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There are still 100 teams participating in World Cup qualifying, 31 one of which will join the hosts for the big show in South Africa in 2010. But who really still has a shot to go? And who really should already be making their hotel reservations? Which of the big guns are in trouble?…
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Rank Country OFF Rating DEF Rating 1. Brazil 1.97 303.74 2. Spain 1.57 340.61 3. Argentina 1.80 247.19 4. Netherlands 1.49 295.77 5. England 1.59 248.67 6. France 1.41 279.39 7. Italy 1.38 268.03 8. Germany 1.87 191.00 9. Czech Republic 1.57 212.43 10. Portugal 1.46 204.98 11. Romania 1.33 218.92 12. Croatia 1.33…
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Here’s the list of the chances of qualifying based on the 10,000 simulations. Obviously no rounding was needed. Country Qualify% South Africa 100.00% Brazil 99.88% Australia 99.85% Paraguay 99.44% Japan 99.09% Spain 99.09% Netherlands 98.41% Argentina 98.34% Mexico 97.13% England 96.86% Korea Republic 95.59% USA 95.24% Germany 93.42% Italy 91.10% Iran 86.04% Côte d’Ivoire…
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Hi folks (if there’s anyone still there). I’m back after a long layoff. I could explain things further, but suffice it to say, life happens. But I’m back and will be posting more regularly (I hope). One thing to note is that the site will probably shift a little bit more in the soccer/other…
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I tell you, I don’t understand my fellow men sometimes. Such peculiar behavior. Professional sideline eye candy Erin Andrews seems to be causing a stir yet again. I think what’s happened here is that sideline reporters are supposed to be “attractive” and Erin is considerably above that bar. And so folks like Rick Sutcliffe…
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I have a post on whether Cliff Floyd was a winner. Back in my bicycle delivery days, a guy I worked with was neighbors with Cliff Floyd when he signed with the Expos. He liked to talk about the car Floyd bought with his signing bonus. Around this time (1992 or so) it was…
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One of the things that’s special about playing England in soccer is that you get to play a very good team whose press you can actually understand. In this particularly instance, a sans Landon Donovan U.S. team got easily handled 2-0 in New Wembley. In truth the game wasn’t as close as that scoreline.…
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Dan Connolly is unsure whether Mike Piazza meets his requirements as a Hall of Famer. Now it’s easy to jump all over someone when they say something that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and sometimes sensible people spout nonsense. I myself once argued that Major League pitchers have very little difference between…