New release -- tennis!

I'm pleased to announce that scoreshelf now has Grand Slam tennis! You can view tournament histories, yearly scores, look at player records and opponents, see detailed rankings, and much much more. Check out http://www.scoreshelf.com/tennis Of course, like the rest of the site, it's available in French as well.

Also in this release are many improvements to the soccer side of things as well:

• Brand new front page-- it's no longer "headlines", where I comment on the state of things and put a gazillion links to content inside the site. It was tedious for me, especially since I was doing it both in English and in French, but also it was useless for you. This site is not meant to be a contemporary news site but rather a more-or-less static content site with scores and rankings and team records, not up-to-the-minute updates. Data is only updated after the fact, so the new front page is more reflective of this and ultimately more useful. The same model is used for the tennis side of things too.
• Fixed a lot of cosmetic issues, at least I think so. Gone are many of the clashing, gaudy colors that afflicted the prior version (again, in my opinion.) This isn't my forté, one could argue the site looks like it's right out of 1996, but give me a break, it's been under development for over a decade and I can't just replace everything on a whim. I've added a lot of CSS and javascript to make it more feel more modern, but I know it still needs a lot of work. Volunteers are welcome!
• Many small feature improvements, too numerous to name, and honestly I don't remember what they are except for improved player navigation. Also made the UI "smarter" in not making things that don't make sense in the present context unavailable. Same for options.
• Added the ubiquitous facebook "like" button. I don't used facebook myself but I signed up the site for this purpose alone.
• There's more but I can't think of what right now.
• Beware abusive spiders: I've written code to detect and ban you. You want my data? Just ask, I might accommodate. I use Google Analytics but it doesn't provide as much data as I want insofar as user browsing sessions is concerned so I wrote my own.

Here's what I have planned in the near future:

• At present I only have data for the final of most domestic cups. I added the full depth of data for the English F.A. Cup some time ago, and I have the Coupe de France and the French League Cup from the quarter-finals onward, but I want to add full data for those as well as for the English League Cup, the Scottish cups, and the Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Belgian, and Dutch cups. Maybe one day I'll add domestic data for more countries. Right now I have it for those nine European nations and also for Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Don't worry I'm not doing this manually, I do it programmatically, scripting to fetch and parse and normalize the data, it's a royal pain, but kind of fun as well. Note to Belgium: stop messing with your league format, it's screwing up my system.
• The tennis scores for specific years of tournaments are listed in sequential order grouped by round, which is good, but I need to add another view: playoff trees. I already wrote the code to generate the trees (been a while since I've done some CS, recursive algorithms, fun stuff!) but now I need to display it in a nice way. My data does not "know" what order the original pairings were in. That is, who was at the top of the tree and such, so my algorithm arranges it such that the ultimate winner of the tournament is at the top, not necessarily the top seed. You'll see, it's cool. I generate playoff trees for soccer too but this two sided way won't work for such large tournaments as the tennis ones: 2010 World Cup playoff tree That might look a bit "rustic" but I'm pretty proud of it, I love it!
• More sports! I intend to have rugby before the rugby World Cup this fall. No sport's data model can come close to the complexity and weirdness and inconsistency as soccer's but rugby will be more challenging than tennis because I intend to also have the six-nations tournament and _maybe_ club level. That's a lot of data to deal with though, might have to start with just the World Cup to have it ready in time.
  After rugby I'd like to add cricket and Formula-1 and then maybe golf and the American sports. I'll probably have to put all this on ice before I even get started though, since you people refuse to provide me a living!
• I've got a test suite of pages I look at before any pushing new releases, regression testing to make sure I didn't break anything. It's quite a few pages (150+, a lot of nuance in the features!) and I intend to organize it and put it up for your pleasure.
• I might start blogging about current events in sports. Not that anybody will read my posts but I would enjoy doing so as I follow the NBA playoffs, for instance.

That is all for now. I hope you enjoy.

Russia 2018 & Qatar 2012

The hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups have been selected: they are Russia and Qatar. Russia beat out Engl... wait, what? QATAR?! Qatar is only the size of Connecticut, and it's a tad warm there isn't it?

