Heavy favorites struggle (6/17)

The constant aggressiveness by F2-Mexico to start the match paid off in a big way with lots of opportunities and a great effort and finish by Hirving Lozano.  The defending champs took back possession but Mexico kept the pressure on, committing 15 fouls.  F1-Germany had 61% of the possession and took 25 shots, 9 on goal but was held scoreless.  Will MEX keep up the momentum or have a typical letdown against a lesser team such as F4-Korea Republic? Who would have thought GER would score UEFA's first loss of the tournament (was 5-0-3 with SRB's win)?

While GER was picked by 22 to win the 2018 WC, E1-Brazil picked by
23 to win.  BRA did well to possess and get shots off, but only 4 of their 20 shots were on target.  A slight push off a corner gave the E2-Switzerland an easy header for the tying goal and the Swiss tactic of harassing Neymar worked, fouling him 10 times (of SUI's 19 total).  The ref was calling it too loose and more yellow cards should have been shown to control the match.  BRA's tie was much better than their last two WC matches (4-0 loss to NED and 7-1 to GER) so this is... progress?

The early match saw E4-Serbia's Aleksandar Kolarov with a free kick masterpiece that held up in beating E3-Costa Rica, 1-0.  Even on shots (10), on goal (3), possession (50%), cautions (2), and actual playing time (29 min), both teams needed a win but are now helped by the surprising BRA draw.

Today's matches saw no PK attempts after seeing at least one in five straight matches.  Only Argh (27th-Tied, 5 pts) picked Mexico to win in a pool with lots of Mexican pride (and more so since the USA didn't make it).  Only six picked the BRA-SUI tie and the underdog SRB was picked by just 28.  That meant only Jurupa FC got 2 correct to move into a tie for 2nd (7).  Ilvecchio ("old" in Italian) got zero correct as did 44 others but still remains in 1st (8).  14 are tied for last (3).

Of the teams picked to win it all:  BRA 23 (tie), GER 22 (loss), ARG 9 (tie), ESP 7 (tie).  BEL picked by 7 is next.  This won't be a cakewalk for any of these teams.