2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting predictions

2018 World Cup vote

A three way race, with Spain/Portugal the likely winner since England and Russia keep fighting. The Netherlands/Belgium will be eliminated in the first round. With FIFA not liking the English newspapers for their expose my guess is that England will be out in the second round. With the England votes favoring Iberians, Russia will just miss out. If England can survive the first two rounds (they are likely to get the Belgium vote), they have a good change against Russia and will probably lose to the Iberians. If England loses the Asian support, I can see the Iberian pulling a "Rio" and sending some support toward the Low Countries in order to eliminate England in Round 1.

My guess for Initial support

Spain/Portugal	England	Russia	Netherlands/Belgium
Spain	England	Russia	Belgium
Argentina	USA	Cameron	France
Brazil	T&T	Ivory Coast
Paraguay	Cyprus	Turkey
Qatar	Japan	Germany
Egypt	Thailand	Sepp Blatter
Guatemala	South Korea

My guess: Spain/Portugal

2018 World Cup vote

If I'm correct and the Iberians wins 2018, it means that Qatar will win 2022. Otherwise it is the US should win. Regardless, Japan and South Korea will be eliminated early. Australia is likely to be out in the third and that will put Qatar vs. US in the final round. Qatar has the votes of the three South American (if Spain/Portugal win 2018 they are basically committed) the same is true for Qatar, Egypt and Spain. They are also likely to get South Korea, Japan and Thailand in the final rounds as well as Cameroon and Ivory Coast which brings them to 11 out of the 22 votes. If Guatemala defects it is all over for the US. It is unlikely that Russia will support Qatar (due to their alliance with the Iberians) and the US can probably count on T&T, England, Belgium, Germany and maybe France add one for the US and we have a total of 6 or 7. The US needs Turkey and Cyprus as well as Sepp Blatter and Guatemala to just be tied at 11.

My guess: Qatar

The US best chance is for Russia to win 2018 which will break the Latin-Arab alliance and might get the 3 South American votes as well as keeping Guatemala at home. I don't see Qatar with less than 6 votes which should guarantee them a place in the final two.

Semi-Finals Summary

Confederation status

Confed	Tm	2R	QF	P	W	D	L	Pts	G+	G-	GD	Win%	Pts%	Pwr
CSF	5	5	4	23	12	6	5	42	31	19	12	65%	61%	77%
UEFA	13	6	3	33	14	10	9	52	43	30	13	58%	53%	45%
CONF	3	2		11	2	4	5	10	9	13	-4	36%	30%	33%
AFC	4	2		14	4	3	7	15	14	28	-14	39%	36%	31%
CAF	6	1	1	20	4	6	10	18	17	24	-7	35%	30%	25%
OFC	1			3	0	3	0	3	2	2	0	50%	33%	21%

Intra-confederation games (e.g. Spain-Switzerland, are excluded)

UEFA domination post group stage continues. In Inter-Confederation games post group play they are now 4:0:0 and have two teams in the Final. Before the knock-out games they were a very pedestrian 10:10:9 and looking ready to lose another WC spot. Now UEFA is looking for the first out of confederation WC championship, on the other hand, all the UEFA championships have come in the "European" time zones.

On the other hand CSF was at one point (post round of 16) 12:5:1 in Inter-Confederation play and have since gone 0:1:4. Still, getting 4 out of 5 team to the quarter-finals is a very impressive performance that shouldn't be over looked by FIFA

Observations

For this World Cup, FIFA changed the rules about Yellow Cards accumulations. Up to this WC, the YC accumulation was reset after the group stage. This means that if A player got a single YC in the first 3 games and another in the following set of 3 games he would not be suspended. A suspension will only occurred if a player got two YC in a single set of 3 games. This time the reset occurs after 5 games, so we have a set of 5 games followed by a single game. The purpose? To ensure that players will not miss the finals due to two yellows.

Spain was better than Germany today. I doubt that Muller would have made a difference, but we will never know. Muller got one YC in the group Stage and another (probably undeserving) in the game against Argentina. As a result of the rule change he had to seat the game – this is plain wrong. On the other hand a player committing a tactical foul in the 71' of a 0:0 game (which might very well have saved the game for his team) will get to play in the finals even if he got a YC for a foul in the 92' min to preserve a 1:0 win in the round of 16. Made up scenario? No, this is what happen to Ballack in the 2002 WC and he did miss the finals.

Germany would have loved for the rules in 2002 and 2010 to have been reversed. I think that the old rule is correct and the new one just PC to address people that think that the finals is the only thing that matters and getting to the finals happen by magic.

