Petar Svarc scored his second major grab from Bulgarians on Sunday night.

A couple of years after he snatched Vera Gerasimova from Bulgarian men, it was the Toto jackpot’s turn to fall victim to this modern-day vigilante.  And he didn’t even care – while the Totonians spent their last hours before the World Cup Final trying to find a grain of hope in the rankings, Svarc did not even watch the game, moving on instead to another location to try to overturn more ageing idols:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_9WNPXB9pE (malevolent action starts at 1:26)

As the Molets Stancho, situated in Rashev’s living room since 1986, correctly predicted, Spain were to come out victorious from the vicious and mostly ugly tactical duel with Holland to claim their first World Cup title. Say what you will, and all due respect to Holland for their unforeseeable success and good run, but Spain deserved this championship through and through. Here is why:

-          better defense, better ball control, more chances than the opposition and key goals in every game they played in this World Cup except their first one (against the team Bulgaria will battle for a spot in Euro 2012, hooray!)

-          San Iker has the best girlfriend this World Cup and it showed on national TV (ladies must have loved this moment):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Y9cYmv-og

-          But forget all that. Here is why Spain deserved to win the World Cup: as Iniesta scored the winner, he uncovered a T shirt which read ‘Dani Jarque siempre con nosotros’ (Dani Jarque always with us). This is in memory of Dani Jarque, an Espanol player who died of a heart attack at 26 last year. Now, you show me another team or player who has paid this tribute for a city rival player on such a stage, and just try to imagine somebody from Levski or CSKA ever doing something like that!

As the parade runs down El Gran Via in Madrid and the yellow and red shirts and flags swarm Spanish streets and fountains, Mr. Blatter himself has asked us to dispel the false accusation that there was an offside on the goal that Iniesta scored. While video replay showed clearly that at the second pass to Iniesta he was not offside, in the attached freeze photo you will note that in the FIRST pass to him he was not offside either. Note the white thing between (the crossing) Torres’ body and arm – this is the ball, so this is fractions after the moment of the pass (and note where Iniesta is in relation to Van der Vaart). I’m sure this doesn’t make Pavkata, Nedyalko or Mitaka feel much better, but let’s rest assured that this Cup was won by a proper goal.

Spain recorded a number of firsts:

-          First European team to win the Cup outside Europe

-          First team who lost its first World Cup game and went all the way later to win

-          First title for Spain, arguably the best football nation never to win one (together with Holland, of course… and Scotland, Pchela, and Scotland)

But enough about young men kicking silly balls and let’s turn to the more important topic – the less-than-dramatic White Toto conclusion. In the final four games, while high-ranking Totonians scrambled (admittedly or not) to predict differently than Svarc and save their chances, it was Svarc making the right calls of game winners, which automatically meant  that nobody else but Itso was to have a shot at the money bag. Alas for Itso, Spain did not win it in regular time on Sunday and he, much like Bayer Leverkusen, Michael Ballack or … Holland… was cursed to come second yet again, as he repeats his position from Euro 2008 – but what he has achieved certainly remains unattainable for much of this Toto Bunch. Bad luck, Zapryanov, but Braveau!

Time for the Bank to dish out some individual prizes (imaginary as they might be) for this White Toto:

A couple of football ones:

The Falsely Predicted to be An Awesome Young Star but Won’t Be Award – goes to Thomas Muller

The England Would Have Won It If The Lampard Goal Was Allowed Speculation Award – goes to England

The ‘Tripled His Value’ Award – goes to Luis Suarez

Best Goal Award – goes to Van Bronckhorst against Uruguay

Best Save Award – goes to Luis Suarez, again

And, more importantly, a couple of Toto ones:

Best Prediction – Savoy for Australia – Serbia 2-1 (only Savoya got any points from that game, and he got an exact score)

Most Consistent Player – Svarc who had only 6 points difference between the points he generated in the group phase and elimination round (everyone else made much more points in the group phase with one exception) and won without any additional bonus points. Plus, he got points from more games than anyone else.

The Phoenix Award – goes to Filimonov who was last after the group phase and while spending the elimination round in the seaside wilderness and barely managing to submit predictions finished …. 3^rd overall! (perhaps a valuable lesson to us all who think too hard or analyse too much)

The Premature Ejaculation Award – goes to Mostuna who was in the lead after the group phase only to finish 17^th in the end

The Drunken Sniper Award – goes to Atzata for getting only one exact score (everyone else had at least 3)

The Passed Rich Great Grandmother Award – goes to Prezidenta for benefitting from both goalscorer and champion bonuses in the end

The Wannabe-Rapper Award – goes to Rashev for being too dependent on Ghana for points (highest avg. points from a single team = 5 pts/game from Ghana of all Totonians)

Please find attached the final Statistical Digest (paperback edition available exclusively by Avendi’s Office Konica Minolta Publishing House at USD 9.99 for those interested!). Some additional final stats highlights:

-          If we bet for real money and bet 1 BGN on each game, we would have lost 111 BGN in the course of this competition. Only 6 of us would have made money at all. Sad, sad, sad.

-          If we did not vote to double the exact score / goal difference bonuses after the group phase, we would have had the same winner. The only semi-significant consequence would have been that Filimonov would have been 6^th, no 3^rd, and Savoy 6^th, not 13^th.

Save your ideas, notes and emails for Euro 2010’s system discussion WHEN the time comes in a couple of years. One small note: it turns out that FIFA do have a tiebreaker for top goalscorer – if several players end up with the same number of goals (like now), the tiebreaker is assists – in this way Muller got the Golden Boot. Perhaps we should ensure that we take only the similarly-selected really-top goalscorer next time?

With this the Bank signs out for this World Cup. The money will be waiting at the Bank for Svarc to collect and then promptly discharge in a boisterous and hedonistic Closing Party. The Molets Stancho predicts so!

