Бяло Тото 2010

Tuesday, June 15, Cape Town

Squadra Azzura’s captain ducked to allow an improbable Paraguay goal, the Azzuri predictably equalized with the help of somebody’s (insert your favorite obscure body part: knee, heel, back, elbow, nose) and just like that a familiar face emerged atop the White Toto leaderboard. Mostuna has been sitting quietly in his Kosharite Hacienda and researching odds, rumors and insights while we were “waiving our horse” around Cali, Chiflika and whathaveyou. Hard work in isolation is paying out for Mostuna as he got the draw and shot past Ivo in the rankings. Is this the Year of Mostuna or will Mostuna’s followers only have their hopes raised yet again, only to fall from a higher place later on like it happened on the previous three occasions?

Monday June 14^th was a good day for the White Toto group with many points accumulated overall. The Toto Bunch had their best outing in the Holland-Denmark game with 79% of all getting some points and a record 11 exact scores. Great job! Although had the Viking-rooted Poulsen not decided to bounce a clearance off Agger’s back and into the net, who knows how this game might have turned out. Great job by the Toto bunch as well in the Italy-Paraguay game – despite Italy being world champions and favourites, 11 Toto members were not fooled and saw through appearances their weak form, scoring ineptitude and traditional proneness to a slow competition start.

The Japan-Cameroon game could certainly have gone either way and the 5 people who got (serious) points out of it should count their blessings.

Vladi V certainly took to heart his poor weekend performance and his three exact scores on Monday not only shot him up from last to 11^th place, but make him the hottest player currently.  We must also make note of the steady success of the lady in the group – Lora, who is currently 2^nd and has achieved more exact scores (4) than anyone of the guys. On the downside, the two Kalos, Tony Prezidenta, Mitaka and Savoy are yet to ring in an exact score. In light of the self-professed by the Americans disinterest in ‘soccer’ it should not be surprising that our two Cali correspondents occupy the two bottom spots at the moment, together with Prezidenta, for whom conservative betting is certainly not working out thus far.

Tuesday brings perhaps the least intriguing matchup of the Tournament in New Zealand – Slovakia. Most Toto members favour Slovakia even though, if polled, they couldn’t name a single Slovak player, but a few back New Zealand to take a draw or all 3 points. In the 5pm game most Totonians like Portugal over Ivory Coast, but Laci and Kalo D seem to think that Drogba’s arm injury will not prevent him from leading his team past the team of The Thing That We Shall Never Name. Then when Brazil step onto the pitch against North Korea, the question for the Toto bunch is not ‘who will win’, but ‘by how much’, as not a single prediction different from a Brazil win has been given.

All is quiet on the top goalscorer front, with not a single goal yet by any of the Toto favourites and nobody hitting a double or more yet in the tournament. Vasko Raichev, Pavkata and Rashev certainly look forward to tonight’s Brazil tally against lowly Korea and will keep a close eye on Kaka and Luis Fabiano.

Vaarwel,

Ionuc Banku