World Cup Predictions

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Mini-league: The Ex-Reading School Championship

Some of us years ago, some of us a mere handful of days ago, but we've all now officially left Reading School. What better way to stay in touch than to spend weeks whining about football?

League created by   Colin Fallon

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July 31, 2006 at 20:16,   Joe Yu said: I seem to have overrun the word count by exactly 1 word. The last bit should have said "more than an adequate replacement".
July 31, 2006 at 20:09,   Joe Yu said: With only a few weeks before the start of the premiership season, I thought it might be a good idea to post a reminder for the imminent return of Yahoo Fantasy Football which, like Wembley stadium, should be ready to go by late October 2007. There's also that matter of our predictions game in which Feng has reclaimed his position as king of the hill. Surely he won't cede this lofty title (and the chance to pick 1-1s ad nauseam) to go gallivanting off stateside? As usual, we'll all be waiting in anticipation of the myriad of rule changes Yahoo will shortly conjure up. We may have seen a few already with its World Cup FF experiment. Surprisingly, the system that relied heavily on lockdowns didn't yield a single happy hour, so in that regard it could be seen as a success. However, the fact of the matter is that it was dreadfully boring, as every team simply chose from a select pool of 40 or so players. It almost makes you wish for the days of the old game - except without Tim winning of course. As everyone has gone dispersed across the vast expanse of the English southeast, I expect everyone will be upping their game. After all, with higher education in Britain comes a TV in your room. However, this year I will also have ready access to Premiership football, although not without a fight. The cable provider (read: monopoliser) in Kingston has substituted the Premiership-broadcasting Sportsnet with Champions-League-broadcas ting TSN (The Sports Network). Aside from their patently uncreative network names, the two channels are rather distinct - especially when it comes to their football feeds. While the international commentary on Sportsnet has a selection of normal people with comprehensible English accents, TSN features a reasonable Scottish commentator paired with a most unreasonable Irish foil. The latter seemingly insists on calling every single goal "a bulge in the old onion bag", single-handedly masterminding the transformation of an esoteric piece of imagery into a hackneyed phrase, due to the worldwide broadcast through parent corporation ESPN. ESPN viewers must think the Irish really love their onions. Especially those that come in bags. All in all, you'd be hard pressed to find a greater irritant in the footballing world unless perhaps Paul Dickov grew a Robbie Savage hairdo and surgically implanted a pair of Hasselbaink eyes. Aside from the inflammatory analyst, the greater problem has been that I've been forced to get digital cable just to get Premiership football. Two of the three channels across which broadcasting is split are only available on analogue cable if you purchase the "variety package", which when totalled comes out to a dollar less per month than digital cable that has several more channels. The cable company doesn't just encircle the cash-bled students though. Rather, it must make a handsome sum from the residences on campus, as they actually still subscribe to the "variety package" and, by corollary, the doctrine of student deprivation. And this from a university famed for its commerce program. Hopefully you've all landed yourselves in institutions less prone to financial folly. Speaking of which, there had to be some mention of Carrick, who appears to be exactly that at a jaw-dropping 18 million. However, after the whole Veron debacle, I have no doubt that at least 2 million will be appearance-based, 2 million player/club performance-based, and given his situation with the national team quite possibly another 2 million will be England-based. The deal is effectively not a lot more down than van Nistelrooy's move, which was almost certainly 11 million cash. Of course, every transfer this summer (combined) pales in comparison to the whopping 30 million+ Shevchenko deal. What's that you say? It was only 29 million? But that's excluding the multimillion signing on fee and assuming the multimillion agent's fee is in the 29 figure. Then there's the small matter of the mansion and the private jet. Bet you all thought I was joking about that before you read what Crespo said he was offered by Abramovic to stay, right? Despite all the talk of Duff's slashed price move, the deal of the summer surely must belong to another team that one of our fellow FF players holds dear. If life were like the Football Manager game, Bellamy's release clause would have been around the 60 million mark - and certainly not a tenth of that! Blackburn pulled off quite the coup to get Bellamy, but now the magician's secret has been revealed as nothing more than a contract that the player could effectively escape from as soon as he was more a Pedersen and less of a Dickov. As it is likely Colin has long abandoned this message board, I'll lay off the Dickov jokes now. Hughes has brought in some firepower though, albeit of a distinctly Football Manager variety. If Benedict McCarthy can break the offside trap 5 times per game like he does in FM 2006, then Blackburn will have a more than ade...
