The Guru's Goat

World Cup Predictions - Groups A-D

2006-06-22T21:37:00.000+01:00

Oops. I realised a couple of days ago that I hadn’t finished off my great World Cup predictions. I know that most of the groups are sorted now, so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say that this is really what I think/thought would happen…

Group A

GermanyPoland
Ecuador
Costa Rica

There’s no way the Germans won’t go through here so it’s any one from the other three. My money is on Poland.

Group B

England
Sweden
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago

England and Sweden, no doubt about it.

Group C

Argentina
Holland
Ivory Coast
Serbia & Montenegro

Aaah yes the much maligned “group of death”. I think this is the only group were any team could realistically go through. I’ve been very impressed with the Ivory Coast, but I’ve got to go with the big guns so it’s Holland and Argentina for me.

Group D

Portugal
Mexico
Iran
Angola

I picked Iran in the sweepstake at work, which I obviously delighted with (that’s a fiver I’ll never see again). This should be pretty much cut and dried with Portugal and Mexico going through.

World Cup Predictions - Group E

2006-06-05T23:23:00.000+01:00

Group E

Italy
Ghana
United States
Czech Republic

This is another group where I think three teams will be fighting it out for second place after waving Italy off into the sunset.

Ghana have had some good results in the build-up to the finals, beating South Korea 3-1, Jamaica 4-1 and holding Turkey to a 1-1 draw. "Soccer" (god help us) has come on in leaps and bounds in the States over the last few years, but a 1-0 defeat to Morocco isn't going to get anyone too excited. The Czechs always do well in big tournaments (Euro 96 anyone?), so I'm going to go with them.

World Cup Predictions - Group F

2006-06-05T23:17:00.000+01:00

Group F

Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan

Does anybody think Brazil won't win this group? Thought not. The other place is up for the grabs though, as all three teams are in with a good shout of progressing.

Croatia have a good tournament pedigree, but in their last two friendlies they lost 1-0 to Poland and drew 2-2 with Iran. Australia had a fantastic draw with Holland recently which will help with their confidence, and Japan have been ok if not setting the world alight during their preparations. I think I'm going to have to go for Croatia.

World Cup Predictions - Group G

2006-06-05T23:10:00.000+01:00

Group G

France
Switzerland
South Korea
Togo

France are a dead cert from Group G, so it's realistically Switzerland or South Korea for second place. Korea had a fantastic World Cup in 2002 but their recent performances haven't been too inspiring, but having said that, Switzerland? Switzerland? Behave. France and South Korea for me.

World Cup Predictions - Group H

2006-06-05T23:06:00.000+01:00

Here goes. I'm going to start at the bottom and work my way up the groups as it'll read better...

Group H

Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia

I don’t think there are too many groups you could say were cut and dried, but Group H is the closest we’re going to get. I’d be amazed if Spain and Ukraine didn’t progress.

Spain are one of the perennial under-achievers at major events and have been for years, but this year I think they could go a long way. I don’t know an awful lot about Ukraine, but with Shevchenko up front they’ll certainly be too much for Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

Pointless Post #2

2006-06-04T23:56:00.000+01:00

Ok so I’ve decided not to bother writing anything about Greeno, it’s been done to death everywhere else…

Instead I am going to do something revolutionary, something not seen before anytime anyplace (ahem). I’m going to predict who I think will progress from each group in the World Cup. Hurrah!

But not today. I’m too tired. It’ll keep until tomorrow.

Pointless Post #1

2006-05-29T23:50:00.000+01:00

Not wanting to lose my very impressive record of one post approximately every six weeks, I thought it was about time to add another one.

Since we last met, the Canaries have stumbled to a finish just outside the play-offs in the Championship, Middlesbrough got stuffed in the UEFA Cup Final, Arsenal lost to Barcelona in the Champions League Final and Greeno has seen his World Cup dream shattered.

That’s about it really. I’m not going to waste time going through Norwich’s season as I know it’ll just wind me up. I’m not particularly bothered about Boro getting a spanking either, and while I was disappointed for Arsenal the fact that Thierry Henry decided to stay for a measly £130k odd a week more than made up for it.

So that just leaves Greeno’s freakish injury. I think I’ll right some about that, but not now.

Happy Easter

2006-04-16T23:06:00.000+01:00

Easter. My favourite religous festival of the year, celebrating the famous story of Jesus being re-born from a chocolate egg...

What's this got to do with football? Nothing, but have a good one anyway.

OTBC.

Grounds

2006-03-12T22:24:00.000Z

The other day I was thinking about how football grounds have improved over the last 10/15 years, which made me wonder how many stadiums I’ve actually visited over the years.