Over and out,

El Banco Blanco

p.s. I’ve copied the winner’s spouse for two reasons – for our sake, so that Svarc knows he cannot spend the jackpot for individual purposes and for Svarc’s sake, so that the origin of the money that Svarc suddenly comes into (albeit briefly) is pre-explained.

It has come down to a two-man showdown.

Quite simply, if Spain win in regular time tonight, Hristo Zapryanov wins the White Toto. If not, Petar Svarc takes it.

Odds favour Itso as not only are Spain favourites in the game tonight, but the Psychic Octopus has picked them as well (the two facts might very well be linked).  None of the other Totonians have a chance any longer, unfortunately. I’m sure the two are already deep in planning the generous party which they will be throwing for all the rest of us!

The other intriguing storyline tonight is whether Petkov will manage to avoid last place – he will do so only if he grabs an exact score 2-1 for Spain tonight, in which case Atzata will have this honor.

But enough digesting for now, let’s concentrate on preparing to welcome the 8^th Champion of the World, whoever it is!

Adios,

La Caixa

It’s official: with last night’s win of Holland over Uruguay, we are guaranteed to have the first ever European World Cup championship claimed outside Europe! Hooray for Europe (even though Holland certainly have many historic reasons to feel at home in South Africa)!

It was a good semi with an unreasonable number of goals. The Cinderella Uruguay did not manage to go all the way, but Holland will be happy to get a third crack at the Cup after two failures, this time with a much-less inspiring team than the fantastic outfit from the ‘70s with Cruyff, Neeskens, Haan etc. and the beautiful machine from 1988 with Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard. But today we come to a true megaclash – the repeat of Euro 2008’s final (which, let’s not forget to mention, brought so much joy to Rashev and so much pain to several other Totonians).

Will Germany have its revenge and set up a repeat of the 1974 Final and another sparkling matchup between these two unfriendly neighbours, or will Spain capitalize on its top form in the past 5 years and look to build on its Euro 2008 championship in a matchup with Holland which will provide the first-ever world championship to either of these fine footballing nations?  

Moving to Toto business:

Kunev and Filimonov managed to squeeze in their predictions before the deadline, so we have submissions from everyone for the semis. I thank their captors for their leniency.

The first game of the semis strengthened the leadership position of Svarc and Itso but provided little movement within the table otherwise. I believe we can safely write off Torres and van Persie to reach 5 goals in this World Cup, so the only possible goal scorer bonus, and very likely at that, remains Tony Prezidenta’s for Villa. On the other hand, Holland and Spain still have a chance to donate a champion bonus to numerous Totonians.

So let’s review the rankings as they are WITH the hypothetical Villa and Spain+Holland bonuses included, for analysis’ sake:

Svarc continues to lead with the added comfort that Itso is more likely than not to lose the Spain bonus. Itso continues to be a close second and has now put all his eggs in the basket of Spain. Then come two gentlemen who favour Holland as champion – Mitaka and Nedyalko, close to each other, in this order, and within one-score striking distance of Svarc and Itso.

These are the only four gentlemen who currently stand at over 100 points.  Looking at the predictions that these four give for tonight’s game, I want to introduce you to my hidden Toto favorite: Mr. Ned San Delchev. He is the only one of the four to predict a draw, and should his prediction come true, he is assured of at least the coefficient+goal difference bonus – which will give him 5.4 points ahead of the top 3. Should he then guess EITHER the exact score OR the final winner, he comes straight into first place before the last two games!

Important announcement: after tonight’s game time will come for your last predictions. You know the drill. I know many are travelling – Minov to the US, Svarc to Serbia, etc. Please be mindful of your turn and your need to give predictions. Since me and Mostuna are also off to the seaside as of tomorrow and will not be able to supervise the process, I ask Pchelata to do so. Pchela, OK?

Linked subject: need a location to come together (if you wish) watch the final!

Ae chao,

BAN Co.

A really quick digest for you attention as warm-up to tonight’s first semifinal between The Netherlands and Uruguay.

First, kudos to Europe for …err….reconquering Africa …with football skill. Unless Uruguay perform more of their magic, we are set to witness the first time ever when an European team will win the World Cup outside Europe!

Second, all predictions are in except Kunev’s and Filimonov’s. We can only assume that these two continue to be mixed up in a complicated hostage situation, now both of them together. Hang in there, guys!

Third, to give you an idea of how solid Svarc’s lead right now is – despite the fact that he has no bonuses to wait for, if we were to give the bonuses to the highest ranking Totonian who has provided Spain as champion (Itso) OR to the highest ranking Totonian who has provided Holland as champion (Mitaka) OR to the only person who looks likely to benefit from the top scorer champion (who has also predicted Spain as champion, so he has a chance for that bonus as well – Tony Prezidenta) THEY WOULD STILL BE CURRENTLY BEHIND SVARC IN THE TABLE.  So, if Svarc nails both signs and at least one goal difference or exact score in these semifinals, it’s very likely to be… game over, folks!

Let’s not forget to praise the best performers in the quarterfinals – in keeping with the established tradition from previous rounds for the WORST performers in one stage to be the BEST performers in the next, the top two best performer spots in the quarters go to … Penchev and Kunev, some of the underachievers from the Round of 16, while the third goes to Filimonov, who is just killing everyone in the elimination phase, by far number one!

Last curious bit – Maxa and Ivo have given exactly the same predictions. This means that Ivo is fine with staying 5 points behind Maxa before the final two games..

So, all in all, Viva Espana and may the Force NOT be with Svarc and Minov!

Tootsiens,

bankadeseka

Friday, July 2, Green Point

As promised, the Bank provides today to you a statistical overview of the action so far. Since I was getting a sense that Kunev was not getting his money’s worth from the Toto (causing disinterest demonstrated in his lack of predictions for the Round of 16), I have produced the overview in a fancy powerpoint format, which will surely be appreciated by Mr. Kunev.