Spain made it to the finals after scoring only 7 goals in 6 games an average of 1.167 goals per game. The only finalists with a worse goal/game average were West Germany 1996 (6 goals in 6 games) and 1990 Argentina (5 goals in 6 games). The winner with the lowest goals/game pre finals is 1996 England with 7 goals in 5 games. They have only given up two goals, both on tough breaks.

Unless something drastic happens in the finals, I would say that Casillas and the Spain defense should be in the team of the tournament. Somehow we need to put Lahm in there but I have no idea who to take out – Puyol as good as he has been was the weakest of the four, but after today's goal, there is no way to keep him out. Many will put Edurado of Portugal or Kawashima of Japan as the GK of the tournament, but in my book Casillas has it, without him Spain might not beat Portugal, is probably out in the Quarters against Paraguay and likely doesn't pass Germany in the Semis.

The Netherland with 12 goals in six games are the second most productive offence this world cup. They also are 6:0:0, Only Brazil 2002 (7:0:0) and 1970 (6:0:0) won the world cup with a perfect record post world war II. Italy in 1990 with a 6:1:0 record, didn't even reach the finals (eliminated by Argentina in the Semis in PSO). That same Argentina team finished in second place with a 2:3:2 record – they are also the only team to advance twice in the same WC after PSO.

Trivia

Since the expansion to 24 teams, this is the first world cup in which all 4 Semi-Finalists have won their group. The only other times this happened was in 1966 and 1958.

Spain (in its 56^th WC game) will face Netherlands (in its 43th WC game) for the first time in the WC.

Good news for Spain, a team from Group E almost always makes it to the Semis, but only won the WC once. 1986 – West Germany, 1994 – Italy, 1998 – Netherlands, 2002 – Germany, 2006 – Italy, 2010 – Netherlands (prior to 1982 there was no group E).

The two occasions that a team from group E didn't make it to the Semis (1982 and 1990), Spain was the seeded team in group E.

With the reversal of the Melo own goal "ruling" (awarded to Sneijder, which I think is a good call), Brazil has no played in 97 WC games without giving up an own goal (if my scan of the records is correct).

 

Germany has passed Brazil in the number of games played (98 to 97) with a third place game left, but they still trail in number of goals scored (210:203). It is very unlikely that they'll be able to surpass Brazil on this count this year.

Klose scored 5 goals in 2002, 5 in 2006 and has 4 with a game to go in 2010. If he scored one more goal in the 3^rd place game he will tie Ronaldo as the all time top scorer in world cup history.

The top scorer in each world cup has most often come from the 3^rd place match up:

2006 – Klose, GER

1998 – Sukar, CRO

1994 – Stoitchov, BUL (Shared)

1990 – Schillaci, ITA

1974 – Lato, POL

1970 – Muller, Ger

1966 – Eusebio, POR

1962 – Sanchez, CHI; Jerkovic, YUG (Shared)

1958 – Fontaine, FRA

1938 – Leonidaz, BRA

Sometimes, from the wining team:

2002 – Ronaldo, BRA

1982 – Rossi, ITA

1978 – Kempes, ARG

1962 – Garrincha, BRA; Vava BRA (Shared)

And in earlier days, the second place team:

1954 – Kocsis, HUN

1950 – Ademir, BRA

1934 – Nejedly, CZE

1930 – Stabile, ARG

The one exception is 1986 when Lineker, ENG was the top scorer.

This time with a game to go the leading scorers (Villa, ESP; Sneijder, NED; both with 5) are in the final. However, the 3^rd place game should have Mueller, Forlan, and Klose with 4 goals each and Suarez with 3. Don't rule out the possibility that one of them will leap to the top.

The record for the most players tied for top scorer is 6 in 1962 when all of them scored only 4 goals.

From 1978 to 1998 the top scorer has 6 goals.

