JohnF has said his book "should be ready for publication by the end of the summer". As I said in the News and Notices section, I'm going to the Oxford Summer School next month so I'll mention the favourites problem to him then.

My own opinion is that we have to use a different method. We have several to choose from. Your team colours or Chinese method, Goca, which you have certainly had success with or possibly if one of the teams is the trophy holder, as Gem mentioned, then they get the Asc.

Wow, I am so happy- we will have right info directly from Frawley thanks to you!! Yes, most important is to choose right method for particular match!

I'd love to hear what JF will have to say on this but I guess there's no hard and fast rule. Yet even when there's no clear fave we can still consider various factors, such as the capacity, the current condition of the team(injuries, out-of-form players, etc), the rank, the result of the last encounters between the two teams, the last winner of a particular tornament, and so on.
Regarding hte final of the Copa America, we thought Mercury looked better but I still think Brazil had the AC so this is a case for me Rx Jupiter in the 12th winning over slowisih Mercury in the 7th. The dignified Jupiter in domicile described Brazil rather well(the Rx motion indicating they weren't playing ht best team?)
As far as football event charts are concerned, I've found there's not much difference in strength between the 7th and 12th, though planets above the horizon function definitely better than planets below the horizon. Usually planets in the 1st, 12th, 11th and 10th are better off probably because they're rising, gaining power, as it were, whereas planets in 9th to 7th are falling towards the underworld.
As for the Rx Pluto on the Ac in the Final chart, the 3rd place play-off between Mexico and Uruguay had a similar chart(14/7/07, 17:05, Caracas). Mexico were the definite faves and beat Uruguay even with Rx Pluto on AC.
Ficina, I hope you'll have a good time at the Summer School and I look forward to hearing about it

Hi Gem,
Very interesting post, but I'm going to offer a couple of alternative views

Re the Copa America final. Argentina were the odds on faves so I would say that was pretty clear cut. If bookies base their odds on current form and calibre of players, then Argentina had better results than Brazil in previous games, plus they were fielding their A team whereas Brazil were fielding their B team. Essentially dignified Jupiter describes the best team (Argentina) but accidentally retro and in 12th. JohnF's description of this situation is a tiger trapped in a tiger pit. He was actually talking about Mars but the analogy still applies I think. Basically the better/stronger team were unable to perform on the day.

Having said that, I do agree with your point about planets above the horizon performing better although I've found that angular 7th and 10th work best.

I've looked at the Mexico v Uruguay chart and I'm not sure how I would have called this one as there are mixed messages. Being picky, retro Pluto is on the 12th house side of the Asc so I would probably have discounted it. Interestingly, antiscion POF is conj Asc, and this is one of JohnF's aphorisms for the faves to win. I've only seen this twice before in practice (once conj Asc and once conj MC) and on both occasions the faves won.

Ficina, I hope you'll have a good time at the Summer School and I look forward to hearing about it

Thanks Gem, I shall definitely report back

Hi Ficina
We all have different ways of figuring out as to who gets the AC and I certainly need more experience on this so I appreciate your 'alternative views'. It does require skills and knowledge!
In this case, I assign the AC to Brazil because they were the winners of previous Copa America and also because of the general calibre of the team.

Hi Goca!!!
I don`t understand?


[quote="Goca"]One friend of mine said to me that that method, favorite on ASc in his opinion gives best results when there is "big" match in question.[/quote]
What it is a "big match"??
Thank

That are matches of , for example, city rivals, in Serbia that are matches Crvena zvezda vs Partizan, thay always been No 1 or No 2 on list and it is always important when thay play who will win.