July 12, 2006 at 23:24,   Feng Rao said: Well I feel I must thank Joe for his donation of his prize. I must say, I certainly did not expect to win...not with a pretty poor group stage...I'll see what I can buy with it later.
July 12, 2006 at 17:52,   Joe Yu said: Congratulations Feng for reclaiming his predictions champion crown. May the title never enter his team name again. The 10 pound coupon could only be given to me in GBP, so I will paste the email onto the World Cup FF message board (which is private) if Feng would like to use it. If not, anyone else can use it. The reason why you might not want to use it is because you obviously have to enter your personal information (phone, email etc.), and CD WOW's "I agree" statement seems to suggest that the site is allowed to distribute your information to third parties. You should probably check up on that before taking my word for it of course.
July 11, 2006 at 09:03,   Feng Rao said: Heh. When I win something it's obviously due to match-fixing? Amazingly enough, when I did happen to catch a glance at the front page of USA Today - it was actually on the World Cup, something most people appear to be oblivious to.
July 10, 2006 at 14:20,   Colin Fallon said: Congratulations to Feng, who powers to victory with Italy. Who'd have thought it would be them at the start of the tournament? If you look at their run through the tournament, they certainly have had a lot of luck - their opponents getting multiple red cards in the group stages, a very questionable penalty in stoppage time against Australia, and France's top penalty taker headbutting Materazzi five minutes before a shoot-out in the final. Clearly, the only conclusion we can draw is match-fixing...
July 9, 2006 at 07:37,   Feng Rao said: Okay, I'm back from a 3 day camping trip in Olympic National Park, Washington. I have also now been up the Space Needle and seen how lame it is. People apparently buy T-shirts saying that they "made it" to the top, i.e. they managed to buy an extortionately priced ticket, and then were able to go up an elevator. However, because of all this, I am now covered in mosquito bites and also completely clueless as to what's happened in the World Cup. It seems Italy are still in though, which can only be a good thing. Congratulations to Joe on winning his prize.
July 7, 2006 at 22:25,   Joe Yu said: I have asked for the CD WOW voucher in Canadian dollars if possible. However, if they can't do this, I have asked for it in pound sterling, and the winner of predictions can have it.
July 6, 2006 at 20:28,   Colin Fallon said: And the competition ends with me subverting the stereotype of English fans - I'll be cheering on France in the final, as opposed to hating them and wanting them to die, as is traditionally expected of English fans. Still, even if Italy and Feng win, at least it's one FF competition this year that Joe didn't win. Although he did win a CDWOW voucher. So he sort of did win after all. Damn. (I wonder what you're spending it on, Joe.)
July 6, 2006 at 09:06,   Joe Yu said: For some reason, I cannot choose to have my prize in Canadian dollars. However, I may have my pick of any of 4 different country's Euros...
July 6, 2006 at 09:03,   Joe Yu said: How about that? As soon as I made my last post, they sent me my prize. If only Staples mail-in rebates were that fast... (9 months and counting)
July 6, 2006 at 08:59,   Joe Yu said: At least I won something in predictions. If you take a look at the daily challenge winners, you will see my name under the "Like a man possessed" challenge in which I correctly guessed that Brazil would have 55% of the possession. This means that I have won absolutely nothing, because I presumably don't qualify for this CD WOW thing as I am overseas.
July 5, 2006 at 04:45,   Joe Yu said: And it will go right down to the wire. Feng's pick of Italy are still alive, and remarkably enough, two new scorers netted for Italy again. I think about half their team has grabbed a goal now. At this rate, Gattuso might even get one.