 

Quarter-Finals Summary

Confederation status

Confed	Tm	2R	QF	P	W	D	L	Pts	G+	G-	GD	Win%	Pts%	Pwr
CSF	5	5	4	22	12	6	4	42	29	16	13	68%	64%	78%
UEFA	13	6	3	32	13	10	9	49	40	28	12	56%	51%	44%
CONF	3	2		11	2	4	5	10	9	13	-4	36%	30%	33%
AFC	4	2		14	4	3	7	15	14	28	-14	39%	36%	31%
CAF	6	1	1	20	4	6	10	18	17	24	-7	35%	30%	25%
OFC	1			3	0	3	0	3	2	2	0	50%	33%	21%

Intra-confederation games (e.g. Spain-Switzerland, are excluded)

What a difference a day makes actually 30 little hours. CSF was seating pretty with 4 teams in the quarters and reasonable match-ups for all four (maybe not Paraguay). Thirty hours later, Brazil lost a close one to the Netherlands, Uruguay miraculously managed to advance past Ghana and crash all African dreams what followed was most unexpected, we all knew that Germany was no pushover, but I don't think that even the biggest German fan expected or even dreamed of a 4:0 trashing of Argentina. As many expected, Maradona managed to prevent Argentina from winning the WC. The way Germany played against the, even a good Argentina team might have had problems; the point is that Maradona made it very easy for Germany.

UEFA had made great steps forward, but since my formula doesn't give extra credit for Quarter, Semi and Final wins (just the regular Win% and Pts%, CSF is still comfortably ahead. Maybe the formula needs to be adjusted. CONCACAF managed to edge AFC for third place mainly due to the fact that it had one less team in the WC – sometimes, less is more.

There is no other way to say it – CAF is overrated. Even with six teams in the WC, they only managed to advance one team to the second round, while three teams finished winless and last in the group. CAF has never been able to advance more than a single team. While consistency should count for something (CAF has advanced a single team since 1986), the poor success rate over this time – only 25% advancing and over 46% finishing last and winless should give FIFA a hint.

The argument of "give them a chance and they'll prove themselves" fails; since 1998 when CAF allocation was increased to 5 teams (4 WCs), CAF teams have advanced 19% of the time and finished last and winless 43% of the time (9 out of 21). During this time, no other Confederation had more teams finishing last and winless (AFC also had 9). With the exception of OFC (only two teams during these 4 WCs) no other confederation has had less teams advancing from the group stage (AFC also had 4).

Yes, the fans of the CAF teams are, for the most part, entertaining and they do add color to the event. However, I'm sure that the same is true for many Pacific Island nations, should we increase OFC allocation to 2 teams? The quality of the fans shouldn't determine WC spot allocation Team quality and the good of the game should.

Observations

UEFA only qualified 6 teams to the second round, probably its worse performance ever; all six had to play each other in the round of 16. From that point on, UEFA teams have not lost an Inter-Confederation game. Before the Quarter-Finals CSF teams had a single Inter-Confederation loss compared with 12 wins; in the Quarter-Finals there 0:1:3 and by all rights should have lost all four games.

The last time a CSF team advanced farther than both Brazil and Argentina was 1954. Some things to consider about 1954:

• All CSF teams advanced from the group stage.
  
• The highest finishing CSF team was Uruguay.
  
• Uruguay reached the Semi-finals.
  
• Brazil was eliminated in the Quarter-Finals.
  
• France failed to make it out of the group stage
  
• Italy failed to advance out of the group stage after a shock defeat to a UEFA team in a 5 goals game.
  
• England was eliminated in the first knock-out game while giving up 4 goals.
  
• A team from Korea lost a game 7:0
  
• The Semis had 3 UEFA teams
  
• Three of the Semi-Finalist failed to make the top 8 in the previous WC.
  
• Uruguay faced the team that beat Brazil in the Semis
  
• Germany (OK, West Germany) was in the other Semi-Final
  
• Germany lost a game in the group Stage to a UEFA team.
  
• In their first 5 matches, Germany scored 4 or more goals in 3 matches.
  

All of the above are true about 2010 – in 1954, Germany won the world cup and Uruguay finished 4^th.

South Africa Review

The people were great hosts everything and every time. I also enjoyed the fact that whenever I was carrying or wearing my Israeli Flag people of all nationalities wanted to take pictures of it (either with me or themselves holding it). Some of the street vendors even offered to buy it from me or trade for another flag. Aside from the great encounter with the people of the Bafokeng nation, we also had a wonderful chance meeting at a road side stand near Pilanesberg. Adi noticed a man selling corn by the side of the road so we stopped and bought some corn roasted over wood. It turns out the man was from Mozambique and it moved to South Africa several years ago to avoid the civil war.

Our hosts in Jo'burg were great and very helpful and the guest house Adi found for us was outstanding. We managed to make more than a few friends at a local coffee shop where we had coffee and sometime breakfast most morning. I think that the security concerns were overblown. Just like any big city around the world, there are places you should go and places you shouldn't. If one uses common sense and learn the routes to take, there should be no more problems than any other major metropolitan area. I feel sorry for the people that missed the World Cup due to fears about security.

