Taking stock of my World Cup picks
This didn't happen quite enough for team Greece at this year's World Cup.
Back in December, when the draw was announced for the 32 teams in the World Cup, The Thirsty Beagle made his fearless predictions for how the tournament would play out. Now that we’re down to the final eight teams, I thought it would be interesting to look back at how I did.
In the Group of 16, I had Uruguay (good pick), France (bad), Argentina (good), Greece (bad), USA (good), England (good), Germany (good), Ghana (good), Netherlands (good), Cameroon (bad), Italy (bad), Slovakia (good), Brazil (good), Portugal (good), Spain (good) and Switzerland (bad). I missed on Korea, Chile, Mexico, Japan and Paraguay.
If you’re counting, that’s 11 out of 16 right to advance out of group play. Not too shabby considering I made my picks more than six months before the tournament started.
My quarterfinalists were France, Argentina, Ghana, Germany, Netherlands, Cameroon, Brazil and Spain. So six out of eight there, with misses on Uruguay and Paraguay. Again, not too shabby. In fact, that’s a lot better than not too shabby. I would say that’s not shabby at all.
How about the semis? I had France, Germany, Brazil and Spain. I’m still in line to get three out of four. Although considering what happened to France, which not only will not make the semis but in fact was eliminated from group play after nearly rioting in the locker room and quitting the tournament, I probably shouldn’t be feeling too proud.
Either way, my finalists were Brazil and Spain, with Spain taking the title. After Brazil breezed past Chile and Spain shut down the potent Portuguese side in the Round of 16, I’m thinking I may be in line for soccer prediction greatness.
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