I'm a bit late, since the World Cup is already underway with Brazil (possibly undeservedly) posting a win against Croatia in São Paulo. That being said, I thought that I would nail my proverbial colours to the mast and post my pre-tournament predictions, which are only marginally affected by today's result.
Without further ado, here are all of my predicted scorelines for the group phase, followed by my story of how I reckon the rest of the tournament ought to play out.
In order of the dates/times in which they are played, here are the matches:
BRA 2 - 2 HRV
MEX 1 - 1 CMR
ESP 1 - 1 NED
CHI 2 - 0 AUS
COL 0 -0 HEL
URU 4 - 0 CRC
ENG 2 - 1 ITA
CIV 3 - 1 JPN
SUI 0 - 0 ECU
FRA 1 - 0 HON
ARG 2 - 1 BOS
GER 3 - 2 POR
IRN 0 - 2 NIG
GHA 3 -1 USA
BEL 4 - 0 ALG
BRA 5 - 1 MEX
RUS 2 -2 KOR
AUS 0 - 2 NED
ESP 1 - 0 CHI
CMR 1 - 2 HRV
COL 0 - 2 CIV
URU 2 - 2 ENG
JPN 1 - 1 HEL
ITA 2 - 0 CRC
SUI 0 - 1 FRA
HON 0 -0 ECU
ARG 4 - 0 IRN
GER 4 - 1 GHA
NIG 1 - 0 BOS
BEL 3 - 0 RUS
KOR 2 - 1 ALG
USA 0 - 2 POR
NED 3 - 1 CHI
AUS 0 - 1 ESP
CMR 1 - 4 BRA
HRV 2 - 2 MEX
ITA 2 - 3 URU
CRC 0 - 4 ENG
JPN 1 - 2 COL
HEL 0 - 1 CIV
NIG 1 - 3 ARG
BOS 2 - 0 IRN
HON 0 - 0 SUI
ECU 1 - 2 FRA
POR 3 - 1 GHA
USA 0 - 3 GER
KOR 1 - 3 BEL
ALG 2 - 2 RUS
So here is what the final group standings will look like if I am correct. Note, incidentally, that I am changing the result of the Brazil-Croatia match, but that it doesn't adversely affect the big picture.
Group A
Brazil — 9Croatia — 4
Mexico — 2
Cameroon — 1
(note that I think that there's something wrong here. Cameroon should have more points than this.)
Group B
Holland — 7 (tops on goal-differential)Spain — 7
Chile — 3
Australia — 0
Group C
Côte D'Ivoire — 9Colombia — 4
Greece — 2
Japan — 1
Group D
Uruguay — 7 (tops on goals scored)England — 7
Italy — 3
Costa Rica — 0
Group E
France — 9Ecuador — 3 (qualified on goals scored)
Switzerland — 3 (something is wrong here, but I can't figure out what)
Honduras — 3
Group F
Argentina — 9Nigeria — 6
Bosnia-Herzegovina — 3
Iran — 0
Group G
Germany — 9Portugal — 6
Ghana — 3
U.S.A. — 0
Group H
Belgium — 9South Korea — 4
Russia — 2
Algeria — 1
Round of 16
All of the CONCACAF entrants are out, and with one exception, all of CONMEBOL are in. The Belgians have stunned all comers, and the Italians have been exposed ruthlessly for a lack of cover in defence. Cristiano Ronaldo has looked out of sorts for Portugal, despite bagging four goals, while Lionel Messi seems to be growing in strength as the midfield solidifies for Argentina.Brazil 3 - 1 Spain
The tiki-taka taliban are finally derailed from their track to four straight major trophies by the host country, who have finally started to play some samba-worthy futbol. Neymar's disciplinary record starts to become a worry.
England 2 -0 Côte D'Ivoire
The muscular and fit Africans are undone by a very young-looking England defence that plays confidently in possession and squeeze pressure forward. Phil Jagielka even scores a goal.
Croatia 2 - 2 Holland (2 - 3 after penalty shootout)
Robin van Persie, Robben, et aliter are finally victorious after a scrappy and highly-contested match of many fouls. Dejan Lovran features prominently as Croatia's best defender in a vain cause.
Uruguay 4 - 0 Colombia
Colombia follows Chile as the next South American team to leave the tournament. They had barely crawled out of the group phase without Radamel Falcao, but the lethal, golden boot-seeking duo of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani are predatory and lethal, killing off Chile within the first 19 minutes.
Nigeria 2 - 1 France
The Nigerians get on the scoreboard first, withstand a rally in the early second half, and finally kill the game off in the 89th minute. Shola Ameobi features prominently, and the lack of French striking talent appears obvious.
Germany 3 - 0 South Korea
The ability of the Germans to interchangeably swap players and positions plays havoc with the last Asian team in the tournament. Phillip Lahm roams madly around the pitch and Thomas Müller provides the creativity for Miroslav Klose to add to his World Cup record 16 career finals goals.
Argentina 2 - 0 Ecuador
The Argentinians quietly put this fixture to bed without much fuss. Ecuador, recipients of a number of officiating and statistical decisions, have nothing left in the tank against a very sturdy-looking albiceleste.
Belgium 2 - 1 Portugal
The dark horses of the tournament claim their first major scalp when they trump a Portuguese side that fades considerably after Ronaldo is subbed off shortly before the end of the first half.
At this point, I've already written out the results of the remaining rounds, but we'll see how horribly I've misread things after a couple of days before I publish them. At this point, I'll just say that I'm picking three of the four semi-finalists to be South American, and that I expect to see a couple of World Cup record trends come to an end. Oh, and England doesn't make it past the quarter-finals. But we all knew that, didn't we?
Until next time, goodnight England and the colonies.
Cheers,
—mARKUS
