World Cup Knockout Predictions - The New 32

1. South Africa vs. Canada

After a lackluster performance against one of the hosts in their first game South Africa turned it around and achieved the feat of getting to the knockout stage for the first time in its history. They have momentum on their side. And they get an opponent in Canada that missed a big opportunity to win its group and stay in Vancouver in front of their home crowd for its first knockout game in its history.

Other than smacking around a Qatar side that went down to nine men in the second half in their game Canada hasn't really left its mark against any meaningful competition. An uninspiring draw against a bad Bosnia team and a sound defeat at the hands of a beatable Swiss squad does not inspire confidence moving forward. They lack the players to compete at this level. With injuries piling up, a manager out of his depth, and its star striker known for disappearing in big games, Canada still has a lot to prove. 

As far as the game goes, I'm expecting fireworks and a lot of goals on Sunday. Matchups involving bad teams with genuine belief they can win produce some of the best games in tournament football.

I'm going with South Africa to take this one in L.A. 

Final score: South Africa wins 3-2 in extra time. 

2. Brazil vs. Japan

Drawing against Morocco was a positive result for Brazil in its first game. Two of the tournament's favourites were getting their feet wet and were more than happy to get a draw.

Brazil followed that up with back to back 3-0 scorelines against Haiti and Scotland. All these games were scrimmages for Brazil. No sweat football. The tournament for Brazil starts now and the first challenger, Japan, is also undefeated. 

Japan's defense is resolute, and its goal scoring prowess was evident last October when it beat Brazil 3-2 in a friendly. I think we'll see the same scoreline but in reverse. 

Brazil is clicking at the right time, and it has a superstar forward that Japan won't be able to contain.

Final score: Brazil beats Japan 3-2 in regulation.

3. Netherlands vs. Morocco 

It's a shame these two great teams are going to meet this early in the competition. They're two of my favourite teams to watch right now. Both have balanced teams with few weaknesses, and a couple of superstars in key positions. I really can't separate them on paper. This is a gut decision. I think the physicality of the Dutch will be too much for Morocco. 

This Moroccan team will probably aim for penalties and play a defensive game because they won't be able to keep up with the Netherlands attack if they choose to open it up. Holland has scored 10 goals in this tournament, which ranks first alongside Germany and France.

I believe the Netherlands will continue putting up the goals. Morocco will put up a worthy fight, but it won't be enough.

Final score: Netherlands wins 3-1.

4. USA vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina

I'll keep this one short and sweet. No analysis needed. No background. No stats. Bosnia emerged from the weakest group in World Cup history. In a 32-team World Cup it would have been grouped. America got a very lucky break here. FIFA wants the hosts to have a lovely time this summer. This is a warm up match for the USA. Their tournament will begin in the round of 16.

Final score: USA wins 3-0.

5. Ivory Coast vs. Norway 

Of all the games in the round of 32 this is probably the one I'm most looking forward to. We have two very even teams that can score goals and aren't afraid of pushing the pace of the game. There isn't a clear favourite so I'm expecting a back and forth game, with both teams trading chances. 

Ivory Coast took Germany down to the wire in extra time before conceding defeat so it knows how to play against a top European team. And Norway defeated the African champions in a thriller, proving they’re more than capable of winning this game.

This game is very tough to call. Norway rested its top players in its last match, a luxury Ivory Coast did not have. That extra rest could prove to be beneficial, but at this level it's about who wants it more. And it will come down to who has the best player.

That's Norway.

Final score: Norway advances on penalties after a 2-2 draw through extra time.

6. Germany vs. Paraguay

What is there to say? Paraguay is a tough, gritty team. No one should expect they’re going to make it easy. But at this stage in the tournament it is about goals, goals, and goals. Paraguay scored twice in three matches. Enough said. Germany might score twice before halftime and then kill the game in the second half.

Final score: Germany 2-0.

7. France vs. Sweden

France should coast through to the round of 16 without a sweat. Sweden might make it interesting in the first half but France will eventually pour it on and come away with a comfortable victory.

Final score: France 4-1.

