Cup Crazy - 23 June

It's Day 15, the official half-way point of World Cup 2006. By day's end, we'd know which 16 teams would be moving on, and which 16 would be going home. Brian looks at today's events and looks ahead to the Round of 16...

Today's Best
One spot in the Round of 16 was up for grabs in Group H today. Spain had already qualified and played an entirely changed team of reserves in its victory over Saudi Arabia today. But in the other contest, Ukraine and Tunisia both had a lot at stake. Tunisia needed a win, while the Ukrainians only needed a draw. The Ukrainians did one better, with a second half penalty winner from Andriy Shevchenko. After a poor start at this World Cup against Spain, Ukraine has rebounded (albeit against weaker opposition) and is looking increasingly dangerous heading into the next round. Over in Group G, there was a lot more at stake, with Switzerland, South Korea, and France all battling for two spots in the Round of 16. All France needed was a two goal victory over lowly Togo, which meant that both the Swiss and Koreans had to go for all three points in their battle. After a slow start, France finally did find the back of the net twice. Patrick Vieira, celebrating his 30th birthday, scored a goal and set the other one up. In the other contest, the Swiss took the initiative with a first half goal, and then added a fortuitous goal in the second to end up as Group G winners.

So, How Did We Do?
We're down to our final 16. Before we look ahead to the games, let's see how Bryce and I did with our predictions:

Brian's Picks:
Sweden vs Poland
Argentina vs Mexico
England vs Germany
Portugal vs Holland
Italy vs Croatia
France vs Tunisia
Brazil vs US
Spain vs Switzerland

Bryce's Picks
Germany vs Sweden
Argentina vs Iran
England vs Ecuador
Ivory Coast vs Portugal
Italy vs Japan
France vs Ukraine
Brazil vs US
South Korea vs Spain

As far as predictions go, Bryce and are average at best. We both picked 12 of the 16 teams, but only correctly picked two of the match-ups. Not bad, but not great. This is our first time at doing it. We'll live up to the "expert" tag next time, I promise.

Looking Ahead
After a lot of surprise teams in the final 16 at World Cup 2002, I was of the thinking that normalcy would be restored at this World Cup and we'd see a lot of European and South American teams would do well. That ended up being the case. 10 of the 13 European teams made the Round of 16, and three of the four South American teams made it. From parts elsewhere, Mexico (CONCACAF), Australia (Oceania), and Ghana (Africa) were the only others to crash the party. Clearly, there's a difficult half of the draw, and an easier half of the draw. The tastiest games in the Round of 16 look to be Germany-Sweden, Portugal-Holland, and Spain-France. We could be in for some epic quarterfinals, with potential games between Germany-Argentina, England-Portugal/Holland, and Brazil-Spain. Italy has the easiest draw of any of the major contenders, with Australia in the Round of 16 and then the winner of Switzerland-Ukraine. But as we know, nothing is easy at the World Cup and we'll always see a few surprises. Good times ahead of us the next few weeks!

Tomorrow's Predictions
It's time to take a stab at predicting knockout games. Let's see what I can come up with:

Germany 2, Sweden 1
Argentina 2, Mexico 0

Goodnight now.

Pics courtesy yahoo.com and fifaworldcup.yahoo.com. How with the knockout stages play out? Let us know at bookableoffense@gmail.com.