July 4, 2006 at 08:33,   Joe Yu said: It's down to just Feng and Colin now. It'll all be decided tomorrow most likely in the Germany v Italy game - the 'final' in disguise. There are a few reasons why this may well turn out to be the case. France and Portugal have one fewer day of rest before the final. Portugal, lucky not to get several players suspended due to 2 yellow cards after the England game, will now almost certainly have several players suspended for the final if they go through. Neither France nor Portugal have beaten a non-joint-bottom team (i.e. a team that went home with no points) by more than a goal (bagging one against a Spain on all-out attack mode in the last minute doesn't count). France's one and only plan B is the uninspirational Trezeguet - compare this with Germany's and Italy's backups who have all scored/got assists (Neuville, Borowski, Odonkor, Iaquinta, Totti, Inzaghi). Portugal's leading striker has one goal and hasn't scored against a quality team since the dawn of time; a third of their goals have come from penalties; another third has come from Maniche who will never score against a non-lame team that doesn't give him acres of space to shoot. France's playmaker is Vieira - a comparison of passing ability with the likes of Ballack or Totti would be almost pointless here were it not for the fact that Ballack and Totti seem to have an obsession with shooting from way out. Germany and Italy are good at defending set pieces and won't let France sneak in like they did against Brazil; they also don't hold an absurdly high line like Spain. Germany and Italy both have shootout specialists in goal, thus forcing Portugal and France to think twice before playing for penalties. Therefore, it's time for me to gamble on Buffon or Lehmann for tomorrow's semi - I say 'gamble', because I might have 2 goalies for the final. However, if I get it right, I will have one for the 3rd place playoff and one for the final. (I've discovered goalies are much higher scoring than strikers in the knock-out rounds.) I've clawed my way back inside the top 2000 after a couple days' good work, so I'm hoping to sneak into the top 1000 at the death again.
July 2, 2006 at 14:35,   Colin Fallon said: Let's all put aside England's generally rubbish World Cup, and focus instead on how I'm doing well in World Cup predictions! While I struggle to break into the top fifty thousand on Yahoo, on this game I'm currently in 35th place. What's more, most of the top 10 have picked Brazil to win. Sadly for me, I can only get 10 of 20 points in the semis - and while most people will probably be in the same situation, having predicted Portugal and France to crash out weeks ago, there is no way that none of the 34 people ahead of me have predicted Germany to win the World Cup. So I can probably wave goodbye to spending that thousand dollar prize on a laptop. Oh well, time to beg my parents for cash...
July 2, 2006 at 07:03,   Joe Yu said: Er. Yeah. What do I have to say. Just read my previous post with the following adjustments: Argentina => England; Germany => Portugal; Lehmann => Ricardo. Perhaps also over the bar => onto the bar, as far as the crucial penalty was concerned anyway.
July 1, 2006 at 07:42,   Joe Yu said: The curse of penalty kicks has struck again. With Argentina putting in a good showing against Germany, I thought that I would reclaim the lead for the first time since the early stages. However, Germany never seems to lose on penalties for some reason - even when they take off their top scorer. Perhaps because they practise more than other teams. Perhaps they always feel less pressure because they've been the worse team during the other 120 minutes. Perhaps because Lehmann cheats off his line every time. Who knows. However, unlike in the last couple of Champions League tournaments, refs aren't calling goalkeeper encroachment even when both feet are clearly over a foot in front of the goalline. The problem is not so much that a greater angle is covered (the goalie has to react marginally faster if he's further off his line), but rather that it is far easier to alter the momentum of the ball in a favourable direction when you are diving slightly forward; being in front of the goalline also means that such diversions will often permit a parry round the post or over the bar instead other types of saves you might see in open play where the goalie can only parry against the post because they are right on the goalline. However, Sepp Blatter won't be concerning himself about this. After all, stricter implementation of the penalty laws doesn't slow the game down to a snail's pace, nor is it highly ambiguous for refs to try to implement, nor does it take away any chance of 11 v 11 on the field due to over-enthusiastic use of the yellow card.