8. Argentina vs. Cabo Verde

Cabo Verde has done extremely well finishing second in its group. 3 games. 3 draws. Only 2 goals conceded. That's a great accomplishment for the small island nation. They really put their country on the map with these stellar performances. You have to zoom in for ten seconds on Google Maps to find these guys. So good on them.

But Argentina is not Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, or an unimaginative Spain that has trouble scoring goals. The ride ends here.

Final score: Argentina 5-0.

9. Australia vs. Egypt

This game is probably the most even in the round of 32. Both have good defenses. I think the fact that Egypt is undefeated and has scored in every game makes them the favourite. But this game could very well go into extra time and onwards to penalties. I'm not really confident with this pick, but I'm leaning towards Egypt.

Final score: Egypt wins 2-1 in extra time.

10. Mexico vs. Ecuador 

This is an intriguing match up. Mexico will have their hands full. Scoring on this Ecuador team won't be easy, but the good thing for Mexico is all that's needed is one goal. 

Ecuador would love to end this game tied 0-0 and grab a miracle win at the penalty spot. But I think Mexico is clever enough to score an early goal and then manage the game from there.

I'm expecting a dull, but intense game.

Final score: Mexico 1-0.

11. Portugal vs. Croatia 

This game, which will be played in Toronto, is undoubtedly the best game of the round of 32 and has the potential to be one of the best in the entire tournament if both teams show up. 

Neither team is playing brilliant football. Aging supertars feature in their starting 11. They're both lacking an identity. Croatia lost 4-2 to England. Portugal drew with Congo and Colombia in two very dry, apathetic, and slow games. But they both can still turn it around and go on a run in the knockouts.

I think this game will go the distance. Penalties will decide it.

Final score: Portugal advances via penalties.

12. Colombia vs. Ghana

Ghana did well to get here. But holding on for a draw against a feeble England, and a late goal against Panama, are not exactly confidence inspiring results.

They're a good team, sure, but Colombia is on a different level. They were robbed in their game against Portugal. They deserved a penalty in that game. They were the better team on Saturday night.

And they'll be the better team next Friday.

Final score: Colombia 3-1.

13. England vs. DR Congo

This might be the least appealing game on the whole docket. I know I picked England to win the World Cup before it started, but it was moreso for sentimental reasons than footballing ones. With the Knicks winning the championship after fifty years I thought we could see something similar with England winning the World Cup after sixty years. But this team just isn't good enough to compete with the best. And they'll probably find it difficult to beat a Congo team that's feeling good about themselves. 

Congo are a hard team to break down. Colombia and Portugal only managed to get two past them combined. I think this game will feature a late winner either in regulation or in extra time. Ultimately England will get the job done and advance by the skin of their teeth but it'll be a frustrating watch.

Final score: England 1-0.

14. Belgium vs. Senegal

Now this is a game. Football is fun to watch when two bad teams or two mediocre teams face off against each other. We're getting the latter here. Both teams believe they're better than they are which means goals galore for us fans. Similar to the Ivory Coast-Norway game, both teams will trade chances in this one. And they have enough goalscorers to be threatening in the box. 

Senegal conceded six goals in the group stage, three each against Norway and France. I think they'll concede three more in this game. Belgium boasts a better defense and has shown the ability in recent memory to at least make the Quarter Finals of a World Cup.

Final score: Belgium 3-1.

15. Spain vs. Austria 

What would a World Cup be without an upset or two? 

Hopefully we see one here.

I don't know what it is, I just don't like the way Spain play football. I can't stand this team. I didn't like them in 2010 when they last won the World Cup. I didn't like them in 2024 when they won the Euros. Now at this tournament they've gone ahead and made heroes out of Cabo Verde because of their incompetency. 

This isn't a prediction. It's a wish. I just want Austria to kick these guys out as soon as possible.

Final score: Austria advances via penalties after 2-2 draw through extra time.

16. Switzerland vs. Algeria 

Switzerland is another team I wouldn't mind packing their bags early in this knockout phase. There's just something about them. They're not fun to watch. And they had the easiest group so they haven't been tested. Algeria has. 

I'm a big believer in momentum. Algeria had to dust themselves off after getting beaten by the champs in their first game, winning against Jordan and then securing a great draw against Austria. 

