The Beautiful Pool

Thank you to everyone who responded to my pleas to get your picks in to me. I know it was a tight timeline, but nearly everyone made it. Unfortunately we lost Chris H, Dario P and Rick C. I’m guessing they experienced some combination of technical difficulties and competing priorities. It’s hard to believe, but I suppose this isn’t the most important thing in everyone’s lives. Anyway, we will miss them.

Among the 59 of us who remain, the most popular pick for 2026 World Cup winner, by far, is FRA.

The previous winners, ARG, are second – but it isn’t really close. There are, of course, the die-hards who will always root for ENG and GER, perhaps wishing for a 1966 rematch. And then there are the outliers: a single vote for each of BEL, COL, JPN and POR. Brave souls.

Given all the spreadsheet glitches that we just lived through, it is particularly important that you check my work. Here are your compiled predictions, using the same basic format as for the Group Stage. Please get out your magnifying glass and make sure everything is perfect.

The next update to the standings will be after the Round of 32, on or about 4 July.

PS: Almost everyone picked CAN and BRA to win the first two Knock-Out matches, so the standings haven’t changed much.

Here is where things stand at T-minus-3-hours-and-20-minutes

I am still waiting for picks from the people on the list below. If you are one of them, please send it to me right away. I need to receive it before the start of the BRA vs JPN match at 1:00 pm EDT today.

I also have partial submissions from Rick C and Anil K – but I need these to be complete.

Click HERE to go to get the entry forms, and to upload once completed.

I think the forms will all work with Google Sheets now.

If you can’t or don’t want to use the upload form, simply email your pick to me at stuart@brannan.org.

This has been a wild and crazy 24 hours, but we are nearly there. Thank you for your patience and co-operation.

It is 3 am, and Stuart is fast asleep.

This is BeautifulPoolBot, working the graveyard shift. Stuart asked me to remind you that your Knock-Out picks are due very soon.

So skip breakfast and submit them tout de suite.

The BeautifulPoolBot