One more rule is introduced as of today – it is not subject to vote and will be administered immediately. The rule states:

If someone has a baby during the Toto Competition, he gets a point for each baby, regardless if he is actually a part of the Toto Competition.

Thus, with immediate effect our table of 28 is joined by a 29^th participant – Simo The Sex, with 2 points. Anyone else we need to join onto our group? Please inform Simo of the participation fee.

Also, please monitor the international news for any hostage demands against Filimonov’s person as he continues to be off the map, with phone switched off and predictions not submitted.

Half an hour to go till kickoff of the first quarterfinal! Good Luck to you all (nooot! Good luck to me only!)

Vaarwell,

Citi

Apologies for the radio silence yesterday – it’s just that the Monday games were so uninspiring and Toto rankings movements so insignificant that I had writer’s block, much like the one visible of late in Joana and …. the other one, what’s her name… from BNT’s Spectacular Phone Game (which already outperforms the damage inflicted by the repetitions of the Adidas Torsion commercial of 1990).

But we’re back:

To recap the final two days of the Round of 16:

Monday started with Holland economically overcoming Slovakia. It will soon be seen whether Holland can really turn it up against some serious competition, as they are set to play next Brazil, who strolled past Chile with ease that bodes well for their future in this tournament. Luis Fabiano improved his chances of reaching the top scorer plateau by adding one, but still trails behind Argentina’s Higuain.

Tuesday started with the first penalty shootout in which Paraguay outlasted Japan. The Bank, for one, is satisfied that this defensive and practical to the point of boredom Japanese team is on its way home, even though their effort is to be commended, and that South American dominance continues this World Cup with half of the Last 8 coming from that region. By the way, in the game, Cardoso showed how a decisive penalty should be taken.

Then the last game of the Round of 16 put Spain and Portugal together in the Battle for Iberia, traditionally associated with more dives than a kamikaze school (if there can even be such a thing as a kamikaze school?). In the first half most of the drama was created when some of the Spanish defence eyed with ill intent Fifi the Purple Longstockings, causing hurt to its feelings and a five-minute game delay as it burst into tears and needed soothing and calming. Another delay was caused when its Wonderbra caught the heel of Puyol during a jump ball and a replacement one needed to be flown in from Milano. In the second half, the action went both ways and Spain should consider themselves lucky to take it in regular time (causing significant upset and just-as-significant point loss to 17 Toto members!) Perhaps more importantly, Villa added one more and is now even with Higuain, shining a ray of hope to the whole Toto Bunch outside the Higuain Four that he will be able to overtake him and provide acceptable points to Prezidenta, while denying the huge bonus to the Higuain Four and keeping everyone from the Toto Bunch in the game (more on this later in this Digest).

A special shoutout goes to the heroes from Nike’s ‘Write the Future’ commercial (Drogba, Cannavaro, Rooney, Ribery, Ronaldinho and Azis’ Younger Sister) who are all now sitting in their really nice caravans, watching the World Cup on really nice black-and-white tellys, while the Adidas ad’s Messi and Villa prove to be two of the heroes of this tournament. I suppose Nike’s head of football marketing will also have a nice caravan of his own?

But enough about the football, let’s see more importantly what is happening with The White Toto!

The Surprising Minov jumped in front of the Toto Bunch for much of the Round of 16 with excellent performance and 3 exact scores, continuing his good momentum from the last of the group phase. The only one who is ahead of Minov in the current rankings (and outperformed him in the Round of 16 as well) was Svarc, who should be commended as the most consistent player in this round, getting points from 7 of the 8 games (if Japan had scored against Paraguay in regular time, he would have had points from all 8!) There was one man, though, who performed better than both in the Round of 16. Filimonov lead the way with over 30 points from some really valuable hits from 5 of the 8 games. Once again, in this Toto nobody is to be written off – after Savoya’s heroics in the third round of group play, now it was Filimonov’s turn to transform his last place finish after the group phase into a top position during the Round of 16. Speaking of Savoya, as he already noted himself, it seems that his magic was exhausted during group play. Much like a marathon runner who chose to sprint on the 32^nd kilometer, Savoya ran out of gas during the Round of 16 and amassed less than 7 total points. Other underachievers during the Round of 16 (excluding Kunev, who failed to provide any predictions at all) were Penchev, 5kov and Mostuna, who had a round to forget and dropped to 5^th after leading for most of the group play.

Vasko R set the new record for most points form a single game with 10.25 points from Paraguay’s penalty win against Japan. The Toto ranking remains as tight as ever – with the top ten within 10 points – therefore, just one single game can make the 10^th ranked – the leader! It’s been a tournament where every Totonian has blossomed for a period of time, with nobody performing consistently fantastic or consistently terrible…

It is the stage of the game where we need to start paying utmost attention to the champion and (even more so) to the goal scorer bonuses. The champion bonus is still available to everyone in the Toto bunch outside the 6 perennial optimist fools who bet on England. Totonians’ favourites Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Holland look capable of winning it all and the (relatively small) bonus that this will provide just may make all the difference in the end!

It’s a bit of a different story with the goalscorer bonus. As you know, this bonus is quite significant and as the way things stand now with Higuain sitting at the top slot, Itso continues to be effectively the current leader in the rankings, and the rest of the Higuain Four would be well-advised to zoom in on him. Should Villa (who is tied at 4 goals with Higuain) overcome him, however, this will not only move Prezidenta into contention, but open up the competition and make it dependent on the last games’ points and champion bonus, which all neutral fans and observers would like very much! Luis Fabiano, Rashev’s favorite, is also in the running and should he manage to outscore Higuain he will provide Rashev with a bit of an edge on everyone else (but not too much). The only other Toto scorer favorite who looks capable of grabbing the goalscorer bonus currently is Tevez with 2 goals. This might explain Kunev’s radio silence in the last couple of weeks – Kunev just figured: “what the hell, if I get Tevez’ bonus I win, screw the games/points”. He may just be correct – wouldn’t this be a shocker! The Bank currently does not like van Persie, Messi and Kaka’s chances to get to 4 or more goals, no matter how many chances they create, while Torres and Milito should effectively be written off – Torres being is such terrible shape that he is no longer ensured of a starting spot and Milito ensured NOT to have a starting spot on the Argentina squad in the coming important games with Higuain’s prolific performance so far.

