Who knew the Germans even had octopuses?
And one of them, who goes by the name of Paul, is adept at predicting World Cup matches. Paul, from Oberhausen, has correctly picked the winner in each of Germany’s World Cup 2010 matches, including Germany’s loss to Serbia.
Paul makes his predictions by selecting food from a container decorated with the flag of the competing countries. He was quick to select the German-flagged food container over the English one last week. Germany thrashed England 4-1 in due course.
But Paul took his sweet time before selecting the Germany food container over the Argentina one, thus suggesting a hard fought German victory on Saturday.
Refs for the quarter finals
Yuichi Nishimura of Japan will cover the Netherlands-Brazil match.
Olegario Benquerenca of Portugal will officiate the Uruguay-Ghana clash.
Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan will referee the Argentina-Germany game.
Carlos Batres of Guatemala will do the Spain-Paraguay contest.
America,…Listen UP!
It’s the world CUP, not the WORLD cup!
It’s GoalKEEPER, not goalTENDER!
Thank you.
Goal production of the superstars so far in World Cup 2010
England superstar Wayne Rooney: 0 goals
Portugal superstar Christiano Ronaldo: 1 goal
Spain superstar Fernando Torres: 0 goals so far
Argentina superstar Lionel Messi: 0 goals so far
Match Previews for Friday
Netherlands vs. Brazil
Five-time World Cup champs Brazil take on the Netherlands in Port Elizabeth on Friday. The Dutch lost to the Brazilians in World Cups ’98 and ’94, although they beat Brazil 2-0 in West Germany in 1974.
Much has been made of pragmatic and un-Brazilian approach to football that coach Carlos Dunga has
engendered in the Brazil team. And indeed, the 2010 Brazil squad is very different from the celebrated teams that featured Pele and Rivelino, or Socrates and Zico.
It would be folly, however, to suggest that the Brazilians have lost their creative spark. Midfield maestro Kaka is certainly capable of delighting a crowd with his football skills, and up front the same could be said for strikers Robinho and Luis Fabiano.
In the back the Brazilians are solid with attacking fullbacks Maicon or possibly Danny Alves on the right, Lucio in central defense and Julio Cesar in goal.
They’ll be playing against the Netherlands without the playmaking skills of Elano, however. The Galatasaray midfielder has an ankle injury, as does fellow midfielder Felipe Melo.
The Dutch have now gone 23 games unbeaten and their match with Brazil on Friday promises to be Brazil’s toughest test in this World Cup so far.
Despite suggestions of disharmony in the Dutch camp, there is no doubting the quality of players they can put on the field. Striker Robin van Persie will keen to get on target, while winger Arjen Robben will be a threat on the right. On the left of the Dutch attack Dirk Kuyt is likely to keep Maicon (or Alves) and Lucio entertained.
In the midfield Mark van Bommel and Wesley Sneijder are capable playmakers for the Dutch.
The Brazilians, however, will have noted evidence of stress cracks in the Dutch defensive wall during their 2-1 win over Slovakia, and they’ll be prepared to exploit perceived weaknesses.
Uruguay vs. Ghana
The second quarter-final match on Friday features two teams whose presence at this stage of the competition was largely unexpected. Uruguay, one of four remaining South American teams, meet Ghana, the only African team left, in Johannesburg.
The Uruguayans have a solid defense led by captain Diego Lugano in the back line. Up front the Uruguay scoring threat comes from Atletico Madrid’s Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez of Ajax.
The South Americans will be facing a young Ghana squad who’ll come into the match with the backing of all Africa.
Defenders John Pantsil of Fulham and John Mensah of Sunderland in the EPL and midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng, who was with Portsmouth last season, provide the Black Stars with experience, although Boateng is struggling with a hamstring strain.
Up front Asamoah Gyan has three of Ghana’s four goals in the tournament, with Boateng having scored the other.
We don’t normally make predictions,…we leave that to the pros like Paul. But this much we know: from this match a dark horse will progress to the semi-finals.
Saturday’s Matches
Argentina and Germany will play each other in Cape Town.
Paraguay and Spain will play each other in Johannesburg.
