Monday, June 21, 2010

World Cup Thoughts

AFRICA: The host continent is barely there. It looks like only one or maybe two out of the six original African teams will advance past the initial rounds.

EUROPE: Most surprisingly, out of the always-big European teams, half of them (Spain, France, Germany, and England) are all either out or nearly out, leaving only Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands as sure to advance. Other lesser-known teams like Switzerland, Slovenia, and Slovakia are also looking to advance. That gives 6 European teams (none of them particularly strong) out of 12 to advance to the final 16... and all 4 of the biggest upsets so far are the 4 originally-favored teams mentioned above.

ASIA: North Korea, New Zealand, and Australia out; Japan and South Korea advance. That's about what was expected.

AMERICAS: Of the final 16 teams, it looks like 7 of them will be from the West side of the Atlantic. Most importantly, there were only 8 South/North America teams out of 32 in the original field... only Honduras will not advance.

THE ODDS: Brazil 20% chance of winning. Argentina 17% chance of winning. Netherlands 15% chance of winning. Uruguay 10% chance of winning. (source)

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