I vote for Berets !!

A recent snap of me in action for Queens Park

Weekend predictions :

Germany bt Argentina

Italy bt Ukraine

England bt Portugal

France bt Brazil

I am probably way off ..

My Two Cents : The World Cup really shows up the other crap on at the moment for what it is .. I am thinking particularly of Big Brother and Wimbledon, total crap.

SON half way awards :

Player of tourney so far : Miroslav Klose (Is he really the same lad who togged out at the last world cup)

Best Keeper : Czech (out of sight againts Ghana)

Best manager : "Klinsi" (I thought Germany would be shocking .. how wrong could i be)

Best Young Lad : Lahm (classy)

Best Team : Argentina (Brillant)

Worst Team : Saudi Arabia (its not like they don't have cash)

Day 20 Bet - Vorsprung Durch Back-stick

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Argentina to bt Germany	3.2	-10.00	2.61

"Zat, is vort at least haaalf a Guinness"

Day 19 Bet - Stripey Jumpers, Garlic and a Long Loaf

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Spain to qualify v France	1.66	-10.00	12.61

Ok, a minor change in strategy today. Having lost out on Argentina (v Mexico) and Ukraine (v Switzerland) by betting on the 90 minutes today I'm betting on the "to qualify" market.

I'll probably still get it wrong though. Ooh-la-la.

Day 18 Bet - Swiss Cheese

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Ukraine to bt Switzerland	3.55	-10.00	22.61

I could really do with getting back on track tonight.

Update: Awww no! My whole betting world is falling in round my head. Some serious finger getting-out is required tomorrow.

Day 17 Bet - The Future's Orange

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Netherlands to bt Portugal	2.48	-10.00	32.61

Day 16 Bet - Could get Messi

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Argentina to bt Mexico	1.41	-10.00	42.61

Update: Rodriguez's goal was a belter. I can do that.

JOGA BENITO

Some World Cup fun ... here

Essentially World Cup reading .. here .. nice use of the word smote Jorge

SON quick pic for the week that was :

==>> Saudi and Japan are dire

==>>Mexico and The USA will only ever be mediocre when they practically qualify for free from there federation

==>> The tournament is lesser without the Czechs and definietly lesser without Nedved who I think was playing some of the football of his life .. to be fair Ghana are sensational and deserve there spot and could give Brazil a right scare ..

==>> Germany/Spain/Italy are building nicely .. special mention to Inzaghi .. he gets terrible criticism but I think he is great .. he always misses goals but he will always get a goal, when he came on the other night he ran around like a lunatic and was better than any other Italian striker so far ..

NOTE : TOTTI is a total waste of space

==>> Argentina are in ominous form .. frankly they look unbeatable

==>> The story of the world cup is potentially the Socceroos .. if they get past the I -Talians anything could happen .. Hiddink is a genius ..

==>>Haven't played particularly well but still there : England/Portugal/Holland

Round of 16 results as predicted by SON :

Argentina to bt Mexico I DECLARE ARGENTINA TO BE MY LOCK OF THE WEEK

Germany to bt Sweden


UPDATED 26th june :

Genius of the week =>> Maxi Rodrigues

Best name of the tourney ==>> Clint Dempsey (I knew a father Clint Power once ..)

Team bringing least to the WC at this point : England (all there matches have been garbage )

Day 15 Bet - Keep It Simple, Shevchenko

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Ukraine to bt Tunisia	1.69	6.90	52.61

Back to basics today. I have to try and stop the rot and concentrate on not loosing tenners.

For good luck, here's a picture of Andriy Scanlan.


Update: Eurosport said that this was a "turgid" match, but I don't care. My boy came through for me, scoring a soft penalty. My recent slump has been crested.

Day 14 Bet - unlucky for some

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Czechs to qualify from group	2.44	-10.00	45.71

I feel like I messed up yesterday, but having watched the highlights again, there could have been a load of goals in the first half.

Hopefully I'll get on a little better today, though in hindsight it may be a bit of a dodgy bet. Sure, we'll see. Nothing can be done about it now.

I came across this yesterday, it's about a bloke with dubious qualifications applying for the 'Boro managers' job. Worth a read for the laugh.

Update: What a disaster. Must do better. Eyes on your work please.

Day 13 Bet

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Holland v Argentina 3 goals or more	2.27	-10.00	55.71

Hopefully the big game tonight will be der super-goalfest-hausen.

In other news here's a picture of der Buffenmeister

Non World Cup Posting!

Things I want banned or banished from daily life:

1. Ads with talking babies in them.
2. Drogheda Utd.
3. Involuntary secretions AFTER you've stopped peeing.
4. Sunday Independent journalist Brendan O'Connor.
5. Non World Cup Postings on blogs.

