Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Paul The Octopus is The Best Story of this World Cup

This World Cup will be remembered for many things. The First World Cup in Africa, the first time the host nation failing to advance out of their group, the first European team winning the World Cup outside of Europe, possibly the first time (Spain) a team winning the World Cup after losing their first game in the group stage, and finally two teams, who have never won the World Cup, (Netherlands, Spain) one can claim they finally made it all the way, and both are powerhouses of Soccer. The Dutch have been dubbed "the best team to never win it all" and they hope that label can go to the coffin on June 12.


There is of course, the controversy as well, such as people dying trying to get to the games, crime way up, transit not being able to meet the demands of the people at these games, corruption, and oh, and how could we forget the worst refereeing in human history in one month's time from USA-Slovenia, USA-Algeria, England-Germany and the list goes on.



The amazing, true story in this World Cup is, Paul the Octopus. This "German Squid" has predicted every game correctly and is 6-0. What they would do (as seen in the picture) is place a treat in two boxes (with the country's flag on the box) and whichever treat he grabbed first would turn out to be the winner of the game. 


He was laughed at when he picked Serbia over Germany after the Germans crushed Australia 4-0, but Paul got the last laugh. When he picked Spain over Germany, Germans held their breath, but this "oracle" was right again, and is now becoming popular all over the World. He hasn't been tested with a soccer game that did not have Germany in it, but let him try to predict the World Cup final, because it seems that you cannot change the "fate" Paul places on the losing team and I think many betting people want to take Paul's "advice" before they go to Vegas.  


Christian N.


Christian is a Philadelphia Native, and is a political & sports columnist for several Newspapers across North America. He is also a season ticket holder of the Philadelphia Union and can be followed on Twitter along with his Website.


Sources: 
  1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/paul-the-octopus-stuns-ge_n_636118.html
  2. http://publicmb.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/2010-logo.jpg

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