Something happened today

Two European teams played against two African teams today. The Europeans, France and Germany, ended up advancing, but it wasn't as easy as they expected.

After scoring for France, Pogba insults his teammates. He was mad at them because they failed to praise his hairdo enough.

But more important than all this is that there are big changes in the Bolão: Seppel is now first. Serginho is only one point behind. Take a look at the updated standings if you don't believe me.

At the other extreme, Cabeça de Macaco has dropped to the last position. Is there any hope left for our beloved monkey?

Ticotazo

Both games today had a CONCACAF team playing a European team.

The first game was Netherlands - Mexico. Mexico started out winning, but they changed their mind near the end and allowed the Netherlands to score two goals. Smart move, the prospects of facing the winner of Costa Rica vs Greece are scary. The Dutch didn't want to face them either, so they did everything in their power to avoid scoring any goals. In the end, they were tricked into scoring by the referee, Pedro Proenca, who called an inexistent penalty on Robben.

Mexican players drop to the ground and try to force the Dutch to finally score a goal

In the second game, mighty Costa Rica advanced after a penalty shoot-out. The Dutch are trembling in fear.

By the way, two smart Bolão participants predicted that Costa Rica would advance today. The updated standings are here.

The 2nd stage begins

Four South American teams played today. Out of those, only two passed to the next stage: Brazil (barely) and Colombia. Guess what, Serginho Matos got both right. He is still first in the Bolão.

How did you do? The official standings are here.

The first stage is over

Ghana tried to make things easy for Portugal. Right before the game, they suspended their two top players for indiscipline. During the match, Ghana scored the first goal for Portugal. Then, the goalkeeper gave Cristiano Ronaldo the ball so that he could also score. CR7 scored 1 goal in the tournament and has reached Reza Ghoochannejhad's mark. Good job!

Portugal won 2-1 but was eliminated anyway. Germany and USA advanced into the second round.

Cristiano Ronaldo expresses satisfaction because he reached the level of Reza Ghoochannejhad

In the other group, Belgium and Algeria advanced.

The final standings of the first stage are here. Right now, Serginho Matos is 1st, Julián 2nd, and Seppel 3rd. Our dear Cabeça de Macaco is currently 133th.

João Havelange strikes again

FIFA kicks out Suarez of the World Cup, bans him from practicing football and from entering the confines of any stadium during four months, suspends him for 9 international matches, and also fines him. Too harsh?

Well, he scored the two goals against England, participated in the elimination of Italy, and was starting to threaten Brazil's divine right to winning the World Cup.

I was reminded of a poem:

"caen las tropas de su majestad,

 y cae el norte de la Italia rica,

y el papa dando vueltas no se explica,

muerde la lengua de João Havelange."

Los Piojos, Maradó, Tercer Arco, 1994

You'll probably need to get your local Argentine to translate and decipher the meaning of it.

One more day to go

The Group Stage is coming to an end; there is just one more day to go. Today, Argentina, Nigeria, France, and Switzerland advanced into the second round. Ecuador played a good match against France but couldn't score a goal to break the 0-0 tie.

Reza Ghoochannejhad made history today

Iran was the only team that hadn't scored a goal in the tournament so far. Today, Reza Ghoochannejhad scored the first and only goal for Iran. This is good news for Cabeça de Macaco, who selected Reza as top scorer. It is the first time in Bolão history that the player selected by the Macaco actually scores a goal (in 2010 he had chosen this guy).

The complete standings are here. Serginho is 1st, Seppel 2nd, and Julián 3rd. Cabeça de Macaco has moved down to 132th. Just a transitory setback, of course.

Food for thought

Like four years ago, Italy did not advance into the second stage. Italy was eliminated today after losing 0-1 against Uruguay. During the game, there was some controversy because one of Uruguay's players, Suarez, bit Italian defender Chiellini. As with Pepe before, this whole thing has been blown out of proportion.

True, Suarez likes to snack on rivals during matches. Yes, this practice is currently frowned upon. But it doesn't have to be this way. Maybe Suarez is simply ahead of his time. Why are there rules against chewing off body parts of rivals anyway? Isn't this an arbitrary limitation of feeding habits? It is possible to envision a future in which FIFA puts nutritional needs before physical integrity, and in which players are allowed to eat parts of opponents during the game. FIFA has made stranger decisions in the past.

But even under the current restrictive in-game feeding rules, it is obvious that Chiellini is to be blamed for what happened. On Chiellini's personal webpage, www.chiellini.net, he openly advertises himself as food. He promotes his freshness and deliciousness and exaggeratedly calls himself "un mondo di golosità" (a world of delicacies). He clearly lured Suarez into taking a bite.

Chiellini: fresh and delicious. Who wouldn't bite into that?

In the other group, Greece scored a last-minute goal and managed to squeeze into the second round. This shook up the Bolão a bit, but not much. Look at the standings here.

