G'day tribe! Initially I was on somewhat of a "boycott" of the World Cup by not writing on it. After my home country Australia performed so notably and because of the action on the field, my love for writing cannot escape the excitement of the field. Well there you have it. Textbook "sports washing" much?
Anyway .. before the World Cup started I had predictions on every team and what I believed they would finish at. How accurate was I? Let's see how I went so far. Each of my pre-tournament previews/predictions can be seen below so you know I'm not cheating.
Group A - Qatar | Ecuador | Senegal | Netherlands
Group B - United States | England | Iran | Wales
Group C - Mexico | Poland | Argentina | Saudi Arabia
Group D - Australia | Denmark | Tunisia | France
Group E - Spain | Germany | Japan | Costa Rica
Group F - Canada | Croatia | Morocco | Belgium
Group G - Brazil | Serbia | Cameroon | Switzerland
Group H - Ghana | Portugal | Uruguay | South Korea
Below is each country, my prediction on their maximum potential and whether they advanced to the knockout rounds.
*Full disclosure I did make a couple errors so the numbers aren't balanced 100% i.e. Group E I made a prediction that 3 teams would progress beyond the group stage which is impossible. I also somehow predicted that Belgium, Germany and France could all make the Final
Qatar - Group Stage ✅
Ecuador - Group Stage ✅
Senegal - Quarter Finals 🤔
Netherlands - Semi-Finals 🤔
United States - Quarter Finals ❌
England - Third Place 🤔
Iran - Group Stage ✅
Wales - Group Stage ✅
Mexico - Group Stage✅
Poland - Round of 16 🤔
Argentina - Semi-Finals 🤔
Saudi Arabia - Group Stage ✅
Australia - Round of 16 ✅
Denmark - Group Stage ✅
Tunisia - Group Stage ✅
France - Finalists 🤔
Spain - Semi Finals 🤔
Germany - Winners ❌❌❌❌❌
Japan - Round of 16 🤔
Costa Rica - Group Stage ✅
Canada - Round of 16 ❌
Croatia - Group Stage ❌
Morocco - Group Stage ✅
Belgium - Finalists ❌
Brazil - Semi Finals 🤔
Serbia - Group Stage ✅
Cameroon - Group Stage ✅
Switzerland - Round of 16 🤔
Ghana - Group Stage ✅
Portugal - Semi Finals 🤔
Uruguay - Quarter Finals ❌
South Korea - Group Stage ❌
So I predicted 14/32 placings correctly and there are still 11 predictions outstanding. My huge prediction was Australia and making the Round of 16 at the expense of Denmark. I don't think many, if any, people in the tribe could have predicted that. Thankfully I had bias on my side as I'm an Aussie.
Out of the 7 I have got wrong so far, Germany to win the World Cup as well as Belgium to make the finals was as big a shock as many to me. I didn't pick up South Korea advancing at the expense of Uruguay. I also was predicting Canada advancing ahead of Croatia and after the first game I thought I was onto a winner.
Croatia's experience showed in the end and Canada just weren't clinical enough to advance. The US was disappointing and I thought they may have enough talent to shock the Dutch, in a tournament of upsets.
Let's see how the rest of my predictions pan out!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Wolfgang Sport started in 2017 as a way to connect my passion for American and British sports. Today it's evolved into a blockchain sports blog pushing the boundaries into the crypto world and embracing Web3 technologies.