La Cabala

diego's good luck charm

There is, apparently, 6,661 miles (10,720 km) between Ushuaia Argentina and Tijuana Mexico.

Congratulations to the French football team.....

...for actually managing to score a goal before going home. And thanks for the off-field guffaws, too. We'll miss yaz!*

Meanwhile, real congrats in order for two LatAm teams, Uruguay and Mexico. Aztecas, your prize for getting out the group is almost certainly Argentina in the last16 round so...errr....good luck with that one.

*not

Life is not complete....

.....until you have seen the recent 1-1 draw between England and the USA done in a 1:30 Lego stop-motion video.



More to check out here at the maker's website, including Germany's 4-0 hammering of the Socceroos.

The IKN official position on The World Cup

I've had a lot of questions on this, so let's make a policy decision.

We're not going to make much direct reference to the World Cup Finals and the games but any Cup-related story might get told here. That'll be our site policy, however we do think a warning is in order for those in northern countries that do business with LatAm: If you find meetings suddenly cancelled or rearranged, telephones left unanswered, mails left un-replied and a general lack of will from your LatAm business partner or contact to be out there thrusting and making money from today until July 11th, please be patient and understanding. The effect of the World Cup on the whole continent (not just the countries competing, be clear) is something akin to high fever mixed with deep hypnotism.

This author gets struck down as badly as anyone else, by the way.

¡EL MUNDIAL LLEGÓ! ¡VIVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
(y vamos charruas hoy)

A World Cup Classic

This humble corner of cyberspace has, up to today, resisted the dozens of possible post themes related to the World Cup Finals. But today we crack and give in to temptation (hell, we're only two days away now, gotta say something about a sports tournament that will affect LatAm GDP in a bigtime manner).

Our story is from Paraguay and shows you just how lucky some people can be. Translated from this EFE wire:

The Vice-President of Paraguay, Federico Franco, is travelling to South Africa "to cheer on the team" thanks to a ticket that his wife won in a prize draw, the Paraguayan dignitary announced Tuesday.

"My wife won the draw to travel (to South Africa)" the VP told journalists when telling them he was flying to South Africa on Sautrday to support the national team.

The congresswoman Emilia Alfaro, wife of Franco, won the ticket for the South Africa World Cup 2010 in a draw run by a local company for its clients, according to local media.

Lucky, lucky, lucky.

J P Morgan does a World Cup Quant

My thanks to reader 'DC' for the headsup on this link where JP Morgan has applied a Quantative Analysis to the 2010 World Cup (that starts in less than a month, folks). Go check it out for yourself, or here's the thing embedded.


JP Morgan - Quantitative Guide to World Cup 2010

Life's easiest jobs, part 15: A bookmaker in Argentina

With just 50 days to go to the beginning of the greatest sporting contest on the planet (hint: USA isn't very good at this sport) we check in on the Mision Mundial dedicated page at Argentina's biggest circulating newspaper, Clarín, to check on a reader's poll. The question asked is:

"Who will be the next World Cup Champion?"

Here's are the results so far:

1. Argentina 51.1% (33107 votes)
2. Spain 19.3% (12506 votes)
3. Brazil 11.9% (7720 votes)
4. Germany 3.1% (2008 votes)
5. Uruguay 2.7% (1757 votes)
6. Chile 2.6% (1712 votes)
7. England 2.6% (1697 votes)
8. Holland 1.5% (943 votes)
9. Italy 1.4% (881 votes)
10. South Africa 1% (673 votes)
11. Portugal 0.6% (394 votes)
12. France 0.4% (251 votes)
13. Other 1.8%(1134 votes)

Just more proof that Argentina lives in its own little world, hermetically sealed off from reality.

Leguis served, the end.

UPDATE: I pie with my little eye....

Uruguay 0, Argentina 1

minute84, the relief goal

I've deliberately not written a word on futbol these last couple of weeks so as not to put the hex on Argentina. But it's all over now, Argentina has escaped and is going to the World Cup Finals in Africa 2010. But my stars, they made me suffer. Argentina has been a mediocre-at-best team all year but to give them due, played well tonight. However they'll have to improve significantly to win the whole caboodle next year.

The South American teams with a safari ticket are Brazil (who look very good), Paraguay (always solid, good team), Chile (the revelation, manager Marcelo Bielsa has created a fine looking, attacking, stylish team) and Argentina (squeaked into the last direct place today). Uruguay can also make it but have a playoff series to play with either Costa Rica or Honduras.

Chart of the day is...

...how the World Cup qualifiying table stands in South America:

Click to enlarge

Brazil and Paraguay are now through. Chile is almost through. Then the big fight is for fourth (the last automatic qualifying place) and fifth (that plays off against the Central/North American region also-ran for a spot at the finals).

Two rounds left, and here's the next to last round (October). Gonna be tight.

Argentina vs Peru
Bolivia vs Brazil
Ecuador vs Uruguay
Venezuela vs Paraguay
Colombia vs Chile

Any subject you like...

....as long as it isn't futbol.

Paraguay 1, Argentina 0 tonight, with Paraguay deserving the win fair and square. Great goal, too.

Argentina now in the 5th placed playoff position behind Ecuador and only one point ahead of Uruguay (their opponents in the final round). Argentina plays Peru at home next and the way they're playing that's no guarantee home win, either. Uff...they say "lucky in money unlucky in love" don't they? double uff

Now tell me all 'bout it, Sketch ;-)

Bolivia 6, Argentina 1: Here are all the goals

This is not an April Fool's joke.

Bolivia has just beaten Argentina 6-1 in La Paz and here's a 2 1/2 minute youtube with all the goals. To put it into context, this is the equal worst result ever for the Argentina national team. They lost 6-1 to Czechoslovakia back in 1958 at the Sweden World Cup finals. There was also the famous 5-0 defeat at home to Colombia in 1993. In other words, today is one to remember for soccer afficionados. Welcome to international level football management, Diego.

As for Evo Morales, he got on a plane from Qatar early and made a 15 hour flight back to Bolivia specifically so that he could get to the game on time. His reaction, according to this report, can't really be translated but it's still great. "¡Que goleada, papá!"

South America World Cup futbol Qualifiers

So here we are with another round of South America's religion, as the ten teams slug it out for another three points. As some might remember, Otto once again proved just how much he sucks at betting in the last round and lost all his original $100 hypothetical bankroll. But I'm going to give myself a present and stump another C-note up; this means I have $100 to play with all of a sudden, which is good.

So let's check the pairings this weekend, with prices by UK bookmaker Skybet dot com. If you don't know how the UK oddsmaking system works, check previous posts from that link above:

Bolivia Evens........ draw 2/1 ............Peru 11/4
Argentina 4/11......... draw 3/1......... Uruguay 15/2
Colombia 11/10......... draw 2/1........ Paraguay 12/5
Venezuela 6/1........ draw 5/2............ Brazil 1/2
Ecuador 11/10........ draw 9/4............ Chile 11/5

Now my selections.
I have to say that it's a tough one this round. I'm going to make Ecuador to beat Chile my main bet, as the home advantage of playing in Quito at altitude is significant. However Chile have proved themselves to be a pretty good team this season and it's not my most confident bet, so just $30 there. My second bet is Argentina and Uruguay to draw. Argentina is not firing on all cylinders yet, Uruguay have a good team spirit going and the 3/1 offered is good value, so $15 there.

So to re-cap my hypothetical bets:

Ecuador to win, $30 at 11/10 (potential return $63)
Argentina/Uruguay to draw, $15 at 3/1 (potential return $60)
$55 held untouched in bank.

And let's see how we get on.