In all the stadiums we have been to, there wasn't a scoreboard or clock – you don't realize how much you miss it until it is not there. It also looks like FIFA gave the organizing committee a break on the facilities. Ellis Park is a very nice stadium and as far as I can tell, well located, however inside the stadium, the amenities are not what you would expect from a world class stadium. In Loftus, getting in and out of the lower level via a narrow tunnel is borderline dangerous. Royal Bafokeng stadium is one of the hardest Stadiums to get to. It has less than 45 thousand seats a good number of the fans where there hours before the US – Ghana started and yet we were stuck in a traffic jam 77km from Rustenburg almost 3 hours before the game started – None of these are world cup level.

Without a doubt the low point of the world cup was the vuvuZevel (I should trademark the name). Before anyone says anything; yes, I'm a hypocrite – there are four vuvuzelas in my suitcase, in my defense, I never used one in a stadium or while fans were celebrating. Considering the Ghana – Uruguay game instead of being able to hear the fans supporting Ghana for the last two minutes of the game we would have been able to enjoy this for 120 minutes. Could this have had an impact on such close game? We will never know, what we do know is that Ghana totally dominated the game while the fans were supporting them in the last few minutes. Bottom line, vuvuzelas are just like farts – when you are the source it doesn't seem bad at all.

On my last day in South Africa and wend to the Sterkfontein Caves which are part of the Cradle of Humankind site. I wish I had gone there sooner and had more time to stay. I guess this is one more reason to visit South Africa again.

Trivia

Spain (54 games so far) and Netherlands (41 games so far) never faced each other in the world cup.

The two PKs missed (actually saved) in the Spain Paraguay Quarter-Finals match was only the second time in which two PKs were missed in the single game (not including PSO). The First was Argentina – Mexico in 1930 (the only WC game with 3 PKs).

Germany is about to overtake Brazil as the team with the most games played (so far both played in 97 matches) and is likely to be the first team to reach the Century mark. Brazil however, still holds a commanding lead in wins (67 vs. 59) and has fewer losses (15 vs. 19).

Mid Quarter-Finals update

The Games

The Netherlands took revenge on Brazil for 1994 (3:2 loss in the Quarter-Finals) and 1998 (PSO elimination in the Semi-Finals) by coming back from behind to win 2:1. This makes Brazil the first CSF team to be eliminated this world cup by a non-CSF team. I think that the last time this happened was 1966.

Ghana played better than Uruguay from the 20^th minute on but except for a great long distance shot at the end of the half were unable to score. Ghana come closer than any other CAF nation to reach the semis (Cameron, 1990, lost to England 3:2 in extra time; Senegal 2002, lost to Turkey 1:0 on a Golden Goal in extra time).

On the other side, this is Uruguay first trip to the Semis since 1970. This is a team which made the Semis in 4 of its first 6 WC appearances and failed to ream the Quarters since (four appearances). From a Uruguayan point of view, this was a one man show (Forlan) until literally the last minute when in a strange twist of fate Suarez turned from a villain to a hero when Gyan missed a penalty kick in the last second of the game to become the goat of the game.

The interview

After the game we stayed to watch the Uruguayan celebrate, the joy and happiness of the fans was a site to see. The majority of the fans at the stadium supported Ghana, from signs like "The United States of Africa vs. Uruguay" to "BaGhana BaGhana" replacing the South African "Bafana Bafana". Nadav who replaced Lior in our team of four supported Uruguay and was draped in a Uruguayan flag and I had the Israeli Blue and White flag.

As we were walking outside the stadium back to the car we were approached by a man that asked us if we are willing to be interviewed by the BBC radio worldwide service as Uruguayan fans – Nadav and I did oblige. We had to wait for a while an upset Ghanaian fan was being interviewed. The interviewer than turned to us, asked for our names and proceeded to ask us about Suarez being a villain or a hero. We both expressed the view that before the miss he was a villain. The fact that he saved a sure goal and the PK was missed giving Uruguay a chance to advance made him a Hero. We were then asked if it is right for a cheat to be a hero, and my answer was that this is life. Overall, the interview lasted about 2-3 minutes – my first time on worldwide radio.

Observations

FIFA is now talking about giving Suarez a two games suspension for his hand ball/save – this is wrong!!! I don't think that there has ever been a case of DOGSO-H (Deny an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity by Handling the ball) in which a player was suspended for more than 1 game. Why even talk about a longer suspension? Because Gyan missed the subsequent PK and Ghana failed to advance? The punishment for DOGSO is already very severe: a send-off, followed by a PK following by a mandatory one game suspension.

