FoG

Nigeria and Algeria were the last African teams standing today.  Both were knocked out to end another World Cup where the African  teams have underachieved.  It was somewhat of a topsy turvy tournament for the African nations.  On 21st June Nigeria beat Bosnia-Herzegovina and two days later Algeria beat Korea.  The bookmakers sat up and paid attention and the odds of an African team to lift the trophy began to take a steep uphill trajectory.  However the elimination of Ivory Coast  on the 25th was the beginning of the end of the African dream.  The chart shows the estimated probability of an African team winning the World Cup.  Estimated probabilities are based on the bookmakers odds (eg evens => 50%, 2 to 1 => 33%).  So ends another World Cup riddled with disappointment for the African Continent. Egypt was the first African team to take part in the World Cup in 1934 but fell at the first hurdle.  There was no African teams present at the finals again until 1970.  By 19

Costa Rica won through on penalties against Greece today.  So far the Costa Ricans have been the story of the competition.  It reminds me of the 1990 World Cup and puts into perspective Ireland 's achievement there, where they too reached the quarter finals. In the other game Netherlands  were on the verge of going out until they made a late comeback against Mexico . Mexico to me were another bright spark in the tournament and part of me is disappointed that they are going home.  Another part of me though will be happy if Netherlands can go forward now and put a new name on the trophy - the elite of nations of world football need shaken up a little in my opinion.  We need a new winner and Netherlands probably is the best hope for this. Both Netherlands and Costa Rica have been involved in some very unexpected results.  To celebrate this fact here is a list of some of the odds that the bookmakers were offering for some of the more unexpected twists of this World Cup so far that

The Round of 16 started off with a whimper (a stalemate between Brazil and Chile) and continued with a roar (as Colombia produced maybe the goal of the tournament as they dismissed a toothless Uruguay) today.  I was disappointed that Neymar didn't try this though. Country Shootouts Won Lost Percent Belgium 1 1 0 100% Germany 6 5 1 83% United States 5 4 1 80% Colombia 4 3 1 75% Nigeria 10 7 3 70% Argentina 10 6 4 60% Brazil 10 6 4 60% Algeria 4 2 2 50% France 6 3 3 50% Costa Rica 7 3 4 43% Mexico 10 4 6 40% Netherlands 5 1 4 20% Switzerland 1 0 1 0% There has been a penalty shootout in the very first knockout game in Brazil.  Last time out in 2010 there was only a total of 2 shootouts.  The record was set in 1990 and equalled in 2006 .  In both of those World Cups we saw 4 matches decided on penalties. USA need to be careful not to push Belgium  to penalty shots.   Belgium are the only team left in the competition that can boast a 100% r