Don’t pay any attention to grouches like The Denver Post’s Jim Armstrong who don’t like soccer but spend an inordinate amount of time talking about it. It’s OK to be interested in the World Cup, it doesn’t make you un-American to wonder what will happen on the world’s biggest stage.
But if you’re only slightly interested in the World Cup and would like to find an excuse to take that interest in the next logical direction – winning money – then here are some tips to start, and more important, win a World Cup office pool:
* First, find a printable bracket online. The best one we found is at www.mollymalonesirishpub.com.
* Second, determine a point value for first-round games, say two points. But beware: In 2002, roughly 30 percent of pool-play games ended in ties, so give points for wins, losses and ties.
* Third, beware that after the first-round teams are placed in an NCAA basketball-style bracket, it’s lose and go home. Points should increase for this and subsequent rounds. Also, you may need a tiebreaker, such as total goals scored by players with one name.
Now, as for winning your bracket:
* You don’t get double points or a two-for-one for picking Serbia and Montenegro or Trinidad and Tobago.
* Relative long shots Turkey and South Korea made it to the semifinals in 2002. But don’t expect that to happen again. Look to the favorites: Brazil, Germany, England, France, Czech Republic, Argentina.
* Looking for an upset? Try the United States, Mexico, Croatia or maybe Australia – a team made up of a bunch of English Premier League players. Or, if you’re really feeling saucy, go with the Ivory Coast. Soccer has united this country in the midst of a civil war. That’s karma and karma goes a long way.
Good luck and choose well. And check www.denverpost.com and fifaworldcup.yahoo.com for updates.
Around town
Nearly 60 years ago, and only after much consternation, Colorado legalized horse track wagering. It seems ministerial groups had long kept illegal the act of betting on ponies. So it is, without taking for granted the ability to put down $20 on a horse, today begins a new season at Arapahoe Park in Aurora. The season runs 39 days, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays through Labor Day, and a big race on July 4th. For starters, check out today’s inaugural, the $25,000 eighth race on the card, with 3-year-olds running 6 furlongs. And keep an eye on two, 124-pound geldings – Colorado’s Sunday Romeo, jockeyed by Jose Torres, and Oklahoma’s Ross Hosser, ridden by Don Lee Frazier. Post time for the first race is 1 p.m. Check out www.mihiracing.com for more info.
The couch
On: The NBA Finals always seem to boil down to one key X-factor. Remember last year when bench player Robert Horry, who’d been silent most of the year, helped lift the Spurs over the Pistons with a blazing fourth-quarter performance in Game 5? Look for these possible wild-card factors when the Mavericks host the Heat in Game 2 on Sunday at 7 p.m. on ABC, KMGH-7. Between Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton and Pat Riley, Miami has 16 years of NBA Finals experience, while no player for Dallas has been to the big series. Conversely, Dallas might have a sixth-man advantage, with Jerry Stackhouse’s bigger scoring potential (averaging 14.0 points in the playoffs before the Finals) than Miami’s James Posey (7.2 points).
Off: If you act fast, there might still be a few tee times left for the Al Wilson Prostate Cancer Golf Tournament, with registration opening today at 11 a.m. at the Ridge at Castle Pines North. Celebrity guests, wine tastings, silent auctions, hors d’oeuvres, blah, blah. What’s important is raising awareness for prostate cancer, a disease 100 percent survivable if detected in the early stages. So, dudes, get tested. And if you can’t make it to the links today, check out the Prostate Cancer Awareness Week website at www.pcaw.com, where Wilson is hawking blue Broncos’ hats for $20, with the proceeds going to help in early detection efforts.
What we’d like to see …
Area schools finally start to get serious about college baseball. Budget constraints aside, there were more than 20 players with local ties taken in the MLB draft, and most were forced to play college baseball outside of Colorado. Imagine a University of Colorado lineup with Hochevar, Gorsett, Garr, Melancon, McDonald, Montgomery, Buckman, Jarrett, etc. That team would almost certainly contend in Omaha.
Weak in review
Danny Almonte, the kid who threw the first Little League World Series no-hitter, then had it stripped when it was discovered he was 14 in a league for 12-year-olds, wasn’t selected in the major-league draft. He will enroll in New Mexico Junior College. Because, as we all know, there are absolutely no cheaters in major-league baseball. Riiiight.
