Before the World Cup started, a few of the guys here at Guerrilla FC decided to do what you should never do. We made predictions about football.
We will now review said predictions and find out who had a telepathic connection to the ghost of Paul the Octopus and who is the next Craig Burley. You can see the original piece for yourself here.
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Once again, here's our panel of, ahem, experts.
Bret Pittman - Guerrilla FC brand manager, Puerto Rican rum capo, streetwear OG, and a father to three beautiful children. Instagram: @bretpittman
Ryan Symons - Guerrilla FC co-founder and head of the team's intelligence unit. Instagram: redacted.
Justin Salhani - Founder & creative behind Guerrilla FC. Nutmeg enthusiast. Instagram: @justinsalhani
Phil Murphy - Employee of a small company called ESPN. Sportscenter anchor and football brain. Twitter: @Phil_Sports
Chris Bowerbank - Host of @ATPRadio and new Guerrilla FC recruit. Twitter: @sincebarnes
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TEAM
Winner: Phil is the big loser in this round. He picked Germany. South Korea says 'hi', Phil.
Chris and Ryan picked Argentina. In fairness, they lost to the eventual champions.
And it seems we had two winners in Bret and Justin. They both selected France to win the cup, which they did.
Runner up: Everyone picked France or Brazil. That means they all lose.
Wildcard: The biggest loser here was Justin, who picked Egypt. That's the same Egypt that lost all three matches.
Chris picked Serbia, who despite a win over Costa Rica couldn't make it out of their group.
Phil's Portugal started brightly but burnt out against Uruguay in the round of 16. Bret's Belgium did well to make the final four. The winner however was Ryan, who picked Croatia.
Biggest disappointment: Ryan and Chris just edge out Justin in being the biggest losers. They picked Belgium, who finished third. Meanwhile Justin picked England, who if you luckily missed the whole 'it's coming home' commotion, finished fourth. We are pleased Justin had to suffer through seven England matches though.
While Bret picked Portugal, the winner has to be Phil who chose Argentina. A round of 16 knockout isn't a disgrace by any means - especially to France - but anything short of a win in the final was going to be disappointing to a subpar Argentine side that has raised expectations in recent years.
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Player
Golden Boot: No one picked Harry Kane to score three pens and a deflection off his heel so everyone loses. Phil picked Ronaldo to bag 5 (he got 4) and Ryan picked Griezmann (also 4) so we'll give them a pat on the back.
Golden Ball: Guess who picked Luka Modric? Nobody. Chris picked Griezmann though, who despite an underwhelming tournament where he scored three pens and a goal that Muslera pushed into his own goal, finished with the Silver Ball. Good job predicting that, Chris.
Golden Boy: There's a lot of gold at the World Cup. Everyone picked Mbappe except Chris who picked Serjeg Milinković-Savić. Good job everyone. Not you, Chris.
Biggest Disappointment: I think we have to give the title here to Chris. He chose Gabriel Jesus. While Jesus was defended by large parts of the Brazilian coaching staff for his tireless effort, pressing, and creation of chaos in the opposing defenses - he got a lot of stick for failing to score a single goal.
Phil gets an honorable mention for picking Salah, who despite two goals wasn't able to led Egypt out of a relatively weak group.
Justin and Bret are the big losers here because they both picked Harry Kane. Hey guys, he scored 6 goals in the World Cup and beat Griezmann to the award of 'best underwhelming tournament performance while somehow maintaining quite good stats'.
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Culture
Best goal: CBS voted Nacer Chadli's game winner against Japan as the best goal due to the vicious counter and team effort. Nobody predicted Chadli because they're all human. Ryan said Giroud, who scored 0 goals. Justin said Messi, whose lone goal in the tournament was an incredible effort. So go ahead, Justin. We'll let you win one.
Best meg: The correct answer is Vahid Amiri who basically ended Gerard Pique's dignity and that of all his ancestors. Nobody guessed Amiri. Chris said Coutinho, who if we remember correctly did meg someone, so go on Chris.
Run down:
Pogba was quite elegant at this tournament, so Justin gets credit. However, his hair was quite plain so Justin, Ryan, and Phil lose points. Bret gets the win for predicting Roman Torres to have the best hairstyle.
No boots really stuck out to us, so we'll give Ryan's "Nope," the points.
On celebrations, everybody loses. The correct answer was Diego Maradona. We'll give consolation points to Justin. Mbappe's celebrations were always composed and cool. And for being 19, that really isn't fair. But we should also note - compared to USA 94 and France 98 - players today don't have the same imagination for celebrating goals.
Ryan wins the best supporters prediction, after choosing Panama. The celebration against England was really sublime.
And as for the most baller ex-player in the stands, it was definitely the Colombia duo of Rene Higuaita and Carlos Valderrama. So no winners here. Also, shoutout to Amin who was in the Valderrama wig on international television. You get runner up.