Those were my thoughts as I chuckled after first hearing of Qatar's bid last year. I thought it was absurd. But then I saw what they were planning. The stadia they plan to build are unbelievable, the money at hand is limitless. And then I thought you know what, it's not that crazy. They could pull it off. Besides, the only other bid for 2022 I liked was Australia's. Japan and South Korea were both bidding to get it for themselves even as they co-hosted it only back in 2002. Too soon. Also too soon for the United States who had it in 1994. So I'm actually kind of glad, the construction projects are going to spur pretty amazing architectural and engineering projects.

But then I remembered why I also thought it was a bad idea. It's the same reason I don't like the fantasy land that is the United Arab Emirates, what with their artificially created palm shape island chains and ski slopes. It's not that I'm a kill-joy, it's that I hate to have fun on the backs of the poor souls imported from third world countries who actually work the brick and mortar for these projects. These workers from varied third-world countries like Bangladesh come so they can send some money back to their families. The working conditions they endure, however, are appalling. They live in shantytowns, have no rights, and they're paid peanuts. Peanuts their families appreciate, sure, but these workers are virtual slaves. So let's hope that human rights groups really shine a light on this during the preparations, and hopefully it'll all lead to positive reforms. But anyway.

I am not displeased that Russia got 2018 though I wanted England to have it, it was just time. The infrastructure improvements that'll come from this will be great for Russia though, should be fun too.

Until then, here's to Brazil 2014! I pick Uruguay to win it, just as they did the last time the World Cup was in Brazil! Just kidding. It's pretty much Brazil's to lose.

Hup España Hup!

A hearty congratulations to SPAIN for winning the World Cup, a richly deserved prize for a month of wonderful, positive football. Xavi and Iniesta were sublime today, as they have been the entire tournament, as well as with Barcelona for the past few years.

The Netherlands had some excellent chances to score, and they were a lot more effective than Germany had been in disrupting the Spanish game. Unfortunately though, they played really dirty today. De Jong planting his cleats into Xabi Alonso's chest should have been an unquestionable red card, though I appreciate that the referee desperately wanted to avoid taking such a dramatic game-changing action. It's a miracle De Jong and Van Bommel were still on the field after the first half though, really really rough.

The goalkeepers were outstanding today, both Stekelenburg and Casillas thwarted numerous chances that could definitely have been goals. It was a bit ironic that the one time Arjen Robben decided not to throw himself on the ground after feeling contact he not only missed the goal but then didn't get the foul call he usually gets when he does drop to the ground.

In any case, it's hard to argue that Spain are undeserving, not at all, they were the class of the tournament. The same team that won Euro 2008 are world champions and I'm very happy for them. At the same time though I'm sad for the Dutch fans, it's too bad their team played such a cynical match today. Just nerves and fear of losing, and who could blame them after they had witnessed the Spanish demolition of Germany (that was the most crushing 1-0 win I've ever seen!)

So thank you South Africa, thank you Spain, and thank you the football Gods for making this such a wonderful and fun time. I can't wait until 2014 but Euro 2012 ought to be great as well.

Congratulations Spain!! I know someone who is smiling from above at your beautiful victory, a long-suffering fan who most unfortunately did not live to see it happen.

Spain versus the Netherlands

Well, this is it, only one more match and it's all over. The final features Spain and the Netherlands. Both teams are eminently worthy of the championship, they have been outstanding, the cream of the crop. As far as who I want to win, I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand it'd be nice if the Dutch could win it after having lost two finals beforehand (in 1974 and 1978) and I would enjoy seeing the jubilant scenes of orange fireworks from Amsterdam. On the other though is that Spain are really the better team, I mean, what they did to Germany was ridiculous. And a good friend of mine who was a big Spain fan passed away last year and I know he'd have been over-the-moon to see all this, so just in his memory it'd be nice (he did get to see them win Euro 2008, though.)

So here's hoping for a great match! It's been a GREAT World Cup, I'm very pleased.

The Europeans Strike Back

Well I certainly didn't expect that. That was an extraordinary display by the Mannschaft, they tore Diego Maradona's side apart. It should be noted however that the score was only 1-0 until the 68th minute, and that anything could have happened until then. But just like against England, Germany were unstoppable on the counter-attack and Argentina's defensive weaknesses were brutally exposed, especially on the wings. That was just ridiculous, the right back was just destroyed. Now we see if the Germans have the depth to put a capable fill-in for Thomas Müller and the possibly injured Sami Khedira.

