FIFA World Cup 2010 Predictions Challenge: France Exit as the Bookies Take Hold

By Jon Naylor [e-mail]

The Half Volley World Cup Predictions Challenge is pitting four different forecasters against each other in a bid to see who is the best at predicting the results of the 2010 World Cup.

An expert, a bookies, the public, and a computer game are all casting their eye over the group stage, with the results logged on Half Volley.

For more on the challenge, and the leaderboard, go to our main World Cup Predictions Challenge page .

Another day, another French implosion.

Groups A and B are now decided, but many of the results did not go the way our predictors though.

France’s defeat to South Africa might have put Domenech’s side out, but it wasn’t enough to steer the hosts into the knockout stages.

Those spots were reserved for Mexico and Uruguay, who didn’t play out the bore draw as was feared as the Uruguayans ran out 1-0 winners.

They were joined in the second round by Argentina, who battered down the bus parked in front of Greece’s goal with a 2-0 victory, and South Korea, whose 2-2 draw with Nigeria was good enough to put them into the last 16.

It was a tale of two halves for our predictors, with no correct forecasts from Group A’s final day, but plenty of green and yellow boxes provided by Group B’s results.

The only real losers from the day’s play were the public, who pulled out four incorrect predictions.

The bookies have now pulled out a seven-point lead over Sarah Shephard, our expert, and FIFA 10, the computer simulation. The public are a further six points behind, but there’s still plenty to play for over the remaining days of the group stages.

Here’s the results and leaderboard after Day 12 of competition:

Tomorrow is D-Day for England, who have to win against Slovenia to guarantee a place in the knockouts. They could be joined by either USA or Algeria, who play in Group C’s other fixture.

Group D is rounded off in the evening with Australia vs. Serbia and Ghana vs. Germany.

Keep checking to find out how our competitors fared, and remember, you can see all the results from the tournament so far on our World Cup Predictions Challenge main page.