The mechanics of the pool are handled by a Joomla! component written by John Bultena. It will keep track of goals scored at halftime, fulltime, as well as correct picks of wins, losses, and draws. From my understanding, you get 1 point for correct prediction of the result, 3 points per team if you have their halftime goal count correct, 6 points per if you have their final goal count correct, and an extra 10 points for an exact result on all five variables. Proposition questions will be worth 100 points apiece. Though I give odds on many props, they all payout at the same total, no matter your answer.

UPDATE: The point system works differently than I thought. I can change it to the above, or I can keep it as is. As is, the total number of players in the pool is divided by the number of players who make a prediction correctly. Then that result is multiplied by 1 for w/d/l correct, 3 per team at halftime, 6 per team at fulltime, and 10 for all correct. So if four people guess the halftime points for one team right out of a pool of 20, they get 3(20/4), or 15 points apiece. The whole process is explained, with examples, here.

To play:

1. Register for lithchat if you haven't yet. Click on the link "Užsiregistruokite" at the top left of the page. The five fields (for those who don't speak Lithuanian) that the registration page asks you for are name, username, email address, password, and password again. If you have a login for posting photos, then you already have a login for lithchat. If you have problems, let me know (if you can't email me, comment on this post).

2. Log in to lithchat. In the "World Cup Pool" drop-down menu at the top of the page, you should now be able to click on "My Picks." Fill in the goals, etc. You can change your mind up to 15 minutes before game time.

3. Then click on "Propositions" and fill out the props. Each prop correctly guessed is worth 100 points. They all lock up on June 9, though I may add more afterward for the second round and stuff.

4. That's all!

World Cup info:

I'm hardly an expert, but I'm leaning a lot on these two sites for World Cup info: SoccerBlog and WorldCupBlog. SoccerTV also has a schedule of all the games and their airtimes on US TV.