Next the Germans face Spain. This is the first match Spain will play against an opponent whose unstated game-plan is not to simply absorb the Spanish pressure and hope to score on counter-attack. Switzerland did it successfully in the first match but Spain has been able to break through in all its subsequent matches. It's atypical for Spain to successfully do so, and I had a terrible feeling ahead of the Paraguay match, I really thought they'd lose, and they nearly did. Paraguay should have been ahead at halftime, and then again when they earned the penalty with a half hour to play. Honestly I think Paraguay were the better team on the day but I'm glad Spain was finally able to win a World Cup quarter-final. So many times before they were the ones who played the better match only to lose, such as the infamous defeats at the hands of Italy in 1994 and then against South Korea in 2002, although the latter was simply stolen by the referee courtesy of FIFA. I really thought the match was on its way to penalties, and that tragedy would befall Spain once again. I now have to pick them to go to the final at the expense of the young Germans. They'll be fielding virtually the same side that beat the Germans in the final of Euro 2008, although I expect them to drop Fernando Torres for this match.

The Netherlands are favorites to beat Uruguay in the other semi-final, though Uruguay are one of those pesky teams that just refuse to lose. The Dutch victory over Brazil was, in my eyes, more of a defeat by Brazil and less a victory for Holland. All the goals in the match were produced via a comedy of errors, and Brazil really just beat themselves. Kudos to Holland for capitalizing on it but they'll have to be better to beat Uruguay.

Uruguay's win over Ghana is now infamous, in large part due to the wild ending in which Luis Suárez swatted away a sure goal that would have been the winner. Asamoah Gyan's subsequent miss from the penalty spot will go down as one of the most tragic moments in World Cup history, you really have to feel for the man. He had the chance to carry Ghana into the semi-finals, a first for any African side, but his shot hit the post. That's really unforgivable for a professional footballer and in the end Ghana have only themselves to blame. It is highly unfortunate, though. After that there was no way Ghana could win the penalty shootout, it was already over, you don't recover from something like that.

There is no permutation that would surprise me at this point, I can see any of the four remaining teams winning it all. May these semi-finals be as good as the quarter-finals were!

The Quarter-Finals

It's very possible we're going to have a Copa América break out in the semi-finals of the World Cup here, as all four teams that come out of the quarter-finals could very well be south American.

First we'll have Brazil versus the Netherlands. Needless to say, Brazil moving on would be no surprise but the Oranje are not to be underestimated. Whoever wins this one will be favored to go to the final as they'll then face either Uruguay or Ghana but anything could happen. Uruguay are hungry to relive the glory their grandparents experienced in 1950, and before that in 1930. Ghana are only the third African team to ever make it this far, and would be the first team ever to make the semi-finals if they can beat the Celeste.

On the other side of the bracket we have another big one: Argentina versus Germany. Both teams were the beneficiaries of dubious refereeing decisions in the round-of-16, which is not to say either one is undeserving, but count me in as one who believes that the Germany v England match would have been much, much different if that Frank Lampard goal had been justly counted. The England defense would not have been so open to allow the speedy Germans to put a third and then a fourth past them had they tied the game before the half.  It's really amazing how the press is making it sound like England would have been trounced anyway, not a chance. Like I said, Germany are not undeserving, but I think the game could have gone either way.

And now I want some of those folks who were howling about Thierry Henry's hand ball to explain to me why Manuel Neuer not telling the ref that the ball was over the line is any different than Henry not telling the ref about his handball. Why is nobody calling Neuer a cheater, or calling the Germans a bunch of cheaters? Same for Carlos Tévez and Argentina, both of these players have acknowledged they knew, they knew it was a mistake, but they carried on.  So you expect Thierry Henry to go up the referee and say "sorry, I handled the ball, please disallow the goal and tell the crowd to stop celebrating," but not Neuer and Tévez?  Why?  Same thing.

Anyway.

I expect Argentina to win this match and then face Spain, although Paraguay could very well win with a quick counter-attack goal.  They might just frustrate Spain for 120 minutes and win on penalties again.  Here's hoping that doesn't happen and that both teams play an open game.

Only seven games to go (plus the 3rd place match), it's almost over, gah!

Group stage recap

The 2010 World Cup enters the knockout stage after two weeks of group matches.

Italy, the defending champions, are on their way home after having been eliminated by Slovakia. The Azzurri made the same mistake that France made in 2002: they showed up with essentially the same team that won four years before with not enough new blood. And, just like France in 2002, their playmaker was injured in a friendly just ahead of the tournament which left the team with no ideas and no direction. This was plainly evident as an unfit Andrea Pirlo came on in the second half against Slovakia and suddenly Italy looked their old self. This was the case with France in 2002 when Zidane came on against Denmark, but by then it was too late as well.

