World Cup Predictions aka "Dear English, our Jabulanis are sizeable compared to your Vuvuzelas"

Sorry about the silly title. Watching the US v. Australia pre-World Cup friendly this week, I was mildly startled by the incessant talk of problems with the "Jabulani"- Adidas' new ball for the 2010 World Cup (hereinafter "WC") (it moves like a wiffle ball- check out this goal on Youtube)- and the incessant drone of "Vuvuzelas"- the long slender horns that soccer/footy fans never get tired of blowing. See above.

So startled, I decided I needed to blog on the WC and predict every single match score for the tournament. Does any other financial blog do this? Maybe not, which will garner our's some well-deserved attention. This little stunt is similar to when a clever sports fan invents a slick-yet-homemade network acronym sign and gets on TV.
The similarity being 1. we are (probably) not doing anything original, 2. we are trying to capitalize on a sporting event to get our 15 seconds, 3. it's self-serving and 4. lame.


So without further ado and before you wonder whether you care about the Slovenia-Algeria game, score predictions for the Group Round that you will find on no other financial blog...


Group A (The Real "Group of Death")


Match # 1 South Africa Mexico 2:2, #2 Uruguay France 1:0, #17 South Africa Uruguay 1:2, 18 France Mexico 1:2, #33 Mexico Uruguay 2:2, #34 France South Africa 1:1,


Group B

#3 Argentina Nigeria 3:2, #4 Korea Republic Greece 0:1, #19 Greece Nigeria 1:2, #20 Argentina Korea Republic 4:0, #35 Nigeria Korea Republic 3:1, #36 Greece Argentina 0:2,


Group C

#5 England USA 3:1, #6 Algeria Slovenia 0:1, #22 Slovenia USA 1:2, #23 England Algeria 3:0, #37 Slovenia England 1:2, #38 USA Algeria 2:0,

Group D

#7 Germany Australia 2:0, #8 Serbia Ghana 1:0, #21 Germany Serbia 2:1, #24 Ghana Australia 2:2, #39 Ghana Germany 1:2, #40 Australia Serbia 1:2

Group E

#9 Netherlands Denmark 3:1, #10 Japan Cameroon 1:2, #25 Netherlands Japan 3:0, #26 Cameroon Denmark 2:1, #43 Denmark Japan 2:2, #44 Cameroon Netherlands 2:3

Group F

#11 Italy Paraguay 1:2, #12 New Zealand Slovakia 1:2, #27 Slovakia Paraguay 1:2, #28 Italy New Zealand 2:0, #41 Slovakia Italy 1:1, #42 Paraguay New Zealand 2:0


Group G (The Alleged "Group of Death")

#3 Côte d'Ivoire Portugal 2:2, #14 Brazil Korea DPR 4:1, #29 Brazil Côte d'Ivoire 3:2, #30 Portugal Korea DPR 2:1, #45 Portugal Brazil 1:3, #46 Korea DPR Côte d'Ivoire 2:2

Group H

#15 Honduras Chile 1-2, #16 Spain Switzerland 2-0, #31 Chile Switzerland 2-1, #32 Spain Honduras 3-1, #47 Chile Spain 2-2, #48 Switzerland Honduras 1-1

"Wow, dude, that's bold. You think the Swiss and Honduras will tie?" Umm...I actually had no idea either of them were in the WC, but the prediction is 1-1- write it down, take it to Vegas.


Better/cooler WC predictions will follow, such as which coaches will ruin their teams and which favorites cannot possibly win.