(Previous posts from website www.africacultures.org)
 
20th June 2014 - 11:00

Like a Greek defender Richard Rye is proving stubbornly difficult to shift from his position. With England unable to deal with the greatest living striker last night Fiacre, in turn, was unable to close the gap to Richard.

In a curious twist as we approach half way, and yes the 5pm game today is only the 24th of Round 1, the DeBont siblings, plus brother-in-law Mayookh, are all within 1 point of each other. Luckily Thijs is top of that group but facing extreme stress at the prospect of finishing behind his sisters Jude and Saoirse.

Aideen Kearns clearly decided that it wasn’t worth taking a chance on Costa Rica again going this time for the safe option of Italy to beat them - but Leah Cassidy has gone for Costa Rica and as a former winner here who knows.

With the way the predictions for today’s games have fallen a draw between France and Switzerland would allow some of the chasers to close the gap to long time leader Richard. But remember, in spite of Richard Rye’s seeming invincibility it is still “all to play for in the second half”.


19th June 2014 - 10:30

The Aussies nearly caused a major upset in a surprisingly entertaining game but since everyone had Netherlands to win that result wouldn’t have altered our table greatly. But the match did provide a contender for goal of the World Cup from the wonderful Tim Cahill - who could have played for Ireland by the way.

The Spanish defeat to Chile and their resulting exit from the competition affected our table - but only by how negative people’s scores were! I think we can safely say that from this group of predictors, no one saw it coming.

The late-night win for Croatia dented the hopes of Josh Lease and Paul Carlisle who backed Cameroon to win.  But this is still a great performance for Josh who in the past could only dream of a top 10 finish - being from the US and all.

With the great variety of predictions for today’s games there could be some movement on the leader board depending on how the results fall. The game of the day is undoubtedly the clash between England and Uruguay. Will Suarez play? Will Rooney get to play in his favoured position? Will the British press give England a hard time? And will Roy Hodgson again wear a jacket in the heat??

Note: The Next Games table is now sorted as with the leader-board.


18th June 2014 - 10:30

“Such a perfect day....”  Well almost for Fiacre O’Toole who was just 1 point short of a perfect 15 for the yesterday’s three games. Going against the consensus, something Fiacre has never done before, in going for Mexico to draw with Brazil, really paid off.

So while Richard Rye holds on to his lead, yesterday’s move by Fiacre from 10th to 2nd shows how things can change - and we are only only just over a third of the way into the first round games.

So for today’s games we finally have complete agreement on one result - Netherlands to beat Australia. Almost everyone thinks Spain will beat Chile. No one fancies Chile to win and three go for a draw -  Ray Bannon, Lilyan Ralph and Nicky Kearns. And in the late night game Cameroon are not fancied - probably right after their dismal opening game with Mexico.


17th June 2014 - 10:30

There was only one person on the planet happy with the Nigeria v Iran game - Greg Fulton because he predicted a draw to give him much needed points! OF the 14 games so far some have been great, Spain v Holland, some enjoyable, Ivory Coast v Japan, some very poor Mexico v Cameroon but even the worst of those had some merits if only bad refereeing. But Iran and Nigeria? A complete turd of a football match. There is better quality football played in the Andora League Division 4 and that is insulting to the Andorans.

But still sitting at the top of our table is Richard Rye whose lack of success in past events has clearly made him a tougher and more astute competitor. And we thought he was studying for his exams.

On the alternative table young Daniel Fulton is leading as he has had 11 of the 14 results right.

As for today’s games I think it should be noted that Oliver Rye has decided to risk all on a a
Mexico-to-win-over-Brazil prediction - brave.  Belgium’s pre-tournament reputation has lead all but three people to predict a win for them  - Laurie Kearns fancies Algeria to win that one. Russia v Korea is harder to call so that game might change the leader-board - Richard has gone for a draw with his nearest rival, Thijs DeBont, going for Russia. So a Russia win will put Thijs in the lead. 