June 30, 2006 at 07:03,   Joe Yu said: Things are looking good for Colin right going into the quarter-finals. The rankings predictably did not change following the round of 16, and with Colin's selection of Germany to progress, I could fall off the pace dramatically if Argentina loses tomorrow. Hence, I have opted to not place all my eggs in one basket for a change, picking Ballack for my FF team, so that I will get some joy one way or another. Last minute Ballack sending off, here we come! I have 1 defender, 4 midfielders, and 3 strikers playing tomorrow, so theoretically, my ranking cannot plummet any further. However, my team will find some way of achieving this feat probably by all getting booked in the Italy game. Whatever happens, anyone (except Feng) can still catch me in FF, because I can only have a maximum of 8 players in the final due to my 2 changes in the knock-out stages so far. I could potentially end up with only 2 players if Ukraine and France perform miracles. Thus, someone who gambles now and uses all their transfers for players from two teams will probably win. Of course, this strategy could also be suicidal if your teams go out. And right now, we have some even match-ups in terms of the form book. Germany and Argentina have probably had the most convincing performances. Brazil and France have had one each in that department. Ukraine and Italy have each had one attractive-looking scoreline, and that's about it. And England and Portugal have had pretty much identical scorelines in exactly the same order. With Ronaldo seemingly still a possibility for Portugal, the midfield might not be as lopsided as I first imagined. However, if you said that you were going to play Maniche and Tiago against Gerrard and Lampard in the Premiership, people would think you were having a laugh. However, in World Cup it doesn't work that way for some reason. Lampard is now incapable of scoring and Gerrard no longer scythes through opposition defences with his runs. However, as the Canadian broadcasting team will repeatedly remind us, since the game is on Canada Day Hargreaves must at least do well.
June 29, 2006 at 20:42,   Colin Fallon said: Warning: random speculation ahead. As we are all within 12 points of each other, everyone in this group is still guaranteed victory if their predicted team wins the World Cup - it's reasonably likely that someone will have picked the winner as nobody's team has gone out yet. However, out of the 8 quarter finalists, the only teams that have so far produced a convincing win are Germany, Argentina, Brazil and, er, Ukraine. By this logic, Brazil should beat France (which is quite likely anyway) and Ukraine should beat Italy (which is likely only if the match is of similar pace to the Switzerland game). Those two results will boost my ranking, as will a win for Germany in the lottery-like result of their match with Argentina. Then the only thing that's left is for me to cheer what's left of Portugal on against England. Or I could just lket Feng win.
June 28, 2006 at 06:40,   Feng Rao said: Off on holiday, but not out of this competition, that's for sure. All 4 of my semi-finalist predictions can still come true, unlike some people...
June 27, 2006 at 22:09,   Colin Fallon said: And we've all got 24 points from the second round. My quarter-final success now depends on the unlikely prediction of Germany to win, and the Judas-like prediction of Portugal to win. As these will never happen, Feng is looking good for a group victory, as Italy have the easiest fixture. Feng, however, has gone off on holiday, so he loses by default.
June 25, 2006 at 22:13,   Colin Fallon said: I am now 121st - it will clearly be my highest position of the whole tournament. This is because tomorrow I have the USA getting through, whereas everyone else will have Italy, causing an avalanche-like drop in rank unless Italy lose. The next day, I have France and Spain like everyone else so I will hardly suffer, but in the likely event of Spain winning I lose a predicted semi-finalist. (In any case, I think the winner plays Brazil, meaning more impossibilities). Then my predicted winner plays the so-far unbeatable Argentina - 22 points down the drain if they lose. Finally, after today's cardfest, Portugal may not have 11 available players against England, meaning they lose by default. I should really be concentrating on that French exam I have in about 35 hours instead of this.
June 25, 2006 at 18:54,   Colin Fallon said: Feng's right; this is where it all goes wrong. My semifinalists are Portugal, Germany, Brazil and France; with Portugal facing Holland and France playing Spain in the second round (and Germany having to beat Argentina next), there'll have to be some big surprises if I'm still going to have a respectable rank by the end of the competition. At least my position at the top of the group is looking reasonably secure, or at least it is as long as England continue to perform unconvincingly.
June 25, 2006 at 11:51,   Feng Rao said: Hmm...this is perhaps where my lack in confidence in the Argentinian team (or just sheer ignorance) may prove costly...same for Colin as well. Joe is the only one with Argentina advancing past the Quarters. Matt has already discovered this problem...
June 25, 2006 at 10:49,   Colin Fallon said: In the second round, it looks like you will get a slight gain in rank if you get 8 points in a day, and a huge drop if you get 4. As USA and one of France and Spain will not get through to the quarter finals, I can only get 4 tomorrow and the day after, so I need Portugal to get through today if I want to salvage a decent rank. I'm currently 347th - my Yahoo rank is over 100 times this.
June 25, 2006 at 05:57,   Joe Yu said: We've all predicted virtually the same teams to progress through the round of 16, so prepare for absolutely no changes in your position for the next 3 days.
