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The PredictTheScore.co.uk World Cup Diary
PTS World Cup - Day 25: Champagne (FC) Supernova!
09-07-06
Two teams, locked in a dead heat and the only way to separate them is some arbitrary contest. And while Italy held their nerve in the penalty shoot-out (our least succesfully predicted game of the whole tournament - no-one thought it would be a draw), Dave Harding's Champagne FC pipped Bambos Christophi's Crouch For President after both of them finished on 188 points, by virtue of have scored one extra point in Game 1.
So Dave takes the top prize of £120, while Bam has to add his £60 to the £100 we've already raised for Whizz-Kidz. Coming third and taking home £30 is Michael Smith who finished two points ahead of Argenturner, Deels Untied, Chris Green and Sean Barry.
Our Predict the Scorer champions are Ian Wheeler's waftycrankers 06. Ian finished level on points with Paul Cable, and they both took 1 point from this evening's final, but Ian got the nod as he took 3 points from the 3rd place play-off, whilst Paul forgot to predict. Finally, we promised a bottle of wine to the top scorer from each continent... For Europe it goes to David Gray's Thanks For Comin for Tranquilo Barnetta and for South America it's Libby Davies' Not Bottom Yet for Roberto Ayala. Other regions were a tie, but we don't have enough wine to give it to everyone so we've used total Game 2 points, plus whether you'd already won a prize elsewhere to pick the winner: for Africa it goes to James Turner's Argenturner for Radhi Jaidi, for Asia it goes to Paul Cable for Tim Cahill and for North America it's Burcin Bayazit's Fenerbahce for Paolo Wanchope. Well done - drop an email to phil@predictthescore.co.uk with your choice of red or white and we'll try to get it to you asap.
So that's it - it's all over. But don't be sad becuase there's not long before the new domestic season and that means Prediction Premiership Season II is almost upon us. There'll be a big announcement going out on July 31st, so look out for that in your inboxes.
| Game 1 - Predict The Score | Game 2 - Predict the Scorer | Overall | ||
| Position | Team Name | Game 1 Total | Game 2 Total | Total Points |
| 1 | Champagne FC | 172 | 16 | 188 |
| 2 | Crouch for President | 171 | 17 | 188 |
| 3 | Michael Smith | 178 | 5 | 183 |
| 4 | Argenturner | 171 | 10 | 181 |
| 5 | Deels Untied | 171 | 10 | 181 |
| 6 | Chris Green | 169 | 12 | 181 |
| 7 | Sean Barry | 169 | 12 | 181 |
| 8 | Hugh Barker | 172 | 8 | 180 |
| 9 | a wenna morgan | 169 | 8 | 177 |
| 10 | waftycrankers 06 | 158 | 19 | 177 |
| 11 | Doulous Hotspur | 160 | 16 | 176 |
| 12 | Farrow United | 170 | 4 | 174 |
| 13 | Doug Rands | 166 | 8 | 174 |
| 14 | John Morgan | 166 | 5 | 171 |
| 15 | Alex Coidan | 164 | 6 | 170 |
| 16 | Max Davidson | 158 | 10 | 168 |
| 17 | Stewart Carlyle | 157 | 11 | 168 |
| 18 | Haddaways Sock Rockers | 161 | 5 | 166 |
| 19 | Galatasawry | 154 | 10 | 164 |
| 20 | Paul Cable | 145 | 19 | 164 |
| 21 | Oli Thomo | 151 | 12 | 163 |
| 22 | Mark II | 157 | 5 | 162 |
| 23 | TopNotch | 154 | 6 | 160 |
| 24 | Owngola | 148 | 12 | 160 |
| 25 | Matt Kay | 147 | 13 | 160 |
| 26 | Andrew Murphy | 147 | 12 | 159 |
| 27 | Paul Ayres | 151 | 6 | 157 |
| 28 | Banterlicious FC | 139 | 18 | 157 |
| 29 | Not Bottom Yet | 148 | 8 | 156 |
| 30 | john daily and sons | 144 | 12 | 156 |
| 31 | Team Rodia | 146 | 9 | 155 |
| 32 | Caroline Taylor | 145 | 10 | 155 |
| 33 | Ernie Walton | 154 | 0 | 154 |
| 34 | Thanks For Comin | 145 | 9 | 154 |
| 35 | nil fc | 150 | 2 | 152 |
| 36 | Warrenaldinho | 145 | 6 | 151 |
| 37 | The Liver Bird | 144 | 7 | 151 |
| 38 | Mikey P | 145 | 4 | 149 |
| 39 | legin utd | 139 | 10 | 149 |
| 40 | Evan Morgan | 135 | 14 | 149 |
| 41 | George Goodman | 145 | 3 | 148 |
| 42 | Mr Wo | 140 | 6 | 146 |
| 43 | Ol North End | 131 | 15 | 146 |
| 44 | Blazin Squad | 135 | 10 | 145 |
| 45 | Football | 141 | 2 | 143 |
| 46 | Monkey Allen | 140 | 3 | 143 |
| 47 | Peter Lemon | 142 | 0 | 142 |
