Psychic animals predict who will win the World Cup

Growing up, I swam and played basketball for rec teams, but I never played soccer. I wasn’t too bummed, because to be honest, soccer looks like quite a bit of running.

But when this World Cup thing began to get popular, I started to enjoy hanging out with friends and catching a World Cup game every so often, and then more and more frequently. I’m the friend that nods her heads at what looks like good moves, tries to gasp at the appropriate moments and cheers when everyone else starts to, but I have fun watching the games. (Especially since, unlike football which can continue for up to four hours, you can count on a soccer game to be over at almost exactly 90 minutes).

For the final World Cup match though, I want my friends to see how much I’ve learned about soccer these last few weeks, and I really want them to be impressed with my knowledge of the Spain vs. Netherlands final (this Sunday at 2:30 p.m.).

How cool would it be if I could say in casual conversation, “Yeah, Spain is totally going to beat the Netherlands this Sunday, no question” or “I really think the Netherlands might pull it out” and have full confidence in my statements?

I decided to turn to the experts for advice.

Meet Paul the Psychic Octopus

Paul picks Spain to win the World Cup.

Paul the Octopus has predicted that the winner of the World Cup this weekend will be Spain.

Paul the Octopus rose to fame because of the fact that so far he has correctly predicted the results of all of Germany’s games at the World Cup. (Paul has also predicted that Germany will defeat Uruguay in the World Cup’s third-place play-off on Saturday).

Paul chooses a winner by choosing from two glass boxes that each contain a mussel inside and the flag of a different country on the outside.

So far, the chances of Paul correctly predicting Germany’s results are 1 in 64. Sounds legit to me.

Meet Mani the Psychic Parakeet

Mani chooses the Netherlands to win the World Cup.

Mani the Psychic Parakeet from Singapore has predicted that the Netherlands will win in the World Cup final.

Mani became a local celebrity when M Muniyappan, Mani’s owner, said Mani correctly predicted the World Cup’s four quarter-final games and Spain’s semi-final victory over Germany.

Mani chooses winners by picking between two white cards. Each card has the flag from one of the two competing countries on the reverse side.

Mani’s steady job is predicting the future at a table in front of a restaurant in Singapore and this is his first foray into sports competitions. The phrase “a little birdie told me” has just taken on a new meaning.

Since not even the psychic animals can agree on who is going to win, I probably won’t be able to impress my friends with my knowledge of who is going to win the World Cup, but that can’t stop me from pretending I know what’s going on or from enjoying the game with my friends.

And either way it should be a good game. After all, neither Spain nor the Netherlands have ever won a World Cup game before so emotions will be running high this weekend (yeah, I totally just Googled that).