June 22, 2006 at 22:09,   Colin Fallon said: If you read Feng's profile, you will see that he has made the most prescient prediction of all of us so far. In the actual games, I'm on course to have less points than I did two days ago in Yahoo, and although I held on to a respectable rank in predictions today, I don't fancy my predictions much for tomorrow, so down I go.
June 21, 2006 at 17:05,   Colin Fallon said: Matt has done rather well in the two matches played so far today. It may be time to get down to the bookies and bet on the scorelines he's predicted for the evening. In other news, we were all hoping that Pauleta and Ronaldo would not miss matches for our Yahoo teams by getting banned; luckily Big Phil has avoided that possibility by banning them himself. At least I still have my McDonalds captain to play in tonight's winner-gets-to-play-Mexic o showdown. Come on, 1-1...
June 20, 2006 at 22:54,   Feng Rao said: Oh dear, tomorrow I have 3 1-1 scorelines...now what's the saying? Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times a conspiracy?...
June 20, 2006 at 08:51,   Colin Fallon said: ...and I'm rocketing towards the bottom of the standings. Today, Joe and I have done the usual, and only have different predictions on two of the four matches - one of which is the pointless Poland v Costa Rica match, the other is the England match (and I automatically lose if any goals are scored). At least my players are scoring in Yahoo FF.
June 18, 2006 at 17:57,   Feng Rao said: Well, I am now climbing, quite spectacularly, up to what is now 1997th place. I'm rather surprised actually, that I'm still doing rather well considering the numerous draws that are now in my predictions, though admittedly, my score was largely helped due to the rather odd Italy-USA match yesterday...
June 18, 2006 at 08:53,   Colin Fallon said: My ranking is actually 280th, which is the highest it has ever been at the end of a day of matches. (It was 210th in the middle of a day once, but then a last-minute goal in the evening match dropped me about 400 places). Today, I have predicted three 1-0 results, so my ranking can surely only climb given the form of the World Cup so far. Even if I have predicted Japan to win.
June 18, 2006 at 05:06,   Joe Yu said: Colin is closing in on the top 10. He has 28 points, which is only 6 behind lowest person on the leaderboard. That's quite the opposite to the direction that I'm travelling in World Cup FF, where I have finally broken a 4 day drop down to a ranking of about 2000. This was quite surprising considering I picked a captain who scored negative points, as well as several other players who furnished my teamsheet with negative points. The celebrity league seems to have found its feet at last, and some of the teams are doing respectably. Even Ronald McDonald is no longer last thanks largely to several late entrants.
June 15, 2006 at 21:59,   Colin Fallon said: And for the second day in a row, late goals give me points in the afternoon match and then take points from me in the evening kick-off. Still, I suppose I'm not really in a position to complain. I will be tomorrow, though, after none of my unimaginably one-sided predictions come true. (Check Feng's predictions for tomorrow; they're completely the different to every else's).
June 14, 2006 at 22:12,   Feng Rao said: Heh. Well Col is still steaming ahead. My eccentric predictions now start to kick in. This will mean that I either beat everyone, or I come last. Seeing as this season in the Premiership predictions saw me gain barely over Dave, who didn't even play for three-quarters of it, I am not going into my mass of draws with much in the way of luck. This either means that my tactic has now been cursed, or that it's time for my winning ways again. I have now given up hope on the Yahoo fantasy football as well, seeing as I'm not even going to be in the country for the last half of the world cup. I seem to have also picked all the players that decide not to play, either because of some unknown injury (Deco), or because they are frankly too fat (Ronaldo).
June 14, 2006 at 16:17,   Colin Fallon said: I will probably continue to post here frequently, as this is the game on which I've achieved a vaguely respectable position (around 1100th here, as opposed to around 74000th on Yahoo's game). However, as I have predicted two draws for today's two remaining matches, expect me to plummet drastically. In Yahoo's game, my McDonalds team captain did something notable for once, but then was awarded no points other than the 8 for his goal. Stupid game.
June 13, 2006 at 22:36,   Joe Yu said: Because you have to refresh this page an innumerable number of times before the "banter board" appears in its entirety, I am going to start posting more on the Yahoo message board - the only thing that Yahoo has improved, because you no longer have to type while a giant ad occupies the majority of your monitor. Unlike during the Premiership season, Craig Forrest has been taken off the teleprompter on a few occasions during this World Cup. You knew it wouldn't go well when the first thing he did was mispronounce it "weird cup" in his rush to finish his segment before the commercial break. For some reason, he now sits in the middle of the panel. He is still holding onto his record of 10 correct results out of the 14 matches though.