We've already documented France's demise, but also intriguing is the poor showing from the mass of European teams. None of the second tier teams from Europe made it out of their groups: Denmark lost out to Japan, Serbia to Ghana, Switzerland to Chile, Slovenia to the U.S., and Greece to South Korea. On the other hand, all six teams from South America and two of the three CONCACAF teams made it to the knockout stage. Meanwhile the east Asian teams have been outstanding with South Korea and Japan coming through in convincing style (though North Korea, tenacious in its first match against Brazil, were subsequently crushed. I hope the players have a chance to defect.) Neither Oceania team advanced but both Australia and New Zealand played with real conviction, especially the latter from whom nothing was expected. A disappointment though is how poorly the African teams did. South Africa was good but Mexico and Uruguay were better, and so the host nation fails to advance for the first time in World Cup history. Only Ghana made it through, and that's in spite of scoring their only two goals from the spot and then losing their last match, they have Australia to thank for beating Serbia.

Two teams won all three of their group stage matches: Argentina and the Netherlands. The bracket has it such that these two can only meet in the final, perhaps a rematch from 1978? Uruguay, champions way back in 1930 and 1950, are back but now have to negotiate with South Korea for a place in the quarter-finals. The winner of the United States v Ghana match takes on the winner of that match, so the semi-finals will have at least one surprise team in it. Spain and Germany both had what turned out to be fluke defeats in their groups but recovered to finish first, and now they take on Portugal and England respectively for their trouble. Brazil was brilliant as always and get Chile while Paraguay gets impressive Japan. Italy's undertaker Slovakia get the Netherlands as their reward, while France's executioner Mexico get Argentina.

The next two weeks ought to be something special.

La Zizanie

There is an episode of the beloved Astérix series called "La Zizanie."  The name of the episode in English is "The Roman Agent" because there's no translation for it, but here's what it means: discord, specifically discord put into motion by one person, a trouble-maker who sows resentment and makes people turn against one-another.

Well that's what's going on in the French national team, and the culprit was—once again—Nicolas Anelka.  The man is poison. Everywhere he has gone be it Real Madrid, Paris St. Germain, and several times on the French national team, he has wreaked havoc, creating endless drama.  There is no doubt he's extremely talented and it seemed he had matured since establishing himself as one of the best players in the Premiership with Chelsea.  So he was called back to the French national team, again.  But this time he destroyed the team's chances in its match against Mexico, playing an awful first half and then blowing up at the coach in the locker room at half-time, creating a row complete with the drama of there being a "traitor" according to the team captain, whoever it was that leaked the incident to the press. It was evident on the pitch even, in the match against Uruguay where he failed to pass to a good ball to an open Gourcuff.  It then turns out that there was some disdain from Anelka toward Gourcuff in training and even in the R&R times.  Word is Anelka insisted Gourcuff be dropped from the lineup for the Mexico match, and indeed he was.  Crazy.

Thankfully Anelka has been sent home but the way the team has imploded after this incident is indicative of how weak this team is, in all respects.  Captain Patrice Evra has failed to bring solidarity to the team.  Coach Raymond Domenech has failed to keep control and has validated all the criticism he's received over his tactics.  Members of the training staff have resigned, and so should Domenech.  Give the reigns over to the assistant, whoever that is, for the South Africa match.  And fire all the big club players who haven't shown up.  I don't ever want to see Malouda or Ribéry in bleu ever again, even if they are two of the best players in the world.  Evra and Gourcuff, whatever their role in this mess, are damaged beyond repair and can never play for France again.  All these players are in the prime of their careers but so be it.  Reinstall Thierry Henry as captain for the last match, his last hurrah, and play all the home-based subs, maybe they'll actually play with some conviction.  Not that it matters because it'll take a miracle for France to advance even if they manage to beat the hosts in their last match, since Mexico and Uruguay would actually have to try to win their match which is doubtful since a draw will ensure both their advance.  I doubt they'll put that in jeopardy, even if Mexico would rather avoid Argentina in the round-of-16.

Good riddance to the French from South Africa, the tournament will be better for it.  The Laurent Blanc era cannot start soon enough and I hope he feels the same way I do about the personnel. I'm ashamed of my team, I don't recognize the team I loved in 1998 and 2000.

