I wasn't sure whether to put this in the Art, Beauty, or Religion section, so I just put it in Anything Goes.

Until the tournament hype throughout the known televised world begins in earnest, post your predictions and declare your affinities here!

I will supporting England in a lukewarm fashion until they get knocked out, as well as the Netherlands and of course Brazil.

I predict that Brazil will beat Spain 1-0 in the final, even though I know that statistically, it is more likely that Brazil won't win than that they will.

I expect that England will come second in their group despite probably being overdue a bit of luck, meaning they will probably lose to Colombia in the next round. Otherwise, I expect them to play and beat Ivory Coast, then lose to Spain ...resulting in another disappointing tournament.

I don't think it's a big prediction to say that there could be as many as five of the six South American teams in the last 16...and maybe 4 in the last 8 (4 in the last 8 was achieved in 2010, and that wasn't even in South America).

The team that comes second in Group F will do well simply by virtue of being in an unbalanced group...I think the Netherlands on the otherhand are set to one of the biggest losers because they're on course to play Brazil in the last 16 (although they DID beat Brazil at the 2010 WC)...or if they do better than Spain in their group, Mexico, who will still be fairly difficult.

I hope that the setting and the number of South American teams will bring out a lot of flair play...the climate seems like quite a large unknown factor.