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.

Second finalist

After one of the most boring games in the World Cup, Argentina defeats Netherlands in the penalty shootout and advances to the final. For the third time in World Cup history, the final game is Argentina vs. Germany (they faced each other in 1986 and 1990, winning one each).

Yep, it doesn't always work as against Costa Rica

The Bolão ranking is more or less the same. Take a look at the updated standings.

First finalist

Germany advances into the final.

Klose scored his 16th goal in a World Cup

In the Bolão, Seppel is 1st, and Serginho 2nd. Manfred, who predicted the win by Germany, is 3rd, and just one point behind Serginho. The complete standings are here.

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.

Quarter-finals

Both my cable and internet connection were taken out by lightning, so I couldn't watch the games at home today. No doubt, this is part of an evil ploy by FIFA to keep me from my commitment to truthful reporting. From what I heard, both Germany and Brazil advanced. They'll face each other in the semi-finals.

What? Germany is next?

In the Bolão, Seppel is 1st, Serginho Matos 2nd, and Sandy is now 3rd. Cabeça de Macaco has dropped to the bottom of the table again. The 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?

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.

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.

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.

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.