tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55696352010379765832024-02-20T09:18:07.388+00:00The Great World Cup Prediction CompetitionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-51805286598234541902014-07-15T12:14:00.003+01:002014-07-15T12:14:38.314+01:00Final Tables - The Real Winer<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Well, they say it could happen to a bishop - or maybe even a Pope</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There was joy unconfined for Thijs DeBont when, due to a calculation error whereby the goalscoring points from the Semi-Finals were mistakenly omitted, he was found to have won the Grand Champion Title - by one point!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But Josh did win the Round 2 Competition considered by many to be a real test of prediction skill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The staff responsible for the error have, of course, been fired. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">All the data you could want is now online including:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.africacultures.org/Goalscorer_Predictions.html" target="_blank">All points won from goals scored</a> - and lost by yellow cards- Semi-Finals, Final and 3rd/4th</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.africacultures.org/Round_2_Alternative_Table_2.html" target="_blank">Alternative Table For Round 2</a> - Right and Wrong </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">More comprehensive <a href="http://www.africacultures.org/Grand_Totals.html" target="_blank">Grand Totals Table</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Goalscorer points included in <a href="http://www.africacultures.org/Round_2_Points.html" target="_blank">Round 2 Table</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So congratulations to Thijs, Josh and Richard for their wins.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-62096192728105417542014-07-14T11:08:00.002+01:002014-07-14T11:08:51.389+01:00The Final Chapter<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So it ends. The most exciting World Cup Predictions Competition to date. And what a finish!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Right up to the final whistle Thijs DeBont could still have won. Even in extra time had Argentina scored and sent the game to penalties and Germany won, Thijs would have had the three points he needed. Or if Bastian Schweinsteiger had scored a second for Germany Thijs could have overtaken Josh at the close.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But Josh Lease's amazing run was sustained and he not only won the title of Grand Champion but also won Round 2. Congratulations Josh!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We must also congratulate Richard Rye for his Round 1 performance - if his Leaving Cert results are as good his family will be even more pleased!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But we must not forget those who briefly or otherwise held the lead in the various tables only to fade. People like Aideen Kearns who for a good part of Round 2 looked like she could be the Grand Champion. Others like Conor Ralph also nearly made it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Winners of the last World Cup competition Leah Cassidy and Raymond Bannon acquitted themselves well again. Lilyan Ralph also came close to glory in Round 2.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But maybe the story of Round 2 was the amazing last minute performance of Joe Kearns who with a last gasp managed to lift himself off the bottom of the Round 2 table to finish just ahead of Roger Lorens! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And lastly, a story from the Vatican. It was rumoured that as the game ended loud guffaws were heard from the quarters of Pope Emeritus Benedict. Pope Francis still has work to do on his channel to the Almighty.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-89427809432454123272014-07-10T12:32:00.000+01:002014-07-10T12:32:48.901+01:00Thrilling finish in store - not the football.<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Unlike the bore-fest last night between Netherlands and Argentina, our competition is a real nail-biter! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the Round 2 competition Lilyan Ralph has the slenderest of leads, half a point, over Josh Lease and is only four points ahead of Conor Ralph. And given the way the scoring has gone it is safe to say that anyone within about 10 points of the lead could still win.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the Grand Total table it is a clear race between Conor, Josh and Thijs. With Lilyan, Aideen, Manuel and Leah 20 or more points off the pace the winner will come from the three above.With two games to play in the competition a slip now could be fatal!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So even if the teams in the competition fail to live up to expectations this competition is always exciting.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-14089549743900219922014-07-09T12:15:00.004+01:002014-07-09T12:17:29.528+01:00After the first Semi-Final<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The idea of predicting the goalscorers was to add a little extra interest and maybe win a few extra points for a few people. We didn't reckon with a German destruction of Brazil 7-1! Those who got the scorers right (<a href="http://www.africacultures.org/Goalscorer_Predictions.html" target="_blank">see that table here</a>) hit the jackpot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Aideen Kearns and Manuel Garcia Ochando managed to get 18 points each from the goalscorers yesterday largely thanks to the </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">efforts of </span>Kroos and Schuerrle . </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As for our tables Josh Lease still has a lead in the Round 2 table but has slipped to one point behind the new Grand Total leader Conor Ralph. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Conor's sister-in-law, Lilyan is now in </span>second spot on the </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Round 2 table so Micheal is living in fear of finishing behind both his wife and his brother!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Tonight's game could see some changes at the top although Thijs will need his Argentinian goalscorers to come through for him as he and Conor Ralph have exactly the same predictions except for one Argentinian! But since Thijs will not want Argentina so score at all against Netherlands he may be 'conflicted'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But a draw after 90 minutes could push Lilyan to the top of the Round 2 table - unless we get 8 more goals tonight and then anything could happen! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>Note: Apologies for the odd fonts for the players names we will try to fix for the next round.