World Cup predictions

The tournament gets underway tomorrow in Sao Paulo.  I rode my bicycle through Saint Paul today, it seems like a good excuse to submit my guesses.  First a little about the ride through Saint Paul.

I got down to the State Capitol again today.  I wanted to see what the landscaping looked like. Long ago when I worked in the area there were spectacular plantings many of which came to peak at about this time of year.  As it turns out instead I spent most of my time checking out a couple of pieces of public art that I was vaguely aware of but which I had not previously visited.

This first one is the Spiral of Justice, a memorial dedicated to Roy Wilkins.

To be completely honest, what actually drew me to that part of the mall is those cars visible frame left.  Sure enough, that actually is part of the mall with another huge chunk of lawn temporarily covered with asphalt.  We have already heard that rant so I will move on.

Down by the Veteran's Service Building is this newish memorial to the state's fallen fire fighters.

I believe that one is pretty much brand new.  I have no idea what the vertical elements are meant to represent but that in the middle is a guy in a fire helmet carrying a child.

Parking lot visible behind the memorial.

The climb up the hill to the Cathedral doesn't get any easier and today I made it mostly into whatever wind there was.

I rode a ways down Summit and then paused for a photograph of The Germanic American Institute, formerly known as Volksfest Kulturhaus.

I believe it is also sometimes identified as the Gardner House, named for the affluent local family who lived in the house when it was new.  Limestone.

They are taking Kultur fairly seriously over there as Deutsche Tage are scheduled for this weekend.

Actually I was aware that they take Kultur seriously over there, I have also ridden by in October when they host some Oktoberfest activities.

I took the route that led me through my favorite roundabout.

As is fairly standard, once around, pause for a photo, ride on.

Just around the corner to the Monarch butterfly house.

I wanted the photo to be of the yard so I wasn't able to fit in the milkweed right in front of me when I snapped this one.  I believe the butterflies require milkweed.

OK, the Copa.  Argentina and Germany in the final.  This is just a guess right now because we still don't know much about the fitness level of Lionel Messi, Argentina's best player.  If he has returned to form I select Argentina as the champion.  Argentina also has Raquelme, one of the very best players in the world perhaps not yet recognized as much as some of the others.

Other musings, the American media continues to hammer away about the USA being in "The Group of Death".  The GOD is soccer tournament shorthand blathering for a group of four with three really good teams in it.  Only two advance from each group, hence the group is death for a really good team.  The problem with calling the American group the GOD is that there are only two really good teams in the group, Germany and Portugal.  If the USA can get past Ghana in their opener and if the most recent bulletins indicating that Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal's best player, will miss the tournament due to injury, two fairly large ifs, but if those happen the USA could reach the knockout round.  If they do they will be promptly knocked out.  I don't expect USA to make it out of the group.  I am joined in this assessment by the principal USA citizen soccer analyst in a suit on ESPN the major USA TV host of the tournament and by no less a luminary than the USA coach (who is, after all, German).  It is going to be extremely difficult to advance without scoring some goals and goal scoring is problematic for the USA on the world stage.

By the way the real group of death includes Uruguay, Italy and England, three really good teams.  I expect England to be the one failing to advance there as England shares a problem with the USA, that despite the fact that they DO have Rooney, which is better than last couple of major international tournaments when they had Crouch and Heskey up front.  But they still don't have enough really premier scoring to make a dent particularly in someone like the Italians (whose inability to score very often doesn't seem to hurt them as much as it hurts everyone else given that Italy only gives up a goal on rare occasions).

The host country Brazil?  Too soon.  Neymar, their best player, is only 22.

These are only guesses, I reserve the right to revise after having seen some of these teams play.