. . . devotion has its own reward.

10 out of 16!! Honestly, that's not that bad, is it? I just want to quickly make excuses for some of the ones I got wrong:

Group A - Ok, I overestimated the strength of the CONCACAF representative, but I had good reason for underestimating Ecuador: I've watched Delgado play for Southampton and De la Cruz play for Aston Villa, and they've been generally useless. I, nor anyone else, expected Ecuador to score 5 goals, much less have Delgado get 2 of them!

Group C - It all hinged on the Ivory Coast v Argentina game - it needed to finish in a tie. But for those who watched it, you know how close I was to being right about it - Ivory Coast totally bossed the posession! They really should have tied the game but they just wouldn't take the shots! Despite the 6-0 drubbing of Serbia & Montenegro, and qualification to the quarter-finals, I still stand by what I said about this being a weak Argentina team (compared to past ones). Germany WILL beat them in the quarter-finals.

Group E - Like I said, I never really expected Italy to not qualify, but I was hoping. What we really should focus on is the fact that I did predict Ghanaian qualification when no one else did!

Group F - I really have no excuse here.

Group G - I was suffering from a lack of any sort of head-to-head comparison between South Korea and Switzerland. I knew they both had the pedigree to go through, but who would edge it? Well, they never play each other--they never even play the same opponents!--so I had to go with my gut. My gut was wrong. But I was right about France.

Group H - Tunisia should never have let Saudi Arabia tie them. That was sad. Look for Ukraine to succumb to the Swiss in the round of 16.

Excuses successfully aired, now let's get some knockout predictions up here! I'm sorry that I let a half the round of 16 get by me before getting these up, but I have been justifiably busy. FOR THE RECORD, in the four matches that have already passed, I would have picked Germany, Argentina, England, and Netherlands. (that would have been 3/4, and anyone who saw the Portugal v Netherlands game can forgive me for not getting that one correct!!)

So let me finish of the round of 16 by picked Italy, Brasil (I'm sorry), Switzerland, and Spain.

Predictions for the quarter-finals! Germany defeat Argentina, England defeat Portugal, Brasil defeat Italy (I certainly hope so!), Spain defeat Switzerland. So my revised final four looks like Germany, England, Brasil, and Spain, which is 50% different than the final four I picked at the start of the tournament. How different will it be from the actual final four??

So it is beginning to look like the final may be a repeat of four years ago, with Germany and Brasil taking part. If that happens Germany will win. I can only hope that England get past Portugal and provide enough of a roadblock in the semi-finals to trip up Germany.

Unlikely, but anything can happen - that is why we watch, cheer, and pray!

C'mon England, C'mon England!