Saturday, June 24, 2006

Grant Wahl: More World Cup Predictions [J. Mark English]

LEIPZIG, Germany --

Well, maybe I'm not the worst prognosticator after all.

At the conclusion of the first round I was sitting at the top of the SI.com heap, tied with Gregory Sica and the Limey Boys in predicting 14 of the 16 teams that made it to the knockout stage.

While Sica was the only one of SI's 10 "experts" to tab Ghana in Group E, I felt pretty good about nailing Ecuador, Australia, Sweden and Switzerland. (The only teams I'd missed were Ghana and -- gulp -- Argentina.)

(In case you're wondering, SI's NFL editor Mark Mravic, blinded by his U.S. homerism, was in last place with 10 of the Sweet 16.)

So ... here are my picks for the rest of the tournament:

SECOND ROUND

Germany over SwedenArgentina over MexicoAustralia over ItalySwitzerland over UkraineEngland over EcuadorNetherlands over PortugalBrazil over GhanaFrance over Spain

QUARTERFINALS

Argentina over GermanySwitzerland over AustraliaEngland over NetherlandsBrazil over France

SEMIFINALS

Argentina over SwitzerlandBrazil over England

FINAL

Brazil over Argentina