Enter the quarterfinals – traditionally the most exciting stage in each tournament! There is no excuse for the rest of the games to be watched privately at home by Toto members and such actions are from this point onwards deemed unacceptable! It is time for the Toto bunch to start coming together during live games to discuss strategy, performance, FIFA’s mother, etc. Unlike Joseph Blatter, we are not hesitant to use technology and telebridges can easily be established with Basel, California, and wherever the hell Kunev currently is (Kunev, if you have been kidnapped by the Mujahideen and they expect us to give away the Toto jackpot to get you back, tell them to forget it!). During the Round of 16 Mostuna initiated some gatherings and we need to build on that. Let’s build a flexible schedule of locations for watching the last 8 games – I suggest this schedule contains the two proven locations: Skara Bar @ Sfumato and Ozeleniavaneto @ Spartak. Plus possibly Kino Arena – in 3D?

Coming up tomorrow – The Statistical Edition of the Digest – full of useless statistical tidbits – fun for nerds!

Sala kakuhle,

Der Kasse

p.s. RIP Gundi and Kotkov!

p.p.s if you are watching games online and are not using this site, you are a fool: www.eurovisionsports.tv

After a three-day break, the Bank is back with the Digest with lots to catch up on. Going chronologically through the events of the past three days:

Friday concluded group action, with Spain and Brazil managing to finish atop their groups and avoid meeting each other in the Round of 16 and Chile and, sadly, Portugal, home of the Nameless Pink Creature, progressing as well. We concluded the group action for the Toto Bunch as well, with Mostuna barely in the lead after Friday and Filimonov rounding out the bottom of the pack. It’s been an exciting and dynamic group phase with lots of surprises and as a result the Toto Bunch were squeezed pretty tightly together with no one breaking out and no one lagging too so far behind that he couldn’t catch up with good elimination phase predictions.

Let’s break down some of the stats highlights from the group phase:

-          The first round of group play belonged to Mostuna, who established an early lead which he held in the end as well. Second top performance was Ned San’s, with Svarc coming third. The worst performer was K-Lo Raikoff.

-          Itso owned the second round of group play, outperforming by far runners-up Lora and Kunev. Shockingly (after his excellent first round performance) Ned San was the bad apple in the Toto Bunch on this round, lagging behind everyone else.

-          Then something quite strange happened in the third round. Savoy, who was trotting tiredly in 27^th place in the back of the Toto bunch until then, absolutely EXPLODED on the scene with the amazing nearly-42 points in the third round of group play (5 exact scores and 5 goal differences in 16 games!) moving himself to … 5^th place!!! Savoy was followed by Laci and Mitaka P, while the worst performer in the third round was Kunev.

-          Mostuna owned the exact scores of the group phase, with 10, followed by Maxa with 9 and Itso, Lora and Krum with 8. On the other hand, Atzata and Filimonov had only 1, while Mitaka P shockingly did not manage to get even one.

-          To compensate, Mitaka was not to be outdone in the goal difference category, finishing with 11 (!). Let me say this again: Mitaka had 0 (zero) exact scores nailed but 11 (eleven) goal differences! If we examine more closely the issue, we find out that on all but two occasions, Mitaka got the scoreline proportion right, but OVERSHOT the number of goals. In the next phases, Mitak, you might want to play it a bit more conservatively with the number of goals scored.

-          Weird Stat of the Day – courtesy of Mostuna and Svarc – if you had predicted 0-0 or 1-1 score (doesn’t matter which one) for ALL group games, you would have had about 70 points after the group phase, which would put you in …. 4^th place, only five points behind the leader. I am certain that Prezidenta has just written this down in a notebook called “otvori me prez May 2012”.

Then onto the quarterfinals, where Uruguay and Argentina claimed expected victories (Tevez from Argentina following the fine Argentinian tradition of scoring one illegal and one great goal in the same game) while USA were upset by Ghana in extra time and England were outpaced and outscored by Germany. While there is no doubt that England on the whole were the inferior team on Sunday, we cannot avoid sparing a few thoughts on FIFA in relation to the scandalous non-goal-call on Frankie Lampard’s shot, which hit the crossbar and then landed a good foot inside the goal line. These ‘thought’s are a bit long so I will put them in italic and in a distinct section called ‘FIFA’s Killing of Football’:

FIFA’s Killing of Football

We already had a few harsh comments on FIFA and its leadership in relation to their decision to appoint World Cup refereeing seemingly on the affirmative-action principle, with some of these referees so obviously-incapable of dealing with football at this level, that it would have been hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. Mind you, we are criticizing FIFA’s appointment of these referees, not their actions. When you put an idiot in front of a red button with a ‘don’t push’ sign, you can’t really blame him for pushing it in a matter of seconds and whoever put him there is the person to blame.

We also briefly mentioned how lucky the world is that another FIFA-caused injustice – France’s qualification at the expense of Ireland due to Le Hand of Frog – was self-corrected by France’s self-destruction. This injustice was obviously caused by FIFA’s continued stonewalling of proposals to introduce video replay. While the French ‘incident’ was reason enough to take action on this topic, what transpired on Sunday in Bloemfontein seems to take this over the boiling point. A Lampard goal so obvious there was no replay needed even, was not recognized by the referees – a blatant mistake that could have been corrected in less than 10 seconds.

