Almost there

We are just one day away from end of the Bolão (and the World Cup). Today, Brazil played another horrible game and Netherlands managed to finish third. Admittedly, this time, the referee was partially to blame.

Robben adds another item to his collection of techniques to obtain penalties: now he is able to get penalty calls also when outside of the penalty area.

More important affairs lie ahead. The question we all are asking is "Who will win this year's Bolão?" We'll find out tomorrow. In the meantime, the updated standings are here.

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.

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.

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.