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.

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.

To be updated as teams advance and matches become official. . . . .

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.