Group A:
France-Group Winner Easily
Mexico-Eh, maybe, maybe not, who knows
Uruguay-Wouldn't be surprised if they get handled by South Africa fairly easily
South Africa-Home Team advantage could be huge, watch for them to fight for the #2 spot in this group
Group B:
Argentina-Winnarz of group
Greece-Not enough info on this team
Nigeria-Like most African teams, will play with a lot of heart, start the series out fast, even give the big names a little scare, but don't expect too much
South Korea-They're Asian, that's about all I know of this team
Group C:
Blighty-Will probably advance with the US, but this whole group is weak and anyone could get out
USA-Will win some close games on lucky shots and might make it through
Slovenia-They're European?
Algeria-Will challenge Blighty and the US for a spot to stay alive
Group D:
Germany-Group winnar
Ghana-Along with the Ivory Coast, they are the best examples of what I said about Nigeria, look for them to make a nice story for a time, but don't write them into the next round just yet
Australia-if this were rugby, we could just name them champions, too bad it isn't
Serbia-will challenge Ghana for that #2 spot
Group E:
Netherlands-Along with Denmark, should cruise to the next round
Denmark-Should cruise to the next round, expect some big games later from one of these two teams
Cameroon-not enough info
Japan-look up South Korea
Group F:
Italy-Clear group winner
Paraguay-Decent team, don't have high expectations for them, though
Slovakia-not enough info
New Zealand-my dark horse to sneak into the next round and then get pummeled by a big name team
Group G:
Brazil-Will have a tough fight, but I expect them to move on to the next round
Portugal-Also no promises, but should move on
Ivory Cost-Best African team in my opinion, but they got stuck with two teams that are clearly better and will struggle against them, would move on in some other groups, but in this one, they should be glad to beat up on North Korea
North Korea-Should be glad that they made it this far
Group H:
Spain-Probable group winner
Switzerland-Will put up good games, but I don't expect them to advance
Chile-Will play some memorable games and may even upset a few bigger teams in the next round, but eventually, they will be clearly eliminated by a better team
Honduras-Like the Swiss, will play some good games, but ultimately are not good enough to advance
Well, let's see how I did with my vague predictions:(+=good prediction,-=bad prediction,0=neither good nor bad)
Group A:
-France-On second thought, forget what I said about them winning the group.
+Mexico-Did what I expected and snuck into the next round
0Uruguay-Didn't get beat by SA and also got into the next round
+SA-Did fight for the #2 spot, but just missed it
Group B:
+Argentina-100% on this prediction
0Greece-I knew nothing when they entered and I know nothing as they exit
0Nigeria-Didn't do much, at least they put up a fight
0South Korea-Research would've told me to expect them to advance, they did
Group C:
+England-Right about the weak group, they did advance
+US-100%, even with the making it on lucky shots part(thx Green and Donovan)
0Slovania-not too shabby a team
0Algeria-did kinda challenge, but I'm not gonna lie, I didn't even make the connection that Algeria is in Africa until after the tournament started, so I can't claim anything on this one
Group D:
+Germany-was right
0Ghana-Fought hard like I said, but didn't fail to get into round 2 like I feared
-Australia-got destroyed by Germany, then did okay after that
+Serbia-did challenge for #2 spot but was ultimately unsuccessful
Group E:
+Netherlands-cruised
-Denmark-didn't cruise
-Cameroon-good team which I should've researched more, disappointing cup for them
-Japan-Made it through, I should have expected more of a fight from this team but didn't
Group F:
-Italy-didn't get through, huge surprise to me
0Paraguay-More than just decent, made it to the next round
-Slovakia-snuck through even though I knew nothing of them at the time
-New Zealand-put up a good fight, but was unable to get to their round 2 beating I predicted
Group G:
+Brazil-even NK gave them a fight, I was surprised
+Portugal-not as solid as Brazil, but made it through as expected
-Ivory Coast-fought hard, but without Drogba, were less of a threat than expected
-North Korea-had a great first game v. Brazil, than followed my prediction
Group H:
+Spain-got it right
+Swiss-did put up the good games I expected and barely failed to advance
+Chile-in the next round like I expected and will play a bigger team in Brazil, let's see if they upset them
0Honduras-did okay, but were nothing special in this group
So my score went something like this out of 32 teams:
+ 13
0 9
- 10
Not bad, but nothing special.
My round 2 predictions will be in the next post...