Lo, the Golden Boot.
Standings of the Ladies… World Cup Pick ‘Em Challenge going into the weekend’s 3rd place and Final matches:
1. Games Mistress, 37 pts
2. Wildfor9, 33 pts
3. Missmaegen, 32 pts
4.yosempai, 30 pts
5. Maggie/thistlewarrior, tied at 29 pts
As there are only two points left on the board, I guess I can claim victory. (Still, don’t let that stop you from making your final two picks — there’s a lot of potential movement left in the standings. Your pride is at stake!) Special mention should also go to Wildfor9, who was the only person to correctly guess both semifinal results, as well as Missmaegen, who beat everyone in the round of 16 by predicting 7 of the 8 results.
While we’re on the subject of soccer, individual awards, and scoring, let’s take a moment to review the current standings for the Golden Boot — the award given to the highest individual scorer at each World Cup. These standings are also quite close; it’s entirely likely that any one of these next four gentlemen could carry away that gold-plated Adidas up there.
1. David Villa (Spain) 5 goals, 1 assist in 529 minutes playing time
2. Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), 5 goals, 1 assist in 532 minutes
3. Thomas Mueller (Germany), 4 goals, 3 assists
4. Diego Forlan (Uruguay), 4 goals, 1 assist
Finally, he’s technically 7th in the standings, but 5-6-7 all have 4 goals and 0 assists, and neither 5th nor 6th place will be playing this weekend, so Miroslav Klose (Germany) has an excellent chance to move up in the standings, and an outside shot at taking the Golden Boot outright. He won it in 2006 and finished 2nd in 2002, with 5 goals and 1 assist both times, so don’t rule him out.
And no, I am not planning on spray painting one of my sneakers gold and presenting it to myself at halftime of the World Cup Final. That trip to the craft store was for epoxy, I swear.
Who are you pulling for this weekend?
