Thursday, June 26, 2014

Groups G & H Completed

Group G:
Germany: 7 +5
United States: 4 0
Portugal: 4 -3
Ghana: 1 -2

My Picks: Germany, United States

USA! USA! USA!  There was a nervous 25 minutes in the second half after the U.S. went down 1-0 and Ghana leveled the score but Ronaldo made up for crushing the U.S.'s hopes on Sunday by scoring the winning goal and sending the U.S. through despite the loss.  The group went almost exactly as I expected, German and U.S. wins on the first match day, draws on the second matchday (I expected Germany to beat Ghana), and a Germany and Portugal win on the last matchday with second place being decided by goal differential between the U.S. and Portugal.  Thanks for being an idiot Pepe.

Group H:
Belgium: 9 +3
Algeria: 4 +1
Russia: 2 -1
South Korea: 1 -3

My Picks: Belgium, Russia

As expected Belgium easily handled this group.  The surprise was how well Algeria did.  The draw today put them through to the Round of 16 for the first time in their history and sent high-priced Fabio Capello and the Russians home.  South Korea finished out a horrible tournament for Asia, eliminating all 4 teams in the group stage with a record of 0-3-9 and a -16 goal differential.

Round of 16 matchups:
Germany - Algeria - Algeria wants revenge for the 1982 West Germany farce but they won't get it.  Germany easily.
Belgium - United States - Too early to call.  ;) I need to see how things go in the next few days.  But I will make a prediction Monday night.

No comments: