It was a tense final, with five time World Cup champions Brazil looking for their sixth star, against the European champions, Spain. The action was fierce on both sides, and Brazil took an early lead on a goal from Felipe Marko. The Spaniards equalized with a shot from David Villa (his sixth of the tournament) to end the first. Then the second half belonged to Spain as their teamwork and stifling defense managed to frustrate the Brazilians. Villa scored his second in the 61st minute, while Andres Iniesta put in Spain’s 3rd,to lead the number two ranked team in the world overd the top ranked Brazilians in a memorable 3-1 final! Or at least according to the game 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.
EA ran a simulation of the entire tournament, from the group stages through the finals, and Spain came out victorious. Each year, EA does a similar event for the Super Bowl, playing out the game and announcing the champion with eerily accurate results. In the seven years that the Madden franchise has run the simulation, it has predicted six correct champions, including this year’s New Orleans Saints, who were the Vegas underdogs going in.
The US begins its World Cup run this Saturday versus England, a game that EA predicts will favor England 2-1, although both teams are predicted to advance to the knock out stage where the US will lose to Germany in a shoot out. The semi-finals will see Brazil take out the English in a penalty shootout, while Spain knocks off Argentina. England then goes on to win third place with a 2-1 victory over rival Argentina.
The game also predicted that Spain’s David Villa would win the Golden Boot with 7 goals, and Brazil’s Kaka would be the Golden Ball winner.
It should be noted that in 2006, EA predicted the Czech Republic to win the Cup in a 2-1 victory over Brazil. Unfortunately, the Czech Republic failed to make it out of the first round.