Here is what FIFA think of video replay:

“The door is closed. The decision was not to use technology at all,” said Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke in March, shortly after the handball by Thierry Henry. “Technology should not enter into the game, it was a clear statement made by the majority of the IFAB,” added Valcke. “Let’s keep the game of football as it is.”

Let’s review the three main reasons that FIFA provides for not even considering video replay:

1. 1.       “Human error is part of the game of football”. By this measure I suggest that science gives up on drugs research since ‘disease deaths are a part of life’. I am actually quite disappointed with science with finding the cure for the plague, malaria and diabetes and interfering so blatantly with nature’s course. I say, and Change-Averse Sepp agrees, let fate and nature take what is theirs, natural selection at its finest! Hey Blatter, why don’t you share this statement with side ref Bogdan Dochev, who’s had to answer questions like ‘Why didn’t you see it?’ ‘Why didn’ you rule it?’ and ‘Are you a retard?’ every day for the past 25 years after his mistake on Maradona’s handball goal in Mexico’86.
2. 2.       “The universality of the game – there are no resources to introduce video replay everywhere, so none should have it”. While we could apply the above counter-argument here as well, let’s stop and think of just how hollow this statement rings. Maybe it’s just me, but I failed to catch the global wave of indignation caused by furious neighbourhood tennis playing amateurs, fuming that their local hard courts lacked Eagle-eye technology? Here I suggest that since not all National Football Unions can afford to house themselves in high-end modern and expensive structures like FIFA’s HQ in Zurich, FIFA take the lowest common denominator – the Somalian Football Union shack-made-of-straw and model all headquarters housing football authorities the world over after it, what say you, eh, Sepp? Also, Blatter, let’s abandon technology in all spheres of football to even the playing field – from new ball technology to shoes and equipment technology and play barefoot with a ball of cow testicles hide, like they do in most of Africa. This is what I call being serious about having a Universal Game!
3. 3.       “There cannot be stoppage to the clock in football like other sports.” That’s incorrect. There is plenty of stoppage in football as well for various reasons (injuries, smoke grenades, power outages, fights, etc), and a perfect mechanic to compensate for it (the referee adds respective time on at the end of the half). North American professional sports have been using video replay for about ten years now, in some degree. In the NFL video replay is used as follows: each team coach can ‘challenge’ up to three referee rulings per game. The play is reviewed and if the challenge is correct, the call is reversed. If not, the team which challenges loses a timeout (which is quite important in American football since timeouts stop the running time and are an essential part of game strategy). There are already countless numbers of cases where game-deciding calls have been rightfully reversed in important games. In NHL, instant replay is used only on issues concerning goals (or not). Here the refs are encouraged to stop the play themselves and review situations where a goal has been called or not called in controversial circumstances. Just in this year’s NHL’s Finals, two goals were correctly given or overturned because of replay. The NBA uses replay to determine if shots have been taken before time expires, and replay allows refs to make the right call. Major League Baseball is the only league which does not use video replay, and it recently came under hellfire for not doing so after a referee made the wrong call (called a guy ‘SAFE’, when he was ‘OUT’) on the last OUT of a Perfect Game (a baseball Perfect Game is when a pitcher gets absolutely everyone on the other team out in the 9 innings – to give you the perspective how big a deal it is – it has only happened about 20 times in about 150 years of baseball history!). Expect MLB to introduce video replay shortly. Video replay calls are now not only a regular feature of North American sports, but they are so efficient and the tension they provide to fans so dramatic, they are now an essential part of the excitement during games.

Let me propose a quite simple initial use of video replay in football:

It’s only used in relation to decisions related to goals – and only in two cases:

-          when there is doubt that a goal scored is not proper and

-          when there is doubt that the ball has crossed the goal line but a goal has not been given

ONLY those two situations – not offsides, not card offenses, not anything else. The review is made by either the 4^th ref (sitting at a video screen) alone, or by a 4^th ref together with the main ref coming in to look at the screen. The review happens at the first stoppage of play thereafter – in the first case – immediately; in the second case – when there is a stoppage for whatever reason. The clock doesn’t stop – the call is made in about 30 seconds, and time is added on the clock after end of the 45 minutes, just like for any other delay or stoppage. The refs are encouraged to initiate review of the situations themselves, but the two coaches are also given the right to demand a review if the refs do not do it, once per game. Video replay is to be introduced first only in major tournaments, like the  World Cup and the Euro, maybe later in Champions League, etc.

Simple and working. No more hand ball goals. No more offside goals. No more goals missed.

So, why can tennis do it, why can the Americans do it, and why can working solutions of limited replay use be figured out easily, but FIFA still doesn’t want to do it? Well, my friends, we are left with the only possible explanation – it is not in FIFA’s interest to do it. Referee errors are an instrument to influence games. This is the type of organization FIFA is – a backwards, in-bred collection of bureaucrats disinterested with the sporting nature of the organization, ready to do anything to hold onto absolute and unchallenged control. Let me remind you FIFA is the organization that imposes penalties on countries whose government structures dare to review the matters of their football unions, effectively preventing all independent and public supervision of the state outside FIFA’s own vertical structures! Can you believe this?? The European Commission does not have the power to make a member state do anything it doesn’t want to do, it can only prescribe and recommend, but a state cannot do anything to touch or audit … football unions!? And excuse me, but when was it decided that the Swiss are to run Football? What do the Swiss have to do with football’s history? We saw what happened two years ago when we let the Swiss run Money! (Thankfully, now the Chinese have come to run Money).

In summary, I call officially that this corrupt and retrogressive cartel called FIFA be smitten off the face of this earth and that football be run by a wide representation of people related to the sport. Pavka, I appoint you chief executive of this effort, I know how much you love to delist things.

