Model report card

How good were the blind predictions?

The pre-tournament model made a call on every match with zero knowledge of any 2026 result. Here is how those blind calls held up against what actually happened — accuracy, sharpness, and how well its confidence matched reality. 104 matches so far; this updates as the tournament plays out.

68%
Winners called
71/104 matches
0.153
Ranked prob. score
naive 0.229 · 33% sharper
0.483
Brier score
multiclass W/D/L
0.830
Log loss
lower = better

Did it call the bracket?

Rank every team by the model's pre-tournament title odds, then see how many of its top N actually reached the last N. The call sharpens the deeper the tournament runs.

Round of 16 · last 1611 / 16
Quarter-finals · last 84 / 8
Semi-finals · last 44 / 4
The final · last 22 / 2

🎯 Its top two — Argentina & Spain — are the two finalists, and its top four were the exact four semi-finalists. All before a ball was kicked.

Is it well calibrated?

0%0%20%20%40%40%60%60%80%80%100%100%perfectly calibratedModel said this likely →…and it happened this often

Every dot bundles all the calls at one confidence level. If the model is honest, when it says 60% the thing happens ~60% of the time — so the dots hug the dashed line. Dot size = how many calls sit in that bucket.

Model saidavghappenedcalls
0–10%7%6%17
10–20%15%10%59
20–30%26%19%112
30–40%34%28%32
40–50%44%60%25
50–60%55%75%28
60–70%65%81%21
70–80%75%85%13
80–90%85%60%5

Winners called by stage — group: 61% (72) · knockout: 84% (32).

Sharpest calls & biggest shocks

🎯 Nailed with conviction

Argentina 3-2 Cape Verde87% · nailed
Spain 4-0 Saudi Arabia84% · nailed
Jordan 1-3 Argentina83% · nailed
Spain 3-0 Austria79% · nailed
Germany 7-1 Curaçao78% · nailed
France 3-0 Sweden78% · nailed

😱 Never saw it coming

Spain 0-0 Cape Verdegave it 9%
England 0-0 Ghanagave it 12%
South Africa 1-0 South Koreagave it 17%
Ecuador 0-0 Curaçaogave it 17%
Ghana 1-0 Panamagave it 18%
Qatar 1-1 Switzerlandgave it 18%

Poisson (Dixon-Coles) + Elo · blind pre-tournament model · worldcup2026ml.pt