So, behold my list of visited grounds. I’ve included stadiums that no longer exist (such as the beautiful Plough Lane), and only clubs that are currently in the Premiership or Football League…

Premiership

Arsenal – Highbury
Birmingham City – St Andrews
Charlton Athletic – The Valley
Chelsea – Stamford Bridge
Liverpool – Anfield
Middlesbrough – Ayresome Park
Newcastle United – St James Park
Portsmouth – Fratton Park
Tottenham Hotspur – White Hart Lane
West Bromwich Albion – The Hawthorns
West Ham United – Upton Park

Football League Championship

Brighton & Hove Albion – The Goldstone Ground
Coventry City – Highfield Road
Crystal Palace – Selhurst Park
Derby County – Baseball Ground, Pride Park
Ipswich Town – Portman Road
Leicester City – Filbert Street, Walkers Stadium
Luton Town – Kenilworth Road
Millwall – The Den
QPR – Loftus Road
Reading – Madejski Stadium
Sheffield United – Bramall Lane
Sheffield Wednesday – Hillsborough
Southampton – The Dell
Stoke City – Old Ground (can’t remember it’s name)
Watford – Vicarage Road
Wolves – Molineux

Football League One

Barnsley – Oakwell
Bournemouth – Dean Court
Bristol City – Ashton Gate
MK Dons – Plough Lane, Hockey Stadium
Nottingham Forest – City Ground
Oldham Athletic – Boundary Park
Southend United – Roots Hall
Tranmere Rovers – Prenton Park

Football League Two

Grimsby Town – Blundell Park
Northampton Town – Sixfields
Notts County – Meadow Lane
Oxford United – Manor Ground
Peterborough United – London Road

Grand Total – 43 grounds so a long way to go until I’ve visited every club in the Premiership and Football League, but I’ll get there!

PS the mighty Park beat Potton 3-1 yesterday. More on that tomorrow!

On The Road To Damascus

2006-03-11T01:13:00.000Z

I’ve not posted anything for a while, mainly because I wasn’t sure what to write. When I started out I wasn’t sure what exactly to write about, so I figured I’d just write about whatever came into my head. The problem with that though is that there’s so much random stuff swimming around there that there just isn’t enough direction.

So with that in mind I’ve come to a decision. If there’s one thing I know about it’s football. I play for and am Club Secretary/Treasurer/Webmaster of Russell Park United in the Bedford & District Football League, and support the mighty Norwich City. I’ve got more than enough to write about regularly on those two topics, plus the rest of the football world, so that’s that.

Brace yourselves world…

Royal Rumble Results

2006-01-30T13:00:00.000Z

The 2006 WWE Royal Rumble took place last night, and I decided to have a guess at who’d win each match. Let’s see how I got on…

Mickey James vs. Ashley (with Trish Stratus as Special Guest Referee). My winner: Mickey James. Actual winner: Mickey James. Get in there. Ok so the double cross didn’t happen, but Mickey still won and I’d still be surprised if we don’t see Trish versus Mickey at Wrestlemania.

JBL vs. The Boogeyman. My winner: JBL. Actual winner: The Boogeyman. Ok we’re back at 1-1, but what a joke. This time last year JBL was the king of Smackdown! and now he’s jobbing to the latest Papa Shango wannabe? Hmmm…

Edge vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship. My winner: Edge. Actual winner: John Cena. Down to 1-2 and not happy about it. I cannot believe they put the title back on Cena. The only logical thing I can think of is that Cena’s perhaps more media-friendly so he’ll be better for the ‘Mania press conferences (plus it also sets up Triple H doesn’t it? Coincidence?). Even so, you have to feel a little sorry for Edge. He’s been done over like Orton was in 2004.

Kurt Angle vs. Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship. My winner: Kurt Angle. Actual winner: Kurt Angle. Back at 2-2 but there really was only going to be one winner here. I’m not entirely sure on the logic of setting up Angle versus ‘Taker unless the Royal Rumble winner loses his title shot (or switches brands).

The Royal Rumble Match. My winner: Rey Mysterio. Actual winner: Rey Mysterio. 3-2 and all’s well. I predicted that the person who drew #1 would still be around when #30 made his entrance, and so it proved to be. I liked the idea of drawing Triple H #1 and Mysterio at #2 seeing as they’d been heavily tipped to win.

I also realised that I forgot about he Cruiserweight Title match, so I guess I’ll have to settle for 3-3. A successful first attempt I think.

Happy Winter-een-mas!