June 13, 2006 at 15:38,   Matt Rose said: Paragraphs are useful things.
June 13, 2006 at 15:37,   Matt Rose said: Also, I do love Mediawatch on Football365.com. The Americans not so much. " Mediawatch has never before stumbled across the States-based twincities.com, the website of the leading newspaper for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in the heart of middle America, but the opening lines of its World Cup editorial suggests that it is redder than the sunburnt cardinals standing in front of the Red Sea eating tomatoes: 'If the government really is serious about identifying illegal immigrants, it soon will be provided a unique opportunity to record their whereabouts. 'All the Department of Homeland Security has to do is monitor the city-by-city television ratings of this month's World Cup soccer tournament. Agents should be dispatched to any area in which the ratings reflect an unnaturally high level of interest. That likely signals a concentrated pocket of illegals.' As for 'real' Americans, 'We don't like soccer because we do understand it. And it's awful. 'It's time to quit apologizing and tell the truth. When it comes to soccer, we're right, and the rest of the world is wrong. 'Many spectators in soccer-crazed countries warm up for a big match by hitting their neighbor in the head with a brick. And as soon as little Nigel or Fiona is old enough, mum and dad take them out back and practice squishing them against a chain link fence. 'Yes, America may be the only country that doesn't go goofy for soccer. We also are the only remaining super power. Don't you see a connection there?' America is also the most-despised country on earth. Perhaps the more pertinent question is whether they can they see the connection there." And did you hear this one Joe? "Not Even Graeme Le Saux Was Capable Of This From Canadian TV's coverage of Mexico v Iran: Anchorman: "Craig, how will the Mexican goalkeeper approach this game, given what's happened to him this week?" Craig Forrest: "Well, his father passed away on Thursday - he'll be disappointed with that..." "
June 13, 2006 at 15:34,   Matt Rose said: OK, you can now see my predictions. And since I'm losing (I hadn't actually checked this at all since the start of the tournament), I highly doubt they're worth noting. I'm on a teen forum where so many American girls talk about how "the British accent is sooo cute!! (lyk omg)." Presumably they're unfamiliar with Scouse. Or indeed the concept that we have more accents than cockney / talk-like-the-Queen. 72 minutes gone in the South Korea / Togo game, and all of a sudden Colin is heading for 3 points, ending Feng's hopes of a perfect score in the process.
June 12, 2006 at 18:55,   Colin Fallon said: And even Joe, who gains a solitary point, did not have enough faith in the mighty Czechs. I did, however, correctly predict the amount of times they would get fouled for the Daily Challenge thing, so I may be winning something after all. This evening: will Italy win pathetically 1-0, or pathetically 2-1?
June 12, 2006 at 02:46,   Joe Yu said: Canada is topping the leaderboard at the moment. With every game turning out to be a narrow victory, Feng has done well to get 6 points despite his many 1-1s. Matt has still not selected for his predictions to be displayed, so I can't tell what he's picked. Colin has taken the lead after Serbia & Montenegro failed to score for me today, but I am hoping that everyone's lack of faith in the Czech Republic will pay off for me tomorrow.
June 11, 2006 at 04:42,   Joe Yu said: Colin and I actually have different scorelines tomorrow. Time to see how much Iran wins by.
June 10, 2006 at 01:03,   Joe Yu said: Seeing as you cannot change your predictions from this point onward, we may as well change our settings to show our predictions. That way, when we inevitably all score 1 point on each of the next 14 matchdays, we can at least scrounge up some consolation from the fact that we performed our scoring feats in different games. Not that that applied today, of course.
June 9, 2006 at 23:46,   Feng Rao said: Col, I think you might be regretting your pick of the winner now...that German defence is not a world cup winning defence...it's like Newcastle's defence, i.e. non-existent.
June 9, 2006 at 22:20,   Colin Fallon said: After day 1, the scores are thrillingly poised. Zzz.
