Towards A Spanish Sunrise, and Other World Cup Picks

The sixth day of the World Cup will feature the kickoff of the final group, and South Africa's second game. For the sake of keeping things broken up in an organized way, I won't write about South Africa until tomorrow. Tonight, the picks for Group H, plus the calculated standings based on my predictions through the opening games.

Why? Because the world is better when it is measured with standings.

DAY 6, JUNE 16, 2010

GROUP H

HONDURAS VERSUS CHILE

This match is very intriguing to me. Both are teams that are kind of under the radar, but that performed quite well in qualifiers, Honduras finishing third in CONCACAF and Chile finishing runners-up to Brazil in South America. I would say that Chile is probably slightly more talented than Honduras, but both are strong teams in a tough group.

Honduras dealt with a coup this year; Chile an earthquake. Sympathy edge to Chile.

Chile is the last remaining home of the carmenere varietal of grape, and I've been drinking and enjoying carmenere over the last couple of months. I don't even know if Honduras produces wine, and I'm too lazy to do research. Edge to Chile.

I could see Honduras springing a surprise, but I can't argue with my logic. Chile 2-0 over Honduras by an earthquake and a bottle of wine.

SPAIN VERSUS SWITZERLAND

Spain's Fernando Torres faces a fitness challenge as he recovers from injury before the World Cup. Switzerland is famous for being neutral and producing hot chocolate--or so I assume. They also are famous for having lots of mountains.

Unfortunately, they won't be able to station those mountains in front of their goal. Spain will start the World Cup on a strong note and win 3-0.


So, after all teams play their first game, here are the standings, starting with Groups A and B tonight. You will see the team, number of wins, number of losses, and number of draws, wrapping up with the number of points.

GROUP A

MEXICO 1 WIN 0 LOSSES 0 DRAWS 3 POINTS

FRANCE 0 WINS 0 LOSSES 1 DRAW 1 POINT

URUGUAY 0 WINS 0 LOSSES 1 DRAW 1 POINT

SOUTH AFRICA O WINS 1 LOSS 0 DRAWS 0 POINTS

GROUP B

ARGENTINA 1 WIN 0 LOSSES 0 DRAWS 3 POINTS

SOUTH KOREA 1 WIN 0 LOSSES 0 DRAWS 3 POINTS

GREECE 0 WINS 1 LOSS 0 DRAWS 0 POINTS

NIGERIA 0 WINS 1 LOSS 0 DRAWS 0 POINTS