What did Switzerland do to get here? Draw against a bad Qatar team, beat a bad Bosnia team, and barely hang on for a win against a Canadian team that's riddled with injuries. That's far from impressive. 

I think Algeria will give them a game for the first time this tournament and they'll be shell shocked.

Final score: Algeria 4-2.

Top Ten World Cup Rankings After Matchday 2

Honourable mentions: England, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Canada, South Korea, Ivory Coast.

10. USA

Very impressed with the U.S. team and considering the two tricky opponents they've faced so far they've done very well to take all six points. A run to the quarter finals is very possible.

9. Mexico 

Mexico has handled its business professionally, not allowing a goal in either of its victories. In a probable match with England in the round of 16 they have a very good chance to advance. They're playing with grit and passion. They're on a mission.

8. Norway

A clinical striker can erase a lot of sins in football. Plus, you add the team spirit and the traveling fans bringing positive energy to every stadium, that's tough to beat. That formula has the makings for a long run.

7. Colombia 

Colombia plays exciting, thrilling football. They're easy on the eye. They play attacking football. Poised. Defensively sound. Just a great team with strong personalities.

6. Japan

Drawing the Netherlands and obliterating Tunisia showed that Japan can play any game that's required. They're well coached. They can score, defend, run. They will be a dangerous opponent in the knockout stage.

5. Morocco 

Brazil and Scotland each presented a unique challenge and Morocco managed to get 4 points, securing qualification after two games. Similar to Japan, they can play any way and still succeed. They have a lot of in-form players and a recent history of tournament success. Another deep run is likely.

4. Germany 

Germany did what Germany does in its first game, and managed to beat a tough Ivorian Coast team in extra time on matchday two. That tells me what I needed to know. This team can adapt, slow the game down, and score when the pressure is on. That's what required to go on a long run in the knockout stage.

3. France

I doubted France, and they still haven't faced a good team in this tournament, but they're making it look too easy. The Mbappe factor is just hard to overlook. The World Cup is basically his tournament until he retires. He always shows up. And that's all a team needs to go far. Just one guy who can score in his sleep.

2. Netherlands 

Holland dismantled Sweden after tying with Japan. They have the power, finesse, pace, and technical ability to go toe to toe with basically anyone in this tournament, no matter if they're European, African, or South American. Of all the European teams I trust them the most to beat an Argentina, an Ivory Coast, or a Morocco.

1. Argentina 

I didn't want to predict it, but we may see a champion go back to back for the first time since 1962. Argentina are playing like a well oiled machine right now. Austria and Algeria are no slouches, either. They're talented and well structured teams but they were no match for the champions. Argentina with a motivated Messi seems unstoppable.

Top Ten Good Goys Gone Bad In History

 

10. Nixon

9. Napoleon 

8. Adolf

7. Tsar Nicholas II

6. Philip IV of France

5. Titus

4. JFK

3. King Edward I

2. Agag

1. ?

The Challenge of Translating the Bible with Prof. Robert Alter

 

Wikipedia:

Robert Bernard Alter (born 1935) is an American professor emeritus of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He has published two dozen books, including an award-winning translation of the Hebrew Bible in 2018, which was twenty-four years in the making.

Video Title: The Challenge of Translating the Bible with Prof. Robert Alter. Source: Fieldstead and Company. Date Published: February 28, 2023. Description:

Robert Alter is Professor in the Graduate School and Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967.  

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress, and is past president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics.   He has twice been a Guggenheim Fellow, has been a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, and Old Dominion Fellow at Princeton University.  

He has written widely on the European novel from the eighteenth century to the present, on contemporary American fiction, and on modern Hebrew literature.   He has also written extensively on literary aspects of the Bible.  His twenty-four published books include two prize-winning volumes on biblical narrative and poetry and award-winning translations of Genesis and of the Five Books of Moses.  He has devoted book-length studies to Fielding, Stendhal, and the self-reflexive tradition in the novel. Books by him have been translated into ten different languages.   Among his publications over the past twenty-five years are Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem (1991), The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel  (1999),  Canon and Creativity: Modern Writing and the Authority of Scripture (2000), The Five Book of Moses: A Translation with Commentary (2004), Imagined Cites  (2005),  The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary (2007), Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible (2010),  The Wisdom Books: A Translation with Commentary (2010), and Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets (2013).  His completed translation of the Hebrew Bible with a commentary has just appeared in a three-volume set. 