Week 1 recap

Now that each team has played its first match, it's time for me to regale you with some sophistry by putting on my pundit's hat and offering a review of where we are, what we've seen, and what it means for the rest of the tournament.

Firstly, even though we're all very short on sleep and are all losing our hearing with that constant droning of the vuvuzela, it's been really a lot of fun! The World Cup is just a special time every four years, and this one is off to a great start. It seems that every team played their first match with a fear of losing in mind, so there was a lot of defense and not that many goals. This should change now. Let's look at the situation group-by-group:

Group A:

As I write this South Africa and Uruguay just played their second match with France and Mexico to follow suit tomorrow. The hosts are in big trouble after suffering a big defeat, and because of the three goal deficit now there is really only one way they can go through: France and Mexico must play to a draw, then they must beat France AND hope that Uruguay doesn't lose to Mexico. France cannot afford to lose against Mexico because if they do, Mexico and Uruguay will be level on 4 points while the others are on 1, and they can just play a ho-hum draw and both qualify regardless of what happens in France versus South Africa.

Group B:

Argentina and South Korea will now play to determine who qualifies after only two matches and who must wait until the last match to have the chance to do so. Meanwhile Nigeria and Greece get the chance to earn points to compete with whoever loses the other match for the second spot in the round-of-16. Argentina is favored to beat South Korea so if that match goes according to form then if Greece beats Nigeria they get to play an Argentina team that will be resting some of their starters in the last match. If Nigeria wins then it'll come down to their match against South Korea.

Group C:

Slovenia may be in the driver's seat but now they have to play the U.S. and England. If they can steal a point in either of those matches they'll have an excellent chance of going through, so expect to see them be very tight on defense. Algeria was in shambles in their opening game and it doesn't get any easier with England who'll be looking to eliminate them. I suspect this group will come down to goal difference.

Group D:

Germany was the most convincing team in the first set of matches but now they face Serbia and it won't be easy. Serbia was unlucky not to get a draw with Ghana. It's hard to see Australia bouncing back from that devastating defeat at the hands of the Germans, especially with Tim Cahill on suspension now, so expect Ghana to wrap up their qualification with this match. It's very possible that the Germany versus Ghana match will be a formality to determine who finishes first and who finishes second but by then they'll know what each positions means as far as who they play in the second round.

Group E:

The Netherlands justified the hype about them by beating an excellent Denmark team who were unlucky with the first goal they conceded. Denmark now play Cameroon to determine who lives to fight another day and who goes home, while Holland and Japan play to see who qualifies right now. If Cameroon wins against Denmark and Holland beats Japan then Cameroon get to play a team with no interest in playing very hard in their last match.

Group F:

Italy fell victim to the ultra-defensive Paraguayan counter-attack and had to claw their way to a draw, but with what Slovakia and New Zealand showed us they still shouldn't have much trouble going through. The other spot is Paraguay's to lose.

Group G:

North Korea was no pushover against Brazil but it doesn't get any easier against Portugal while Côte d'Ivoire have to play Brazil. This favors Portugal because if they beat the DPRK and Brazil win as well then again, we'll have a team playing against a team who is already qualified, so advantage Portugal.

Group H:

Switzerland beating Spain is a surprise, but not fatal, not by a long shot. Spain was spectacular today, it's amazing they didn't win, they were on par with Brazil, Germany, and Holland. Fortunately for them they play Honduras now and if they win big, as they should, then Chile might end up regretting not putting more past Honduras on the last day. Switzerland is in, as long as they don't fail to take the three points from Honduras.

Let the good times roll!

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Here we go!!!

I've been waiting for this for two years, ever since the end of the European Championship final!  The qualifying stage was long and interesting, especially for me as France really struggled to qualify (again.)

The establishment is here: Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, England, and it's nice to see Uruguay have qualified too.

Just minutes now before the opening match, South Africa vs Mexico, I'd like to say something to FIFA about refereeing.  I don't mind a _little_ bit of advantage play being given to the home team, but please FIFA, please don't try so hard to make the hosts do well that you make the refs blatantly steal matches like you did in 2002.  After those astonishing robberies that were South Korea vs Italy and then South Korea vs Spain, I was ready to declare the 2002 World Cup results null and void.  You can't just call players clear through off-sides, repeatedly.  You can't disallow multiple goals for no discernible reason.  You can't give opposing strikers red cards for ridiculously wrong reasons.  Thank goodness there was no way for you to steal a win from Germany in the semis, geesh.

