world cup predictions

You might not be able to miss him. According to THIS SOURCE, he has replace Jurgen the German on the BBC

He's better at his predictions...

But he may not get a chance. German fans have put a price on his err...cephalopod.

Klinsmann, BTW, said yesterday that the way to beat Spain is to press hard, show no respect, and be "really nasty" .

Well, with van Bommel, the Dutch have the right personnel for the job. Either they will win or be playing short for a long stretch of the match.

I'm waiting for the ref assignment to see if they will get away with that game plan.

And the ref for the game will be Howard Webb from England and his crew. Known as a disciplinarian but won't over whistle. Spain will get beat up a bit but I don't think the game will get out of hand. Guaranteed yellow at lest for van Bommel.

Benito Armando Archundia from Mexico will do the third place game between Uruguay and Germany.

That should make it a wild and woolly affair.

I figured when we didn't see him in the semis that Webb would get the final. Good choice, I think. He's used to the high pressure games and doesn't take any crap. I'm confident he'll take care of Van Bommel, hopefully with a caution early enough to allow the game to open up. I also hope he deals with Robben's break-dance routine, rolling around on the pitch every time he gets touched!

Webb will complete a unique double as he had this year's Champions League Final. Taking charge of the two highest-profile matches in soccer in the same year sort of speaks to the quality of his work.

Had Uruguay been in the final, Archundia would have gotten the nod for that game to avoid having a ref from UEFA.

It's all but over for the dutch

Uh oh.... In other news, reports of death threats coming out of Amsterdam and Rodderdam directed toward a certain cephalopod...

And for Paul's evening meal, he decided to have a go at a Germany-Uruguay prediction. This was watched live on TV in Europe.



Is it just my perception? or does anyone else notice Paul is right handed? He always seems to pick that side.
And how do they keep that soccer ball on the bottom? inquiring minds want to know...

Uruguayan coach Oscar Tabarez vows to break Paul's streak.

SoreKnees wrote:I figured when we didn't see him in the semis that Webb would get the final. Good choice, I think. He's used to the high pressure games and doesn't take any crap. I'm confident he'll take care of Van Bommel, hopefully with a caution early enough to allow the game to open up. I also hope he deals with Robben's break-dance routine, rolling around on the pitch every time he gets touched!

Thanks, everyone, for all the input on refs. I don't follow the sport close enough to know refs by name, but the refereeing sure does seem to be uneven from game to game. I hope you're right, Soreknees - More and more, I am coming to intensely dislike all the dives and rolling around. I think it demeans the game.

Geezer - I'm trying to wrap my brain around determining the right-handedness of octopi - serious stuff here. Does it mean his arms on his right side on average are his most dominant ones? Or, is his single most dominant arm on his right? Or, is it the sum total of the dominance measurement of arms on each side? Inquiring minds might want to know about that even more than how they got the soccer ball to stay on the bottom, although that's really important, too.

Inquiring minds (like my wife's) might also want to know if I don't have something better to do than think and write about stuff like this.

It is clearly time for the Pilots to start playing again.

Once we are devoting time to right handedness of an octopus it is a sign that we have become desperate for real action. But we are 6 weeks away from the PSU game so it is scary to think what topics might still appear on here.

fan from afar wrote:

Geezer - I'm trying to wrap my brain around determining the right-handedness of octopi - serious stuff here. Does it mean his arms on his right side on average are his most dominant ones? Or, is his single most dominant arm on his right? Or, is it the sum total of the dominance measurement of arms on each side? Inquiring minds might want to know about that even more than how they got the soccer ball to stay on the bottom, although that's really important, too.

Inquiring minds (like my wife's) might also want to know if I don't have something better to do than think and write about stuff like this.

Tell your wife that if she does a better job of predicting than Paul, we'll watch her dive to the bottom of a pool and choose...


The handedness thing wasn't that complicated. Paul chooses the box on the right of the screen much more often that not.

Well, Paul is 7 for 7.

New we'll see how he does predicting games that don't involve the Germans

Harry Redknapp wrote:It is clearly time for the Pilots to start playing again.

Once we are devoting time to right handedness of an octopus it is a sign that we have become desperate for real action. But we are 6 weeks away from the PSU game so it is scary to think what topics might still appear on here.

You asked for it...

So...you okay with Capello staying?

If you want to turn back to club football, what do you think Roy Hodgson can do at Liverpool? Would he have been better off staying at Fulham?

How far do you expect Spurs to go in the Champions League?

Paul the Oracle ( AKA Pulpo Paul) is 8:8.

The chances of getting that from luck are 1/256.

...thought I'd point that out.