The Most Creative Way to Pick the World Cup Winner

The 2014 World Cup is down to the last eight teams, and sports analysts from all over the world are looking at trends and patterns to try to pick a winner. I always look at things a little differently than most people, and picking a World Cup winner will be no different. An isogram is a word that does not have any letter that appears twice within the word. Most words that have six letters or more are not isograms. With the help of isograms, we will pick a World Cup winner.

None of the major team sports are isograms. Basketball, baseball, ice hockey, football, soccer and lacrosse all have at least one letter that appears twice. But, amazingly the five sporting events that arguably garner the most attention throughout the world are all at least eight letters long and are all isograms. World Cup, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, Wimbledon, and Olympics are all isograms of eight letters or longer which is incredibly rare.

Even though most countries with teams represented in the World Cup are not isograms, the last five World Cup champions (Brazil twice, France, Italy, and Spain) names are all isograms. And the only three countries that have won at least three World Cup championships (Brazil, Italy, and Germany) are also isograms.

Four of the eight remaining teams in the World Cup (France, Germany, Brazil, and Belgium) follow the pattern, and a champion should come from that group. Colombia, Argentina, Netherlands, and Costa Rica have put out a valiant effort, but if the trend holds true, they have no chance of winning.

To pick a winner out of France, Germany, Brazil, and Belgium, I feel we have to point out what a team must possess to win the World Cup.

1. You need a TOP GUN. A scorer that can put the ball into the net in crucial situation.
2. Your goalie has to have COURAGE UNDER FIRE. Tim Howard had that quality against Belgium as they barraged him with shots, and he almost helped the United States pull off the upset.
3. With the large field and positioning being important your players have to know their assignments, so they need a high IQ.
4. If you fall behind, you may find yourself AGAINST THE ROPES so you need character to be able to come back late in the game.

If your team possesses all those qualities, you should be able to reach THE PROMISED LAND.

Wait a second. TOP GUN, COURAGE UNDER FIRE, IQ, AGAINST THE ROPES, THE PROMISED LAND are also movies that coincidentally featured Meg Ryan. What does Meg Ryan have to do with picking the World Cup Champion? If you switch around the letters in MEG RYAN, you get GERMANY.

Congratulations, Deutschland. You are going to be the 2014 World Cup Champion. Melvin Schwarzkopf of Alton, Illinois will be proud. Who is Melvin Schwarzkopf? He has the longest (17 letters) known isogram name in the United States.

Want more tips and best practices to improve your mental performance? Order your copy of my book, The Power of Forgetting, at your favorite retailer today at MikeByster.com.