Sibusisu Zuma, yours truly, Bayern vs Inter at McGrath's and the World Cup

It's Sibusiso Zuma to the left ;-)

We both happened to enjoy a beer and this season's Champions League final, Bayern vs Inter, at McGrath's, "The South African Bar", at Østerbrogade close to Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. Friendly guy talking to many people and happy to recollect the good old days of beating Brøndby.

McGrath's has multiple big screens, is regularly packed for Champions League games - and has "BAFANA BAFANA" painted across the wall. Probably a nice place to watch South Africa's World Cup games! Sells several brands of beer, both bottled and from keg. Half a liter of draft Guiness was about € 6.5, bottled Danish Carlsberg about € 3.5.

Speaking of the World Cup neither Zuma nor I will go. But from FC København three players will: Jesper Grønkjær, Jesper Christiansen (as one of three reserve goalies) and William Kvist. Plus three former FC København players: Lars Jacobsen, Christian Poulsen and Michael Silberbauer.

Danish Superliga 2009/2010, final standings analysis

(33 rounds) W D L F A P CS NG 1 FC København 21 *** 5 * 7 * 61 *** 22 ** 68 ** 17 *** 8 2 OB 17 8 8 46 34 59 10 6 ** 3 Brøndby IF 15 7 11 57 * 50 52 5 * 6 ** 4 Esbjerg fB 13 11 *** 9 48 43 50 10 10 5 AaB 13 9 11 36 30 48 14 * 10 6 FC Midtjylland 14 5 * 14 45 48 47 9 11 7 FC Nordsjælland 12 7 14 40 41 43 10 12 8 Silkeborg 12 7 14 47 51 43 7 9 9 SønderjyskE 11 8 14 32 37 41 11 11 10 Randers FC 10 10 * 13 37 43 40 8 11 11 AGF 10 8 15 36 47 38 9 13 * 12 HB Køge 4 *** 7 22 **** 30 * 69 *** 19 *** 5 * 8 Cards Y R TC W Won AGF 66 3 69 *** D Draws Silkeborg 53 1 54 L Lost HB Køge 49 3 52 F Goals For

OB 47 3 50 A Goals Against AaB 46 1 47 P Points FC Midtjylland 43 2 45 CS Clean Sheets FC Nordsjælland 42 2 44 NG No Goals Randers FC 37 3 40 Y Yellow Cards Esbjerg fB 34 3 37 R Red Cards Brøndby IF 37 0 37 TC Total Cards SønderjyskE 35 1 36 FC København 21 1 22 *** * Outside 80%; P<0.2 ** Outside 90%; P<0.1 *** Outside 95%; P<0.05 **** Outside 98%; P<0.02

Just another championship

Last Sunday was the night of the "New Firm" - one of the at least three annual matches vs. former Danish flagship, Brøndby IF. FC København won 0-2 away. The championship was practically secured.

Being a Danish football fan, FC Copenhagen season ticket holder and occasional blogger I should have been excited, right? And after the win I should be even more excited, right? Wrong.

Brøndby IF is not a force to be reckoned with in the top of Danish football any more. Years of mismanagement combined with entirely unrealistic ambitions have left them with the role of an unintentional entertainment factor. In different circumstances thee, maybe four, of their players would have a chance on the FC Copenhagen rooster. I didn't bother watching the hours of TV warm-up this time. I hadn't met up with a bunch of friends to shout at the screen - let alone traveled to the windy, suburban stadium, now a place enjoyable by hooligans alone. I opened a Carlsberg from my couch fully expecting the win and not even worrying too much about the consequences of the low risk of a draw or loss.

In fact, I bet 5 Danish kroner (I don't bet a lot) on 0-2:
Spot on - but unfortunately combined with a 2-2 outcome of FC Nordsjælland vs Randers FC which ended 1-1.

I didn't bother watching yesterday's SønderjyskE vs OB which ended as a surprise 2-0 win for the relegation threatened south Jutland team over our pursuing OB. Because OB would need to practically win the rest of their games anyway and sooner or later that would slip for them, I didn't doubt. It did happen a bit soon, though. Now OB need to win their last three games to get to the 62 points we're at already. That happening combined with us losing our three games and OB overcoming a +25 goal score difference... well, it's not happening. (My model says ~0.0186% before taking the goal difference into account.)

The real entertainment these days is in watching Brøndby fans and players babble on TV and reading the Brøndby IF inclined journalists rant on and on about how Brøndby was the better team for parts of the game, how a bronze medal is still possible despite their unlucky start of the season, how the club emanates a unique team spirit and has supporters of supernatural abilities. And in trying to get into some European clashes, of course.

A highly unpredictable league is drawing to an end. I'm considering a look at the mildly entertaining and very wrong prophesies made by journalists and experts at season start and half-time one of these days. But for now, I'll just dump some tendencies for the remaining games:

05-05-2010
Randers FC-AaB 0.311 0.289 0.4
FC Midtjylland-Brøndby IF 0.427 0.191 0.382
FC København-HB Køge 0.678 0.178 0.144
06-05-2010
Esbjerg fB-Silkeborg 0.404 0.281 0.3145
AGF-SønderjyskE 0.356 0.311 0.333
OB-FC Nordsjælland 0.456 0.222 0.322
09-05-2010
Brøndby IF-AaB 0.352 0.264 0.385
HB Køge-FC Midtjylland 0.278 0.178 0.544
Silkeborg-FC København 0.289 0.2 0.511
SønderjyskE-Esbjerg fB 0.308 0.286 0.407
FC Nordsjælland-AGF 0.422 0.222 0.356
OB-Randers FC 0.456 0.311 0.233
16-05-2010
Randers FC-Brøndby IF 0.326 0.258 0.416
AGF-OB 0.267 0.289 0.444
FC Midtjylland-Silkeborg 0.433 0.211 0.356
AaB-HB Køge 0.578 0.233 0.189
Esbjerg fB-FC Nordsjælland 0.416 0.247 0.337
FC København-SønderjyskE 0.544 0.233 0.222