| 48 | DC United | 140 | 2 | 142 |
| 49 | Colin Gray | 141 | 0 | 141 |
| 50 | Just To Prove Its Not Fixed | 132 | 9 | 141 |
| 51 | Tomcaster Rovers | 135 | 3 | 138 |
| 52 | Steins Magic | 129 | 6 | 135 |
| 53 | Andrew Farrow | 129 | 0 | 129 |
| 54 | Paul Junor | 120 | 9 | 129 |
| 55 | Mikey M | 128 | 0 | 128 |
| 56 | Rays Rovers | 127 | 1 | 128 |
| 57 | Fenerbahce | 114 | 14 | 128 |
| 58 | Mevanses Elevenses | 111 | 10 | 121 |
| 59 | Kevin Patel | 112 | 7 | 119 |
| 60 | Sam Pearl | 109 | 7 | 116 |
| 61 | Chris Minter | 102 | 1 | 103 |
| 62 | Kristy Hoad | 83 | 8 | 91 |
| 63 | Richard Paisley | 84 | 6 | 90 |
| 64 | KEV or Bev?? | 78 | 1 | 79 |
| 65 | Steven Mortonson | 53 | 0 | 53 |
| 66 | Ben Marriott | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 67 | Phil Hutton | 0 | 0 | 0 |
PTS World Cup - Day 24: And Now, The End Is Near...
08-07-06
Good news, those cheating Portuguese have gone home empty handed, losing 3-1 in the third place play-off to the hosts, Germany, a victory which included two goals for Bastian Schweinsteiger. It was a widely predicted result, but there was plenty of movement just below the top places in the PTS leaderboard as Hugh Barker fell out of the running with a rash prediction of a draw.
So there's only one game left - what's the state of play? Well, Champagne FC are still in pole postion, but only by 1 point from Crouch For President. They'll probably battle it out for the top prizes, because there's then a five point gap to Michael Smith in third. One point behind him are Argenturner and Sean Barry, with Deels Untied and Chris Green another point back.
In Predict the Scorer, Paul Cable and waftycrankers 06 are still tied for first on 19 points. But neither of them have anyone in tonight's game, so they'll be casting nervous glances in the direction of Crouch For President who is two points behind but has Thierry Henry in his ranks. Get ready for an evening of top notch action!
PTS World Cup - Day 23: Vive La France!
05-07-06
Someone once tried to persuade me that if your team got knocked out of a tournament then you should want that team to go on and win the whole thing, because that way at least you lost to the best team, which potentially makes you second best. But I say bollocks to that, and wish to declare my admiration for Zinedine 'Zizou' Zindane, whose penalty tonight won the game for France.
Of course, the French win was the 'obvious' result so lots of people picked up similar points. Becuase of that, there was little movement and, specifically, the top 10 places are unchanged from yesterday. Still no change either to the Predict the Scorer standings... but we have now realised that there is every chance that this competition will be a tie. We can't split the prize (framed signed photos of Shearer and Owen) so, in the event of a tie, we will use the score prediction for the final as a tie-break. If a tie still exists, we'll use the 3rd Place Play-Off and if we still can't split you we'll keep going backwards until we can. So make sure you check your last few predictions if you're in the running - they need to be good!
So we've all got a few days off, until the 3rd Place Play-Off between Germany and Portugal on Saturday. There is still plenty to play for, even if it's only pride, so get your predictions in soon...
PTS World Cup - Day 22: The Italian Job!
04-07-06
Until this evening, it hadn't been the greatest day for Italian football, with some of the biggest names in the game under the cloud of a match fixing scandal. So what they really needed was a win and, although it looked for a while like the host nation would successfully hold them off and take the game to penalties (and an effective 0-0 from our point of view) Marcelo Lippi's men stole in, blew the bloody doors off and escaped in the middle of a traffic jam... OK, I think that analogy fell apart a bit at the end. The late, late goals came from Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero and booked Italy's place in the final for the first time since 1994.
