Owlspotting

England wins the 2006 World Cup in Germany–at least that’s what my personal predictions say. And you know what they say about predictions: you’d better make them with your heart unless you want to find yourself cheering for teams you don’t care about (ahem, Italy) just because a cool-headed analysis forced you to pick them.

You can download my predictions in an Excel format here.

You can also use this blank nifty Excel sheet made by these guys to produce your own predictions.

If you are so inclined to look at my version of the World Cup, you will notice much personal bias directed towards England and the Netherlands. In my world they both reach the semi-finals and England ends up winning the thing. I’m betting on Australia and Sweden to be the nice surprises. I also believe Germany and Argentina will disappoint, and no African team will be able to hold it together enough to make the second round. South Korea makes the second round but loses in a penalty shoot-out (about time). USA to the second round? Not this time–Nedved’s knees will last just long enough.

Run your World Cup and tell us about the winners in the comments section. A couple of my friends have already went through the process and so far we have as winners: England (2 votes), Czech Republic (2 votes) and Brazil (2 votes).

Here are some more links in case you are lusting for World Cup information:
– Fifa World Cup Germany 2006 (official site)
– BBC Sport World Cup
– ESPN SoccerNet
– New York Times World Cup blog
– World Cup Kickoff (calendar for your Outlook)