2006-01-29T15:34:00.000Z

I can’t believe I got almost the whole way through Winter-een-mas without mentioning it. I have been celebrating this Winter-een-mas season by playing Football Manager 2006 on the PC (guiding the mighty Canaries to 8th place in the Premiership, which I think I’ll have to post more on sometime), and Pro Evolution Soccer 5 on the Xbox.

I’ve also been getting in some retro gaming courtesy of Sensible Soccer and Sonic on the Megadrive as well as Super Mario Kart on the SNES. God bless the emulator.

Royal Rumble

2006-01-28T23:45:00.000Z

I know it’s not exactly “cool” for a 26 year old man to still watch wrestling, but the fact of the matter is I find great entertainment, so with that in mind the 2006 WWE Royal Rumble takes place tomorrow night and while I’m here I figured I’d give my take on the various matches…

Mickey James vs. Ashley (with Trish Stratus as Special Guest Referee). The obligatory Diva match sees psycho stalker Mickey James up against the 2005 Diva Search Winner. The way things have been going the smart money would be on Trish calling the match in favour of Ashley, so I’m going to go for the double cross to set-up Trish versus Ashley at Wrestlemania. My winner: Mickey James.

JBL vs. The Boogeyman. The only thing you can guarantee about this match is that it’ll be weird. The Boogeyman’s an interesting gimmick but I can’t see what benefit there could be to Smackdown! if JBL loses. My winner: JBL.

Edge vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship. Since losing the title Cena seems to have regained some momentum and Edge has really grown into the role of champion so this one could really go either way. WWE usually seem to favour the heel champion being chased by the face going into Wrestlemania though, and I think that’ll be the key. My winner: Edge.

Kurt Angle vs. Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship. The words “foregone” and “conclusion” spring to mind with match. Since Batista became injured you sensed this angle cannot end soon enough. My winner: Kurt Angle.

The Royal Rumble Match. Always one of my favourite matches of the year, I just hope the big guns are still left towards the end otherwise the end will be completely telegraphed (tip of the day: the person who draws #1 will still be around when #30 makes his entrance). I’m really hoping Rey Mysterio gets his chance, but it’s a struggle to picture a Wrestlemania main-event that doesn’t feature Triple H. My winner: Rey Mysterio.

Ashton and Out

2006-01-28T23:00:00.000Z

So that’s that then. Dean Ashton has returned to The Premiership (and to West Ham of all places).

I don’t think too many City fans will blame Ashton for jumping ship, but there are a few things about the situation that I find frustrating.

First is the fact that the club seem to have absolutely no choice but to sell. A lot’s been made of player power over the last few years, but seriously, why even bother having contracts? Ashton signed a contract extension at the start of season, but still left in January!

The most galling thing of all is the amount of money we paid him to go! I believe that it was part of the terms that brought him to the club a year ago, and while I gather Ashton waived around £150k to make the move happen there's got to be something wrong when you pay your best player to leave hasn't there? I understand there’s a rule that says a player is entitled to be paid off if they don’t ask for a transfer, but if claiming to want to jump at the chance when you know West Ham are in for you isn’t asking for a transfer, it’s the nearest you’re ever going to get.

And Worthy? Not exactly a PR guru (pun intended). “If we have any chance of gaining promotion we have to keep Dean Ashton”, “West Ham could never afford Dean Ashton”, and my personal favourite “We have not agreed a fee with West Ham for Dean Ashton” (Saturday morning), “We have agreed a fee with West Ham for Dean Ashton” (Saturday evening). Talk about making a rod for your own back.

But having said all that, £5.5m (after the various pay-outs) and a 15% sell on clause for a striker playing for a mid-table Championship team is good business at the end of the day, and should give us a nice little war chest to go out and buy a replacement with – and a right winger wouldn’t go amiss.

And therein lies the problem. Who are we going to end up with? More worryingly, who’s going to want to come to Norwich? Only time will tell, and there’s not much of it left.

To blog or not to blog?

2006-01-21T01:24:00.000Z

That is indeed the question.

I always thought it would be kind of cool to have a webblog (even if I am the only person who'd ever look at it). I think I've always got something interesting to say about something, haven't? I guess we'll soon find out.

But then I got to thinking about it a little more. Should I write about personal stuff? About football (and more specifically the mighty Norwich City Football Club)? About movies? About games? About wrestling? I don't know...

After literally minutes of thought, I've come to the conclusion that I'll just write about whatever pops into my head. Right now, sleep occupies my thoughts more than anything else, so it's off to bed methinks. I've got a big game tomorrow...

My First Blog

2006-01-21T00:36:00.000Z

So, this is what it's like to have a blog account? Very nice. I'll be back with more when I have something interesting to say.