Soccer Free Picks

The two European sides in this year’s final were expected by their fans to make it to the final. But for their fans just making it isn’t enough. The defending European Champions from 2008 look to add to their recent history by not only conquering Europe, but conquering all the World too.

Spain and the Netherlands are both squads who have numerous stars. The attacking third will be full of excitement with shots from all angles. Names like Robben, Sneijder, Torres, and David Villa will all be coming out looking to score. Although the Netherlands face an uphill battle against a Spanish defense that has been scored on few and far between. Also Spain’s goalkeeping is far above that of the Dutch. Casillas is disputably the most talented keeper, and although the Dutch are fairly sound in their last line of defense, the Spanish definitely have the upper hand.

What seems like a one-sided matchup on paper may not be such a clear cut victory for the Germans. The surprise South American team made a run to the quarter-finals and don’t want their streak of upsets to end with a fourth place finish. Germany is a well balanced team all up and down the pitch with their main weakness, which isn’t even a large weakness at all, being their goalkeeping. Their keeper, Neuer, has shown that his hands aren’t so sure and often times spills balls that should be safely rounded up. These kind of little mistakes may come back to haunt the Germans on Saturday.

Uruguay has one more thing going their way as well, they have both their key strikers Forlan and Suarez back; as well as their key defender Fucile. Suarez and Fucile were serving 1 match suspensions for a red card and accrued yellow cards, respectively.

Just when I thought the hype surrounding Paul the Octopus had reached it’s peak I found out that Sky News were actually going to broadcast Paul’s prediction live. Now that’s something you don’t see every day, a major TV channel in the UK broadcasting live as an octopus in Germany makes predictions for the World Cup finals.

Another thing that surprised me was that Paul the Octopus is now also attempting to predict the World Cup final between Netherlands and Spain. This is the first time that Paul attempts to predict a game not involving Germany.

First out was the prediction for the game between Uruguay and Germany where Paul was considering picking Uruguay for a while before settling with a Germany victory. Seems like this is going to be a tight game according to Paul the Octopus.

The matchup between Argentina and Germany is one of two very different styles of play, who, in the end even out. The Argentineans are fairly small, but they are lightning fast. In fact, they pride themselves in their speed. Not only are they fast in possession, but they will absolutely dismantle a defense when on a fast break.

Germany on the other hand is a big team who likes to keep possession and work through their two magic men, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski. These two are incredibly lethal, in fact they have combined for 4 goals in 5 games. But on the other side of the ball there is a man who is undoubtedly the most skilled player in the world right now; and no it isn’t Messi. Gonzalo Higuain has netted four goals by himself so far this tournament. While every opposing team focuses all their attention on Messi the magic man, Gonzalo has continually slipped behind defenses and made them pay for not respecting him.