</i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-39556297346751474762014-07-05T12:52:00.000+01:002014-07-05T12:53:31.207+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">They are calling it "The Fourth of July Effect" - the extraordinary rise of Josh Lease in our tables. That would be fine if it were only on the 4th July that he garnered points but he has been consistent in this round. Two results right yesterday and not too far away from two perfect scores.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But while there is joy on the West Coast of the US, all of us football, soccer, lovers are in mourning at the death of Brazillian football as we knew it. Yesterday's performance by Brazil was not only an insult to the tradition of Pele, Rivellino, Tostao and their generation, it was also an insult to all of us who are passionate about the game and the way it can be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We have had some bad refereeing in this World Cup, not much thank God, but yesterday's display was as bad if not worse than that in the France v Nigeria game. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The saddest part is to have lost such a team as Colombia and their style of play.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But back to our competition!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">With tonight's predictions only an exact score prediction can move the likes of Aideen, Conor and Thijs closer to Josh. They then have to hope for great results in the last four games to have any hope of overtaking Josh at the last stage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And get ready for predictions for the next round - where you have to pick goalscorers!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-83193771986670226972014-07-02T10:56:00.001+01:002014-07-02T10:56:30.083+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Yesterday we speculated as to whether Herbie and Josh had let their hearts rule their heads in predicting draws for Switzerland and USA. Well whether it was the heart or the head both benefited from great performances from Switzerland and USA. Josh even got both results right!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Sadly neither of their teams won in extra time although both can be very proud of the performances. Brave efforts from both.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Good old US know-how - is that Josh's secret? He has now climbed to the top of both tables after Aideen had a particularly bad day. She is considering legal action against Chris Wondolowski of the US who, had he taken that chance at the end of regular time, would have given her all 10 points on a US win. But if Aideen feels bad today imagine what Chris Wondolowski must feel like today! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Following the revelations about Cameroon match-fixing we have had a request from FIFA to submit our prediction stats. They want to see if any of our entrants benefited greatly from any of the Cameroon match results. FIFA may want to talk to a few people....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Next up in Round 2 are the Quarter-Finals which will be very hard to call. Are Argentina really as poor as they seem? Can France finally overcome their football Germanophopia and beat Germany in a World Cup finals game? Revenge for that Schumacher tackle in 1982 maybe?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Will the Dutch recover sufficiently from the heat of their match to beat Costa Rica? And will the pressure finally tell on Brazil?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The excitement continues - although we are all wondering what will fill the void today and tomorrow!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-61582537033869980022014-07-01T11:44:00.002+01:002014-07-01T11:45:57.878+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Manuel took a big risk yesterday going for a draw between Germany and Algeria - and it paid off! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">While Camilla Rye with her 10-pointer in the France Nigeria game moves quietly into second place in Round 2, Aideen holds on to top spot in both Round 2 and Grand Totals tables.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Josh Lease is still very close to a shock overall </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">win </span> but his prediction of a draw between Argentina and Switzerland will either prove to be a master stroke - or complete disaster!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We note the influence of national pride in some of the predictions for tonight's games - Herbie Loetscher going for Switzerland to draw with Argentina and Josh for the US to draw with Belgium. Heart ruling head maybe? We'll see.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But there are still 10 games to go and with the introduction of 'name the goalscorers' for the Quarter Finals and beyond it is far from decided.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-60965721613176801472014-06-30T13:14:00.001+01:002014-06-30T13:30:10.352+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Some have fallen by the wayside. Some, overcome by emotion and disappointment just could not go on. Others suffered bizarre injuries that meant they couldn't even turn on their computers. And the Great Leader from the early battles, Richard Rye, has been seen wandering the streets of Magaluf asking complete strangers if he can use their laptops.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So only 33 of the original 46 had sufficient energy to continue to Round 1. And we have a right battle now for the Round 2 title and the overall Grand Champion title. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">After 4 games Aideen Kearns has not only taken the lead in Round 2 but is the overall leader also. But Josh Lease continues his amazing Round 1 performance and is in hot pursuit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Neilan Govender, a man almost broken by his staggeringly poor performance in Round 1, has come back fighting to lie second in the Round 2 table.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Of course there are many private battles going such as Micheal Ralph's quest to restore his family standing. Of course the Thijs and Jude battle continues although currently Thijs has the edge - but there is still a long way to go!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-55174572340552748052014-06-27T09:01:00.001+01:002014-06-27T09:34:30.270+01:00<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Amazing scenes of celebration!!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">People were dancing in the streets. Car horns blared late into the night. Fireworks were set off and there were even occasional bursts of celebratory gunfire. Great swathes of people sang songs in the name of their hero - Richard Rye!! This was........ Blackrock!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">In Algiers there was some celebration too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Meanwhile a lone firework was seen in Vancouver, Canada as Nicky Kearns celebrated his only 5 pointer of the first round. This meant so much more to him than having cycled close to 400km in one day for charity and helping to raise more than CAN$500,000</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">And yes, it is official. Richard Rye has held on to the lead he took, and never relinquished, on the 15th June. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">There were some nervous moments along the way none more than yesterday when Thijs DeBont got to within 4 points. And Thijs did hold his own little celebration party at not having had his sister Jude finish ahead of him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is worth noting a few other achievements of the competition:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">After a disastrous start, Joe Kearns coming from bottom of the table to finish in 7th only 11.5 points off the lead</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Leah Cassidy, the World Cup 2010 overall winner, finishing only 10.5 points off the lead with Round 2 to come. Can she retain her title?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Josh Lease. What can we say? A quite amazing performance for one who failed so dismally in the past. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Another perennial struggler,Thijs DeBont, finally came good and nearly won this first round. He will certainly compete for the overall title.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Jude DeBont of course nearly caused the shock of the tournament - at least for Thijs.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Conor Ralph a newcomer to the competition finishing second only 3 points behind Richard Rye </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"> So congratulations to Richard Rye. Let Round 2 commence! Get those predictions in!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-48429197146406916932014-06-26T10:19:00.002+01:002014-06-26T10:20:03.501+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So here we are, the last day of Round 1 and facing into the awful prospect of a day without World Cup football. The smarter ones among you will have recorded all 48 games and will be able to watch about 28 of your favourites before television coverage resumes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">With only four games to be played today it is <u>just</u> possible that Richard Rye could be caught at the finish. However there are only two people who can, mathematically, do that - Thijs and Jude DeBont. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For this to happen Thijs or Jude will have to get four perfect scores - probably a long shot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For Round 2 you will receive a spreadsheet shortly after the last game tonight and you will have to return it to me by 15:00 on Saturday. More on that in an email later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-87198334851044381942014-06-25T10:46:00.001+01:002014-06-25T10:48:54.756+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So. What was the big story of the World Cup yesterday? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Luis Suarez's strange eating habits - a liking for Italian, Serbian and Dutch food? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Heartbreak for Ivory Coast at the late dodgy penalty to Greece? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">England's failure to win any game and finishing last in their group?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">No. It was the story that after the first two games last night Thijs DeBont had slipped to third behind his sister Jude! The Horror! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But much to Thijs's relief and Jude's annoyance Thijs recovered in the second two games to go second again....just.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The other big news of course is the rise and rise of Josh Lease. Now, even Josh would admit to having only the most cursory knowledge of the game of soccer. So how did he manage to get so many results correct? Black magic? Maybe inside information from his days in Chile? Or maybe just divine inspiration. Whatever it was if Iran and Algeria win their games tonight Josh <u>will</u> go top. And the way this World Cup has gone who knows!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">With the predictions we have tonight only a few perfect 5's can take Thijs or Jude closer to the lead. They may need this if they are to finally overtake Richard on the last day of Round 1</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But remember - Round 2 is about to begin and even for those who did poorly in the first round this is a chance to shine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Last word from me must be about Ivory Coast. I am distraught at the manner of their departure. This is the last World Cup game for one of my sporting heroes, Didier Drogba. The Toure brothers were playing for their younger brother who died a few days ago only in his late 20's. And there is so much talent in that team I for one am sorry we wont see them in the next round. :(</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-46882471994365613472014-06-24T16:09:00.001+01:002014-06-24T16:09:14.537+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Well, well well. It is turning into a tight finish! With 12 games to go there are fully 10 people within 15 points of the lead. Realistically however the competition is probably now between long time leader Richard Rye, and brother and sister pair Thijs and Jude </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">DeBont</span>. Press reports that Thijs DeBont tried to bribe the organisers to ensure he stays ahead of Jude have been denied. Sepp Blatter is due to make a statement later today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But Conor Ralph, Daniel Fulton and, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">incredibly, </span>Josh Lease are still in there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Looking at today's predictions the England v Costa Rica game in unlikely to change things much unless Costa Rica win, Aideen gains, or draw, Matthew Cassidy gains. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The other games have a much more varied prediction pattern so there could be big changes after 11pm tonight. For example a win for Uruguay, a win for Japan and a draw between Ivory Coast and Greece would definitely put Jude top.