And the excitement doesn't end there. A grand total of six managers correctly predicted a win, and all six of them climbed up the table as a result. Highest climber was Sandra Dichiara's Team Rodia who jumped a massive 12 places, but most significant risers were Hugh Barker (up 4 to 4th, just a point behind Sean Barry) and Bambos Christophi's Crouch For President (up 3 to 2nd, which raises the prospect of an extra £60 going to Whizz-Kidz). In fact, Bam is now only 1 point behind Dave Harding's Champagne FC and there are only 5 points between Dave and James Turner's Argenturner in 5th. There are only 3 games left but seriously, it could all still change.
Tomorrow it's Portugal vs France... let me guess who most of you are backing... Nontheless, it could be significant as joint Golden Boot leader Paul Cable has Cristiano Ronaldo as one of his scorers.
PTS World Cup - Day 21: Down To 10 Lions...
01-07-06
(With apologies to David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds)
First we saw David Beckham fall,
And then the worst of a-a-all -
Rooney crushed Carvalho's balls...
And then it was all hands to the pumps,
In our throats there were lumps,
And the boys came up trumps!
...But then came penalties...
I can't bring myself to talk about it, so I won't. 5 people predicted the draw - well done to them. Then France beat Brazil 1-0 (goal from Thierry Henry meaning a grand total of 1 goalscorer points dished out for the day), which 10 people had down including 2 perfect predictions. One of them, James Hardwick's The Liver Bird, skipped up 9 places as a result so he might have taken some comfort from an otherwise miserable day.
So it's Germany vs Italy and P******l vs France - the first game's on Tuesday so get your predictions in. And when you've done that, you can now predict the 3rd Place Play-Off and the Final as well. There's only a few games left for you to make your mark...
PTS World Cup - Day 20: A Little Argy Bargy...
30-06-06
In the build up to the first quarter final much of the talk was of how difficult Germany vs Argentina was to call. And in the end all 5 of you who sat on the fence and went for the draw turned out to be right, as the score finished 1-1 and it was left to penalties to sort out who was going through. Unlike England, neither side had ever experienced the agony of losing a penalty shoot-out and it seemed to hit the Argentinians a bit hard as they reacted to their defeat with a severe case of handbags at fifty paces. Germany will play Italy in the semis who cruised past Ukraine, who seem to have forgotten how to score. Looks like Chelsea picked up a bargain in Shevchenko then.
So what does that mean to us? Not a lot when it comes to the prize positions... No-one at the top had the draw, and everyone at the top had an Italy win, so places 1-4 are unchanged, and Crouch for President and Deels Untied swapped places in 5th and 6th. No real change in Predict the Scorer, either, but a quick mention for Libby Davies' Not Bottom Yet who picked up 5 points with Roberto Ayala's goal for Argentina and moved up 7 places as a result. 2 more places from the second game and she's now in 36th - nowhere near bottom yet.
You all know what's coming next. So settle down with your mum, your dad and your gran and a bucket of vindaloo... Come on England!
PTS World Cup News Update...
28-06-06
No football today but that doesn't mean we won't keep you up to date with the latest developments... So we are proud to unveil the winner of the "Who can recruit the most people to play the PTS World Cup" competition.
The actual competition was won by Lin Wright, whose nil fc are currently 37th in the PTS table. But Lin, quite rightly, wants to support the future of the England team and so donated her prize (originally an England shirt but upgraded to a whole kit when we realised that smaller ones were cheaper) to her son, and future first choice England 'keeper (for the 2022 campaign) Jack. That's him displaying his skills on the left.
Finally, in "Build up to the England game" news, Jack's predecessor Paul Robinson is still confident England can win the World Cup. Check it out. See you Friday!
PTS World Cup - Day 19: A Legend Lives On...
27-06-06
Tonight could have been his last game before retirement (again) so it was fitting that France's 3-1 victory over Spain tonight was sealed by a goal from Zinedine Zidane, just when all the neutrals were hoping for Spain to equalise so that the game could carry on for another half an hour. It goes to show that true class never dies, it just slows up a bit and chooses which games to show up to... France will face Brazil in the quarter finals after they dominated an Essien-less Ghana and ran out 3-0 winners. All in all a far more satisfying day than yesterday.
Once again most of the movement in our table came lower down, and at the top Champagne FC still lead from Michael Smith, Argenturner, Sean Barry and latecomers "Crouch for Predident" (it's Bambos - don't worry, if he wins he has to give the money to charity). No major Predict The Scorer action tonight but we should give a shout out to Caroline Taylor who managed to jump 10 places by taking 10 points out of 10 from today's games.
