At Eteraz.org, Natalia has a beautiful piece on her life as a football fan. Meanwhile the BBC website tells me that there are now less than 40 hours to go till kick off. I think the time has come for me to offer some predictions (i.e. guesses).
Quarter Finalists
Argentina, Germany, Czech Rep., France, Sweden, Portugal, Brazil, Spain
Semi Finals
Argentina, France, Portugal, Brazil
Final
Argentina, Portugal
Winner
Portugal
I've been slightly adventurous with this. Of course last time around the three teams I was partial too – Portugal, Cameroon and Argentina, were all knocked out in the first round. In any case, I think Paraguay will qualify for the second round. This means that either England or Sweden will get knocked out, and with all the fuss over Rooney, I wouldn't be surprised if England leave early.
Looking at developing countries, I think that both Iran and Tunisia can reach the second round. Both have favourable groups and its worth pointing out that a lot of their main players now play in Europe. In particular, watch out for Tunisia's brilliant right back Hatem Trabelsi.
Apart from that France is definitely worth keeping an eye on. The last two major tournaments they've come in with a lot of hype and performed pretty terribly. This time around they still have an excellent squad but no one seems to be rating them. Perfect.
Why I don't think Argentina will win? The manager decided to leave out Javier Zanetti. For those of you not familliar with Zanetti, he's been arguably the finest right sided full back for at least the last 5 years (that includes Cafu). I refuse (irrationally) to believe that any coach that can leave a player of his caliber out of the squad still win the world cup.
Finally Brazil. Whenever they look in shambles before the tournament I pick against them and they win. This time they look great and I've decided not to jump on the bandwagon. Plus they are set to play Portugal in the semi-finals. Portugal of course are guided by the man who led Brazil to victory 4 years ago. As all Brazilian managers are inevitably subject to the criticism that anyone could manage Brazil to the World Cup, nothing would cement Big Phil Scolari's legacy then beating Brazil. Finally, can you imagine the British tabloid reaction if Scolari and Portugal win the world cup? The man they helped scare away will have the World Cup, while Englad will be left with Steve Mclaren. Priceless.
