June 2006 Archives

Well, well, well. The next round of El Mundial is upon us. Due to the comparatively scarce number of games and the comparatively large amount of time I've had to think and write about them I've actually managed to scrape together an NFL Playoffs style breakdown of the matches.

I know, it's scary.

Anyway, here are my predictions for the rest of the tourney, followed below by a match by match breakdown of the quarterfinals.

CHECKIT

Quarters
Germany v. Argentina- Argentina
Italy v. Ukraine- Italy
England v. Portugal- England
Brazil v. France- Brazil

Semis
Argentina v. Italy- Argentina
England v. Brazil- England

Finals
Argentina v. England- England

So, remember that NCAA Tourney Pool I run every year?

The one I didn't really do updates on like I normally do?

Well, better late than never, right?

This year's big winner is...Alphasarah.

Had I done this when it was, yknow, supposed to be done I'd have all sorts of wittiness about OSU and stuff. But I don't.

But I do have a nifty table.

SEE!

Damn.

So I've been trying to sell 'Turo on Craigslist for almost a week now. By now, I've gotten amazingly good at doing the Craigslist Seller's Dance. How to post, how to field phone calls and emails, how to host potential buyers. Unfortunately, I'm not yet good at taking the shit people talk about my friend in some way other than personal.

Whenever someone looks at 'Turo's cosmetic faults, finds a fictitious knocking when they test drive him or looks at him in an unkind way I rankle. I want to shout "HOW DARE YOU! DON'T YOU KNOW HE'S MY FRIEND AND IT'S KILLING ME TO SELL HIM!"

But doing that would guarantee that he's going to be sold for scrap. So I bite my tongue and take their insults, while preparing myself to take a pittance for the title to my good friend.

The part that kills me is that I'm starting to agree with these idiots. I'm starting to realize just how much of 'Turo is sentimental value, just how much of his value is tied up in the circumstances surrounding his life with me.

I'm starting to see how much I abused him. I thought he was indestructible, so I treated him as such. I thought I'd drive him until he could go no longer, so I treated him as such. And now, at the end all I can think about is the thirty pieces of silver at the end of the rainbow.

I can only hope the nursery magic Fairy is kind to him in the end.

Well, Los Octavos de Finales are over and I only had one wrong pick. Granted, that one wrong pick was La Furia Española, who were absolutely pants to borrow from the English. The first half was brilliant, the PK deserved- then they coasted while France gave a clinic on counterattacking and the like.

Oh well, at least I'm winning the pool! Detailed tables below, taking into account the first two rounds of play. Picks for are due for the next round by Friday @ 10a CST. Oh, and Sarah, drop me an IM or something, I think you're due more points but I'm not sure.

And now for your updated tables

Right, but how do I get these magical numbers?
By looking at the number of correct picks made and awarding the appropriate number of points.

How does this look for each player?
Funny you should ask...
First number is correct picks, second number is points awarded for that round.
Make sense?

Hey, yo...

Here we go, the rankings after the end of group play in this year's Mundial Pool.

Here's how the scoring works. At this point, you get 12 points for correctly guessing/knowing each team that pass on into the Round of 16 (also known as the Octavos de Finales). For all of the selections made before tournament started you will recieve credit for a team making it to that round, regardless of your ability to predict who it was they were suppsed to beat to get there.

So, for example. Let's say you picked Brazil over the US in the final before the tournament started (was that even a possibility...no, OK, who cares) and Brazil wins. You will receive credit for picking the correct eventual champion, even though you didn't pick the correct second place team.

Make sense?

OK, here be the rankings. If you're not listed here and you should be, let me know, yo.

OK, two quick hits from the news world. What can I say, it's a banner day for headlines that make you go "duh."

The first Richardson Splits from Backstreet Boys.

This thing was on the main headline list on cnn.com. I mean, wow. Is there no other news out there? I mean, I'm sure there are pictures of Nicole Kidman's honeymoon or details of Aaron Spelling's funeral they could run.

Besides...There's still a Backstreet Boys to split from? Seriously? Did I miss a memo about this? I think I did.

In the less than "duh," but still "duh" file...FIFA boss says referee deserves own yellow card. Man, you think? Did anyone else see that Portugal/Netherlands game? That ref lost control EARLY. I've seen cat herders with more control and foresight than that guy.

