A week left

We already have more than a half dozen entries thus far and we still have six days left so keep spreading the word!  Just some clarifications in this early stage:

• You can pick TIEs and you do get a point if you are correct (and no points if the match ends in a tie and you picked Team A or Team B to win).  
• Make sure you fill out both parts of the pool (the round-robin matches (48 matches)) and the Round of 16 bracket.
• After submitting your entry, you will get a page with your completed entry and how to pay.  Also, you will get an email with a summary of your picks and a link at the bottom to your picks.  The link works perfectly if you picked a nickname and it was one word.  If it is multiple words or you used a special character (e.g., "!"), just copy the entire text of the link and paste it in your browser.  If you update your picks and used the same nickname, you will see 2 version of your bracket (the last version is your latest).

Issue #1.0.1 "Please Bet on Us"

Archive

And so it begins! Less than 9 days to get your entry(s) in! Spread the word!  Follow us on Twitter or Facebook.  I'll be at the June 8th LA Galaxy match if you want to hand in your entry and fee then.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Issue #1.0.1 "Please Bet on Us"
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CAN SPAIN REIGN ON BRAZIL'S PARADE?
Our 5th World Cup pool now includes ability to pick ties and simplier interface

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt) --  There may be scandals in the news (incuding the betting one) but that won't stop us from conducting our betting pool! The World Cup draw last December provided some interesting tidbits, the least of which was the #14G-USA's group being deemed the Group of Death with #2G-Germany and #3G-Portugal in the group.  How about a rematch of the 2012 WC final on Game 3 (#1B-Spain vs #15B-Netherlands, who narrowly missed out being a group seed by 3 points)?  How about #8E-Switzerland and #12H-Belgium, snatching two group seeds (based on 10/17/13 ranking)?  How about South America getting 4 of the 8 group seeds?   Will the third time be the charm for USA in facing nemesis #38G-Ghana (losing to them in '06 round-robin final match and '10 R16 match)?  Will #16E-France continue the great ('98)-horrendous ('02)-great ('10)-horrendous ('14) pattern and be great, especially in the weakest group?  Will a European team finally win a title on American (North or South) soil?  How will the lone newcomer, #25F-Bosnia-Herzegovina do?

Four years is a long time to wait, but those who participated in our 1st-ever HWCI EURO Pool, only had to wait 2 years!  If there is decent interest, now that the Women's World Cup is expanding to 24 teams, to do the 1st-ever HWCI Women's World Cup Pool next year.  That would only leave 2017 as the odd man out in terms of soccer pools.  But back to the pool!  There are a couple differences than the last time.  The first is

The Times a'changing

Ah, the Times.  Both the Sunday Times of London and The New York Times printed scandalous stories over the weekend.

The former details the hardly surprising way the tiny but rich nation of Qatar was able to secure the 2022 World Cup.  Curiously, the PTW (price-to-win) was very low at just £3 million ($5 million USD) which suggests a lot of countries could get the World Cup if they really wanted to.  And considering the complaints of playing in "just" 90 degree heat in Chicago, summer soccer in Qatar may have had to be a midnight affair.  I guess we'll have to wait on how Russia somehow secured 2018 at a later date.  Maybe the World Cup will be coming to the USA sooner than we thought.

The latter story talks about how easy it could be to fix some of the professional soccer matches (not just who wins or loses, but on influencing betting) and details that 680 matches from 2008 to 2011 were "suspicious".  Of course in the MLS, it's just bad refereeing.  Hopefully, the World Cup will got without a hint of scandal as most of the oddities occur at lower-levels or "tournaments" where for some reason, betting is prominent.

Pando! or Gordo? Stat of the Day # 1

Interesting;

No non-Asian team won their first Group match in 2010 after losing their last tuneup match .. .. As long as you don't lose that last warmup match, things look good .. .. Wonder how Japan & Korea won their matches .. ..

WIN OR GO HOME?

What happened when you got to the 2010 World Cup for your first match .. ..

If you LOST your last Friendly before your first Group Match = 2W – 6L – 2D = 8ptsThe two that won were JAPAN & SOUTH KOREA .. ..

If you WON your last Friendly before your first Group Match = 7W – 4L – 9D = 30 pts 

If you DREW your last Friendly before your first Group Match = 1W – 1D – 0L = 4 pts