HWCI World Cup Pool: 2010-06-20

How is Sam handling the USA defeat? So bummed that there wasn't even a BBC ticker today? Check out his latest newsletter now!

BTW, just like that, HWCI.com is back up. Also, let's welcome Albert (A to the Z is his author name, O Fabuloso is his entry nickname) to this blogsphere with his first post today.

Hopefully it's just a midnight thing and hopefully HWCI.com will be back up in the morning. Standings are posted below in the meantime. I had to stop the 32,000+ scenario runs so it's like you are all still in it (even though not all of you are). Running the 8,000+ scenario case (after today's 2 matches) right now which still takes hours. In the meantime, only four correctly picked URU (Forza Pazza, El Ruso, El Chileno (7th-Tied, 61), Stewart W (12th-T, 58)) and only Samersig (going from 54th-T to 29th-T, 55) pegged GHA. So Forza Pazza (70) actually increased his lead from one to six points and El Ruso moved from 10th-T to 3rd-T. Note that Forza Pazza (Joseph D) was also first after the Round of 16 last time (2006) (maybe it's about goalkeeper saves??) and didn't finish in the money. Maybe it'll be different this time.

So I Hate Vodka (18th-T, 57) lost his USA champ and two others lost USA in the final. We thank you for your patriotism and your ten bucks. BUT, they might not be eliminated yet. Boy, I need a faster computer.

Here are the current standings:

HOME	BLOG	RESULTS		FORUM
	DATE OF STANDINGS:	26-Jun-10
	RND1- # NO TIE/TIED:		34/14							1ST-	$310	4TH-	$60
	MATCHES PLAYED:	50 of 63	48	(16)	2	0	0	0		2ND-	$160	BNS-	$40
	PICKS PER ROUND:		48	16	8	4	2	1	79	3RD-	$100	Total Goals: TBD
	POINTS PER PICK:		1	3	5	7	9	14
	POINTS PER ROUND:		48	48	40	28	18	14	196		Pred
Rnk	NAME	Correct->	RND1	ADV	R16	QTR	SEMI	FINAL		PTS	Chmp	TIE	WIN GRP
1	Forza Pazza	Pick	26	13	1	0	0	0		70	ESP	6.5	D4H4
2	EEChick1400	Pick	25	13	0	0	0	0		64	BRA	7.5	G4
3	Big Tex	Pick	24	13	0	0	0	0		63	ESP	6.0	C4H4
	El Ruso	Pick	22	12	1	0	0	0		63	ARG	8.5	B4

I have been meaning to write something just never got around to it since I must have slept through most of the matches lol

Anyways , I sad to inform everyone that unfortunately the dreaded Vuvuzelas have made to the states.

The ear drum torturing weapons of MASS ANNOYANCE are in full buzz here at the Home Depot Center for the restart of MLS action after the World Cup break.

The worst part is that they are been SOLD INSIDE THE STADIUM

It feel like theres a freaking bee stuck in you ear

Out of gas. Couldn't win any 50/50 balls and Dempsey missed every shot except when the goalkeeper let it go through his hands. Looked like we quot but they were just gassed. Good for Ghana who put in a great performance.

Every pass is short. When did this become MLS?

Why do we do this to ourselves? 25 minutes to try to tie.

Does the USA have enough gas and how much more bruising can Dempsey take?

Much deserved PK and I didn't see Landon do his ritual and his shot actually went off the post. Whew.

Or at least have a chance to. Findley is out!

He just dribbled the ball on a break out of bounds.

Blows a one on one opportunity. Someone please take him out!

Once again we are down in the first few minutes. Sigh...

Uruguay, behind Suarez's two goals including the GWG in the 80', holds of South Korea 2-1. URU, probably the least remembered WC champion (the four stars are for 2 WC and 2 Olympic titles, I think, none since 1950), reaches the QF for the first time since 1970. The pitch and weather were bad and while URU should've gotten a PK, KOR missed a golden opportunity for the tying goal in the late minutes.

For my update that is. Standings are updated but the elimination macro I'm using is running very, very , very slowly. Maybe I need a new laptop. Still running from late last night. So all 67 still have hope until that finishes!

Also, Sam's newsletter have all been converted to HTML so the Pando! or Gordo? link now has the latest.

Sorry for the late notice but this has been a very bad week for me.... Eric Foster (BigRedMessi) is running his own Round of 16 pool with lots of interesting twists... for you soccer lovers (and gamblers), please enter!
----

Hello Friends,

Please let me know if you’re joining the World Cup Round of 16 Pool. Below are the categories and instructions. I will post picks online on the morning of Saturday, June 26^th.