No football for two days now - what are we going to do with ourselves? But it's OK - it all starts again on Friday when we hit the quarter finals. Germany vs Argentina sounds like a good excuse to leave work early, and then Italy vs Ukraine is bound to be a classic given the build up I gave it yesterday (see below). Get your predictions in nice and early so you don't forget. And, if you're keen (and confident), why not predict for the semis as well?
PTS World Cup - Day 18: Goals, What Goals?
26-06-06
210 minutes of football today and the only goal scored during normal time was by Francesco Totti... and even that was an injury time penalty. It was grim viewing for much of the time, especially during Switzerland and Ukraine's long, drawn out stalemate that required the tournament's first penalty shoot-out to separate them. And even then Switzerland couldn't manage to get the ball into the net. Anyway, you can all feel free to make plans for Friday night because that's when today's winners will face off in what could be the least anticipated World Cup quarter final of all time.
So, as you might have guessed, minimal impact on our leaderboard. There was some movement, particularly mid-table, but the overnight leaders are unchanged. The Golden Boot competition is now neck and neck between Paul Cable and waftycrankers 06 as the 'crankers picked up an extra point when Jared Borgetti's own goal was awarded to Hernan Crespo. Other than that it was something of a forgettable day.
Round 2 concludes tomorrow with Brazil vs Ghana and Spain vs France, both of which have to be better than today's offerings. Once the quarter final line-up is complete we'll open prediction for the semis as well, so you can get ahead if you're busy next week...
PTS World Cup - Day 17: Valentin's Day!
25-06-06
England are through! It might have only been 1-0 but it was a more assured performance, for the most part, which sets up yet another Little Sven/Big Phil face off in the quarter finals, just like in 2002 and 2004. Portugal's 1-0 win over Holland was overshadowed somewhat by the card count, as referee Valentin Ivanov got a bit trigger happy and dished out a grand total of 16 including 4 sendings off. That means that Portugal will be without Deco and Costinha, umpteen of the side are on a yellow and it looks like Ronaldo might be injured. Omens?
But this isn't PredictTheYellowCards.co.uk, so what of the score predictions? Well, you managed to reach a broad consensus on the England result so that had little effect, but everyone was split on who would come out on top in the other game. Portugal's win was enough to lift Dave Harding's Champagne FC to the top, a point ahead of deposed leader Michael Smith. Leaping into 6th place are Emma Nelson's Deels Untied after she took 9 points from the day and 13 from the weekend - she would be challenging for first if only she'd remembered to predict the Germany game...
Next up, Italy vs Australia and Switzerland vs Ukraine. See you tomorrow, then...
PTS World Cup - Day 16: Maxi-mum High!
24-06-06
Now the real business of the World Cup has begun. First Germany demolish Sweden before most people have got properly comfortable in the their seats, then Argentina are thwarted by the Mexicans until an extra time super goal from Maxi Rodriguez. I did something similar myself, once, but that was as Ronaldo whilst playing Pro Evolution Soccer on my Playstation...
So we've got the mouth watering prospect of Germany vs Argentina in the quarters. But how does the PTS table look? Well, not that much different, if we're honest. There were some small shufflings of the pack, but on balance the favourites won so most people took more than 5 points from the day. However we have a new Golden Boot leader - step forward Mr Paul Cable! It was the six points he earned from Rafael Marquez' first half goal that enabled him to leapfrog the waftycrankers and Banterlicious FC. Mind you there won't be any more coming from that route now that Mexico are out, so can you catch him?
There isn't a lot more to say, except grab a beer, cross your fingers and toes, take a deep breath and after 3... 1... 2... 3... Come on England!
PTS World Cup - Day 15: Ready For Round 2?
23-06-06
Now, I seem to remember saying yesterday that everything could change... But then Span beat Saudi Arabia, Ukraine beat Tunisia, France beat Togo (thanks, in part, to former Arsenal has-been Patrick Vieira... and pretty much everybody got the same number of points. Only Switzerland's victory over South Korea could be described as unpredictable, but 20 people got that right, so it's a bit of a stretch.
As a result, Michael Smith is still top, now followed by Sean Barry with Champagne FC in third, then Argenturner and Stewart Carlyle. But 10 points cover places 1 through 13 so it's nowhere near over yet. Philippe Senderos' goal (worth 8 points) could have thrown someone into a commanding lead, but it didn't becuase nobody picked him.
