2010 FIFA World Cup Sees Animal Predictions
By Sayanee, Gaea News NetworkSunday, July 11, 2010
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (GaeaTimes.com)- The 2010 FIFA World Cup has come to its last stage of games and the teams Spain and Netherlands are all set to play the finals tonight in the Soccer City Stadium. With the game yet to start, predictions are already being made as to who will walk home a happy man, not by people but by animals! After Paul the Octopus foreseeing Germany losing to Spain in the semifinals, it is the turn of Pino the chimpanzee to predict that Netherlands will be the owners of the World Cup this year.
The process was simple and similar to that adopted for Paul. Two bags containing snacks wrapped in the flags of the two finalists of the 2010 FIFA World Cup were placed in front of the chimpanzee who then put his foot on the bag which contained snacks wrapped in the Dutch flag. Moral of the story is that Netherlands will the game tonight. After the pick was made though, onlookers complained about Pino being biased towards the Dutch because he was born in the Netherlands. Though the Netherlands may be far behind if compared to Spain in performance levels, animals sure prefer the Dutch. Pino is not the only animal who says that the Netherlands will win tonight. An African Red River Hog living in a zoo of Estonia has also chosen Netherlands over Spain.
While the world is waiting for the finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to begin, animals around the world are predicting the winners of the games even before they can start playing. This year’s World Cup has surely been a game of astrology rather than a game of shots on the field.
Tags: Estonia, Fifa, Fifa World Cup, Johannesburg, Pino, South Africa, World Cup, World Cup 2010
 prasenjit chowdhury |
July 11, 2010: 7:39 am
The 2010 FIFA World Cup is the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premier international association football tournament, which is being held in South Africa, the first time the finals of the tournament have been staged in an African host nation. South Africa was selected as host in May 2004, beating Morocco and Egypt in a bidding process open only to African nations. The World Cup is held every four years; the previous tournament was held in Germany, while the 2014 finals will be hosted by Brazil. The finals tournament sees 736 players representing 32 teams compete for the World Cup trophy in games held in ten stadiums across South Africa. The qualifying teams were selected through a qualification process that began in August 2007. With a pool of entrants comprising 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams, the 2010 World Cup shares with the 2008 Summer Olympics the record for most competing nations in a sporting event. The finals began on 11 June with the group stage, in which the 32 qualifying teams played in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These 16 teams advanced to the knockout stage beginning on 26 June, in which games level after normal time are settled using extra time and, if necessary, a penalty shootout, up to and including the World Cup Final, scheduled for 11 July at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg. The final will be contested by the Netherlands and Spain. These two teams have never won the World Cup before, thus confirming a new world champion, and will be the first time that there have been two different European champions in succession. |
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