In 2009 he received the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for lifetime contribution to American letters and in 2013 the Charles Homer Haskins Prize for career achievement from the American Council of Learned Societies.

Hugo Gressmann - Babylonian Influence on the Hebrews

 

An excerpt from, "Babylonian Influence on the Hebrews: The Tower of Babel. Hugo Gressmann" by William Creighton Graham, University of Chicago - The Journal of Religion, April 1930:

This series of five lectures, the first to be delivered under the Hilda Stch Stroock Foundation of the Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, constitutes literally the last of the many notable contributions of the late Professor Hugo Gressmann to Old Testament Study. The Preface by Professor Obermann contains a touchingly beautiful appreciation of the author's work and an eloquent tribute to his personality. 

The theme of the lectures is the intellectual and spiritual relationship between Israel and the Babylonians. "The Tower of Babel" stands as the symbol of Babylonian civilization, and it is from the angle of the influence of the latter upon Hebrew thought that the theme is approached. 

The first lecture deals with the form and the symbolism of the Babylonian temple tower and expounds the influence of these upon the architecture and thought of the whole ancient Near East. In the second lecture this theme is developed by an exposition of the dependence of the "legends of mankind in Genesis i-xi" upon the Babylonian legends. The third lecture discusses Babylonian influence upon the literary forms and ideology of Hebrew prophecy. It is followed, through an examination of the Johannine Apocalypse, by a lecture on the relation between late Hellenistic Judaism and Babylonia. The concluding lecture most interestingly contrasts and compares the religions of Babylon and Israel. 

Making all due allowance for Professor Gressmann's well-known enthusiasm for the civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, and for the fact that his theme itself did not permit the presentation of the claims of other civilizations to a part in influencing Hebrew thought and life, these lectures contribute materially to the very desirable end of freeing us from the tendency, fostered by certain dogmatic positions relative to the nature of Scripture, of regarding the Hebrew people as having lived their life, socially speaking, in a vacuum. They also contribute splendidly to a better understanding of the influence of the Semitic world on the origin and development of what we today designate as the scientific view of life.

Wikipedia:

Hugo Gressmann (March 21, 1877 – April 6, 1927) was a prominent Old Testament scholar in Protestant Germany and a friend and associate of the eminent scholar Hermann Gunkel. He was a member of the history of religions school.

An excerpt from, "The Tower of Babel" by Hugo Gressmann, Jewish Institute of Religion Press, New York, 1928, Pg. 1 - 2:

As the pyramids are the symbol of Egypt, so the tower of Babel is the symbol of Babylonia, not only of its art, but also of its religion and its literature. From an architectural standpoint it belongs to the wonders of the old world. From a religious standpoint it is a necessary part of every Mesopotamian temple, from which it cannot be separated any more than the clock-tower can be divorced from the Christian church, although it had another meaning and is in no way related to Christianity historically. Considered from the view-point of literary history, the tower of Babel not only played a réle for the Mesopotamian authors but also for the peoples of the whole Near East. A great number of legends and motifs associated with it have been the themes of the phantasy of poets and artists even as late as the Christian middle ages.

It is not the purpose of these lectures to gather these stories together and to speak about them, but rather to treat the general relations or Israel to Babylonia. If we have chosen the tower of Babel as the special symbol of Babylonian culture, it is not only because it incorporates the Babylonian spirit and art in its most impressive form but also because we cannot understand the Babylonian influence upon Israel in the truest sense, unless we take into consideration the tower of Babel. For in many instances it will be the centre of our attention because it played such a role in ancient Israel and also in later Judaism. It is therefore fitting that we devote our first lecture to the tower of Babel, in order to grasp its true significance and to illustrate it at least by several examples. It towered to heaven as a titanic work; it was not as a wanton sin against God, but it was as a pious act that they built this gigantic tower, and therefore we are not surprised that it attracted mightily the peoples of the world.