We're back down to two games a day from tomorrow, but what games?! Germany take on Sweden and Argentina tackle Mexico - and it's knock out time so you're predicting the score at the end of extra time (if applicable). It's fast and furious for the next four days, so you know what you have to do? Keep it PredictTheScore.co.uk!
PTS World Cup - Day 14: Ronaldo - Not So Fat And Useless After All...
22-06-06
He's big, he's round but he scored two goals today - Ronaldo silenced at least some of his critics as he helped Brazil on their way to a comfortable 4-1 victory over Japan which 61 people saw coming and 3 even predicted perfectly. Less expected were Ghana's victory over the USA and Australia's chaotic draw with Croatia that saw both of them into the second round for the first time ever. And Italy won too, but that kind of got lost in all the drama.
Michael Smith is back at the top, closely followed by Champagne FC who has moved into third place in the Golden Boot competition behind waftycrankers 06 and Banterlicious FC. Also a big congratulations to Team Rodia who only a few days ago picked up some flak for a particularly poor prediction, but tonight turned that around by not only taking 9 points from last two games, but also picking Craig Moore as a goalscorer. His penalty was worth an extra 8 - all of that adds up to a massive leap of 22 places!
...of course, everything could look very different after the last day of the group stages with four more games. Will France fall at the first hurdle for the second World Cup in a row? Or will they have the beating of Togo? What about Spain and Saudi Arabia? Or Ukraine and Tunisia or Switzerland and South Korea? Don't ask me, I'm rubbish at this game...
PTS World Cup - Day 13: Everybody Loves Portugal!
21-06-06
Despite resting half his team because they were on yellow cards, and then declaring that he wouldn't bring them on "even if it got to 30-0", Luiz Felipe "Big Phil" Scolari, the England manager who never was, engineered a 2-1 victory for Portugal against Mexico - much to the delight of 25 PTS World Cup managers who had predicted exactly that score. That's a new record, beating the 24 perfect predictions on Portugal's previous game against Iran. They'll play Holland in the next round, who drew 0-0 with Argentina which, in contrast, no-one predicted.
We have, yet again, a new leader - Sean Barry who, along with yesterday's table topper Michael Smith, has opened up a small 4 point gap from former Prediction Premiership Manager of the Month Champagne FC in third. With the table changing shape with every game at the moment, however, there's no guarantee it'll stay that way. It could have changed even more if anyone had picked the scorer of Iran's equaliser vs Angola, Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh. He was worth 10.
4 more games on Day 14 - with Czech Republic vs Italy, Ghana vs USA, Japan vs Brazil and Croatia vs Australia. Who knows what that will mean by tomorrow? There's only one place to find out...
PTS World Cup - Day 12: There Are No Meaningless Games In The PTS World Cup...
20-06-06
So Ecuador it is, then. England managed an iffy draw which yet again failed to convince, despite Joe Cole's wonder-goal, but still topped Group B which means a second round tie against Ecuador who, unsurprisingly, lost to hosts Germany after resting five players including both of their strikers. Fingers crossed for Sunday then, and get well soon Michael Owen...
But attention in the PredictTheScore.co.uk World Cup was elsewhere, namely with the "dead rubbers" of Costa Rice vs Poland (2-1 to the Poles) and Paraguay vs T&T (2-0 to the South Americans). None of those teams will play any further part in the tournament, but their final act was to help Michael Smith to the top of the leaderboard as he got both of those scorelines perfectly correct. He's level on points with Stewart Carlyle and just a point ahead of Hugh Barker so it remains to be seen how long it will last...
...it might just depend on how he does with Iran vs Angola and Ivory Coast vs Serbia & Montenegro (interesting how many newspapers have started calling Trinidad & Tobago "T&T" but I've not yet seen Serbia & Monetnegro referred to as "S&M"). Also playing are Portugal and Mexico and Holland and Argentina. Should be a cracker...
PTS World Cup - Day 11: The 'crankers Are Left Barker-ing Up The Wrong Tree!
19-06-06
It was a bad day for the PTS World Cup leaders waftycrankers 06 as they took just 6 points from Day 11 and were toppled as Stewart Carlyle's strategy of only predicting 1-0 results made him the first manager to pass 100 points when Switzerland beat Togo. Then, as Ukraine stuck 4 past Saudi Arabia, he was leapfrogged by Hugh Barker which (despite what the 'crankers might think) is a good thing becuase (i) it shakes things up and demonstrates that there's still all to play for and (ii) Hugh is our boss and it's pay review time.