Remember refs, we want to see the players play, not you.  Don't hand out red cards unless it's really necessary, not for iffy things.  Go easy on the yellows too, I don't want to see the top players missing playoff rounds because of it.

So here's to it everybody, enjoy the World Cup!!!

Europe's most utilized player, ever.

If I asked you which European player had been the most utilized in all competitive matches throughout the history of the World Cup and the European Championship, who would you guess it was?

This includes all the qualifiers of course so don't limit yourself to players from nations who regularly compete in the finals of these tournaments. Let's remember, too, that the number of qualifying matches played by each team has substantially increased since the break-ups of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

Could it be German workhorse Lothar Matthäus, who took part in five World Cups and six European Championships from 1980 to 2000? Italian defender Paolo Maldini, who traveled to four World Cups as well as all the European Championship campaigns in between? Maybe French hero Zinédine Zidane? Or perhaps a goalkeeper—their longevity tends to be longer than that of position players—like Edwin van der Sar? Peter Schmeichel? Gigi Buffon?

Maybe someone like Robert Prosinečki, who played first for the united Yugoslavia and then Croatia? Or Matthias Sammer, the East German who subsequently played on the unified German team?

Nope, it's someone you've never heard of in your life: Latvia's Vitālijs Astafjevs. Astafjevs has taken part in every qualifying campaign since Latvia achieved its independence, from 1994 up through 2010. In that time, he has played in an astonishing 83% of all the minutes played by the Latvian national team. He has taken part in 86 of Latvia's 94 matches, and only two of those as a substitute.

Latvia qualified for the 2004 European Championship in Portugal, giving Astafjevs the chance to shine on the big stage for three matches. He has scored 8 goals and received 15 yellow cards in all those minutes, and no red cards.

See the full ranking for details, but other players in the top ten you've never heard of include the Armenian defender Sargis Hovsepyan, Romanian midfielder Dorinel Munteanu, and midfielder Jeff Strasser of Luxembourg.

Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro is all but guaranteed to overtake Astafjevs in minutes played in South Africa though, all he has to do is play just 8 minutes.  Perhaps the 39 year old Mr. Astafjevs will retake this impressive record should he participate in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2012, something he's given no indication of not intending to do.

Scoreshelf's World Cup 2010 Predictions

It is time for my official baseless predictions.  I have been way off track every time in the past so I warn you that if you are looking for validation of your gambling picks, a better bet would probably be to take the opposite of what I say and to bet your house on it!

Here we go!

Group A

This is the second toughest group to predict, as all four teams could very realistically expect a berth into the second round. The obvious favorites are France, champions in 1998 and runners-up in 2006.  South Africa are the weakest on paper, after all they didn't even qualify for the African Cup of Nations last year, but they have the emotional home crowd advantage and that can never be underestimated, nor can all the favorable refereeing decisions that come with it (ask South Korea how well that worked out for them against Italy and Spain in 2002.)  Then you have Uruguay, champions in 1930 and 1950.  You can expect rough, physical matches with fouls galore against these guys.  Mexico are always solid and hard to predict because only a few of their players play in the top European leagues while the rest play in Mexican league.

1) Uruguay

2) France

3) Mexico

4) South Africa

Group B

Argentina should win the group, despite their unstable coach (the great Diego Maradona.)  Nigeria are playing on friendly soil but I don't think they have the talent to beat the under-rated South Koreans. Greece's disgusting defensive game travels to South Africa but it won't do well here, I'm still mad at them for making Euro 2004 into such a sad spectacle.

1) Argentina

2) South Korea

3) Nigeria

4) Greece

Group C

This one is easy (remember, don't take my picks to the bookies!)  England and the United States are heavy favorites to progress over Slovenia and Algeria, but crazier things have happened.  Slovenia are not to be under-estimated, they did knock out Russia in the qualifiers after all, and Algeria deprived three-peat African Cup winners Egypt from a spot in South Africa.  Nonetheless, I expect the opening match of the group to decide who finishes first and who finishes second, with both England and the U.S. advancing comfortably.  And, I'm going with the upset: USA ahead of England.