June 9, 2006 at 08:13,   Feng Rao said: There are East Anglian accents? Anyway...Colchester is in Essex as far as I know...oh, and I'm assuming you have the decent gmail address, and not the now reject domain of googlemail?
June 9, 2006 at 06:54,   Joe Yu said: I have finally stopped changing my predictions now. I decided to remove some of my outsider picks in my latest revision, because I thought you only got points for the knockout matches if both of your predicted teams appeared in that match. I now realize that that isn't how it works. You actually get points so long as your team reaches the round that you say they'll reach - a format that makes much more sense. Nonetheless, I think my switches are reasonable following the latest round of injuries. With Shevchenko not having completed a match, I have decided to put Spain clear above them. In the Group of Death 2 (aka the Group of Injuries), I've removed the Czech Republic from top spot after I lost track of how many injured players they had. I had formerly installed them as the best debutante (not counting Czechoslovakia here), because their starting 11 didn't seem to include any first timers to international competition at all. However, I figure that Italy will be able to handle the injury situation better. Effectively, that gives me a rather uncreative list of qualifiers for the knock-out stages. Perhaps I should change stuff around some more.
June 9, 2006 at 06:17,   Joe Yu said: Here are the picks of the Canadian World Cup broadcast's hosts/pundits/Craig Forrest for anyone who is interested... The regular host (I'm guessing you know that translates to TV presenter in British English) for the Premiership games has picked England at 9/1. Craig Forrest has picked Holland at 14/1. Football-related person with English accent has picked Brazil at very short odds that I don't remember. And host of the World Cup last time round has picked Spain for whom odds don't apply they're guaranteed to reach the quarter-finals before losing (possibly 16/1). You haven't miscounted - there are indeed 4 hosts. Technically, Craig Forrest is thus in a pundit's role along with the guy with the English accent. However, they compress his air time so much (to accomodate commercials etc.) that he now frequently ends up trying to read the teleprompter so fast that the sentences don't make sense. The English guy is involved in football development programs of some sort, and so can actually communicate a fleeting idea or two before the Adidas commercials start to role. And to answer Feng's question: everyone who meets me asks about my accent, or at least looks puzzled until I explain why a Chinese person would have an English accent (called a British accent in North America). However, I don't think I have as distinctive an East Anglian accent as before, assuming my accent was East Anglian, because that's where I learned English (I never bothered to check this while I was in England). The one thing I am fairly certain about is that I don't have a Canadian accent (often called an American accent in Britain, but the accent in Canada is actually slightly milder than a CNN newsreader's for example, and generally much more homogeneous across the country than American regional variations). I still find it puzzling how exactly you roll an r or omit a t. However, I have incorporated certain Canadianisms into my vocabular, such as "eh" and "Tim Hortons". (You can consider yourself very culturally in-tune if you understood that last one.) If you would like to verify all this for yourself, I'm now a frequent user of Skype, because I use it to talk with my parents. My ID is joeyu1 (like my gmail address, which I may or may not have given you previously) and I'm pretty much always on because it would take effort to turn it to default off. However, I will not have unshackled myself of the ball-and-chain that is spring term Organic Chemistry until after my exam next Thursday afternoon (scheduling at its finest...). However, I'm finally free from Kingston after that. I've also finally got Windows Live Messenger to work - some registry file wasn't right for some reason, so I couldn't sign in to MSN or get Windows Updates.
June 9, 2006 at 05:43,   Joe Yu said: You can set up all of your teams on the Yahoo game on the matchday (prior to the match of course) or any time before that so long as the fixture is known. That is to say, you can pick your 11 players for each of the group stage matchdays already; however, you cannot pick your team for the knockout stages yet. Obviously, this is all assuming Yahoo gets the lockdown right.... all of a sudden, T&T at odds of 1001 to 1 isn't looking so unlikely.

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PosNameWinnerPo
1   Feng Rao  Reading Winner: ItalySee full predictions99
2   Colin Fallon   Winnersh Winner: GermanySee full predictions91
3   Joe Yu   Kingston, Ontario Winner: EnglandSee full predictions72
4   Matt Rose   Wokingham Winner: BrazilSee full predictions68

User gallery

Colin Fallon Matt Rose Joe Yu

 

                                                               

DISCLAIMER: World Cup Predictions is an unofficial competition and is not affiliated in any way with FIFA or the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ Germany.