World Cup 2006 Blog |  |
| Weekend Predictions: Victory for El Diego, Frustration for France, Survival for Sven Posted: 27 Mar 2009 04:00 AM PDT
Below are my picks for three games, one from COMNEBOL, one from UEFA and one from CONCACAF. And I dare you - make that double dare you - to leave your own predictions in the comments.
Diego Maradona started with friendly wins over Scotland and France. Which are all well and good… but now it’s time for the real deal. This is El Diego’s first “proper” game in charge - a World Cup qualifier - and also his first game on Argentinean soil. The albiceleste sit third in the CONMEBOL Word Cup qualifying table. Top four make it, fifth goes to a playoff. So Diego’s team are in a decent position, but after his very public row with Juan Roman Riquelme he needs a performance to convince everyone it’s all good. If this doesn’t go well, questions will be asked. As for Venezuela? Fifth place isn’t impossible (only three points out) but it doesn’t look all that likely either. Prediction: A convincing Riquelme-less 3-0 win for Argentina. Odds: Argentina 1-6, Draw 11-2, Venezuela 12-1 Bonus Prediction: Maraguero will need burping at halftime.
How Raymond Domenech still has the French job is anyone’s guess. But if France’s cringeworthy Euro 2008 performance didn’t get him fired, then this WC2010 qualification campaign definitely will. It started with a defeat to Austria, picked up a bit with a win over Serbia and then sank down again with a draw against Romania. A win over surprise second placed team Lithuania would work wonders for Domenech’s job security, a draw would leave him wobbly. A defeat would see Arsene Wenger’s phone ringing. Prediction: A 1-1 draw, that Lithuania will be very happy with. France not so much. Odds: Lithuania 5-1, Draw 13-5, France 8-13 Bonus Prediction: Patrice Evra will not be signing autographs. Mexico vs Costa Rica (March 28th, Mexico City, 17:00) Sven Goran Eriksson is very much the Mexican Domenech. Or the Swedish Domenech. Either way, he’s not popular with El Tri fans right now. Mexico are bottom of the CONCACAF hexagonal after just one game - that 2-0 defeat to USA, while Costa Rica are top. The intriguing thing about this game isn’t just the gigantic sword dangling over Sven’s shiny sloping forehead, it’s the fact that Costa Rica are the only team ever to win a WC qualifying game at the legendary Azteca - the famous Aztecazo of 2001. Will history repeat itself? Prediction: Probably not. Sven might not be the most gifted of international managers, but he was always lucky. I see a poor performance but a 1-0 win. Odds: Mexico 4-7, Draw 5-2, Costa Rica 9-2 Bonus Prediction: Someone will arrange a special playoff match between Mexico and France, on neutral territory. Winning manager gets to keep his job. Pay Offshore Oscar a visit on Bet Offside, to see who he’s backing in Wales vs Finland, Ireland vs Bulgaria and Paraguay vs Uruguay. Time for a look at last week’s predictions. Here’s what I went with: Liverpool 1-0 Aston Villa Here’s what actually happened: So I score four points in total. One each for having the correct winner of the ‘Pool and Juve games, another for predicting Villa going goalless, and one more for predicting Roma’s single goal. (Is everyone happy with the scoring system by the way? Haven’t heard any feedback since we changed it. Basically the old one was one point for correct result (W,D,L) and two extra points for correct score. New one is one point for correct result, one bonus point for home team correct score, one bonus point for away team correct score). Incredibly, four points is enough to give me the win. My first ever. But congratulations also to Helge and Jem who both got three points, as well as Javier, Drabik and Revalesq who all got two points. So, what do you think for this weekend’s games? |
| Posted: 26 Mar 2009 07:00 PM PDT Stuff to read while you watch prisoners punished by facing Zizou……
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| Maradona May Get His Mug On Money Posted: 26 Mar 2009 04:00 PM PDT
You put him on money, of course. Argentina is considering putting El Diego on the face of some currency as a way to honor their national coach for his services to football and….late night television? No holes in this theory. None whatsoever. Nope.
As Dirty Tackle points out, the last time I looked at a bill and was so inspired by the historic face that I decided to book a vaca was…ummm…never. The strangeness doesn’t stop there, as the competition is quite stiff, too:
How, in the name of all that is holy, could they consider using Maradona in lieu of an esteemed writer or Nobel Prize winner? These cats actually contributed something to society. Maradona is, all his extracurricular shenanigans aside, just an athlete. A great one, but still just an athlete. Then again, there may be more to this than meets the eye. Diego reportedly owes the Italian government a tidy sum in back taxes (like a tidy €30m), and one needn’t a wild imagination to see Maradona handing over a fresh stack equating to half the sum and saying, “it’s worth twice as much because it bears my face, see”. Diego always was a cunning bastard, wasn’t he. |
| Portugal vs Sweden: It’s Do or Die (or Dive?) Posted: 26 Mar 2009 10:16 AM PDT
Big game in UEFA World Cup Qualifying this Saturday. Portugal and Sweden are the type of teams that can reasonably expect to qualify for the World Cup, or at least come very very close. But it’s not looking good for either of them in Group 1, where they’re fourth and fifth respectively. All respect to Albania, but you can’t finish below them in a qualifying group and expect a trip to the World Cup. The two teams meet in Portugal this Saturday (March 28th) and defeat for either would be a disaster. A draw wouldn’t be great either, since surprise group leaders Denmark have an easyish game against Malta (and second place Hungary also play Malta three days later).
Larsson has seen Ronaldo up close and personal while on loan at Man Utd in 2007, but that was 2007. It’s now 2009, and even the harshest C-Ron critics will have to admit that his diving has improved. And by improved I mean he does it a lot less, not that he’s getting really good at it. |
Very little club football this weekend, it’s all about World Cup qualifying.
Lithuania vs 
What do you do with a known drug-addict, an admitted adulterer, a glutton, the provider of the sport’s greatest moment of cheating, a man of wildly controversial political views and one who serves as a laughing stock for many outside your country?
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