All Blues

I'll be the first to admit that I had no idea how this World Cup would turn out, so I guess I feel somewhat vindicated in that it didn't come out the way anyone -- except maybe Nick, who I'm sure picked Italy to reach the final match -- had predicted.

I did notice a couple of things in the course of the tournament that did come to pass. I don't think I posted about it, but I definitely recall saying to more than a few people that Brazil would not win it all if they continued to start Ronaldo. Yes, I had my doubts after he started to find his form against Japan, but that spark didn't last.

As for Argentina, it looks like I may have gotten it right when I said they killed their own momentum by taking it easy in the third match of the group stage. After the 6-0 demolition of Serbia & Montanegro, they looked like they would waltz to Berlin. Despite the lackluster performance against Mexico, I still thought the winner of the Germany-Argentina quarterfinal match would be in good shape to go all the way. Then, when that matchup didn't impress all that much, the winner of Germany-Italy. I'm still sticking by that prediction.

My other guess going into the semis was that, despite all the talk of fair play, we would end up with a Portugal-Italy final, which would generally make the proponents of fair play want to kick somebody in the groin. But France -- who I figured for an earlier exit against Spain -- somehow found their way through.

England, to me, never really had a chance. They did just enough to get good results up until the Portugal match, and at some point, that's just not going to be good enough, and it wasn't.

So I'm going to be optimistic about the number of goals scored and say 2-1 Italy on Sunday, with goals from Toni, Zambrotta and Henry.