According to computer, the winner is . . .
If you're a Ghana soccer fan, then you might not want to read this story.
According to Championship Manager 2010, Ghana will get to the semi finals of the World Cup, a story in the New Year 2010 edition of FourFourTwo reported.
United States will not get out of the opening round; England and Slovenia will reach the second round.
It's just a computer game that doesn't have enough human factors faced in.
But for the sake of argument, let's see how the World Cup panned out.
The story centers around England in Group C (not surprising, considering the magazine is published in the United Kingdom), but we will skip that for now.
The biggest upset in the tournament occurred in Group D, where Germany failed to qualify for the Round of 16 as Ghana prevailed, 1-0, on a late goal by Asamoah Gyan.
Brazil barely got through to the next round, accuring only four points after tying with North Korea and falling to Portugal in the battle of the Portuguese language.
In the second round, Spain eked past the Brazilians, 1-0, Portugal bested another South American side, Chile, while Slovenia prevailed over Denmark in penalty kicks and Italy overcame the Netherlands in yet another tie-breaker.
Ghana continued its march to the semifinals by defeating France in extratime in the quarterfinals. Portugal KO'ed Slovenia while Italy got past Spain in a classic 4-3 tussle.
In the semifinals, Italy blanked Ghana, 2-0, and Argentina got past Portugal in extratime.
For the final, Italy, last year's disappointment at the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa (the Italians failed to reach the second round), won when it really counted, stopping Argentina, 1-0, on an opening-half goal by Alberto Gilardano.
Inter Milan right fullback Davide Santon was named player of the tournament, which had three classic matches -- France's 3-2 triumph over Nigeria as Thierry Henry (he of the infamous handball), scored the game-winner; Italy's 4-3 win over Spain (imagine the Italians surrendering three goals in a World Cup match), and Portugal's 7-2 victory over North Korea (Cristiano Ronaldo and Liedman recorded hat-tricks).
In case you hadn't noticed, South Africa did not get out of the first round in one piece.
Real or fiction? Guess we'll have to wait until June and July to find out. But let the arguments begin right now!
