A Good Cup for USA?

The Yanks have done well in Cup when they have gotten a gift goal.  They got an own goal by Columbia in 1994 (poor guy was literally hunted down by angry fans) in their 2nd group game, an own goal by Portugal in their first group game, and now, a gift goal by the English goalkeeper who turned an easy save into a USA goal.

After playing a very early (for us) morning basketball (almost every week for about 10 years now), we (my wife and son, Jayloc, Patrick, and Brian (Flying Elvi)) decided to watch the game at Red Robin's, where there was practically no one there.  We had the lovely viewing of several 27-inch non-flat screen non-HDTV TVs.    But it was fun and Spencer provided entertainment during the lull times in the game.

So the USA is off to a decent start, playing better as the game wore on.  Can't wait for the English tabloid to tear into the English team.  But still two winnable games left for both teams.  And, a great GK is key (thanks, Tim Howard) and why hopefully the Aussies will have a decent Cup.

Admin Stuff

As we await the hopefully epic USA-England match, you will notice that our homepage now redirects to this blog.  The original homepage is now called "ARCHIVE".  STANDINGS and RESULTS are updated after yesterday's games (no one got points) but you can see who everyone picked as their champ.  All now have their own tabs plus Sam's Pando! or Gordo?.

Cheers,
Scott
Sent via my Droid Incredible!

No Bailout for Greece

Wow, Korea was fast in easily beating Greece.  Argentina couldn't finish but did get a 1-0 win.  32 are tied for first with 2 points while 33 are tied with one point.  With 66 entries (unofficially), that leaves TAZ last with none. 

Everyone is in 1st Place...

...or everyone is in last place.  Thanks to the first tie by a host nation since 1986, the two draws today means everyone is still waiting to pick up his/her first points.  Were Irish eyes a smilin' when France's Thierry Henry of the infamous Hand of God II 1) Didn't start, 2) cried for a handball in the box on his pass, and 3) had his close direct free kick in extra time easily deflected off play.

We now have 66 entries (unofficially) as the mail-in entry came in.  Here's a list of all the nicknames:

NICKNAME
Abba	Eros2	O Fabuloso
AnybodyButEngland	FC Spermacidals	Popozoo
Baba	Flying Elvi	Princesa
Big Tex	Former MLS Writer	PRKs Kimiano Leenaldo
BigRedMessi	Forza Pazza	Ram58
Bix Pix	Fotografo Calcio	Randito
Chikakaldo	Futbol Fabone Four	Reckin Crew
Chi-Town Mikey's	Ghost of Ireland	Rivas
Coin Tossed	Go Sweden!	RodThunder
Corner Kick Kid	Hobbes	Samersig
Da Fermo	I Hate Vodka	Serrano
Desert17	I Hate Vodka Alot	SirMarcCharles
Dime 23	I Hate Vodka Most	Sisyphus
Doughboy	I R Winner! Part 2	Sisyphus13
Edu	Ish	Sisyphus86
EEChick1400	JP	Soccerbix
Eek	Ladybug	Source
Eggman	LB	Stewart W
El Chileno	LeftyRodriguez	Taz
El Oso	Lionelmessi	The Mighty Mobelfakta
El Ruso	Mireal	Wonderwoman
Eros1	Number 10	Zulupalooza

Brazil Favorite to Win it All

With the 65 unofficial entries thus far, Brazil is the favorite to win it all, followed by Spain. 

Team	CHAMP
Brazil	23
Spain	20
Argentina	10
Netherlands	6
England	3
Italy	1
United States	1
Paraguay	1

Interestingly, only one person picked the USA (I was tempted) and only 8 teams were picked to be champ.  Paraguay is the only surprise in this list.  Portugal, currently ranked #3 is not picked by anyone.

Host with the Most?

Host countries are 14-0-5 in their first match... can South Africa hold on for 20 more minutes to extend that streak?

UPDATE:  Yes, but they settle for a tie instead, denying 13 of 65 entries of picking up a point.

Vuvuzela effect?

Well, that didn't take long for the first blown call of the World Cup... and curiously in favor of the home team... offside?  handball?  No and no.

UPDATE:  So all this time, I never knew offside was you had to have TWO opponents behind you.  Since the GK is usually always the 2nd opponent this seems to get overlooked.  I mean if the announcers couldn't figure it out, how am I to?  Anyway, since the GK came out, only one RSA person was behind, on the goal line.  So good call after all.

Counting...

I know I have at least one mail in entry (hopefully arrives today or tomorrow) and a couple need some slight corrections and couple need payment info, but we should be nicely over 60 entries.  The first game has kicked off and it'll tell us what kind of Cup we'll have.  A South Africa tie (or win) would show that we're not in Europe anymore while a 3-0 drubbing by Mexico would show why are we in South Africa?  Either way it should be fun!  And HD is great!

And... I can watch the World Cup on my phone!!!  If you're on Verizon, make sure you do the 30-day free trial for VCast if you have a smartphone (like the Droid Incredible!). Awesome.

Laugh and Cry

Okay, we are sitting at 61 entries (2 need some corrections) with only 3 1/2 hours left.  Of this 61, two are mine.  For full disclosure, my picks are Futbol Fabone Four and Zulupalooza.  Go ahead and make fun of them.  USA in the Semis!  Twice!