The only thing surprising about this article is that Blatter actually SAID something. That's the amazing thing here. I mean, the content is about as startling as someone running a headline that says University of Oregon Football Unis Look Odd.

Cuz they do. Sadly, that picture doesn't show the team's THIRD helmet.

Jury's still out on those unis. Can't decide if they're inspired or insipid. I do know that the faux skid plating looks dumb. Other than that, though...

OK, now that the first stage is over, here are my revised predictions going forward

Round of 16
(49) Germany v. Sweden= Germany
(51) England v. Ecuador= England

(50) Argentina v. Mexico= Argentina
(52) Portugal v. Netherlands= Portugal

(53) Italy v. Australia= Italy
(55) Brazil v. Ghana= Brazil

(54) Switzerland v. Ukraine= Ukraine
(56) Spain v. France= Spain

Quarterfinals
(57) 49 v. 50= Argentina
(58) 53 v. 54= Italy
(59) 51 v. 52= England
(60) 55 v. 56= Spain

Semifinals
57 v. 58= Argentina
59 v. 60= Spain

Champion
Spain

Yes, I changed my champ. So sue me.

Happy Birthday Two Jew(s)
Happy Birfday Too Juice
Happy BIIIIRTHDAAAY Dear Drieeeeeegoooooo

Happy Birthday, to you.

Wow, the little brother is 25. When the hell did that happen?

Well, that was a fun two weeks. But, with the end of group play this morning comes the specter of the knock-out phase of this Mundial.

And with that comes the second chance sweepstakes for the Mundial Pool. Totally screw up your picks? Seen what teams are bringing and want to take another stab at it? Here's your shot, yo.

Scoring updates will be out sometime this afternoon or Saturday. We'll see when I manage to get around to it.

Forget how scoring works? Check here

Picks for this phase are due by 10a CST on Saturday, June 24.

Good luck

In lieu of a real post, have a meme

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

As with everything I do, it started with a brilliant plan.

Or, at least I thought it was brilliant. Nena, of course, had another word to describe it: insane. But, after some serious discussion and a few quite shitty and underhanded guilt trips on my part, she began to see things my way.

We were going to reunion.

Reunion was this weekend and I'm going to talk about that some other time...not now though.

Still have updates to perform...

Today's topic: Drieg!

Drieg moved out of Palais Cruz (have I talked about this? tell me about it in the comments if I haven't...) at the beginning of the month.

Why?

I guess I owe everyone a few explanations...

First off, this is a really disjointed post. I wanted to have something big and beautifully written to explain the last few months. But it just didn't come. So rather than delay this...I just got it out of my system.

Second, the blog is back. F'real, f'good, 4Life. A quick timeline of how shit went down.

An actual txt conversation between my brother and I.

Nenie @ 21:51
Shit, Bernadette Peters looks good. How old is she again? 80? 90?

Drieg @ 22:00
128 next week.

Well, after much debate, here are my pre-tourney picks. They're somewhat informed, but mostly based on precedent and hunches. This cup is in Europe, so I favor the Europeans pretty heavily. I would have agonized over these a lot more than I did if I didn't have the right to re-pick on the night of the 23rd. So, yknow, from where I sit now this is how I think things are going to go down.

That said, don't think that I wouldn't LOVE to be wrong about a few of these. I'd love to see the US finish first in their group, etc...

As for the pick everyone's gonna give me shit for. Here's why I'm picking Bono's poster team to make it out of group play. It's the Group of Death (tm). The real, honest to God Group of Death (tm). So I'm expecting everyone to beat the hell out of each other and have the Elephants sneak out on differential.

Also, the Dutch are a smart pick here. Hell, I kinda almost believe Julie Foudy isn't on some serious narcotics when she picks the Orange to win this one. Cuz, well, on an earlier version of this sheet, I had them winning it all.

Dear God. I picked England to win it all? Does this make me one of those Anglophiles I hate so much? Does it make me an Anglo? I need to go lie down.

What would a major sporting event be if I didn't run some sort of pool right?

Exactly, it'd be the NBA Finals...but more on that later...possibly.

I'm happy to unveil my first ever FIFA World Cup Pool. The rules are a bit more complex than my normal pick em and win em pool, but for this, my most favorite of events...I had to kick it up a notch.

How does it work?

Step 1:
Pick your choices for who the top two teams will be in each group.

Step 2:
Plug them into the bracket available here.

Step 3:
Make your picks using your bracket