At the start of the quarterfinals, I invited a group of coaches/club directors (youth, high school, college and professional) and a few other soccer fans with ties to North Bay soccer to weigh in on the remaining games.  I did warn them their picks would be published for all to see and even though most of us were already in other World Cup brackets or competitions, everyone kindly agreed to provide me with their picks.

Anyone following the World Cup closely, knows that the tournament has been anything but predictable.  Let’s be honest though, how often do you get a complete bracket starting at the quarterfinals, but we did it that way to keep everyone involved.  I picked Germany to win it all, so it gave me and many others a new life line into the tournament.

Don’t worry, not everyone will get equal billing here…we will highlight our leaders and winners.  After the first four games, we have nine coaches that picked all four games correctly and fourteen which picked three of of the four winners.  Seven of the crew picked two or fewer correctly.

Our nine leaders are all tied for first with 4/4 picks. With just three high-stakes games left (the 3rd place game would make it four), the pressure is on to keep pace.  I took the liberty of choosing a photo of each one…trust me when I say it could have gone in a different direction but all of us enjoy and need our jobs.

The current leaderboard, in no particular order…

Mike Friesen

Matt Bernard

Kai Edwards

Kevin Christensen

Ian Mork

Joe Hunter

Dwayne Shaffer

Jeremy Gunn

Chris Ziemer

A few things to know about our leaders…

  • Three grew up in the North Bay, but all nine have lived, played or coached in the area at some point.
  • One considers Gareth Southgate his style guru and is likely picking up a new vest as I write this.
  • Three share a hairstylist with Zinedine Zidane.  One will soon.
  • All but one have coached or currently coach at the college level.
  • Two played college basketball at SSU.
  • One wrote a great book called “Bench Rules”
  • One is English.
  • One is a three time defending NCAA National Champion at Stanford.
  • All are trying to stay perfect but also being chased by the group below, which picked 3/4 correct.

 

Currently tied for second place …still within striking distance of the leaders.

Don Shaffer
Vinnie Cortezzo
Benjamin Ziemer
Tim Maycock
Sally Ziemer
Marty Kinahan
Margi Osmundson
Lee Summerscales
Gabe Rood
Emiria Salzmann
Ely Ziemer
Chris Daly
Andy Farrant
Andrew Ziemer

Those not appearing on either list were spared the shame…at least for now, but with three games remaining you can still climb the rankings.

Thanks again to everyone for contributing and I need those semifinal picks soon.

 

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