Let's review, this WC, Khune (ZAR) and Kewell (AUS) got a red card for DOGSO, neither was suspended for more than a game. Are the rules at the WC Quarter-Finals different than earlier stages? Is there anything in the rule book which says that the punishment if the attacking team misses the PK should be more severe than otherwise? Call it cheating, call it taking one for the team or call it exploitation of the rules; it makes little difference – as far as I can recall no other player in this WC was suspended for more than a game and there is no footballing reason for this to be any different.

Two quarter-finals games are done and I'm down to two teams; Israel – didn't quality, Brazil – out in the Quarters, USA out in the Round of 16, so now I'm down to the 4^th (Netherlands) and 5^th (Spain) teams.

Arjen Robben (yes, Adam he is only 26 years old, and thanks for saying that I look younger than him) showed us how a single player can disrupt and frustrate a good defensive team by doing all the little things right. Most people will have Sneijder as the man of the match; after all he did take the shoot that turned into an own goal and he did score the winner.

As far as I'm concerned there is no doubt that Robben was the key to the game. He forced the Brazilian defense to foul him all game long (even when Brazil had control of the game). His efforts led to a yellow card on Bastos the Brazilian defender and later to his substitution which caused poor marking on the Robben corner kick which led to the winning goal. Robben was also the player who was fouled in the attacked third just before the Sneijder cross and the own goal. I don't expect most fans to notice this type of contributions, but I do which that commentators and post-game reports would highlight this type of play.

Trivia

Last time Brazil lost a WC game in the Southern hemisphere was 1950 to Uruguay in a game in which they also led 1:0 and lost 1:2.

Brazil has played in 97 WC games, Melo's own goal today was the first they have conceded.

All of Forlan 4 world cup goals were scored against African teams (first was against Senegal in 2002).

In the last 7 World Cup Penalty Shoot-Out the team to take the first penalty won the PSO. The last team to kick second and win was Spain against Ireland on June 16^th 2002 in a PSO which saw 4 PKs missed in a row and 5 of 6 – Ireland miss the second kick and both missed the 3^rd and 4^th kicks.

So far in WC history there have been 22 PSO (first in 1982); 144 out of 203 were converted for a success rate of 70.9%. Twice only 7 kicks were needed (1986: Germany 4 – Mexico 1; 2006: Ukraine 3 – Switzerland 0) and twice 12 kicks were needed (1982: Germany 5 – France 4; 1994: Sweden 5 – Romania 4)

Round of 16 Summary

Confederation Status

Confed	Tm	2R	QF	P	W	D	L	Pts	G+	G-	GD	Win%	Pts%	Pwr
CSF	5	5	4	18	12	5	1	41	27	8	19	81%	76%	84%
UEFA	13	6	3	29	10	10	9	40	33	27	6	52%	46%	42%
CONF	3	2		11	2	4	5	10	9	13	-4	36%	30%	33%
AFC	4	2		14	4	3	7	15	14	28	-14	39%	36%	31%
CAF	6	1	1	19	4	5	10	17	16	23	-7	34%	30%	24%
OFC	1			3	0	3	0	3	2	2	0	50%	33%	21%

Intra-confederation games (e.g. Spain-Switzerland, are excluded)

I added a Power ranking (Pwr) which is the average of Winning%, Points%, Teams in second%, Teams in Quarter-Finals%. So UEFA gets (52%+46%+6/13+3/16)/4 = (52%+46%+46%+23%)/4 = 42%.

For the first time ever, 4 CSF teams have made it to the Quarter-Final round. This is even more surprising since the last time CSF had three teams in the "elite eight" was 1978 in Argentina when Peru joined Brazil and Argentina. In the 32 years since, only Brazil and Argentina managed to reach this level from CSF. On the other side of the coin, this is the first time that only three UEFA teams made it this far, the previous low was 4 in 2002 (CSF, AFC, CONF and CAF representatives made up the other four). In 1994, UEFA had 7 teams in the Quarter-Finals while in 1998 and 2006 they had 6, so this is a big drop.

The CSF performance is incredible, the only one team eliminated (Chile) and that was a result of a loss to another CSF team (Brazil). So far we had 9 intra-confederation games (8 UEFA and 1 CSF) none of them ended in a tie (22 total goals). Except for Ghana, CAF performance was abysmal (they would have been dead last). UEFA, who is having a bad WC, has played more than 50% more inter-confederation games and still has fewer losses.