Justice served

Don't mind what everybody else is saying, the most important match today was Australia - Spain.

Spain was forced to play without their traditional red shirt (recall that they lost their claim to "La Roja" in the game with Chile). So they dressed in black. Actually, Spain's men in black were ideally suited to play the alien Australian team.

Bizarrely, Australia is affiliated to the AFC (Asian Footbal Conferation), rather than the OFC (Oceania Football Confederation). They used to be in the OFC but grew tired of never getting into the World Cup because they inevitably kept losing all the playoff matches. So, Australia's football federation hopped over to Asia...and mutated from OFC to AFC. What a treacherous scheme! Can such an evil deed go unpunished?

The Spanish team took it upon themselves to set things right. To do so, they invoked a fair bit of Cholo Simeone mystique, and fielded a team that had more players from Atlético de Madrid than from either Real Madrid or Barcelona.

Today, Spain's men in black took on the evil mutant continent-hopping kangaroos

It worked: Villa, assisted by Juanfran (two Atlético de Madrid players), collaborated on the first goal. Torres (an Atlético living legend) scored the second. The world was saved. There was a third goal, but it didn't matter anymore. By then, the evil kangaroos had conceded defeat.

Now, on to the Bolão. As groups play their final matches, first-stage scores include points for teams advancing into the second round, so there's lots of points being awarded. Incredibly, Serginho still tops the standings. This must be some kind of new record!

11th day of the competition

The first match was also the most boring. Belgium and Russia aimlessly kicked around the ball most of the time. It was only at the end that something happened, when Belgium scored a goal. The final score was Belgium 1- Russia 0.

Because the Belgium-Russia match got so boring, players started knocking each other unconscious to pass the time

The remaining two games had more goals. South Korea - Algeria ended 2-4. Portugal escaped elimination (so far) thanks to a last-minute goal, so that USA - Portugal finished tied at 2-2. By the way, 33 participants correctly predicted the tie. Out of those, 7 had the score right.

The Bolão is fine, thanks for asking. Serginho is 1st. Cabeça de Macaco is 119th. Take a look here if you don't believe me.

10th day of the competition

The first game of the day was Argentina - Iran. Argentina idly waited for Iran's own-goal that didn't arrive. Argentina was about to invoke the dubious penalty rule when Messi scored the goal. The final score was 1-0 and Argentina advanced into the second round.

More entertaining was the second game of the day, Germany-Ghana (2-2). It looked like Ghana was going to win, but Miroslav Klose came out of retirement and scored a goal.

Klose sees things differently

The last game of the day was Nigeria - Bosnia and Herzegovina. Helped by the referee, Nigeria won 1-0.

Meanwhile, in the Bolão, Serginho continues to lead. Cabeça de Macaco is 124th. The complete standings are here.

God saved the Queen

Mario Balotelli demanded a kiss by the Queen in case Italy won against Costa Rica. In the end, Costa Rica won the game (and Cabeça de Macaco predicted the exact score). This result means that Costa Rica advanced to the second round and that England did not.

In the second game of the day, France won easily by scoring 5 goals against Switzerland. There could have been 6th, but the referee whistled to end the game only half-a-second before the ball went in. Again, Cabeça de Macaco scored some points.

The Swiss are famous for their impenetrable defense

The final game of the day was Honduras 1 - Ecuador 2. Cabeça de Macaco predicted the exact score! 

What about the standings? Is Cabeça de Macaco already 1st? Find out here.

8th day of the competition

The two South-American teams, Colombia and Uruguay, won today. Thanks to Luis Suarez, England's advance into the second stage is in danger.

Luis Suarez scored the two goals for Uruguay.

Check out the standings. Serginho Matos continues to be 1st. Now with a 14-point lead!

Nameless

Australia, Cameroon, and Spain are the first teams eliminated from the 2014 World Cup after losing their games today. The surprise result was the defeat of Spain by Chile. It was correctly predicted by four Bolão participants.

Disclaimer: "Past performance does not guarantee future returns."

More importantly, the Spanish national team has lost the game and it's name! As I'm sure everybody knows, so far, the Chilean and Spanish national teams had shared the same nickname: "La Roja". However, a Chilean campaign demanded unique ownership of the name. The dispute was settled in today's game. The winner takes it all, including the name.

If you are a supporter of any of the teams eliminated today, don't despair. You still have the Bolão to keep you occupied! That's all that matters.

Speaking of the Bolão, Serginho Matos is still at the top of the official standings but competition is moving in. Cabeça de Macaco is 130th.

___
UPDATE: Disappointed with the game, Juan Carlos I, resigned as king of Spain. His son, Felipe VI, is the new king. Because Felipe is a long-time supporter of Atlético de Madrid, he has a higher tolerance for losses.

