Sweden and England

In the first of today's games Sweden played against Switzerland. None of these teams ought to be in the World Cup at this stage, so it was efficient to have a game to eliminate at least one of them. Today it was Switzerland's turn. The game was played in St. Petersburg and, therefore, it was one of those games on which Achilles customarily makes predictions. Today he was mistaken again and Cabeça de Macaco was briefly amused by this turn of events... but only until he found out that in the second game England defeated Colombia in the penalties. Terrible news for our beloved monkey mascot, who had predicted that Colombia would win the World Cup!

A notable event in the Colombia-England game was the penalty awarded to Kane after what looked more like an offensive foul commited by himself. In any case, Kane is now the top scorer in the World Cup with 6 goals.

In today's standings, LucasA is 1st, Papa Patrick 2nd, and Will and Carlos (TCW) 3rd. A Man Like Trump is just one point behind, on the 4th place. The complete standings are here.

Achilles strikes out

Groups C and D came to an end today. In group C, Peru put continent-hopping Australia in their place and beat them by 2-0. France and Denmark tied 0-0, making it the first game without goals in the World Cup. In group D, Croatia won against Iceland and Argentina against Nigeria. The win by Argentina was correctly predicted by 107 participants, including Cabeça de Macaco, but not by Achilles the deaf cat, who had so far had 100% accuracy in his World Cup predictions but chose Nigeria this time.

No match for Achilles

As in the last several days, Papa Patrick and Micaela are in the first two positions. Iliana and Will and Carlos (TCW) are tied in the third place. The complete standings are here.

Achilles gets it right again

Today's games started out with a surprise loss by Colombia against Japan. Surprising indeed as only 4 Bolão participants predicted that Japan would win. Then Senegal won against Poland, as expected by 27 participants, and Russia against Egypt, as predicted by 44 participants, and by Achilles, the deaf cat... Actually, who knows what he predicted:

Achilles was tasked with predicting the winner in the Russia-Egypt encounter later tonight. The cat, as soon as he was presented with the two bowls, rushed to eat from the Russian bowl. But in a mood to puzzle the spectators, Achilles also ate from the bowl with the Egyptian flag. While the organizers are confident that he predicted a Russia win, is the cat hinting at a draw? Maybe he was predicting that Russia would score first but Egypt would equalize later? Or maybe he was just hungry and latched on to whatever food he got, without caring about which bowl he ate from first.

In any case, it was a bad day for Cabeça de Macaco, who didn't score a single point today. In fact, his predicted final is Colombia-Germany, which didn't look like a bad choice ex-ante but has lost some of its appeal given the last results.

It is a sad day for macacos

Congratulations to Papa Patrick and Micaela who continue to lead the standings. Chepa has now joined them in the 3rd place. Cabeça de Macaco is down to position 144. The complete standings are here.

A new record

Finally, Super-Angie scored some points today. So far, this participant had managed to maintain a score of zero for the first four days of competition, breaking a new record at the Bolão da Copa. Congratulations! Not even Cabeça de Macaco had been able to do that (Incidentally, for those of you who asked about this, read this old newsletter to learn how Cabeça de Macaco makes his random predictions). [Her alter ego Angie is doing much better at place 4]

Is this a picture of Super-Angie? Why didn't she use her superpowers against Mexico?

Today's wins of Sweden, Belgium and England left us with the following configuration at the top: Papa Patrick and Micaela continue in the first two positions and Paulinho is now 3rd. Cabeça de Macaco, who didn't profit from the last-minute goal of England, drops to position 142. The full standings are here.

Opening game

And the World Cup begins... Russia won against Saudi Arabia, as predicted by Achilles, the deaf cat, and Cabeça de Macaco. In total, 84 bets, including that of the Macaco predicted that Russia would win and that Saudi Arabia would score zero goals. They are now all placed in first place in our current standings. See here.

Achilles, the deaf cat, is preparing for the next prediction

Let's see how Achilles fares as the competition progresses. Be careful Achilles! Don't expose your heel or the Macaco is going to randomly throw bananas at it and outpredict you.

Final

So, who won?

The last-minute goal by Germany moved things around: Manfred ended up first, John Anderson 2nd, and Seppel 3rd.*

Cabeça de Macaco, occupied with random thoughts

Also, and this is probably the biggest piece of news of the day, it is the second time in a row that Cabeça de Macaco does not finish last in the Bolão. Congratulations to all!

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* Provisional results. As usual, our Excelmaster Paulo will cross-check all computations.
UPDATE: He has checked. Results are final.

A matter of four

The semi-finals have arrived. Just four teams remain in the competition: two from Europe and two from South America. Therefore, as it has always been, the World cup final will be played by teams from either Europe or South America.

Who will it be?

This year the Bolão also seems to be a matter of four. According to extensive simulations performed by our Excelmaster, this year's Bolão da Copa champion will be one of the four participants who are currently in the top three:  Seppel, Serginho Matos, Manfred, or Sandy.

Also, like four years ago, Cabeça de Macaco might not finish last.

On to the semi-finals

My cable and internet connections are working again! This means that I could watch today's matches unencumbered and that FIFA's evil plans were thwarted.

In the first game, Argentina won against apathetic Belgium because Belgian players couldn't decide on whether they wanted to score a goal or not. Indecisiveness seems to be their national trait.

The second game was much more engaging. Recall that Netherlands was tricked by Mexico into having to play against mighty Costa Rica. However, Netherlands ended up winning in the penalty shootout after Louis van Gaal substituted the goalkeeper by one who is an expert in stopping penalty shots. For some inexplicable reason, journalists around the world are calling van Gaal a genius for making such an obvious decision.

A revolutionary concept: in the penalty shootout use a goalkeeper who is good at it.

What about the Bolão? Seppel is 1st, Serginho Matos 2nd, and Manfred and Sandy are tied at the 3rd place. Cabeça de Macaco is up one position again. The complete standings are here.

The Round of 16 is over

In the first game, Argentina required supernatural assistance to win against Switzerland. Just when it looked like penalty shots were inevitable, an Angel miraculously scored a goal for Argentina.

Pope Francis declined to comment on whether he was involved.

The Belgium - USA match was also resolved in overtime. It was much more animated though: three goals were scored during the last 30 min. Belgium ended up advancing.

And now, on to the Bolão: Seppel is still 1st. He has increased his lead by 10 additional points. However, Serginho, Julián, Ale, and sandy are not far behind. Meanwhile, Cabeça de Macaco has gained one position. The current standings are here.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.