World Cup Contest: Germany delivers for Beckenbauer 5

Charles Bryant’s winning bracket, dubbed “Beckenbauer 5”

With a name like “Beckenbauer 5“, Germany’s victory over Argentina on Sunday was the obvious preferred outcome for Charles Bryant.

His World Cup bracket, named after the legendary German player Franz Beckenbauer, prevailed over the competition in Presidio Sports’ World Cup bracket contest sponsored by Santa Barbara Brewing Company.

Bryant, a former UCSB soccer player from 1983 to 1986, says his affinity for the German national soccer team is a close second to Team USA. While he correctly chose Germany to defeat Argentina in the final, he also picked the Americans to advance with Germany out of the “Group of Death” that included Ghana and Portugal.

Bryant’s bracket finished in the 98.9 percentile of all ESPN contestants, a pool of over 1.1 million. Bryant beat out Daniel Torres and Meghan Roarty, who finished tied for second place. Ten of the top 12 placers picked Germany to win it all. Complete standings are listed at the bottom of the page.

Had Argentina pulled out the victory on Sunday, contestant “MattatASU” would have come out on top. Instead, MattatASU finished 9th and was the highest player who didn’t select Germany to win it all.

Bryant receives two tickets to a concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Roarty gets a gift package from Spa del Mar at the Fess Parker Resort, and Torres secured a $100 gift card to Santa Barbara Brewing Company.

For the casual American soccer fan, Beckenbauer is arguably the largest persona in German soccer history. He was the captain of the 1974 West Germany team that won the World Cup, and again led the Germans to a World Cup title in 1990 as head coach. He was also one of the top players in the Bundesliga for many years representing Bayern Munich.