If My Predictions Are Wrong, I Don’t Wanna Be Right

By: Greg | October 25th, 2007

ling When it comes to football, I consider myself a Vulcan in a human being’s body. I’m logical, level headed, and can tend to be pretty condescending when it comes to discussing the game. However, when applying this same Vulcan-esque level of wit and logic to my predictions, I seem to almost always come out on the wrong end. I know what I’m watching. I know what teams I’m watching have done against each other in the past. I consider history, weather, and even proximity in a given week of multiple matches a club might be involved in. I even check with the Team Mom to see if she’s on her monthly and I’ll know if the boys are in a bad mood going into a match. Still, no matter how scientific I get, football is about as unscientific a sport as there is.

Porto 1 - 1 Marseille – Yesterday, I was sure that Porto were going to be riding high, well rested, and ready to bring Marseille back to Champions League Earth. I saw a 3-0 pounding on the cards. I realize that predicting any match to feature one team winning 3-0 is a brash, bold, and somewhat ridiculous proposition. But that’s what we do here at the Portuguese branch of The Offside. We go big. When we win, we win big. When we lose (or draw as in the case with Porto’s 1-1 result yesterday) we do so in a rather large manner as well. In a theme that ran across both Portuguese sides last night, the woodwork featured prominently in Porto’s French excursion. Porto were the better side for long spells and I’d say Marseille look like they’re serious about going through to the next round. Tarik Sekitoui has become my proverbial “Yannick Djalo” of Porto in this tournament. He has an everlasting motor and plays so frigging well domestically, but when it comes time for the big stage, it seems the spotlight is shining too brightly and he becomes a shell of the player I’ve become accustomed to seeing on the weekends. Three goals in three games are not going to get it done in the long term but this formula has yielded five points. They’ve got two home games going forward out of the three left and with Liverpool deciding to shit the bed, they should be favorites to make it through to the knock out stages. We’ll chalk this game up to shaking off the rust. Which is incidentally the aspect of sport that I ignored yesterday and precisely what Martha sharply pointed out could be possible.

Celtic 0 - Benfica 1 — If not for Celtic keeper Artur Boruc and the white steel framework, this game could have been extremely ugly. I was sure Celtic would ignore past away troubles and come out firing on all cylinders, summarily pissed off about the 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Rangers. I was wrong. Celtic looked a bit disorganized and out of sorts through out long spells of the match. If not for Cardozo deciding to play target practice with the woodwork, Benfica could have easily won this match by a couple of goals. Adu is showing promise with his composed play and pace. As he gains more exposure to this level of football, it seems he is beginning to fulfill that vaunted potential he entered the MLS with at age three. Angel Di Maria should be starting for me at this point, and I thought he would be per my original expected XI. As a result of this errummm… result, this group is now blown wide open. Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk are top of the table on six points from three games with Benfica and Celtic in the caboose on three points out of three. Benfica will need to have a higher conversion rate on their chances that they’re grinding out and hope that a few balls bounce their way if they’re going to find a way through to the round of sixteen. It would be nice to have more than just Porto pulling the weight of Portugal around Europe in the next round.

UEFA Cup - Braga at Bolton (Don’t get too excited at that Bolton link, it’s basically an ad to write for the club) –I’ll just copy and paste what I think about this match from my previous bloggage regarding this fine competition: October 25th — Braga @ Bolton – Bolton at home don’t scare me this season. They’ve dropped three league games already in la casa and I see this as a very winnable game for Braga. This is the type of game the Portuguese side have to win if they wish to advance. Braga 1 - 0 Bolton

Kisses are as always, ALL AROUND. See you tomorrow with a preview of Jornada 8. Also known as “Porto Pwns You”.