FoG

The final round of games in The Airtricity League are penned in for Fri 24th Oct.  It looks like a toss of a coin for top spot.  Cork City are 1 point clear, but Dundalk have home advantage as the top two teams meet on the last day.  There is excitement like this in no other league in Europe that I am aware of.   With seven months  remaining in the "better" leagues in Europe, the only excitement left is to see if Bayern (already 1/20 odds on favourite) will be crowned champions before Easter, or before Christmas.  Or whether Barca/Messi will win La Liga this season over Real/Ronaldo.   In the League of Ireland the tension is maintained throughout the season and right up to the final day.    Chart: Predictability based on Outright Odds from Paddypower  (19 Oct 2014) English Premier League followers had a treat in 2011/12 when Man City pipped Man Utd on goal difference on the last day.  However that was the exception t...

So we are down to 8 teams left and it is getting hard to pick from them.  The second round games were closer than most expected.  Brazil and Costa Rica required penalties.  Germany, Argentina and Belgium required extra time.  Netherlands required a last minute winner and France took 79 minutes to break down their non-fancied opposition.  Colombia were the only team that qualified with relative ease. So the face of the competition changes  again.  This time it is Belgium and Colombia that have made the biggest strides according to the bookies.  Their odds before the Round of 16 of 20/1 have both shortened quite dramatically to 12/1.  Netherlands have closed the gap to move closer to the big 3 again.  Despite making it to the Quarter Finals Argentina are no more likely to win the competition than they were before the tournament - they remain at 4/1.  Is this an indication that they have failed to impress so far?  Germany have a...