the draw is set now..

spectacular quarter-final draw. for the connossieur i.e. opportunistic football fans would term france being there an 'upset'. but isnt that the beauty of the World Cup - its the opportunist vs the connossieur

Anyway, here goes:

1. Germany vs Argentina: Evenly matched I would think. Am indifferent. Ma money on ARG
2. Italy vs Ukraine: Italy
3. England vs Portugal: Tough game - England
4. Brazil vs France: France it is

France will take out the English in the semis and Italians will surprise the Argentinians, with yet another scratchy last-minute goal. Further bad news from Italy will then be the excuse for the azzuris to lose the finals to the suprise winners of FIFA World Cup 2006 - Les Bleus.

Another update

The second round has begun. Not major upsets yet but some exciting matchups ahead. In the first round, my score reads 26 out of a possible 32. Which clearly means the odds were a bit too much. However there are some exciting games ahead - ghana v brasil, france v spain and the quarters game between germany and argentina. I am glad that the french got through and I am still willing to still plug for them to be the eventual winners. England looks too disorganised.

Quote of the day & Update

From the Guardian ya: "It depends on who the woman is. A little bit is OK" - Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez adopts a quality not quantity attitude to pre-match slap'n'tickle.

Ok a quick update, from my second round of punts: lets see, with 6 groups completing their first round, out of a possible 24 bets, I got 20 right. The surprise one being Australia getting past Croatia.

Ok more laters.

.. bets looking extremely dodgy

10 days into the World Cup, and there haven't been too many unprecedented results so far. With the last league match left for each group, there could be a surprise or two awaiting us. My picks have performed quite dodgily - actually turning out to be the likely upsets of the first round!! But as any punter would tell you, one has to review views based on market reality and get on with it.

(Like to clarify that my bets are based on the risk-reward metric; before anyone questions my intelligence)

First, a look at my picks at the beginning of the tournament:

1) Group G

France: poor team morale, age, internal strife & poor choice of 1st team is holding back this team. And after a couple of draws, they could well be packed up yet again in the first round. I suppose I took a Nick Leeson type punt on the team, hoping that things could not possibly get worse. As Mr. Leeson learnt, apparently it can.

View: France (No. 2) would squeeze through with a win against Togo. The Swiss would bow out despite a win against the Togans, as they would lose/held to a draw against the Koreans (No. 1). As you can see, I am not cutting losses on this one yet.

2) Group E

Czechs: Got blasted by an extremely impressive Ghana side. Very likely to exit in the 1st round stage, as they would be unable to beat the Italians because of the numerous injured forwards and ageing mid-field.

View: Ghana (No. 1) will take care of the Americans and finish first against all odds. They would join the Italians (No. 2) . A definite upset. Am cutting loss in this case, in the wake of the impressive African performance.


Now, lets go through the other countries in alphabetical order.

3) Group A

Ecuador and Germany already through to the 2nd round. Who will top the group? Think it would be a draw between Ecuador (No. 1) & Germany (No. 2) and Ecuador topping the group on better goal difference. Another upset of sorts.

4) Group B

On current form, would go with a draw between England (No. 1) and Sweden (No. 2). If one of them had to win, I would think it will be England. If Sweden loses and T&T win agst the Paraguans, Sweden will go through on a better goal record.

5) Group C

The Group of Death has turned out to be straight forward, at least when one looks at the results. Think the Argentenians (No. 1) should finish the league stage comfortably as 1, followed by the Dutch (No. 2) i.e. ARG will beat the Dutch in their final game. ARG: a good bet for a title win - cohesive, young and attacking with defense looking tight, so far atleast.

6) Group D

No matter what transpires between Angolans and the Iranians, Portugal (No. 1) & Mexico (No. 2) should go through. One of the more boring groups in the league phase.

7) Group F

I see the Croats (No. 2) pulling off this one against the Aussies, in a last gasp qualification. And ofcourse the Brazilians (No. 1).

8) Group H

Spain (No. 1), another fav based upon performance in their first match - should top this Group with 3 wins. Another, brilliant recovery will see the Ukranians (No. 2) scrambling through to the next round.


Winner of World Cup: Going through quickly with the rest of my World Cup calculator, it emerges that England will be the next World Cup winner.


Ahem! Looks like this too will be revised at the next review, which will be held prior to the beginning of Round 2 i.e. 23Jun06.

In this round, I have made 32 predictions (choice of teams & positions), lets see how many will be spot on. Please let me know if anyone is prepared to give me 10-1 odds that atleast 50% of the predictions would be 'right'.

where am I putting my money?

Its Day T-1 before the BIG cup begins, and I have been wondering, as most people, who is going to lift the cup.

My money on Day T-1 is on France. The choice is not driven by emotion but more so by by the high odds, resulting from the internal strife that the team is suffering from at the moment, injuries, ridiculous omissions, poor form in the pre-qualifiers etc. Pretty much the situation Brazil were in 2002.

The press seem to go on about how the key players are jaded - which is true for most other big teams, but conveniently forgotten. I look at the team and think it is as good as any other around. Admit that they can't be considered as favourites - but thats why I think they will win the tournament.

And there are the Czechs - watch out for these aging boys as well.

Within Day T+7, I shall put out a note on the likely future for each of the big teams in the tournament.

PS: Like my Boss told me, "And, please not Brazil".

Kannagi is back.. and the Jap connection

Our Dravidian hero, Karunanidhi is back in power and trying to fuck Amma, or atleast her ideological policies. in other words, the Statue of Kannagi is in the process of being reinstated on Marina. It was removed as Amma's vasthu consultant advised her that it was that evil statue that was consistently preventing her to get away with corruption, like the way her Dravidian brother used to. Neednt say what MuKa's consultant told him.

Empirical evidence also suggests that there will be less rain going forward. That, we can wait and see.

While searching for a picture of the Statue of Kannagi, came across yet another Tamil-Jap connection. Kannagi used to be the name of those maiden servants of Gods & Goddess in Japan in ancient periods. These days 'Kannagi' is amply used in modern day Jap pulp fiction, comics etc. Like the following for instance. Now, it seems to make sense why Amma feels threatened oredi.