If you’ve made time to watch the World Cup this year, you’ve been rewarded for it.\u00a0 Everyone seems to agree that it’s been a great tournament so far – plenty of goals, exciting and competitive games, and some shocking results in the group stage.\u00a0 The pace has picked up this week, as the first round draws to a close with four games each day until Thursday.\u00a0 As the groups wrap up, I thought it made sense to look back at my predictions and see how I did, and to start looking ahead to the Round of 16.<\/p>\n
GROUP A<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n My prediction:<\/p>\n Winner:\u00a0 Brazil Actual result:<\/p>\n Winner:\u00a0 Brazil Mexico seems to have purged the malaise that plagued them throughout\u00a0CONCACAF qualifying, chalking up two wins and a draw to finish level on points with the hosts.\u00a0 I underestimated them, and they proved me wrong with a\u00a0strong 3-1 victory over Croatia on Monday.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the home team got the job done, although they stumbled a bit coming out of the gate, needing a generous penalty to overcome Croatia and never breaking through against Mexico.\u00a0 They finally delivered a convincing performance on Monday, and they won’t care that Cameroon were already eliminated.\u00a0 Questions remain, but only because expectations were (and are) so ludicrously high.<\/p>\n GROUP B<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n My prediction:<\/p>\n Winner:\u00a0 Spain Actual result:<\/p>\n Winner:\u00a0 Netherlands My most glaring miss of the whole tournament, I think, as Spain were out after two games and the Netherlands finished with a perfect record.\u00a0 It’s funny, because at half time of that opening Spain\/Netherlands match, it really seemed like Spain were fine.\u00a0 They had scored first, and only van Persie’s stunning header kept them from taking that lead into the break.\u00a0 They looked comfortable enough, passing the ball around, creating chances… and\u00a0 then the wheels totally came off.\u00a0 Robben and van Persie ran wild, Iker Casillas made mistakes, and Spain seemed to come entirely unglued.\u00a0 The 5-1 final score may have flattered Spain – it felt like they could have conceded three or four more.\u00a0 They were never coming back after that.<\/p>\n I thought that Chile would knock out one of the European giants, but I picked the wrong one.<\/p>\n ROUND OF 16 MATCH-UPS (PREDICTED WINNER IN BOLD)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Brazil<\/strong> vs. Chile Chile have gotten quite a bit of deserved praise for the way\u00a0they’ve played in this tournament so far, but failing to beat the Netherlands on Monday landed them a date with the hosts.\u00a0 They’ll put up a good fight, but Brazil’s not going out in the second round.\u00a0 2-1 to Neymar & Co.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, it’s hard to see Mexico getting past a Dutch side that’s firing on all cylinders.\u00a0 Even with van Persie getting a day off yesterday, they still scored twice.\u00a0 Mexico only managed one goal against Cameroon (while each of Croatia and Brazil scored four), and they didn’t\u00a0get any against Brazil.\u00a0 It was only in the\u00a0last twenty\u00a0minutes on Monday, when Croatia was attacking desperately, that they were able to break through.\u00a0\u00a0I don’t see them being able to\u00a0stem the Oranje<\/em> tide. 2-0 to the Dutch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’ve made time to watch the World Cup this year, you’ve been rewarded for it. Everyone seems to agree that it’s been a great tournament so far – plenty of goals, exciting and competitive games, and some shocking results in the group stage. The pace has picked up this week, as the first round […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-cup-2014"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nRunner-Up:\u00a0 Croatia<\/p>\n
\nRunner-Up:\u00a0 Mexico<\/p>\n
\nRunner-Up:\u00a0 Chile<\/p>\n
\nRunner-Up: \u00a0Chile<\/p>\n
\nNetherlands<\/strong> vs. Mexico<\/p>\n