World Cup South Africa 2010 is here!

Right, let's see if this can get the blog flooded with comments :D

The vuvuzelas are widely known for granting psychic abilities to those who hear them, so we can see who in the HoO has picked up on this the most. I'll pad this post out a bit more ( :P ) once I've put up the essentials:

Predictions will be accepted at any time prior to the first relevant match being played (this is the first group match in the case of predicting the winner of the group, or the actual match in the case of predicting the result). We will start with Netherlands vs Denmark tomorrow, from group E. Of course, you may submit guesses for any future games and final standing for groups F, G and H too.

Points for you are scored as follows:

For each game, you get 2 points for the correct scoreline, or just one point for the correct result (i.e. who won, or if it's a draw). If I guessed that England would beat the USA 2-1, then I'd get 0 points; if I guessed 2-2 then I'd get 1 point; a guess of 1-1 would net me the maximum 2 points (the score for that game was 1-1, if anyone didn't know :P).

For each group, you get 1 point for picking the correct winner and a further point for the correct runner up. I'll give you half a point for getting the top 2 correct but in the wrong order.

Now to test your long range forecasting skills - guess the eventual winner before the start of the knockout stages for a whopping 5 points (you can guess now, but might as well wait until there are only 16 teams left), guess it correctly before the quarter finals start for 3 points, 2 points for before the semis and 1 point for guessing the outcome of the final. Note that if you change your guess, I will only consider your latest guess - if I back Brazil to win now, and they do indeed win the whole thing, I'd get 5 points (plus 2 or 1 points if I guess the right score or just result in the final). If I back Brazil now, switch to Spain prior to the quarter finals then back to Brazil before the semi finals, I'd only get 2 points for Brazil winning.

Leave your guesses in the comments for this post below. I'll make a new post for each round of the competition if things get too clutteres. See the comments for my example guess, then leave your own!

Upcoming deadlines (all times and dates are in BST, but they are just the times of the kick-offs):

14th June:
1230: Netherlands vs Denmark and final group E standings
1500: Japan vs Cameroon
1930: Italy vs Paraguay and final group F standings

Groups and whens of matches