It was a fairly average day predictability-wise... everyone's now tryng to spot that upset to get the extra points they need to propel themselves up the table. However, you have to pick your game as George Goodman and Tomcaster Rovers both found out as their Saudi Arabia 2 Ukraine 0 proved way off the mark and earned them a place on our Worst Prediction list. No major Predict The Scorer action today, despite plenty of goals including 2 for Fernando Torres.
Day 12 brings 4 games as the loose ends from Groups A and B are all wrapped up, including an opportunity from Sven's men to finally put in a half decent performance against, well, Sven's other men. By the end of the day we'll have two of the Second Round ties confirmed as well, so if you've already predicted ahead you might want to double-check what you put and make sure it still makes sense...
PTS World Cup - Days 8, 9 & 10: The Lost Weekend...
18-06-06
No new diary entries, erratic score updates and one game that was still open for prediction even after the final whistle had blown - anyone might think that we'd forgotten all about you this weekend. But we haven't, normal service is now resumed, so welcome back! Let's have a look at what's been going on...
Friday (Day 8) - Argentina tonked Serbia & Montenegro, Holland got past Ivory Coast and also booked their place in the next round, and Mexico and Angola played out a 0-0. Maxi Rodriguez's two goals were worth 3 each, but it doesn't look like anyone picked him so it can't have changed the table much. So far, so predictable.
Saturday (Day 9) - Portugal started off with an obvious 2-0 win against Iran - obvious because a record breaking 24 people got the scoreline bang on (out of 62 correct result predictions) - don't worry, we've checked and it wasn't due to our small "admin error" around the kick off time. Then, from the sublime to the ridiculous, Czech Republic lost to Ghana, which only 3 people thought possible. One of those wasn't Hugh Barker, who joins our list of Worst Predictions with the Czechs to win 4-0. Italy's evening draw with the USA was, perhaps surprisingly, predicted by 8 of you, and perfectly by as many as 5. Not sure any of you would have predicted just 19 people left on the pitch at the end of the game, mind you.
Sunday (Day 10) - Japan and Croatia finished 0-0, which no-one got although plenty were banking on the draw, then Brazil won 2-0 against the Socceroos which was, in contrast, perfectly predicted by 21 people. Thierry Henry rounded off the day by scoring France's first World Cup goal since 1998 against South Korea, before Park Ji-Sung pulled one back to hand 5 Scorer points to a number of people and to end the game as a draw, 1-1 just like Italy vs USA. And just like that game 8 people picked a draw and 5 people got the score just right. Curioser and curioser...
So how does that leave us? Well, pretty much as we started out with waftycrankers 06 and Stewart Carlyle still battling it out for top spot, now with Hugh Barker and Max Davidson hot on their heels. Tomorrow we round off the second wave of first round games with Togo vs Switzerland, Saudi Arabia vs Ukraine and Spain vs Tunisia. I wonder what you'll make of that lot? Only one place to find out - PredictTheScore.co.uk.
PTS World Cup - Day 7: England Handle T'n'T But It Turns Out To Be A Bit Of A Damp Squib...
15-06-06
Only a quick update today - I've got a train to catch. Well, we did it, we're through, but it wasn't easy viewing. But no matter, Rooney's back and things, surely, can only get better. That goal from Gerrard was something special, as well.
Nothing dramatic to report on the PTS Leaderboard - the waftycrankers are back in the lead and still have the edge in the Golden Boot competition (although look out for Banterlicious FC, just 2 Game 2 points behind). Meanwhile, the England win was correctly forecast by 64 people, a new record, although only 15 of those were perfect so it doesn't quite beat the Italy game for predictability, but then we were all hoping for a lot more goals...
No more diary updates now until Sunday, so enjoy the weekend and good luck with your predictions.
PTS World Cup - Day 6: Radhi On Time!
14-06-06
Day 6 of the 2006 World Cup was the day of late goals. First of all, Radhi Jaidi's late equaliser for Tunisia saved his nation's blushes against the minnows of Saudi Arabia. and also propelled the likes of Argenturner and Doug Rands up the PTS leaderboard thanks to the 8 (count 'em!) Predict The Scorer points he was worth. Then Oliver Neuville's even later winner for Germany not only ensured the hosts' place in the next round, but captured top spot for "Stewpendous" Stewart Carlyle, who now leads on Game 1 points from waftycrankers 06. phew!