Delist FIFA, now.

Now that we got this absolute disgrace out of the way, let’s see how the Toto bunch did on the weekend. Embarrassed by his last place in the group phase, Filimonov entered the Round of 16 with a flash grenade and a warrior shout (meaning three exact scores and Ghana predicted correctly as extra-time winner in the game with the USA) and is currently the best performer on the Round of 16, followed closely by Minov and Svarc. We are left to wonder if Minov, who has quietly moved into second, is playing the dead fox game in complaining continuously about his inability to comprehend the online-based scoring and dependence on Excel and email predictions submissions. Therefore, to level the playing field we will require that Minov submit his predictions for the next phases online, just like everyone else, and will leave the online ‘Класиране’ section as his only means of informing himself of his current standing. I hereby ask all non-Minov Toto members to adhere to this communication restriction for their own sake.

In the ‘if we played for real money’ parallel storyline – we continue to suck, now 123 BGN in the hole. Only the top 8 in the rankings + Mitaka, Vasko and Pavkata would have made money – all the others lose. The Sneaky Minov has now collected the most bonus points so far – 31, while Atzata depends mostly on the coefficients alone, with a mere 6  bonus points so far.

Bad news from the Argentina game for most Totonians – after being caught up by a number of scorers at 3 goals total, Higuain scored one more to once again shoot in front with 4 goals and give the edge once again to the Higuain Four, the most advanced of which, Itso, remains the hidden favorite currently in this year’s competition as things stand. All champion favourites are still in the running except for England. And what can we say about Rooney – what a nightmare of a tournament he had – let’s hope his poor performance translates into a depressed form for Man Utd next season.

Today we are set for more Round of 16 action, with Holland taking on surprising Slovakia and Brazil looking at a less-comfortable-than-expected encounter with Chile which will see the first South American team to exit this tournament. What a fantastic performance by South America this World Cup – all five South American teams are still in the running (which cannot be said for Euro powerhouses England, Italy and France) with two already qualified for the last 8, how about that!

Ngeyavalilisa,

El Banco

p.s. I urge once again Kunev to submit his predictions for the remaining Round of 16 games and salvage some points. Kunev, kade si be!?

It happened slowly, so no one would notice. Your Bank, however, stays ever vigilant, and noted that the majority of the top five slots have come to be occupied by the three members of the Bee family. We have contacted KZK immediately this morning and this undesirable situation will be scrutinized with extreme care by the authorities in the coming days. The order of predictions, the predictions themselves, any funds transfers between the three will be closely monitored (mind you, to make matters even more suspicious, the Bees are heavily linked to the financial services industry).

The Bank invited the top two performers currently in this year’s Toto – Mostuna and Itso – and the most-interested-by-the-upcoming-game Totonian – Svarc – for a quick Chat & Caviar during the Serbia game at the lush Bankia residence which the Bank has rented for the duration of the Tournament with the interest accumulated by the submitted-in-advance participation money. As the roaming tigers played with the also-roaming Afghan hounds in the gardens in the background, the four expressed their considerable concern with the Bees’ tactics and Marko Pantelic’s inability to put a ball in the net from 3 yards out (as one more-Serbian guest of the matinee put it: £!%!BEM TI %!$%!!4 £$!%%^!!£$, PANTELICU!!!!!!!).

Wednesday action shortened the lives of England and Serbia supporters. First it was England holding onto their slim lead by the tiniest of threads only to see Clint Dempsey’s late strike in the other group game promote the Yankees into first place. Just how significant this was became clear after the games in the other group were played – where Germany could have lost to Ghana but didn’t (only a fool would bet against Germany when they need to win) and Serbia was a meter away from qualifying after allowing two soft goals to spoilers Australia. Let’s all give Svarc a sympathetic moment here.

These developments now mean that:

-          On Saturday night in Chiflika (or wherever) we will watch the quite-ordinary game USA-Ghana instead of the inspired clash between Serbia and USA or a game featuring England.

-          The winner of Uruguay/South Korea will meet the winner of USA/Ghana in the quarterfinals, which means that one of these brave, but insignificant teams will feature in this year’s semifinals!! This makes Serbia’s exit all the more painful as it is clear that they might have had an excellent chance to make true history with a Final Four appearance.

-          On the other hand,  quite a bittersweet way to qualify for England, as they are now not only set to meet Germany in the Round of 16 on Sunday, but to play… Argentina, should they progress to the quarterfinals (and should Argentina, of course, not be upset by Mexico)!

But, in a way it’s perhaps better for England to meet strong teams. We, their fans, would have hated more to see them lose by penalties to one of the likes of Ghana or Uruguay.

Thursday was a pretty average day for the Toto guys with no one making giant strides in either direction with points collected except two gentlemen: Kole, who fell behind the core group’s result for the day with another round of risky bets not paying off, and Savoy, the Player of the Day, who not grabbed points from all games, not only was the only one to predict correctly the Australia win over Serbia (with an exact score at that!) but outscored the second best performer on the day by over 6 points, moving himself in the process from 27^th to 20^th place in one day. The time has finally come to congratulate Savoy for a great job!

We must also note Mostuna’s streak, however. Mostuna is red hot – check this: after he came off a streak of 4 straight games with points (including 2 exact scores) on the final game of second round action, since the third-round of group play began (a round which we all say was the most difficult to predict before the tournament because of the unclear standings after two rounds and the teams’ strategy), of the 8 games Mostuna has 4 exact scores and 1 goal difference hit! Let’s hope that as of today Mostuna’s luck runs dry like Metodi Manchenko’s arsenal of jokes and witty comments.

All’s quiet on the goal scorer front, with Rooney going scoreless again and seeming less and less likely to feature in the top scorers, especially in mind of his team’s difficult road ahead.