Observations

For the third time in history a CAF team has made it to the Quarter-Finals, all three teams (Cameron 1990, Senegal 2002, Ghana 2010) needed extra time to advance. USA has won their group and finished in 12^th place overall in the world cup; during 390+ (probably over 410) minutes of playing time they had the lead for about 2 minutes (winning goal vs. Algeria was scored at 90'+2' and the game ended at 90'+4').

Xabi Alonso of Spain got a yellow card in 74' against Portugal , this was Spain's first yellow card of the world cup. On the other hand, Chile finished with 13 yellow and 1 red cards. Among the quarter finalists, Argentina and Paraguay have 5 yellows, Uruguay 3YC and 1RC, Netherlands and Ghana with 8YC, Brazil with 6YC and 1RC (Kaka) and last is Germany with 7YC and 1RC (Klose) . Interesting that both Brazil's and Germany's red cards (really second yellows) were given to stars who are playing attacking roles – these are the type of players who rarely get two yellows in a game.

Miscellaneous

All four of us went to the Paraguay – Japan game in Pretoria, as you know that game ended up going to Extra Time and a Penalty Shoot Out. Getting out of the lower stands Loftus field is very hard and time consuming when the stadium is near full, so by the time we got to our car (we parked right in-front of the Syrian Embassy) is was after 7pm. Our plan was to go to Pilanesberg Game Reserve for a "Safari". Our Hotel in Pilanesberg was about 160km (over 100mi) away from the Stadium and we had to face the fact that the Spain – Portugal match which we all wanted to see was starting at 8:30pm.

We headed west from Pretoria as fast as we could and after about 80km when started heading north is become clear that we are not going to make it to the hotel in time for the game. Adi called the Hotel to confirm direction and the night clerk told him that to get to the hotel we need to make a right at the four way stop sign. Informing him that we are still about 80km away and just started to head north on R556 from the N4 (a major road) didn't change the directions. We gave up on him and trust my memory that we need to make a right before Sun City at R5xx. I was driving fairly fast (100-120kph) on a dark two line highway (after all we have a big game to catch) and hoping that we will be able to identify the correct right hand turn.

At 8:30pm we are about 30km south east of Sun City (which is the precise location of the "middle of no-where") we see two huge TV screens starting to show the game. We pull left and turn, ask for direction for the entrance which was another left and enter the compound after a quick security check. We found some plastic lawn chairs and watched the game. It turned out that this was a setup for the people of the Bafokeng nation to watch the WC games. During half time and after the game the PA announcer welcomed their guests from Israel both in English and Setswana (the local language). This was an experience of a life time.

Since we still needed to verify direction both Adi and I used out Blackberry to ask for directions since "right at the four way stop sign" didn't inspire confidence in us. I also want to ask two men in uniform about directions while waiting for email responses. I got good directions from the two men, as well as an offer for me to wait 15 min after the game and they'll take the local fire truck and lead me to the hotel; I politely declined, but I think that they might have been disappointed.

When we got to the (less than half an hour after the game ended), we got our "chalet" key from the night clerk and driving instructions "Go back the why you come, before the gate turn right and hopefully you will find it" – we did find it.

The next day after a late breakfast, we bought a night safari tour for the four us. Around 11:00 having nothing better to do Lior, Gil and I decided to go for a tour of the game reserve on our own (Adi stayed in the chalet). We had little expectations since we know that the best time to see wild animals in just after sun rise. As soon as we started the tour we picked a dirt road and headed north. After one of the turns a driver of a tour van waves me over to come beside him and tell us to turn back and continue straight on the road from which we turned. As it turned out, about 2km down the road across a little river we saw an elephant carcass and two lionesses were munching on it.

During the night tour we returned to the same place and we also saw a young male lion along with the lionesses. While we were watching a hippo showed put and started bellowing at the lions to go away – she had some baby hippos and thought that the lions would go after them once they were done with the elephant (which died a week earlier). After about 5 min of a standoff, the lions backed away but only as far as hiding behind nearby bushes.

As it turned out we missed seeing a leopard by half an ½ on both our day tour and the night tour (once to early and once too late so on average we saw a leopard twice J). However we did get to see both black and white Rhinos and live Elephants as well to get 3 out of the big 5. The game reserve itself was teeming with wild animals from birds, to gnu (not the operating system), Antelopes, Impalas, Gazelles, Zebras, Giraffes as well as Jackals, Foxes, Warthogs and Baboons (probably several others that I can't remember right now). This was a nice diversion from the world cup and a highly recommended side trip.