World cup

Which country do you think will win the fifa world cup.

I reckon Spain

I agree! It's going to be great!

so you think spain will win

Yes I do, rewtasw Here are my picks out of the first round, what are yours?

Group A: France/S.Africa
Group B: Argentina/S.Korea
Group C: England/Slovenia
Group D: Germany/Serbia
Group E: Cameroon/Netherlands
Group F: Italy/Paraguay
Group G: Brazil/Portugal
Group H: Spain/Chile

Ok. I reckon:

Group A:France/South Africa

Group B:Argentina/Nigeria

Group C:England/USA

Group D:Germany/Australia

Group E:Netherlands/Cameroon

Group F:Italy/Paraguay

Group G:Brazil/Portugal

Group H:Spain/Sitzerland

The U.S.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I'm serious. That joke is just tooooo obvious to be funny

They did beat spain last year and spain are the favorites

I hate the U.S. If you are right and they make it out of the group, I won't stop throwing up for twelve hours

Anyway, I'll keep track of who you've picked, and keep adding to your post if you don't mind. This is fun!

No worries but you come from the U.S?

I hate this country. It has beautiful landscapes, wonderful rivers and lakes, and amazing seasons. The wild life is astonishing. Some people are quite lovely. The government sucks, most of the people suck, and it's a plague on the world. That's my tiny opinion on the matter

ok

I think England is in with a big chance.

I like the U.S.A.'s style of play, and hope they do well.

The support for South Africa here is tremendous. The whole country is buzzing - flags on cars, everyone wearing SA soccer shirts etc... I am not the flag-waving type, but it's good for our country.

Germany or France

I wish soccer was as popular as the NFL here in the U. S. Every where else people are crazy about World Cup.  Maybe there is hope with so many young people playing soccer these days.

Yes it's strange that soccer being such a huge world sport has not become big in the U.S. but having said that there is a well established soccer league (USSF I think) which has been around for many years. Three teams in S.Africa are named after U.S. teams (Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Jomo Cosmos) as the founders of these three teams played in the U.S. in their youth, and were inspired by their time spent there in the days when the likes of Pele played for NY Cosmos.

I am going to be boring and go for Brazil.

I would love it if England won it, but being realistic, we won't!

To all you chess-geeks (not me, of course), here are the top 20 teams by Elo ratings:

http://www.eloratings.net/world.html

PS: Any math mind would care to explain why is Elo for leading football teams so much lower than for leading chess players?

Interesting.

Here are their FIFA rankings as well (Source:Wikipedia).

The way they calculate it is quite complex, with various formulae: view it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Football_Elo_Ratings

Elo Rank Nation Points Confederation FIFA Rank 1  Brazil 2087 CONMEBOL 1 2  Spain 2085 UEFA 2 3  Netherlands 2016 UEFA 4 4  England 1975 UEFA 8 5  Germany 1929 UEFA 6 6  Italy 1909 UEFA 5 7  Argentina 1899 CONMEBOL 7 8  Mexico 1883 CONCACAF 17 9  Croatia 1866 UEFA 10 10  Chile 1860 CONMEBOL 18 11  Portugal 1846 UEFA 3 12  France 1835 UEFA 9 13  Egypt 1827 CAF 12 14  Uruguay 1819 CONMEBOL 16 15  Russia 1818 UEFA 11 16  Serbia 1815 UEFA 15 17  Ukraine 1780 UEFA 23 18  Turkey 1774 UEFA 29 19  Sweden 1770 UEFA 37 20  United States 1765 CONCACAF 14 21  Australia 1760 AFC 20 22  Korea Republic 1748 AFC 47 23  Paraguay 1745 CONMEBOL 31 24  Republic of Ireland 1743 UEFA 41  Denmark 1743 UEFA 36 26  Côte d'Ivoire 1738 CAF 27 27  Switzerland 1734 UEFA 24 28  Colombia 1724 CONMEBOL 35 29  Norway 1723 UEFA 22 30  Czech Republic 1722 UEFA 33