Today groups E and F will be in action. With Holland all but assured to win group E, the key questions that remain are:

- who will be the second team in this group and

- on which place will Italy end up in group F, if they qualify at all

Denmark and Japan will decide the answer to the first question in their direct matchup, while group F is still surrounded in fog: Italy is ensured to qualify with a win, but the pathetic thing is that they will also qualify with a draw, should Paraguay beat New Zealand. That would be an injustice of epic proportions! The top spot in this group is certainly desirable, as the group winner will likely face Denmark or Japan next, while the 2^nd team will likely square off against in-form Holland. But we cannot rule out Slovakia and New Zealand, who with a win today also are nearly certain to go through.

Laci is the person who goes against the flow in group F action, predicting New Zealand to beat Paraguay AND Slovakia to beat Italy, while in group E only Lora likes Cameroon over Holland and only Pavkata and Kole like Japan over Denmark. Will all of them make strides against the rest, or fall further down, remains to be seen.  

Rhonanai,

Marko van Banco

p.s. England fans are invited to watch England-Germany in JJ Murphy’s at 5pm on Sunday. Germany fans arriving will be stripped, robbed and beaten.

p.p.s. unrelated announcement – Beer Pong Session, tonight, 9pm Alcohol, join at will

After Le Hand of Frog (Thiery Henry’s classic grope against Ireland) most of the sane world has rooted for the French to fail miserably in this World Cup. Fate provided retribution and closure for the Irish as the French were simply awful this World Cup in every imaginable way and are rightfully en route to their summer vacation this early. It is difficult to have foreseen a different destiny for Les Blahs with their immiscible collection of individualists and idiot coach. Fare well, frogs, you will not be missed! On a sad note, it appears that Gignac, or as Maxim magazine called him „любимеца на Гугутки и Пчели” will not be able to contribute to Pchelata’s success in the White Toto any longer.

Four members of the Toto gave what now seems somewhat-logical, but at the beginning of the tournament seemed a really far-out prediction for a South Africa win and got plenty of points for the exact 2-1 score nailed. Good job!

Contrary to popular belief, Uruguay and Mexico did not arrange a friendly draw and Uruguay actually made a huge favour to the French, who only had to beat South Africa by two goals to make it through. But it was never meant to be. Uruguay have set themselves up for an manageable Round of 16 game against Korea, while Mexico will have to live with being outsiders against Argentina.

In group B, a record 14 Totonians predicted exactly how an unmotivated Argentina will stroll past the ugly team of Greece (prompting another little gallop down the sideline by D10S) and will prove that there is Football Justice. We all hope that this destructive, defensive and uninspiring Greek team will be absent from  major competition action for the rest of our lifetime, after we had to endure them during the whole Euro in 2004 – and Argentina made our wish come true. While most of the top starters were rested, Messi surprisingly appeared in the lineup.

This was no accident and brings me to the first real investigative reporting bit that the Bank managed to carry out this Tournament. Since we cannot prove any of it, we will not use names, but hopefully you’ll get the picture. Still sitting in his Kosharite Hacienda, a certain White Toto member from Haskovo was getting really nervous about seeing Higuain, Fabiano and Villa tally goals that could potentially benefit other Toto players, while his favorite Messi went as scoreless as a teenage IT specialist in Orient 33. After three Toto failures, he was having none of it and failure in a fourth was not going to be an option. Wheels turned, Skype calls were made, and 28 hours later an intricate barter arrangement was validated. In this arrangement:

1. Messi was suddenly awoken in the hotel sauna and promoted to the Greece game’s starting lineup in place of the youngster Higuain, who had been itching to make a move towards his dream of the World Cup scoring title
2. A certain legendary Argentina Number 10 was promised to star in a sequel of his biographical film, called “Maradona 2: The Conquest of South Africa”
3. A certain Balkan movie director, famous for hits such as ‘Arizona Dream’, ‘Underground’, and ‘Maradona’ and a personal friend of this Argentinian Number 10, was invited to an all-expenses-paid safari in Kenya in August by a certain legendary Bulgarian Number 7  
4. The legendary Bulgarian Number 7 was promised a free web site and its free hosting for 12 months

In the other game Nigeria and Korea finished 2-2 in a match which probably all of you followed only as scoreline but nobody watched. You might want to catch on replay an unbelievable miss by a Nigerian attacker, who matched up to Hristo Yovov’s extensive range of finest misses.

With four games on the day naturally the rankings shook harder than in previous days. Three leaders – Mostuna, Itso and Lora – made distance between themselves and the pack. Itso stands prettier currently than Mostuna in the ‘hidden rankings’, however, with Higuain still on top of the scoring race and the other three of the Higuain Four trailing him now by a wide margin. Laci and Vasko R crept into the top 5 with great performance of late while Rashev continued his slide down with another awful day and remains at the bottom of the weekly standings (with a combined 2.64 points from the two days – for comparison, weekly leader Mostuna has amassed 19.98 points in the two days so far). Mitaka P and Kalo R keep looking for their first exact score collected, Denkisa is the new King of Goal Difference (with 6 so far) and the Toto Bunch as a whole continues to slide down into the negative in the ‘if we bet for money’ imaginary exercise with what is now a nearly-triple-digit loss.

I would venture to say that tomorrow is the most important day of group play action for most of these Totonians! The combined numbers of England fans and Serbians (who might also be England fans) mean that both groups C and D will be monitored with more emotion than that provided by the excitement of the Toto competition itself.

First it’s group C, where England need a win against Slovenia to go through, and furthermore if they want to finish first will need to win by a higher margin than the USA if the latter go on to beat Algeria. Slovenia will dig themselves a deep trench with a tie against England being sufficient to ensure qualifying. There is a oh-so-remote chance that England qualify with a draw, but they will need to end up with at least as good a goal difference and goals scored as the US and/or Algeria, which requires such divine orchestration that when we think back to England’s luck in World Cup action, we should dismiss this option immediately.