It was also a day of averagely (if that's a word) predicted results - Spain vs Ukraine (38 correct, no-one foresaw 4-0), Tunisia vs Saudi Arabia (23 correct, 5 perfect at 2-2) and Germany vs Poland (47 correct, 7 perfect at 1-0) were all safely in the middle of the rankings. However we did get a new joint-Worst-Prediction: Caroline Taylor thought Spain 0 Ukraine 2... given the thrashing that Spain dished out she couldn't have been a lot further off.
Tomorrow it's Ecuador vs Costa Rica, Eng-er-land vs Trinidad & Tobago and Sweden vs Paraguay. Tesco Marketing are having a bit of a party so you may not see a diary update until Friday morning. There also won't be any diary entries for Days 8 or 9 becuase I'm off on a stag do and Bam's moving house (so there) but the scores will still get updated as usual so keep coming back to see how you're getting on. And we'll see you on Sunday for a bumper round up of the weekend. Keep it PredictTheScore.co.uk!
PTS World Cup - Day 5: The World Cup Goes A Bit Kaka...
13-06-06
Suddenly it's all got a bit sticky - first France are held to a draw by the plucky Swiss, then not-quite-as-convincing-as-they-should-be-despite-all-the-fancy-stuff Brazil only get past a resolute Croatia thanks to a goal (albeit quite a special one) from Kaka - 2 Predict The Scorer points, thank you very much) and now find themselves second to Australia in Group F. Even Togo had a good go at scaring South Korea, taking the lead before the Koreans eventually turned it around to win 2-1.
So what of the PTS World Cup? For the first time we've had the same overnight leader for two days in a row - waftycrankers 06 - who maintain a 1 point lead over Stewart Carlyle in second. But the gap between first and fourteenth is only two Tim Cahill goals, so it's not exactly a runaway lead. Yet again 63 people correctly predicted a result (that's four of those now) - this time Brazil to win. However only 2 people correctly predicted 1-0 - Stewart Carlyle (who got the first perfect last Saturday) and Steve Mortonson (who you may have noticed has proved quite good at this predicting lark in the past). Interesting.
Finally, one record fell today, that of Worst Prediction so far, which is, ahem, proudly claimed by... Team Rodia! France 4 Switzerland 2? ooops. Tomorrow is Spain vs Ukraine, Tunisia vs Saudi Arabia and Germany vs Poland. Let's see what you make of that lot...
PTS World Cup - Day 4: Cash In On Cahill!
12-06-06
Day 4 of the PTS World Cup was all about Predict the Scorer. First of all we had our single biggest points gain, as Carl Cheevers' Owngola picked up a massive 7 points as Shunsuke Nakamura scored Japan's early goal. However that was soon eclipsed as Tim Cahill - warned you about him yesterday) came off the bench for Australia to score not once, but twice, and gifted 10 points (5 per goal) to the 20 managers who'd picked him catapulting all of them up the table - including waftycrankers 06, back at the top of the tree.
Meanwhile we had some dodgy predictions with Paul Ayres' Australia 1 Japan 4 and both Dynamo Kiev-on's and Caroline Taylor's USA 3 Czech Republic 1 joining the list - neither were worse than the previous worst efforts, but neither were they any better. At the other end of the scale, Italy's win over Ghana gained at least 3 points for 63 people - on a par with Germany vs Costa Rica and Angola vs Portugal in the predictability stakes. What's more, 20 people picked up all 5 for getting the 2-0 scoreline exactly right, which is more than we've had in any previous game - it'll take some beating as the Most Predictable Result of the tournament. So if you didn't get it you should be feeling a bit stupid right now...
Tomorrow sees the big guns rolling out, and I'm not talking about Togo or Switzerland... both France and Brazil get their campaigns started on Day 5 which us all a chance to drool over the talents of Henry and Ronaldinho, and gives the 15 of you who picked the buck-toothed Brazilian a chance to pick up a point if he scores. It promises to be something special.
PTS World Cup - Day 3: The World Cup Hits TopNotch!
11-06-06
Or rather, TopNotch hits the World Cup, as we have a new leader on the PTS leaderboard. Paula Rands' TopNotch took over where Ian Wheeler's waftycrankers 06 left off thanks to a set of predictions that were, erm, top notch - 4 points from all three games. Paula and Ian are hotly pursued by Jack Marland's Football and Adrian Hado's Haddaways Sock Rockers but, omniously, Prediction Premiership champion Steve Mortonson is now up to seventh.