1) USA

2) England

3) Slovenia

4) Algeria

Group D

Germany are, of course, the favorites but the loss of Michael Ballack to injury will hurt their chances to progress far into the tournament.  Serbia coasted through qualification, making France sweat for their spot.  Ghana are fancied as the strongest African team but I myself am not convinced.  Australia have some very good players playing abroad and are more dangerous every year.  I do expect to see Germany prevail, and unfortunately for the African continent I'm afraid yet another African team bites the dust in round one at the hands of Serbia.

1) Germany

2) Serbia

3) Ghana

4) Australia

Group E

This, to me, is the dreaded "group of death", although most people believe that that honor belongs to group G. Everybody thinks the Netherlands are very serious contenders to win the cup, and they're right, this team is stellar, reminiscent to the Oranje teams of the 1970's. We also have Denmark in this group and I think they could provide that big surprise we see every World Cup. Cameroon, perennial emotional favorites of outsiders, are the best African team (in my most humble of opinions.)  Then, we have Japan, another very solid team  Honestly this group is a total toss-up for me, no permutation would surprise me.  However, for the sake of picking something, I'll say... the Dutch (I can't bet against Robben, Sneijder, Van Bommel, etc etc etc) and... Denmark.  Yes that's Euro-centric but like I said, I could easily see Cameroon and Japan shocking the world too.

1) Netherlands

2) Denmark

3) Cameroon

4) Japan

Group F

This really should be a walk in the park for the defending champs.  Italy come in to the tourney with quite a few of the players that took the cup in 2006 with just enough new blood to be very serious contenders.  The battle for second place will take place between Paraguay and Slovakia.  Meanwhile, New Zealand have no chance, no chance at all, of advancing (hear that gamblers? bet it all on the kiwis!)

1) Italy

2) Slovakia

3) Paraguay

4) New Zealand

Group G

This is it, the so-called "group of death" (like I said though, that's group E.)  North Korea is of course completely unpredictable but I doubt they'll repeat their crazy 1966 run since they have no chance against the likes of Brazil, Portugal, and Côte d'Ivoire.  I don't think Portugal is that good this time so I pick Brazil and Côte d'Ivoire to advance.  Of course, the media in Pyongyang will surely proclaim that their team won the tournament anyway, with the Dear Leader scoring 15 goals along the way.

1) Brazil

2) Côte d'Ivoire

3) Portugal

4) North Korea

Group H

Should be fairly easy for the European Champions.  Honduras has little chance of joining Spain in the second round and I pick Chile to top Switzerland (Why, you ask? I don't know, maybe because they're playing in their own hemisphere? That's as good a reason as any since I have no idea who to pick.)

1) Spain

2) Chile

3) Switzerland

4) Honduras

Here we go with the knockout stage, I have no words to justify my picks:

Round-of-16

Uruguay d. South Korea

Serbia d. USA

Netherlands d. Slovakia

Brazil d. Chile

France d. Argentina

Germany d. England

Italy d. Denmark

Spain d. Côte d'Ivoire

Quarter-Finals

Serbia d. Uruguay

Netherlands d. Brazil

France d. Germany

Italy d. Spain

Semi-Finals

Netherlands d.Serbia

France d. Italy

Final

France d. Netherlands

Oh, by the way, have I mentioned that I'm French? :-)

World Cup 1998 - the decisive goal

Paris, wednesday July the 8th, 1998. France vs Croatia semi-final of the 1998 World Cup. The air had just gone out of the 76,000 crowd at the Stade de France as the home team had just given up a goal to Davor Šuker, right at the start of the second half.

The next 45 minutes seemed destined to be an agonizing struggle to equalize against a very well organized defense, and the anemic offense of les Bleus offered little hope of breaking through. The previous rounds of the knockout stage had been defensive struggles, France needing a golden goal from defender Laurent Blanc in the dying minutes of overtime against Paraguay and settling for a nil-nil draw against Italy in the quarters, then winning on penalty kicks.

But suddenly, not one minute after the Croatian goal was settling into the minds of an entire nation, defender Lilian Thuram scored a miraculous goal, his first ever for the national team. Instantly the game was saved and it all turned around as Thuram went on to score an unbelievable second goal just minutes later, these being his only two goals in his 67 competitive appearances for France.




This equalizer won the World Cup for France. Thuram is the eternal hero of 1998. Winning in the final against an over-confident Brazil was pure destiny at this point, as Zinédine Zidane took over the show to seal the victory with two first half goals.