'Kay, I got your bets. And here comes mine:
Uruguay - France (alas, can't see it without Cavani)
Brazil - Belgium (similarly, Thiago Silva out is a decider; plus Neymar only plays like Neymar in fits)
Croatia - Russia (with an overt hope that we'll be going to see Croatia of the group stage again)
England - Sweden (yes, Sweden apparently has no strikers, but what can I say? Their airight defense+counterstrike is a footballing petite madeleine to me)
About multiplying points these last games: neutral, advising against: it just ruins the, I dunno, purity of picking the winner of a single game. At the core, we've been looking at team vs team, comparing roster, performance, current circumstances, paying no mind to how close it was to the end - and indeed, say, what would intrinsically differentiate a, say, Germany-Netherlands quarter and a Germany-Netherlands final?
About the third place final, I'd like to keep that game result, if anything as a possible One And True Winner decider. Again, it's team vs team, and if one team wants the game and the other does not care, it's just another psychlogical layer for us to determine.
I heard on the radio an interview with a national team water polo player some time ago. He said that winning the 3rd place final is in many ways, all considered, better than losing the final, because climbing onto the podium (he was talking Olympics) with a Bronze but after a win makes the thing so much more enjoyable that being the regretful Silver. My two cents.