FYI, because the last few teams may not be determined until June 25^th, I recommend you do one of two things: A) Send me all of your picks early and use “1^st Place of Group A vs. 2^nd Place Group B” format for the games categories, or B) Wait until June 25^th and submit all of your picks at once. Choice B is a little more risky if you’re not spot-on with your timing (I will send a reminder anyhow). I’m willing to take your initial picks and change them on the 25^th…this will ensure you spend some time on your picks.

Analysis won't come til late tonight or even tomorrow.. still stuck at work. But Forza Pazza still leads by one.

ohhh -- now i get it .. .. Sammy

We are still at least two goals away from anything changing.

Both Swiss and Hon seem to be waiting for something in the other gamer to help them for the first 70 minutes. But things atte now opening up with Hon nearly getting a goal (offsides) and the Swiss nearly scoring a few seconds later.

With Chile scoring that means the Swiss need two goals to advance while Honduras now need five! 25 minutes left.

Using Swype which is pretty cool. Spain had a two goal lead at the half which means they will win the group.

Did I hear boos from the fans at the end of the BRA-POR scoreless match? Of course, the winner (BRA) could get Spain (so maybe POR was correct in playing for a tie) or they could get CHI or SUI. CIV did get 3 goals but needed 9. PRK gave up a total of 12 goals but at least they scored a goal (hello scoreless ALG and maybe HON).

I haven't followed either game that closely, but what are the odds that both the POR-BRA (scoreless, mind you) and CIV-PRK matches both have FIVE additional minutes of stoppage time... are the two refs in contact with each other?

What could've been an epic group stage match with #1 Brazil vs #3 Portugal is turning into a bore with Brazil having qualified and Portugal having a 9-goal differential advantage on Ivory Coast. The Elephants which started off with 2 early goals have struggled since with North Korea as it is still 2-0 in the 80th minute.

Some great matches today... what did Sammy have to say about Italy's performance and how did Lindsay Lohan get a mention??

The surprising Japan win was picked by just 10 and their advancement to the Round of 16 was picked by just four. Who knew when they had that losing streak coming in and failed to secure a match after the WC against Mozambique that the Samurai Blue would join South Korea as members of the elite 16. Who knew JPN were free kick specialists? Two goals off FKs. In fact the only other FK goal (I believe) was KOR's. JPN & KOR linked again. The Dutch became the second team to sweep (9 pts) with BRA and CHI trying to do the same tomorrow. 59 picked Holland to win their game and 64 had them making the Round of 16.

Forza Pazza remains in first with 51pts, but EEChick1400 (50), and Big Tex (49) are close behind. Eros 1 and Eros 2 (as you can guess, the same person and our defending champ) picked both matches and got both teams to move from a tie for 42nd to a tie for 12th (45). El Ruso was the only other one to get both R16 teams and moved from 26th-T to 12th-T. A total of 9 got both late matches correct. Source (12th-T) had a topsy-turvy day missing both PAR & SVK but getting both JPN & NED.

For the day, 12 went 2-1 while 7 went 0-3. Three picked 3 of the 4 R16 teams while four only got one correct and Coin Tossed (Last, 24) picked none. As for the top picks, Forza Pazza, Lionelmessi, and El Oso (12th-T) have gotten 24 of 32 games correct while six have picked 9 of 12 R16 teams (not including BRA).

Italy is our biggest bust so far. They were one of 3 teams (ESP and ARG are the other two) where everyone picked them to advance. Nine had them in the Semis, five in the Final, and Ram58 (55th-T, 39) picked them as champion. It seems hopeless for him, but we won't know for sure until after tomorrow's matches. That is when we will find out which of the 67 entries have no chance of finishing in the top 4.

Basically... they now lead 3-1 and Denmark would have to score 3 goals to advance. The Dutch will finish first.

For the first time since 1974, the defending champs go home after 3 games. PAR becomes the the 3rd South American team to win their group. BRA and CHI are next. SLV makes the Round of 16 in their first WC.

And Eisner wins 70-68! Wow.... 138 games in the fifth set, 20 today.

ETA: Only three picked SVK over ITA (Coin Tossed, FC Spermacidals, and Soccerbix) while only 15 had them through to the next round while 48 pegged PAR. No one got both and four (Coin Tossed, I Hate Vodka Most, Samersig, Source) didn't get either PAR or SVK. So both 2006 finalists (FRA and ITA) are out. Wow. How hard is this year's cup? Out of 30 non-tied matches, the top score is only 23 (Forza Pazza and Lionelmessi). In 2006, Paolo Rossi (same person as Forza Pazza) got 34 of 37 matches correct. Also, no one has gotten more than 8 of the 10 R16 teams correct (not including NED and BRA who have already qualified).