Record-Breaking

We just topped 2006's record of 44 entries.  Thanks MLS Bob!  Dont' forget 7 am is the deadline.  If you are having problems, please send page 3 of the entry form in.  Exciting times ahead!  BTW, I'll be posting my picks here on the blog so you can review and laugh.

Issue # 2.0.2 "Will They Be Bafana Bafana or Men?"

Deadline is 7 AM PDT Tomorrow!  37 entries and counting!  HWCI World Cup Pool Update.

FOMI's WC Update

FOMI's WC UPDATE:

RSC ANDERLECHT have officially announced the signing of SACHA KLJESTAN to a four-year pre-contract and will be introduced next week after passing his physical this week .. ..

TEAM USA: EDSON BUDDLE has been beaming of late .. .. Little wonder because he WILL start on Saturday after Coach Bradley has seemingly seetled on LANDON & CLINT to be in the midfield .. .. And, it does appear that he will be partnered again by ROBBIE FINDLEY as Bradley likes that partnership .. ..

TEAM HOLLAND: Another WC and another racial meltdown .. .. oh my .. .. Seems someone caught a HOL player ranting about the local populace in SAF .. .. oh my .. .. stay tuned .. ..

TEAM GHANA: They were so unhappy with their training camp (like AUS) that they have moved!

TEAM JAPAN: 0-4 in their last 4 matches, manager has offered to resign and now the weather! Japan's training camp has been deluged by rain and training has been in a sog all week .. ..

Having Problems Filling Out Round of 16 Bracket Online?

Here's some help for filling out the Round of 16 Bracket:

Here you are choosing the 16 teams you think will advance to the Round of 16 (top 2 teams in each of the 8 groups). MAKE SURE that you don't have the same team listed twice in the Sweet 16 (I will parse through this manually to double-check for errors). "1A-Team" indicates who you think the Group A winner and "2A-Team" indicates who you think the Group A 2nd place finisher is (again, make sure these are not the SAME team!).
It doesn't matter what you pick for the first round as long as your pick for the Round of 16 goes through (e.g., if you think France will win Group A ("1A-FRANCE"), it doesn't matter whether you pick them to beat "1A-S AFRICA" or "1A-MEXICO").
For example, if you thought France will win Group A (so "1A") and Greece will finish 2nd in Group B (so "2B") so they will face each other in the Round of 16, do the following:

Does not matter if this is 1A-S AFRICA or 1A-MEXICO (or 2B-ARGENTNA or 2B-NIGERIA)

so then "2A" (finish 2nd in Group A) will either be 2A-S AFRICA, 2A-MEXICO, or 2A-URUGUAY.  I'd recommend choosing each group first (e.g., pick 1A, 2A, then 1B, 2B, etc.) than going straight down the bracket (1A, 2B, 1C, 2D, etc.).

 

This is an example (from 2002) of how your completed bracket should look like (High Res | Low Res).Once you have your "Sweet 16", pick all the way through to the Final match using the matchups you predicted.

World Cup for Free on Your Phone?

We have 23 entries so far which is pretty good.  Just a couple of reminders, not the least which is that Friday 7 AM PDT is the DEADLINE.  Also, when filling out your Round of 16 bracket, if the java applet doesn't load, try a different browser.  If that doesn't work, fax/email/mail your entry in.  As for the Round of 16 bracket, make sure your Round of 16 teams (3 column into the bracket on the java applet) are all DIFFERENT.  One of these days, I'll start this early enough where I'll have all the picks on one page (instead of 2 parts now) and have error-checking.  Alas, I do it manually now (though a lot of it is automated through macros, vlookups, etc.).

Verizon is offering their VCast service for most smartphones free for 30 days.  Allegedly, you will be able to watch the World Cup live (though in very low quality).  You have until June 11th (coincidence?) to subscribe.  Of course, if you already have the best phone on the market, the Droid Incredible (sorry EVO 4G and the iPhone 4 isn't out yet), this is a great option, though initial reports on VCast aren't so positive.  If I can get at least sound, that'd be great.  Of course, there is also USTREAM (which you can get for Android or iPhone).  What other options do we have for the phone?

Since I'm a Verizon DSL (now FIOS!) subscriber, I get ESPN3 (was ESPN360) for free, and can watch all the games (unless they're on ABC, I think) on my laptop or watch the games over again in their entirety.  Awesome.  BTW, FIOS blazes in speed... downloaded a 1.6GB file (torrent) in less than 18 minutes.  I feel like a Verizon whore (TV, Internet, Phone, Mobile) but their products are just awesome.

BECKS is back .. ..

WC FOMI:

Word from the ENGLAND CAMP is that our BECKS was out having a kickabout today (TUE 8Jun) on the flank with the ENG wingers .. ..

He's been putting all the ENG wide players through their paces lately .. ..

Doubling Up

Sitting here at midnight at Alhambra Park participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life (I'm on Team Rice Around the Clock) and amazingly, I get Netgear2's wireless signal.  Thank you to those who don't secure their wireless network!  Well, collected a few at the Galaxy game tonight (where LA dominated Houston 4-1) and we now have 18 entries with 5 days to go, ahead of 2006's pace.  Don't forget to spread the word!