Then onto group D where Ghana and Serbia hold the upper hand on Germany. Germany needs nothing short of a win against Ghana to go through, and Serbia will do the same if they beat outsiders Australia.  None of the teams are out of it, however, with Australia set to qualify if they beat Serbia and Germany loses to Ghana.  The scenarios in this group are endless – for example the likely outcome of a Serbia-Australia draw and Ghana loss to Germany brings Serbia and Ghana so close that it would be futile to speculate just yet on what it would take to separate them.

Let’s go England and Serbia!

Ri do vhonana matshelo,

Bankovic

As Mostuna rightfully noted, we have reached the World Cup’s midpoint, with 32 games played and just as many left to go, though because of the elimination bonuses boosts the Toto Bunch are likely to more than double their point totals until the end. At half time we pause to reflect and see that nothing has been decided yet, that everyone in the Toto Bunch is still in the game with a chance to win!

Monday action was exciting, starting with Portugal’s thrashing of North Korea. Kim Jong-Il certainly chose the wrong game to allow to be televised as after a slow Portugal start in which Korea had plenty of chances to open scoring and change the trajectory of the game immensely, things fell into place. The 25 people in the Toto Bunch who had predicted a Portugal win all took turns in getting an exact score right for one period of the game, but Portugal had no mercy and closed the afternoon scoring more than anyone had predicted – 7. A small consolation for all except Ivo is that The Thing managed to contribute only once to this slaughter and with its inability of late to score for its national side the Toto bunch seem certain to rest assured that It will not achieve Tournament-leading goalscorer status.

Then onto the Switzerland – Chile game, in which Pavkata and his fellow Swiss have every right to feel robbed by the dazed and incapable referee. FIFA continues to pile proof for the accusations that it is an organization with anachronistic, obsolete thinking and methods. We already witnessed France’s unjust entry into this World Cup due to FIFA’s continuous refusal to understand that we have all moved into the 21^st century and video replay is now a part of every modern sport’s higher levels. But now what type of sport governing body would hand over half of the games of its most important tournament to referees from the remote corners of the world who have seen top class football only on their black and white TVs!!? ‘Seth’ Blatter, time to walk away, I say!

Finally, Spain predictably beat Honduras. In BNT’s pregame studio extravaganza we had to endure (not once, but twice) Vladimir Manchev’s ‘insight’ that in case of a goal difference and goals scored tie the group outcome will be determined by drawing straws. Seems that neither Manchev nor the TV studio regulars (who all laughed and agreed with this amazing breakthrough theory!) have access to the tournament rules, which clearly state that in case of a tie in all tiebreakers – points, goal difference, goals scored and direct game outcome; the table is determined by the teams’ FIFA ranking. Thank you Manchev for enlightening the population! How such a moron managed to get married to one of Bulgaria’s top 1% hottest women, will remain a mystery forever. What a bittersweet game it was for Tony Prezidenta, however. Prezidenta is the only one who bet on David Villa to repeat as top goalscorer. After Villa scored two and was standing next to the ball, set to take a penalty, Tony Prezidenta must have envisioned himself grabbing the bonus – which would have moved him from the uncomfortable 21^st spot in the table right into 3^rd! Alas, Villa fired wide. Furthermore, he missed at least 4 more excellent chances. Just imagine how easily he could have had five goals from that game!!! Those outside the Higuain Four also root for someone to outscore Higuain, as Villa’s bonus for Prezidenta is incomparably easier to swallow than Higuain’s bonus for the Higuain Four, so Villa’s misfortunes were a misfortune for all in the Toto Bunch. But, at least a good step in the right direction for Villa and let us all hope he stays healthy and Spain progress! On the downside for Spain, though, we have Torres, who looked so incapable of scoring on Monday, that this now represents a serious threat to Spain’s chances overall.

There were minor changes in the Toto ranks on Monday – Kalo D and Prezidenta had a great day with two exact scores and more points from the third game. After sitting without a single exact score nailed until Monday, Kalo D exploded with two! On the downside, Rashev had the worst day of all, slipping from 2^nd to 4^th with a measly 1.13 points added on the day.

Today kicks off the four days of the last round of group play, with plenty of football action – 4 games every day. It’s do or die for all teams, except the certainly-relegated Cameroon and all-but relegated North Korea and Honduras. Only two teams have qualified for sure – Holland and Brazil, with neither however guaranteed to be in first place just yet (and they would definitely want to finish first in their groups, unless they want to likely face Italy and Spain, respectively, in the Round of 16!).  

Let’s overview quickly the first day of final group action:

Groups A&B go into action today. The two groups are paired for the Round of 16 (meaning the Winner of A will play the Runner up from B and vice versa).

Group A – everyone initially said that Uruguay and Mexico will go for a draw (which guarantees safe passage to the Round of 16 for both). However, I am not entirely convinced this is the case. A draw will mean Mexico finish second. The second team in the group will almost certainly land against Argentina and certain doom next. Mexico have previously qualified further than the Round of 16 in past World Cups, so this would be no major success, and I believe they will do their best to beat Uruguay and go for winning the War, not the Battle. This unfortunately opens the door up for France, who despite their recent trouble, in case of a Mexico-Uruguay winner, have a chance to qualify second in the group with a decisive victory over host South Africa. The same is true for South Africa, which however will need to rout France, which is unlikely.

Group B – only a miracle will prevent Argentina from exiting first from this group (let’s hope this is reason enough for D10S to rest Higuain!). Funny enough, underperforming Nigeria, despite their two losses so far, seem to have the best chance of exiting this group second with any sort of win against Korea if Argentina do indeed beat Greece.

We’ll review the rest of the final group action on their respective match days later this week.

Kha vha sale zwavhudi,

Szerekes Istvan