Day 12 Bet

My company has started blocking all the betting websites today. Harumph! I will put the bet on at lunchtime.

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Germany to bt Ecuador	1.55	5.50	65.71

Thought the odds might be a little better, but my priority is getting the bets right.

Clarification: I don't own the company

Update: Woohoo!

Day 11 Bet

Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
Spain/Ukraine Double	1.89	8.90	60.21

Update: Phew! Got lucky with Spain coming back to win from 1-0 down.

4 matches to pick from tomorrow. Better get a good sleep.

World Cup Betting

I've been meaning to post this since last week. For the World Cup, I've been betting €10 per day, and if I have any profit, I'm going to bet it all on the final. Anyhoo, after 10 days, I'm €50 in profit.

The rules are:

• Can only bet €10 a day
• Only one bet per day
• Have to bet any profit on the final
• Emphasis should be on getting bets right, as opposed to going for value

I'm going to start posting the bets here every day, to add to the pressure of getting them right. I will quite possibly look like a big eejit by the end of it.

The bets so far:

Day	Bet	Odds	Profit/Loss	Balance
1	Germany not to win v Costa Rica	3.57	-10.00	-10.00
2	Argentina to bt Ivory Coast	1.69	6.90	-3.1
3	Holland to bt Serbia	2.02	10.20	7.10
4	Czech to bt USA	2.04	10.40	17.5
5	Korea to bt Togo	2.06	10.60	28.10
6	Ukraine to bt Spain	5.4	-10.00	18.10
7	Ecuador to bt Costa Rica	2.08	10.80	28.90
8	Holland to bt Ivory Coast	2.0	10.00	38.90
9	Czech to bt Ghana	1.76	-10.00	28.90
10	France not to win v South Korea	3.22	22.23	51.31

Obviously any suggestions or criticism are welcome, but will ultimately be ignored.

SON : World Cup first week review

Biggest Let Down ==> France ( everyone is really bored with their crapness )
==> Poland/Ukraine ( national disgrace)

Surprise Package ==> Ecudor (Brillo , hopefully the meet england and thrash them)

Potentially the best thing at the world cup ==> Spainish Midfield

Blast from the past ==> Paolo Wanchope (the lad does have a bit of class to be fair)

Typically Dull ==> Sweden ( Bland beyond words )

Overhyped and over here ==> England

Overexcited and over here ==> South korea (Hundreds of South koreans banging drums around town at 6 pm local time match start at 10 pm ... no drink taken )

Great Moment ==> Cahill equaliser (a nation wept)

Brillant Player ==> Rafael Márquez, Mexico (total class)

Best Goal ==> Ecudor third goal against Costa Rica (There have been some classic strikes but this was sublime team work)

Biggest player let down : Sheva (did he even try)

Coolest Dude : Le Volpe , mexico manager .. puffing tabs and generally giving the finger to any one who annoys him ..

Best allround legend : Der Kaiser

Genius from the past moment : Parade of winners during the opening ceremony (did pele hug everyone)

// Updated sat morning 17th june

Best performance ever ? : ARGENTINA 6 - 0 over S&M

Great to have them back at the top table : Holland ( Van basten .. in the words of eamon dunphy : TopMan bill !! )

Unluckiest team : Côte d'Ivoire ( they would qualify from any other group, how lucky are England .. FACT : there national flag is the same as Ireland except turned the other way )

Commentary : I hope I am not jinxing the rest of the tourney by saying this WC has been brillant I don't ever want it to end, it has restored my faith utterly in International Football. Australia is in the grip of football fever , its all everyone is talking about, one of the Government channels has basically packed in all normal programmes and is just showing the world cup and footie related things.

Saturday night is alright for fighting

Surveying the wreckage : One of the boys after an altercation with night club security smashed a large slab of concrete in an aborted attempt to hurl it at said night club security

A snap from the relative comfort of the bar, although you can see the rain literally sheeting off the roof
The weather was shocking as was the quality of the match, the Swans were playing St Kilda there six match winning run coming to an end on the night.

Dandy Lighthouse Keeper of the Week!

My nominee Bill from Galway

 

Arriba! Arriba! Ándale! Ándale!

I got a speeding ticket yesterday. From now on I'm going to be the slowest mouse in all Mexico... or not.

World 1 - Karate 0

It happened again!

This time I hit a telegraph pole, but it wasn't my fault - honest!

Jurgen has only got one Ballack!

With a World Cup Classic like http://www.whodoyouthink.com/ we can go all the way

High Jinking

A recent Gazzeta contributors night out

A Kiss for luck

Delicate balancing act going on here ...