June 17

Papers tomorrow no time to do a round-up. Will do so tomorrow for a comprehensive June 16 Round -up and Round 1 Round up.

June 16 was so-so. An overall loss, but not too bad.

Predictions for June 17 games:
Argentina vs Korea 1:2
Nigeria v Greece 1:0
France v Mexico 1:2

June 17 Bets
Argentina v South Korea; Double Chance South Korea/Draw 2.63; Bet $5.00
France v Mexico; Double Chance Mexico / Draw 1.65; Bet $5.00
Cheeky Bet: France v Mexico; Gallas to Score 11.00; Bet $5.00

Nigeria v Greece a difficult game to bet. I am inclined to think that Nigeria will win comfortably, but I think the performances of Switzerland and North Korea would inspire the lesser teams this round. But here both teams will be playing for a win or its over. Switzerland reminded me of Greece 2004. Confident that Greece will improve much more defensively, but the problem here is that they MUST win (compared to all the first round games, all the teams MUSN'T LOSE)

Interesting to note: Remember Hitzfield vs Del Bosque? Bayern v Real Madrid ? Who came up top most of the time? They met each other A LOT. If i'm not mistaken it was Bayern that came up on top most of the time. (Effenberg, Elber, Kahn vs Hierro, McManaman, Raul years). No time to do my homework but I think they met each other most (Hitzfield v Del Bosque) in late late 1990s to early 2000s.

Gallas to Score

1. Mexico look vulnerable in set-pieces.
2. Mexico probably have one of the shortest goal-keepers in the world cup in the starting eleven.
3. France doesn't seem to be interested in shooting from their free-kicks (Gourcuff)
4. Gallas scores from set pieces. And overwhelming number of goals from this World cup come from them, and defenders score a lot in this world cup. Gallas scored recently in a friendly. Gallas scored against Ireland to take France into the World Cup.


Re: Argentina (and Maradonna) TWO GOLDEN statistics.

• An interesting stat related to today's game. Argentina have NEVER DRAWN with Maradonna as coach. So will this mean an Argentinian WIN/LOSE not DRAW tonight?Maradonna's coaching stat (Argentina) so far 14 Wins, 5 Losses 0 Draws. 26.3% of a LOSS, 73.% chance of a Win, 0% chance of a DRAW (Those thinking Argentina are favourites (thankfully I never did), how is losing a 1 in every 4 games a good statistic?)

• Another interesting stat from Goal.com With the exceptions of Haiti and Canada the South Americans have won by ONE goal in their last six games, beating Nigeria, Germany, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Peru. Argentina to win by ONE goal margin: TAB odds: 3.30.

Switzerland to Top Group H?

It's not possible. If they play for a draw vs a Chile (next game) and decide to not win that game at all, playing like they did against Spain. It's not impossible for them to draw the next game and win the next game against Honduras. 1 Win 2 Draws : 5 points. If so, 1 draw 1 win for Chile; and Spain 1 win (honduras)... wow, Spain v Chile will be interesting.

Boring World Cup?

How can it be a boring world cup when this time round it seems they will be more spots undecided in Round 3 of Group Matches? How many dead rubbers will we see with the number of draws in the first round? Italy's and France's group are guaranteed to be played until the last round, and so is Spain's (at the expense of Honduras) if Chile draw against Switzerland.

I remember in 02 and 06 the WORST games were Round 3. When we get to see Germany B, Spain B play etc. And the 2 last placed teams in so many groups playing for nothing. Week of Round 3 games were basically a break from the world cup when there was nothing to watch at all.

People claiming this world cup is boring prefer to see Germany 8 Saudi 0, Argentina 6 Serbia 0 in the first rounds. If so, world cup organizers have to split qualification into 2 classifications. 1 the top teams. 2 - teams ranked 150 and beyond to make up the final spots in the groups. Group matches will all be thrashings. Happy now? STFU and be happy that so many lesser teams are catching up. Just because your team isn't winning 10-0 doesn't mean the world cup is boring.

How can it be boring when your team is not even guaranteed to make it to the R16 games? And are playing until the very last game to deterimine qualification? That's more nerve-wrecking than boring to me.