Is this the worst World Cup ever?

Anyway, I'm just 27, and my World Cup memories begin in 1990, even though I don't remember much of that World Cup (I was just 7, and not into football back then), after 5 days of matches, looking backwards to USA 94, France 98, Korea-Japan 2002, Germany 2008... So far, only Germany have offered something, and not spectacular. Well, and North Korea scoring has been a good laugh, I have to admit.

So, have you ever seen a worst World Cup, taking into account what has happened so far?


If the game keeps being so bad I'll find myself begging "Please, let the league start again. I want August to arrive again"

News....(2)

I just got an email from Ankaraspor/stokecitynil/Mark.  He's well, living on the south coast now and it sounds like Havant and Waterlooville are going to be the team of the future...!  He did the same as I did - put his predictions onto the old PTS site only to find them and the site disappear.  But as the blog's firewalled from work he's missed the beginning of the predictions.  (I've offered him the average score if he still comes along....)

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I really liked this half-time shot on't telly so I screengrabbed it.  (Still 0 - 0, Brazil v North Korea) 

Germany off to a flier

A Swiss relative was visiting in London the other week.  He caused much merriment by pushing his way to the front of the check-out queue (where there was family) shouting...

''Out of my way, I'm German!''

So, apparently the Germans have a bit of a reputation in Switzerland too.

Meanwhile, I found myself asking myself: ''Were the Aussies having a really bad day or were the Germans having a really good day?''   And I think the answer is ''yes''....

Vuvuzelas

I know I'm a grumpy bastard, but those things are going to be seriously irritating after 4 weeks.

Every now and again you could make out human voices when something exciting happened (so pretty rarely in the France/Uraguay game) but it was immediately drowned out again by the demented bee swarm.

News....

Some recent changes....

I've added a predictions page which links to an online spreadsheet.  You can enter your predictions directly (Actually, anybody at all can enter and change predictions at the moment - but I don't think anybody will come along and mess it up.  Might have to monitor that, though.)  If you've already posted up your predictions on this blog, I'll update the SS in a while.

I've also added a recent comments gadgets so that you can see what's been going on since your last visit. 

And as the Guardian has given our contact details to an external company, I thought it only fair to steal their logo (minus the social betting bit...).

While I'm at it, what shall we do about Winner predictions? Should we do that before any games are played or later?

UPDATE: I've added predictions already made on here and there's also a first goalscorer sheet.  Jaime's predictions are up.  (Personally, I'll add my predictions as we go along - too much research in one go....)

1st Group Matches - guess the score & 1st goal scorer

Will Mike go for all hung parliaments?

Date Group
11/06 - 16:00 A South Africa - Mexico -
11/06 - 20:30 A Uruguay - France -
12/06 - 13:30 B South Korea - Greece -
12/06 - 16:00 B Argentina - Nigeria -
12/06 - 20:30 C England - USA -
13/06 - 13:30 C Algeria - Slovenia -
13/06 - 16:00 D Serbia - Ghana -
13/06 - 20:30 D Germany - Australia -
14/06 - 13:30 E Netherlands - Denmark -
14/06 - 16:00 E Japan - Cameroon -
14/06 - 20:30 F Italy - Paraguay -
15/06 - 13:30 F New Zealand - Slovakia -
15/06 - 16:00 G Ivory Coast - Portugal -
15/06 - 20:30 G Brazil - North Korea -
16/06 - 13:30 H Honduras - Chile -
16/06 - 16:00 H Spain - Switzerland -

I think it's all over....

Well, not quite.  We've yet to post up our final standings but this chart at least is complete:

It shows each team's points per round for the season - click into it to make it bigger.  Though Chelsea probably deserved to win and even played some very compelling football (it breaks my heart to say it....) the graph shows just how close an off-form United managed to make it.   Poor old Portsmouth though - they struggled to get to 19 points, and then had 9 points deducted so had to fight their way back to 19 points again.  19 is evidently their groundhog number.

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Here are our final points.  I don't all the results - particularly missing are the week before last ones - but I was very preoccupied.

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And here is the final standings graph:

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Anyhow, plans for the World Cup.....

If the PTS site is no longer up and running during the summer's diversions, we can make this our makeshift home.  I can set it up so that everybody in the group is an author, so that everyone can originate posts.  And then each person can set it up so that their email box notifies of each post/comment so there's no need to miss anything.  And of course you can post up pictures.

Here's proof.  On 19 September, my granddaughter Isabella is scheduled to disembark after spending the entire world cup in the womb.  For reasons of modesty you can only see her top half....

But what we really really need is daft but manageable games to keep us engaged.  So what ideas do we have?