Paul the Octopus

Belgium 2 - Algeria 1; Brazil 0 - Mexico 0; Russia 1 - Korea 1. An inspired Mexican goalkeeper... However, the story of the day was that Google resuscitated Paul the Octopus as a Google doodle.

Paul the Octopus: Am I Feeling Lucky?

Of course, an octopus is no match for a macaco. While Paul was still submerged in doubts, scratching his head, and trying to figure out the Brazil-Mexico game, Cabeça de Macaco had correctly predicted the tie and was climbing up the rankings table.

Too bad Cabeça de Macaco missed the other two games and ended up 131th. Meanwhile, Serginho Matos continues at 1st place, with exactly 100 points. Renata Maria Gasparini moved up to 2nd and Julián to 3rd. The complete standings are here.

Tradition

Today's most interesting game was Germany - Portugal, which Germany won 4-0. At the end of the game, Portugal’s coach, Paulo Bento, questioned the integrity of the referee, Milorad Mazic, and called him 'biased'.

The truth is that Mazic is just following a long-standing tradition, according to which, whenever a former World Champion plays a first-round game against a team which has never won a World Cup, it is entitled to a dubious penalty ruling. Don't believe it? Look at the evidence: Brazil, Spain, Uruguay, and France, all of them former champions, were awarded dubious penalty kicks under this rule. So far, Argentina was the only exception (but that's because they wisely chose to save their penalty for a later game). Notice that for England and Italy, also former champions, the rule didn't apply, as they played against each other.

Having said that, referee Milorad Mazic exhibited considerable bias when he single-handedly injured two of Portugal's players, and unjustly sent off well-meaning Pepe with a red card.

Picture showing Pepe, who is gently brushing his head against Müller while inquiring about the German player's wellbeing

Today was also the first tie in the World Cup: Iran 0 - Nigeria 0. The other game was Ghana 1 - USA 2. As usual, the updated standings can be found here.

Fourth day of the competition

Today we broke a record: 126 participants correctly predicted the win by both France and Argentina. And out of those 126 people, in both cases, 32 correctly predicted the score (3-0 against Honduras, in the case of France, and 2-1 against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the case of Argentina). These results by Bolão participants top our previous record, in the opening game. In that game 121 participants had correctly predicted the win by Brazil. Unfortunately, Cabeça de Macaco was wrong in all three cases.

Good news for Serginho Matos. He is now at the top of our official standings.

Third day of the competition

There were several matches today. Colombia 3 - Greece 0. Uruguay lost against Costa Rica (1-3), an event predicted by only three Bolão participants! The other matches were England 1 - Italy 2 and Côte d'Ivoire 2 - Japan 1.

Sergio M Silveira Filho leads the Bolão, with 50 points. Joca, MessiZita, Seppel, and Serginho Matos are tied at the second place, with 48 points. At the other extreme, swamped by adverse results, we have La Fiera with only 6 points. Cabeça de Macaco is at a decent 105th position. The whole table with Official Standings is here.

Friday the 13th

Referees continue to meddle with our Bolão, trying to influence our noble competition, but this time their impact was neutralized by how things turned out.

The big news of the day, no doubt, was Spain 1 - Netherlands 5. Who would have predicted that? Nobody predicted the exact goal count, but the 14 people who predicted a win by Netherlands moved up in the rankings.

Spain's innovative 0-4-3-3 formation didn't work.

Updated standings are available here. Good news for Cabeça de Macaco. He scored some points today.

Opening game

The opening game starts out with Croatia on top, but Brazil is able to turn it around and win 3-1. The Brazilian national team has shown it has the resources needed to win games of this caliber.

Yuichi Nishimura, the referee

Cabeça de Macaco didn't score any points this time. Did you? Take a look at the current standings.

Predictions are online

All predictions are online and can be checked out here (careful, large file). In the unlikely event that your prediction is not included, please complain forcefully.

Cabeça de Macaco is feeling confident.

By the way, Cabeça de Macaco predicts Brazil 0 - Croatia 2 for today. Will he be right?

The Bolão is ready. Let the World Cup begin!

Official start

After a four-year waiting period, finally, a new Bolão has started.

It has been a long wait. Let's enjoy! We will be updating the Bolão standings as frequently as possible. Ideally, on each day there is a game.

What did you predict for today's Brazil-Croatia?

Submit your predictions now!

There is only one day left to submit predictions for the Bolão da Copa 2014. The deadline is JUNE 11, 23:59 Brasilia Time (GMT -3). Don't forget!

Participate in this year's Bolão!

Treat yourself!

We're back!

It's official... The Bolão da Copa is back this year! And this time the World Cup is in Brazil, the home country of Cabeça de Macaco.

We'll be posting the rules for the Bolão da Copa 2014 edition, and the spreadsheet for predictions, over the next few days.

Check this place obsessively for updates.