ITA scores in stoppage time, but is it too little too late? NZL tied 0-0. PAR is in. SLV faking injuries now.

Most likely. Great finish puts SLV up 3-1 on the defending champs. NZL now needs to win or SLV is in. And with GF, if NZL wins 1-0, PAR is out. Extra time!

ITA just offsides on their tying goal and NZL nearly put one in. Four minutes left.

Down and out, Italy scores making it 2-1 Slovakia. 10 minutes left. A tie would get ITA in on GF as NZL is tied 0-0 with PAR.

How delirious was Sam on the USA's win? Read all about it!

Forza Pazza went 3-1 and got 3 of 4 teams who advanced to the Round of 16 to stay in first with 44 points but there are now 49 (vs 43) people within 10 points. Twenty got all 4 matches correct and 15 got all 4 Round of 16 teams (including Krispy Kicker who blasted out of last place to 66th with 27 pts). Princesa (moved from 54th-tied to 22nd-tied, 36 pts), Ish (32nd-T to 12th-T, 38), Rivas (21st-T to 9th-T, 39), and Lionelmessi (10th-T to 4th, 41) were perfect today. Big Tex (42) fell to 3rd with EEChick1400 moving to 2nd (43) thanks to getting all 4 matches correct.

On the flip side, six went 2-2 and Coin Tossed (regained last with 22 pts) only got 1 of 4 teams. Big Tex and Edu (64th-T, 30) missed both Germany's and Australia's wins today. Since the 3rd set of games started yesterday, Chi-Town Mikey's (14th-T to 56th-T) and Desert17 (14th-T to 62nd-T) have been in a massive freefall.

Sixty-five picked ENG, 63 picked USA, 64 picked GER, and 23 picked AUS to win their matches today. On the Round of 16 side, 66 had GER, 65 had ENG, 61 had USA, and only 19 had GHA. While a lot were predicting the USA would get revenge against GER (2002 Qtrfinals) in the Round of 16, instead the USA will try to avenge their 2006 RR loss to GHA. Amazing how things work out.

ALG went goalless and HON is the only other country yet to score.

Unfortunately, Ghana would need to win and they are down 1-0 with 20 minutes left.

This was not the easiest path, but the USA gets an extra time clincher from Donovan and win Group C (first time in 1st since 1930) with England following in 2nd. Same two teams most people picked but certainly not the way most imagined it. As much as the early goal should've counted, the ref repaid us bigtime in the extra time by calling a phantom foul on a ALG late corner kick, then giving a yellow card to the one Algerian who wasn't in his face (and thus his 2nd yellow), and then keeping to the 4 minutes of extra time despite the long USA celebration and the long red card walk of shame.

So did Dempsey have a poor game or was he the unlikeliest bloke on the pitch? Bruised, beaten, shots off goal, missed chances.

(Photo: Landon Donovan sent USA top above England in Group C with his injury-time winner. (Reuters: Amr Abdallah Dalsh))

Sammy, no mention of the numerous Gordos by Nigeria?? Here's Sam's latest (pdf)... Will be getting these to html tomorrow.

Also, Sammy sent a funny... At least we're not as bad as France...

Standings have been updated with 15 points up for grabs today (1 pt x 3 RR matches plus 3 pt x 4 teams that made the Round of 16). South Africa's win snapped El Chileno and Lionelmessi's win streak at 8. Sisyphus86 was the only one to get all 3 matches correct (pretty good picking RSA and URU). Ten got both Group A teams correct while 9 got both Group B teams correct. The intersection of five got all 4 teams correct (Forza Pazza, Source, EEChick1400, Big Tex, and Serrano). Five missed both Group A teams and every entry got at least one of the two Group B teams.

That leaves Forza Pazza in first with 32 points followed by Big Tex with 31 and EEChick1400 with 30. Serrano and Source moved from a tie for 39th to a tie for 4th place in just one day. On the flip side, Chi-Town Mikey's and Desert17 went from a tie for 14th to a tie for 57th in just one day. Krispy Kicker is further in the bottom with just 12 points clearing Coin Tossed by four and Samersig and SirMarcCharles by 5.

BTW, the four teams who didn't advance all put in great efforts today. France finally scored, Greece held their own and had a better than expected Cup, Nigeria came to life in the second half (too little too late) and if they didn't have Gordo's feet, would have won by two or so goals, and host South Africa picked up a well-deserved win over the 2006 Runner-Ups.

Nigeria's #9 after missing the easy chip now fails to chest down a ball in the box which could have resulted in a easy goal. Meanwhile Greece is cooked going down 2-0 which means of Korea protects the tie, they are in.

