My 2010 SWC Predictions

As published in my column, 'The Blog Roll' in the July 2010 edition of Sport Elizabeth.

According to the FIFA website, it is officially 1 day, 4 hours and 37 minutes until the FIFA 2010 World Cup in SOUTH AFRICA. I must admit that, until very recently, I wasn’t ‘feeling it’ and much like waiting for the effects of headache tablets (or shots of tequila) to kick in, I was waiting for this feeling of euphoria that everyone was talking about. Well, I think it is finally here! The reality of the whole thing has hit home: At 4pm on Friday 11 June 2010 at Soccer City in Johannesburg, a whistle will sound that will set in motion the biggest and by far the most anticipated sporting event our continent has ever hosted – the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In fact, in terms of television audience, it is considered bigger than the Olympic Games.

Oh wait, you’re sitting there reading this and we’re halfway through the World Cup and you’re probably thinking, “What the hell is Rory on about?” Sorry – I should have explained from the outset. We recently had illusionist (or, in the nicest possible sense, freak) Larry Soffer performing in Port Elizabeth and visiting our studios at Algoa FM. His trick where he ‘predicted’ the headlines a few days before the newspapers came out, really intrigued me as I tried to understand how he had managed to do it. Well, he did. Or he made us all believe that he did. Either way, it is pretty impressive. And, I am going to do the same thing with the 2010 World Cup. I’ll probably fail miserably, but then at least I’ll know that the whole ‘pigeon out of a hat’ thing is not for me and I’ll be able to mark that one off as ‘tried and failed’. Miserably.

When I explained to Algoa FM Sports Editor, and Sport Elizabeth reporter/columnist/skivvy, Neil Bisseker what I had ‘up my sleeve’ (if you know me well enough, you’ll know that that little ‘trick’ was definitely intended), he said it was a great idea. To cut an already long story short, I am going to predict the results of firstly, all first round matches, and then just selected matches after that. And, in doing so, I’ll then obviously predict the match-ups that will follow, and so on. And, even though Neil told me to wait until the friendly matches were complete, so I would have a better idea of what’s what, I am not going to mention any previous results and/or rankings in my explanation of my predicted results. I’m going off on far too many tangents here – let’s just get started. Here goes:

11 June 2010
SA 2 – 1 Mexico. My magic ball tells me that Katlego Mphela will score the first goal of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Uruguay 0 – 2 France

12 June 2010
Korea Republic 0 – 2 Greece
Argentina 1 – 1 Nigeria
England 2 – 1 United States

13 June 2010
Algeria 0 – 0 Slovenia
Serbia 0 – 2 Ghana
Germany 3 – 0 Australia

14 June 2010
Netherlands 2 – 1 Denmark
Japan 1 – 3 Cameroon
Italy 2 – 0 Paraguay

15 June 2010

New Zealand 0 – 0 Slovakia
Ivory Coast 1 – 2 Portugal
Brazil 4 – 0 Korea DPR
Honduras 0 – 1 Chile
Spain 2 – 0 Switzerland

Round Two:
South Africa 1 – 0 Uruguay
France 2 – 2 Mexico

Round Three:
Mexico 3 – 1 Uruguay
France 1 – 1 South Africa

Right, at this point, France will top Group A by virtue of a better goal difference, leaving Bafana Bafana in second spot, but with a ticket to the next round. Bafana will meet the top of Group B (Argentina) at Soccer City on 27 June in the round of 16. Bafana Bafana will go down 2 – 0 to the South Americans. It will be their first loss in 16 matches.

Looking at the rest of the tournament now, I predict that the biggest let down will be defending champions Italy, who will be knocked out by Cameroon in the round of 16. The big surprise will be the United States who will eventually be sent packing by Argentina in the quarter finals; this after beating Germany in the round of 16.

The semi finals will see Brazil beat a very defiant England 1 – 0 on 6 July, and on 7 July, Spain defeating a heartbroken Argentina 2 – 0. Whether or not Argentina coach Diego Maradona will survive the match, screaming and shouting from the sidelines, I cannot say.

The FIFA 2010 World Cup Final will be an extremely hard fought match between Brazil and Spain. Damnit – there goes my magic ball. It’s gone blank. I do not believe it! Not now, please! It does this now and then. I’m on my own here, but I’ll say that the Brazilians will take it 2 – 1. Or wait, maybe it will be Spain. Um, just give me a minute. No, final answer: Brazil to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup by beating Spain by 2 goals to 1 in the final.

I hadn’t initially planned to predict all the way through until the final, but it became quite addictive so I just continued. And I do think I might just have that gift. Just a few days ago, I predicted that Rafael Nadal would claim his fifth French Open title, and he did. Ok, I did make my prediction halfway through his 3rd set against Robin Soderling in the final, with Nadal having broken the Swede’s serve. But still, anything could have happened. I’ll claim it.

It is exactly 20.36 on Wednesday 9 June 2010. This document will now be saved onto a compact disc and given to Sport Elizabeth editor Daron Mann tomorrow to keep safe. He will be instructed to wait until my deadline on 21 June, before he opens the file. The next time I’ll see these words will be the same time you do: In the July edition of Sport Elizabeth.