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-87580713475445079132014-06-23T10:21:00.000+01:002014-06-23T10:21:00.079+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Late goals are a killer. There was Fiacre reasonably expecting a draw between Belgium and Russia when the Belgians messed up his evening. But at least the late goal from Portugal, while probably not enough to save them, gave joy to the seven people who had a draw for that game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And that draw has moved Conor Ralph to within 7.5 points of the lead. With 16 games to go the ultimate winner could still come from any of the top 12 or 13 but realistically anything more than a 10 point gap may be impossible to close . </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For today's games the interesting ones for this competition are Mexico v Croatia and Netherlands v Chile the results of which could influence the top of the table.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The pressure mounts!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-56413505054915215842014-06-22T14:27:00.003+01:002014-06-22T15:14:30.451+01:00<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">22nd June 2014</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.africacultures.org/" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Click here to go to main website)</span></i></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lots to catch up on after two days of football.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">The headline news is that Thijs DeBont has closed to within 6 points of Richard Rye who is still leading. However with both Thijs and Richard going for the same outcomes tonight, with only slight score differences, the leader position will not change. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">However a draw between Belgium and Russia and a win for Algeria would push Fiacre back up the table. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yesterday's Argentina v Iran game caused almost as much heartache for our predictors as it did for the Iranian players - not really. Any neutral would have been upset for the Iranians and the manner of their defeat but in our scoring the late goal meant slightly less negative scores than if Iran had drawn the game. Everyone had Argentina to win - some by cricket scores.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">The other 'outsider' team that has drawn admiration is Coast Rica. Once again only one person dared go for Costa Rica to beat Italy - this time Leah Cassidy. Amazingly Costa Rica might now top their group. Sales of Costa Rica shirts have rocketted!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">On our website we have a new page which contains more prediction stats for those so inclined. It is a list of all games and the scorelines predicted.Have a look <a href="http://africacultures.org/Prediction_Stats.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">With ROUND 2 approaching fast please keep an eye on your email for updates. You will have to get your predictions done between end of the last Round 1 game, about 23:00 on Thursday 26th, and the first of the knock-out games at 17:00 on Saturday 28th. There will be a scoring change and there will be more things to predict for semi-finals and final.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5569635201037976583.post-45278756396233589002014-06-22T14:00:00.001+01:002014-06-22T14:03:25.720+01:00<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Previous posts from website <a href="http://www.africacultures.org/">www.africacultures.org</a>)</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">20th June 2014 - 11:00</span><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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”.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: red;">19th June 2014 - 10:30</span><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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??<br /><br />Note: The Next Games table is now sorted as with the leader-board. <br /><br /><br /><span style="color: red;">18th June 2014 - 10:30</span><br /><br />“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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: red;">17th June 2014 - 10:30</span><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />On the alternative table young Daniel Fulton is leading as he has had 11 of the 14 results right. <br /><br />As for today’s games I think it should be noted that Oliver Rye has decided to risk all on a a<br />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. <br /><br /><br /><span style="color: red;">16th June 2014 - 11:30</span><br /><br /><br />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!<br /><br />One person, Joe Kearns, is very grumpy after Argentina struggled to a 2-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina. A draw would have been reasonable.<br /><br />So after 11 games Richard Rye is still in front but there are 14 people within 10 points of the lead. <br /><br />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! <br /><br />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<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: red;">15th June 2014 - 13:00</span><br /><br /><br />Costa Rica, Aideen Kearns’ new favourite team! No one else thought they would win last night except Aideen! <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Honduras have very little backing with everyone bar Mary Fulton and Aideen Kearns going for a France win.<br /><br />And in spite of the Swiss doing well in qualifying only 18 people think they can beat Ecuador. <br /><br />More on the predictions here.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: red;">14th June 2014 - 12:00</span><br /><br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="color: red;"><br />13th June 2014 - 12:00</span><br /><br />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. <br /><br />In the other games Cameroon and Australia are not favoured by many.<br /><br />See all the predictions here. Points standings are listed here<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: red;">12th June 2014 - 23:28</span><br /><br /><br />Let the controversy begin!<br /><br />Penalty? Huh? Goalkeeper with concrete boots? <br /><br />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 :)<br /><br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><span style="color: red;">12th June 2014 - 19:34</span><br /><br /><br />It is finally here - World Cup 2014!<br /><br />The competition is bigger than ever with <br /><br />45 entries! <br /><br />It will be harder than ever to win. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />So on with The Great World Cup Predictions Competition!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />***BREAKING NEWS***<br /><br />During the tournament we will have a Twitter account for up to date news. Look for @TGWCPredictionC </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0