I had originally been calling Mexico and Italy for the finals. Obviously that’s not going to happen. For one thing Mexico is in a really tight situation, likely facing Germany even if they beat Argentina. Oh yeah, also there’s that thing about the Italians.
Anyway, the games as I see them from here:
Uruguay beats South Korea; Ghana beats USA; Netherlands beat Slovakia; Brazil beats Chile
Mexico beats Argentina; Germany beats England; Paraguay beats Japan; Portugal beats Spain
Uruguay beats Ghana; Netherlands beat Brazil; Germany beats Mexico; Portugal beats Paraguay
Netherlands beat Uruguay; Germany beats Portugal
And then a very Northern European finals with the Netherlands as the victors. Of course any match could change all of this hugely, but I figure the real x-factors are Brazil-Netherlands (which isn’t definite but seems very likely) and Spain-Portugal. But really Netherlands have just been playing like no one else. Japan’s really surprising quality could be a factor in things too but if they get themselves into a match with Portugal (or Spain for that matter) things aren’t that likely to go too well for them.
Anyway it’ll all be great from here on.
