MD 4: Japan stun Germany, and magical Spain hit 7

Japan's Ritsu Doan equalises against Germany: Japan wins 2-1

It was another game where players from another of the 'big' footballing nations were left at the final whistle looking around at each other and asking "what the hell just happened?" Japan, who was on the ropes, pulled off a great victory over what looked like a German side cruising to an opening-game win. Inspired by the rolling upsets, Canada pushed Belgium and was rather unfortunate not to at least get a draw. The upsets have stagnated our predictions, but one thing was never in doubt, Spain v Costa Rica. In the lead-up, the only question mark was whether Spain could convert attacking position football into goals. That box has emphatically been ticked. This leads to the next question, and the introduction of a new feature for our Mates to achieve some inspiring ancient Greek-related title name glory; 

The Delphi Oracle 

Personally, there is nothing more annoying than when people before a World Cup ask you "Who do you think is going to win?" How does one know? Seriously, who watches World Cup qualifiers? and besides qualifying in your own region, where the playing style is similar; European football is played somewhat differently to South America, Africa and Asia, and that affects teams who traditionally do well in qualifying but hit a wall during a World Cup. In Qatar so far, look at Poland, Denmark, and Croatia. Oh yes, let's not forget Argentina and Germany. Therefore, Football4Mates is doing this predictor differently. Here, you can see every team play once before making your prediction. So, after tonight/tomorrow morning's matches, where Round 1 comes to an end, you need to make your prediction for the Final, including the World Champion. You will be welcome to give a classic Delphic riddle if you wish. However, as we are certain to have more than one Mate predicting the same team to be crowned champion, you will also be required to give the runner-up and the score. If two people predict one winner, then the Delphi Oracle outcome will be determined by the Winner, the two Finalists and the predicted score. To nail this achievement, you will need to go through a World Cup wall chart to see how teams will progress, and who they will come up against before the final. 

After some philosophical football thinking, I believe there is one nation which will be a certainty to be in the final at Qatar 2022, but I am waiting to see the remaining games for this round before making my prediction. 

Seven magnificent goals by Spain against Costa Rica: Final score 7-0

Here is the latest update on our F4Mates ladder; our top 2 positions are looking familiar, Dung and Yianni who went at it toe for toe during the Euros are at it again, but early days for the rest of us.