Actually, this really should be entitled – What I got wrong – because I had a lot more of those.
Three out of four might not be bad
I could conceivably still have three semi-finalists guessed right if Argentina, Brazil and Spain all progress through their quarterfinal matches. And before you go and say, well anybody could pick this, I also…
I wish I could take this one back
… had England and France facing off in an exciting quarterfinal match. Not only did Wayne Rooney not show up for the Three Lions, but I’d be hard pressed to find any member of Les Bleus who wanted to spend part of his summer in South Africa. Easily one of the most embarrassing performances from a supposed power in the world of football.
The thing about Germany
This might be the biggest mess-up I had. I sort of called Italy correctly, calling them old and stagnant (but I had them winning the easiest group in this year’s World Cup) but I also said that Germany was too you and inexperienced to make a dent this season. Forgetting of course that Germany ALWAYS reaches the quarterfinals and that these players all play in the Bundesliga and have familiarity with each teammate. To my credit I had them losing to the U.S. (nothing wrong with being an optimist) but I really expected little from the Germans.
Oh, did I say Cameroon? I meant to say…
Ghana. I knew that playing in Africa would be enough to get an African side through the final eight, I just picked the wrong one. I will admit that I originally had thoughts of putting Ghana as group winners and advancing over the U.S., but then Michael Essien went down and so did my opinion of the lone African side still playing in the World Cup.
Just get to the numbers
In the group stage, I correctly picked:
5/8 winners: My misses were France (oh boy), England (a Robert Green howler/Landon Donovan goal from being right) and Italy.
11/16 second rounders: I only picked two groups correctly (D and H), so I got that going for me, which is nice.
In the second round, I correctly picked:
4/8 winners: With France and Cameroon each advancing out of a round they couldn’t even qualify for.
2 actual matches: Brazil over Chile and Argentina eliminating Mexico.
You know on second thought, maybe I should adopt FIFA’s strategy of no instant replay or looking back on mistakes.