Wow. Another easy chip shot somehow missed by Nigeria. Does Gordo have a training camp in Africa?

If Nigeria wins and Argentina holds, the Super Eagles will qualify.

Man, I forget how exciting these simultaneous matches are! After missing the easy sitter, Nigeria's #8 redeems himself with a PK goal to tie the game at 2 with 20 minutes left.

Nigeria just missed a four footer by somehow hitting it wide.

I was chatting with Soccerbix on the eve of the World Cup and told him Uruguay would win Group A. He laughed. So I chickened out but had them win the group on my second entry. And good for France for finally scoring a goal and joining the likes of such teams like North Korea.

Sacrebleu! The host teams leads 1-0 and France is now down to 10 men... still over an hour of futbol left, but geez...

PDF file here if you can't wait...

Groups G & H!

======================
Group G
      P W L D F A GD Pts
x-BRA 2 2-0-0 5 2 3 6
POR 2 1-0-1 7 0 7 4
CIV 2 0-1-1 1 3 -2 1
z-PRK 2 0-2-0 1 9 -8 0

***Group G Scenarios
~REMAIN: POR-BRA, PRK-CIV
~NOTE: POR=CIV
y-BRA W/T
y-POR W
x-POR W/T or L&CIV T/L or (GD/GF/DL) L&CIV W
x-(GD/GF/DL) CIV W&POR L

======================
Group H
    P W L D F A GD Pts
CHI 2 2-0-0 2 0 2 6
ESP 2 1-1-0 2 1 1 3
SUI 2 1-1-0 1 1 0 3
HON 2 0-2-0 0 3 -3 0

***Group H Scenarios
~REMAIN: CHI-ESP, SUI-HON
~NOTE: SUI>ESP, CHI>SUI, ESP>HON
y-CHI W/T
y-ESP W&SUI T/L or (GD/GF/HH/DL) ESP W&SUI W
y-(GD/GF/HH/DL) SUI W&ESP W
x-CHI W/T or L&SUI T or (GF/HH) L&SUI W1
x-ESP W or T&SUI T/L
x-SUI W2+ or W&ESP T/L or T&ESP L or (GF/GD/HH) L&ESP L or (GF/HH) W1&CHI L
x-(GD/GF/HH) HON W2+&ESP L

My latest (and late being the operative word) newsletter is here. Also, if you check the standings, the prize distribution is listed. Spend now, pray later.

Paraguay's 2 goals made the total in the second round of matches 26 in just 11 matches, which is one more than the entire first 16 games (25). Teams are now playing for the win after a very conservative first round of play. The day ended with 32 goals in 13 matches (2.46 goals/match) with 3 to go.

FIFA really needs to have a review of every yellow card. Kaka's second yellow was atrocious and continues the poor refereeing. But FIFA could overturn it, but FIFA is what FIFA is. Luckily Brazil has qualified and don't need him for the final match. Coin Tossed and I Hate Vodka Alot are the only two who didn't put Brazil through.

The latest Pando! or Gordo? is now online and don't forget his weekend special. Latest standings and results are posted.

UPDATE: Group F scenarios...

Group F
P W L D F A GD Pts
PAR 2 1-0-1 3 1 2 4
ITA 2 0-0-2 2 2 0 2
NZL 2 0-0-2 2 2 0 2
SVK 2 0-1-1 1 3 -2 1

***Group F Scenarios
~REMAIN: SVK-ITA, PAR-NZL
~NOTE: PAR>SVK, ITA=PAR, ITA=NZL
y-PAR W or T&ITA T/L or (GD/GF/DL) T&ITA W
y-(GD/GF/DL) ITA W&PAR T or (GD/GF/DL) W&NZL W
y-NZL W&ITA T/L or (GD/GF/DL) W&ITA W
x-PAR W/T or L&ITA T or (GD/GF/HH) L&SVK W
x-ITA W or T&NZL L or (GF/DL) T&NZL T
x-NZL W ~~or T&ITA L~~ or (GF/DL) T&ITA T
x-SVK W&PAR W/T or (GF/GD/HH) W&PAR L

Sam has provided a little extra for us. The latest newsletter!

New Zealand took a lead and only a tickey-tack PK earned by Italy made it a 1-1 tie. Italy peppered NZ but they withstood. Good for Simon Elliot and the gang. Paraguay (picked by 55) leads the group with its 2-0 win. BTW, 41 (including both of mine :-() who picked CMR to advance can't have a perfect Round of 16. So Spain loses, England can't win, France has fallen apart (now, no practice today, trainer & director quits, dogs & cats living together...), Germany loses. It's like 2002 again.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Friday, June 25, 2010

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

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