16th June 2014 - 11:30


That late Swiss goal! What a great score. Worst game of the tournament - best goal! There were 14 people who had a 1-1 prediction and were heading for 5 points when the Swiss scored. Jubilation then for the 6 who had a Swiss win at 2-1!  That’s the fun of this competition - one minute you are looking at 5 points the next minute at 0!

One person, Joe Kearns, is very grumpy after Argentina struggled to a 2-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina. A draw would have been reasonable.

So after 11 games Richard Rye is still in front but there are 14 people within 10 points of the lead. 

Richard has gone for a German win by 3-2 in the first game tonight which some would say is brave. The most popular scoreline for that game is 2-1 to Germany with only 2 people backing Portugal - Leah Cassidy and Herbie Loetscher whose wife is Portuguese!

In the other games Nigeria are fancied by 32 people to beat Iran and a draw is most popular for the late night US v Ghana game


15th June 2014 - 13:00


Costa Rica, Aideen Kearns’ new favourite team!  No one else thought they would win last night except Aideen!

But our new leader today is Richard Rye who, if his Leaving Cert exam predicting skills are as good as his World Cup ones, will achieve maximum points in that particular exam marathon torture-fest.

For tonight’s games we have some interesting stats. In the Argentina v Bosnia-Herzegovina game only one person, Joe Kearns, has not gone for an Argentina win. Instead he reckons on a 1-1 draw. A big bonus if he’s right - falling further off the lead if wrong.

Honduras have very little backing with everyone bar Mary Fulton and Aideen Kearns going for a France win.

And in spite of the Swiss doing well in qualifying only 18 people think they can beat Ecuador.

More on the predictions here.

Like England, those of you further down the table shouldn’t despair yet as we still have 40 more games to go. As we have seen in the past in this competition even a 20 or 30 point lead at this stage can evaporate.

There is a new page on the website today.  It is an alternative table sorted by the number of matches where people have got the right result. This is not used to determine a winner but provides an interesting alternative view.


14th June 2014 - 12:00


After last night’s hammering of Spain by Holland there is a feeling anything can happen in this World Cup. Anything. Like Jude DeBont going to the top of the table!

And there was joy unbounded in one household when Joe Kearns got off the bottom of the table with a 5 pointer on Chile’s late third goal.

For tonight’s games - and there is one on Sunday morning at 02:00 am - you can see the predictions here. Not many going for an England win - even less for Costa Rica to get even a draw against Uruguay.


13th June 2014 - 12:00

With the replay of the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and Holland tonight many are tuning in just to see who gets karate-kicked in the chest. Most are settling for a Spain win (20) or a Draw (23).  Only three people, Paul Carlisle, Herbie Loetscher and Jude DeBont have faith in the Dutch. 

In the other games Cameroon and Australia are not favoured by many.

See all the predictions here. Points standings are listed here




12th June 2014 - 23:28


Let the controversy begin!

Penalty? Huh? Goalkeeper with concrete boots?

Seventeen Predictors go to bed happy tonight. But there is a long way to go, a looooong way - 47 games to be exact. And here in Ireland even if the football is dodgy we have Apres Match to look forward to :)


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12th June 2014 - 19:34


It is finally here - World Cup 2014!

The competition is bigger than ever with

45 entries!

It will be harder than ever to win.

All that hard work over the past four years to be ready. To gather all the knowledge you could to make sure your predictions were right. The building of the stadia is nothing as compared to the work these competitors put in to be ready.

So who will be the champion this time? The Great Predictor?  Will it be some of those who saw World Cup glory in the past, Leah Cassidy.... Raymond Bannon. Or maybe an outsider like Camilla Rye or Fintan Carney from the Euros. Maybe it will be a veteran like John Holohan known for his meticulous planning or the hard-bitten Nicky Kearns.

So on with The Great World Cup Predictions Competition!

For tonights game, Brazil v Croatia, 43 people have predicted a win for Brazil. Two brave souls have gone for a draw but nobody was foolish enough to predict a Croatian win. More detail on that here.

***BREAKING NEWS***

During the tournament we will have a Twitter account for up to date news. Look for @TGWCPredictionC