In the FIFA tournament the day was characterised by obvious victories, but not by the margins you might have expected. Holland and Portugal both beat Serbia & Montenegro and Angola respectively, but both scorelines were only 1-0. Mexico put a more positive spin on their victory against Iran, but the 3-1 scoreline may be a flattering one as they laboured at 1-1 for quite some time. In that game we also found a new top pick for Predict The Scoerer, as Yahya Golmohammadi netted for Iran (10 points!), but sadly no-one had taken a risk on him so his impact on our league table was minimal.
Day 4 might not look the most appealing on paper - Australia vs Japan, USA vs Czech Republic and Italy vs Ghana all await, although there will be some interest if Everton midfielder Tim Cahill scores, which will net 5 points for 20 different people. Despite a knee injury which kept him out at the end of the Premiership season, Cahill reckons he's fit and raring to go. So make sure you check back in tomorrow... PredictTheScore.co.uk - you know where it's at!
PTS World Cup - Day 2: (wafty)Crank-ing It Up...
10-06-06
Day 2 gave us our first clear leader in the PredictTheScore.co.uk World Cup - waftycrankers 06! The 'Crankers had a good day, with 4 pointers for the England and Argentina games, plus a point from the other game and a goal from Hernan Crespo. As for the football, it took a little while to get off the ground. England were great, then they were dodgy - it comes to something when my abiding memory of a game is how greasy the ref's hair was... Sweden failed to wallop Trinidad & Tobago... and it was only once Argentina faced up to Ivory Coast that things really kicked off. Lots and lots of people got off the mark in Predict The Scorer as Drogba got Ivory Coast's consolation goal (16 had picked him as their African goalscorer), but it could have been so many more if John Terry, Kolo Toure, Dwight Yorke or Juan Roman Riquelme - all of whom have proved popular - had found the net today. There's still time though...
We had our first perfect prediction (something no-one managed on Day 1) as, although 61 people were confident that England could overcome Paraguay (even if only via an own goal), only Stewart Carlyle thought it would be 1-0. Stewart continued to stand out from the crowd as no-one spotted Trinidad & Tobago 0 Sweden 0 either, but 16 people (included both Phil and Bam) got the Argentina scoreline right, so that quickly took its place as most correctly forecast game so far. We have a new Worst Prediction too, thanks to Geroge Goodman's forecast of Trinidad & Tobago 1 Sweden 4. I really, really hope that you didn't make time to watch it, George... Day 3 is right around the corner, featuring Serbia & Montenegro, Holland, Mexico, Iran, Angola and Portugal. Should be a cracker - see you then!
PTS World Cup - Day 1: The Germans have no Ballacks...
09-06-06
The first day of the FIFA World Cup 2006 kicked off in style, without Michael Ballack but with plenty of spectacular goals, dodgy defending and a surprise(?) victory for Ecuador. As for the PredictTheScore.co.uk World Cup, well, most of the table is still sorted alphabetically as most people thought Germany would win and hardly anyone thought that Ecuador would. As it stands, there are three teams leading the pack: Prediction Premiership stalwart Fenerbahce, and PTS newcomers TopNotch and waftycrankers 06, all of whom benefitted from two goals from Paolo 'One-Shot' Wanchope.
Hot on their heels are another trio: Football (Football's always the winner...), George Goodman (who must be getting dizzy this far up the table) and Haddaways Sock Rockers, who were the only predictors to correctly forecast the result of both games. Also worth a mention, despite some shocking predictions resulting in 0 Game 1 points, are Banterlicious FC, who were the only team outside the top 3 to pick up Predict The Scorer points, thanks to a brace from Miroslav Klose.
Day 2 brings England's first game of the championships, against Paraguay, plus Trinidad & Tobago vs Sweden and what could be a corker as Argentina take on Ivory Coast. Just a quick note on prizes... we all know that the eventual winner of the PTS World Cup will pocket £120, with the runner-up taking £60 and the third place team £30, but we can also now proudly announce that whoever wins the Golden Boot by scoring the most Predict The Scorer points will become the proud owner of framed signed photos of Alan Shearer and Michael Owen. In addition, there will be a bottle of wine for the top points scorer in each region (Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Asia) and if we lay our hands on any more prizes along the way we'll give them away as we see fit. So keep in touch at the only website that matters - PredictTheScore.co.uk. Before we go, however, a quick congratulations to Lin Wright who will soon be in possession of an England shirt for getting the most people to join PredictTheScore.co.uk (and pay up). So well done Lin - we'll sort things out with you in the office on Monday. See you all tomorrow!
