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| Weekend Predictions: World Cup Qualifying Posted: 05 Jun 2009 03:40 AM PDT
This weekend we’re previewing and predicting three World Cup Qualifiers: USA vs Honduras, Sweden vs Denmark, and Argentina vs Colombia. Read on for those predictions, and then leave your own in the comments. USA vs Honduras (Chicago, Saturday 6th June, 7:30pm) USA were apparently coasting through the hexagonal and all the way to South Africa 2010. Until they met Costa Rica on Wednesday night and were handed a 3-1 defeat/foobtalling lesson combo. Now it’s panic stations, with Michael Bradley suspended and chronic lack of decent full-backs Honduras are a team on the rise and beat Mexico 3-1 back in April, but will be missing David Suazo through injury. Prediction: Bob Bradley’s men to get back on track(ish) with a nervous 2-1 win. Onyewu to score off a set piece. USA vs Honduras betting odds via PaddyPower Sweden vs Denmark (Solna, Saturday 6th June, 8pm) Several reasons this is exciting. First, it’s the big Scandinavian derby. Second, Denmark are currently top of Group 1, while home team Sweden desperately need the points. Third, when these two met in Euro 2008 qualifying, a drunken Danish fan attacked the ref. Not saying that’s a good thing. And not saying it will happen again. But it’s an example of the type of wackiness that ensues when these two meet. Oh, and it’s also Zlatan Ibrahimovic vs the future Zlatan Ibrahimovic. At least in Nicklas Bendtner’s head it is anyway. Prediction: Home advantage is king. Sweden to win 1-0 with the real Zlatan on the scoresheet. Sweden vs Denmark betting odds via PaddyPower. p.s. We still need a new Sweden blogger. Argentina vs Colombia (Buenos Aires, Saturday 6th June, 6pm) Argentina will still be stinging from that 6-1 defeat vs Bolivia. But weird things happen at altitude, so it’s not quite the disaster it looks on paper. Still, it’s going to be interesting to see how successfully Diego Maradona’s men bounce back. (Also, is it weird that it now feels perfectly natural for El Diego to be ib charge of the albiceleste?) This game is even more important for Colombia, who need to make up three points on Uruguay to take 5th place (which gets you a playoff vs the 4th place CONCACAF team). Will be interesting to see what sort of state the pitch at El Monumental is in. There was a rock concert by Los Piojos (The Lice) there last weekend and a certain someone is not impressed.
What could the world’s most famous Boca fan possibly have against River? Prediction: The pitch will be fine and Argentina will win 3-1, with Leo Messi (who else?) amongst the goals. Argentina vs Colombia betting odds via PaddyPower Bonus Video: Fan footage of Los Pijos at El Monumental: Time to look back at last week’s predictions. I scored a very disprespectable zero. So let’s move on to some other people’s scores. Congratulations to: Gold Silver Bronze Special mention to Lilrashio for being the only one to predict Betis falling through the La Liga trapdoor (on the basis that Osasuna had two players from Iran). So, what are your predictions for this weekend? USA - Honduras        |
| Posted: 04 Jun 2009 03:10 PM PDT
From September 2009 to May 2010 the World Cup trophy will make like a world famous rock band and go on a fizzy drink sponsored 225 day world tour, covering 134,017 kilometers (83,274 miles) as it visits 86 countries. From the fizzy pop press release:
There’s a PDF file with an itinerary of the trophy’s tour. Basically it starts off in Cairo, Egypt on September 24th, 2009 before working its way around the African continent and down to Cape Town, South Africa by December 3rd, 2009. After a brief rest, the trophy arrives in Seoul, South Korea on January 17th, 2010 and works its way south and then east to South America, working north until Mexico and then east again to begin it’s European tour in Ireland. It keeps going east, though Russia, Kazakhstan, India and Japan and then Canada before ending a long journey in the USA on May 2nd (American city TBC, but the smart money’s on NYC, right?). Finally, the trophy gets back to South Africa on May 4th, where it will sit and wait for a team captain to lift it on July 11th, 2010 in Johannesburg. Here’s a map of the World Cup trophy tour. Click to enlarge, and then click again to make it so big your eyes hurt.   |
The big European leagues might have closed their doors for summer. But Weekend Predictions doesn’t quit so easily.
Want to get your hands on the World Cup trophy? Well, you can’t. Not unless you’re an international footballer anyway. And even then it’s an uphill battle. But you might be able to get your photo taken with it.
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The FIFA Congress met in the Bahamas (nice choice) today, and held a press conference afterwards. You can 
ESPN are showing every game live. Except for the Iraq vs New Zealand group game, which we can forgive them for. Games will be shown across ESPN, ESPN2 and 
The BBC are showing every game, but you’re going to need digital TV to see them. Games are spread across BBC Three, and BBC Red Button (ie you click the red interactive button and there it is). All time BST.
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