet on it I'd kill myself! LOL.
I'm more likely to be ALL WRONG! XD

[firestarter-007.livejournal.com]

for me this WC seem weird.. maybe is the lack of goals and great games lol i honestly have no idea who is gonna win =/

my dream:

first place - Argentina
second place - Spain
third place - Netherlands

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

It is a VERY weird WC so far!

And my predictions are probably going to be ALL WRONG but I tried to figure out which teams would come out of the groups. But now I don't know!

What I predicted is not necessarily what I want. What I want is:

First place - Spain
Second place - Mexico
Third place - Paraguay

But it will not happen! And there are other teams I like that I would not mind winning as well.

[firestarter-007.livejournal.com]

aww Mexico in second place.. :') i like them and Spain of course lol umm.. i don't know much about Paraguay =[

But it will not happen!
in football anything can happen and this world cup is giving me hope that we might have lots of surprises! look at Korea and Germany with all the injuries are going strong.

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

I'm going by things I've heard about some teams that impressed me to base my predictions on. For instance, Spain is just unbeatable and has managed to keep a clean sheet as well in most of their qualifying and friendly games. And Mexico is the best national team the country has ever had, according to their coach. Paraguay led the South American teams in qualifying right up to the end and then they had a little bad spell, but I think they'll recover from that. Argentina was actually in danger of NOT qualifying...they were in terrible form all through the qualifiers until the end. Paraguay are a big, strong team physically. The only thing that bothers me is that their best striker, Oscar Cardozo, is injured. :(

[firestarter-007.livejournal.com]

don't remind me of Argentina in the qualifiers... D:
Spain is the absolute favorite this time around and they have such great players! <3

Aguirre has been criticized so much for saying that he has a great team and that they want more that just 5 games and for other reasons. i believe he is right and going back to our goalkeeper conversation he has Ochoa and Perez who i think did a decent job in the SA match.

oh man this world cup in plagued with injures! best of luck to Cardozo :] and thanks for ~educating me~ it's good to know that Paraguay is a strong team.

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

All the injuries have really changed things. For instance, I found myself wondering (as I was in awe over Germany's performance today) whether Michael Ballack's inclusion might not have made the team weaker. Only because, as Germany's 'big star', the other players would always be trying to get the ball to him. Sometimes that strategy backfires. The way Germany's young players performed today was incredible. They were so cool and confident and looked really, really awesome. Michael Ballack was NOT missed!

However, in other cases, the missing players might have made a difference. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. :)

[firestarter-007.livejournal.com]

it really was a GREAT performance! Lahm did an excellent job as the captain :]

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

Lahm was great! But then, he is always such a consistently good player. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know whether to hope you're right (because England getting into the final would be pretty much as good as winning for folks in this country) or to hope you're wrong (because I wouldn't even be able to enjoy the final properly on account of the inevitable England loss, probably in a penalty shoot-out). Although if I can be spared an England vs Portugal match at any stage I will be pleased!

[fanged-geranium.livejournal.com]

Sorry - that was me. Didn't notice I'd been logged out.

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

OK..thanks! I don't think there should be much worry about another England-Portugal match. One never knows, however, and the unpredictable way this WC has been going so far...anything could happen.

I think I am 100% WRONG on my predictions so far! :)

[txorakeriak.livejournal.com]

This is MOST interesting! We're having a prediction game at work (and the winner will get two tickets for the Women's U-20 World Cup in Augsburg this summer), so I can't get enough of other people's opinions! :D I missed the first 8 games but so far I scored 17 points (1 point if the winner/loser is correct, 3 points if the score is correct). The best has 29 points, but I bet they started way ahead of me. ;)

I hope Spain will win the World Cup, but they do have to perform a lot better than they did against Switzerland if they want to get far in this tournament!

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

I hope you end up doing better in your prediction game! Too bad you missed the first 8 games!

I do hope for Spain, but what amazes me (in a good way) is how well the South American teams are doing. However, the group stage is one thing, and the eliminations are another. I find it strange that both Italy and France could STILL go through (and probably WILL, somehow). :(