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The newspaper printed a final article on their Beat the Press competition this weekend. Our subscription ended so I don’t have a scan of the article at the moment. Bottom line is that a Mexican sports writer won the whole thing, and the top member of the public came third. I got the next best public showing, coming in joint fifth with a couple of other sports editors but since no one beat the press, the $100 goes unawarded.

So its all over for another 4 years. A decent game to end on, especially the second half where I strangely found myself wishing for a French victory. Crazy headbutts aside, Zidane was amazing as usual; its a shame he will be remembered more for his sending off than his skill. I hate seeing the final being decided on penalty kicks but we saw 8 perfect penalties (England players take note). I am sure FIFA isn’t reading but can I ask that next time the final be a golden goal decider rather than the kicks?

Not sure what I will do with myself now the end has come. Next World Cup is in 2010 in South Africa, but there is the European Championship in 2008, qualifiers starting in October to keep us all going until then.

Really, I don’t get the need for a third place playoff, and for much of this game I don’t think the players did either. It got better towards the end (perhaps the player remembered their 3rd place bonuses) but mostly it was a waste of 90 minutes of my life. But, as an England supporter, I’m used to that.

Germany coming third definitely puts me down in the Press competition. I’m hoping they will publish a final table with everyone’s points but I think no one will have beaten the editor so no one will be collecting $100.

With the World Cup coming to an end this weekend, plenty of pundits have been giving their thoughts on how to improve on the beautiful game. I thought this guy from the Guardian has some good ideas, as well as plenty of other good options in the comments.

2234Today’s paper has the headline that Sanders is leading the competition. Yes, by some miracle I am currently in first place in the newspaper’s Beat the Press competition, with 33 points. There is certainly no way I can win as the only points available to me are if Germany make the final, all other results get me nothing. Now, if its an Italy v Portugal final then maybe I could still win the $100… but its fun to see my name in the headlines out on top.

It took being down to 10 men for England to finally show how well they can play and, as many had said they would, Lennon and Crouch were the guys leading the charge. If they could have played like that throughout the competition I think they’d be in the semis and one of the favourites. It does allow us to indulge our national pasttime – berating the coach and players in the press, I am sure we will see coach Erikkson and Wayne Rooney get a good roasting.

I think my Beat The Press entry is down the toilet although I doubt many had Portugal in the last 4. Perhaps if its a Germany Brazil final I might bring off an upset.

And in the meantime, England gets a new coach and the preparations start for qualifying for Euro 2008.

A cracking game between Spain and France brings the round of 16 to a close. I correctly predicted 6 of the last 8 teams so I now have 25 points going into the quarter finals. My original final four prediction was Germany, England, Brazil and France but the group positions have put Brazil and France together so that isn’t going to happen. I’m guaranteed one team in the semi final but will be on the edge of the seat for the Germany and England games, very hard to predict how those will go. Argentina are playing great and England, well, England is England. Hopefully there will be a points update in the newspaper tomorrow to see how I am doing.

In my previous post I wrote that I had 13 points (out of 16) from the World Cup first round. In Saturday’s edition, the newspaper revealed that the leader (a veteran of Beat the Press sports competitions apparantly) had 14 points so I am currently in joint second place.

I got the winners of the first three knockout matches correct (along with everyone else I bet) so I am still in contention. Today’s other match might see that change, I bet I am in the minority for picking Portugal over Holland. But if they win I’ll be moving on ahead for the $100.

The group stage is over, time for sudden death knockout – finally something the USA audience can understand! No more ties, from hereon the game will continue for an extra 30 minutes if the score is level after 90 minutes and then with a penalty shoot-out if still no result.

Going over my entries in my local paper’s Beat The Press competition, I see that I correctly predicted 13 of the 16 teams in the second round, missing Ghana, Ecuador and Australia. That gives me 13 points going forward. I missed seeing what the editor had picked so I don’t know how well they are doing but I doubt many people picked more than one of those. I think I am still in the running for the $100.

One of the common complaints I hear about football is that the game shouldn’t have the “wildcard element” that is the referee. A few bad decisions can turn a game and that has definitely been the case in the last two USA games. From their performance in the first half, I don’t think the USA was going to beat Ghana but the late penalty award made that all the less likely. Its deals a psychological blow that is tough to get over, not to mention of course that now you need two goals rather than one to win. At the beginning of the tournament I thought there was a high standard of refereeing but recently that seems to have changed. As we move to the knockout round, one referee mistake could easily destroy a team’s chances of progressing. But that’s football.