Which country will emerge the victor? Can reigning champion Italy secure a repeat? Will the host country South Africa beat the odds? What about the secretive North Korean team? Can England finally repeat the victory of 1966?
Those are the question the world ponders today as 32 teams representing countries from every region of the globe begin the quest to capture the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The pundits have their guesses – and so do you dear readers and Twitterati.
Per responses received via email, Twitter direct messages, Twitter shouts and comments, your collective prediction for the winning country is ……
ARGENTINA
I am pretty sure all this Argentina support has absolutely NOTHING (*snort*) to do with coach and futbol legend Diego Maradona’s vow to run naked through the streets of Buenos Aires should they win. Guess I should book my ticket, eh?
(For the record, some of the experts agree with that choice. Brazil, Spain and maybe France are the other countries tossed around by the pundits.)
A big hug for @destigarribia who took the plunge and was the only one to post a public position on my blog with her picks!
@Pete4L contributed this mood setter to the mix. If you can’t figure out which team he is rooting for after watching this …. Ummmmm, I wouldn’t even know what to say.
It was funny this morning — both the CBC Radio morning sports guy and, of all people, their business analyst, picked Argentina after thinking about it for a while. They both did it by looking at all the various teams, complete with injuries and records and so on, and making deductions.
Who knew human activity was that reducible to cold, hard analysis?
Now watch some other team that no one expected come out of the blue and win it all, which Argentina gets eliminated early.
I picked The Netherlands as the winner.
But U.S. or South Africa are the ones I WANT to win.
Would love to see an unexpected winner!!