Sunday, June 24, 2018
ARGENTINA IN TROUBLE, SIX TEAMS
IN
Ilvecchio and Spermicidal FC are tied for 1st; Next four days will pile up 64 points
Ilvecchio and Spermicidal FC are tied for 1st; Next four days will pile up 64 points
LOS
ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (LAX->ATL->DCA), CA (smt) -- The second
group of matches saw redemptions for some teams such as E1-Brazil and F1-Germany
needed stoppage time goals to pull out wins, H3-Colombia dominated the Group H
seed 3-0, and B1-Portugal and B2-Spain rebounded to narrow 1-0 wins after all
five had disappointing starts. The only world power who failed to bounce
back was D1-Argentina who got shut out by D3-Croatia, 3-0, and now need help to
qualify for the Round of 16. A1-Russia (3-1), H1-Belgium (5-2), and
H4-England (6-1) remained perfect after dominating victories while A4-Uruguay
and C1-France struggled to 1-0 wins to remain perfect. F2-Mexico and
Croatia are the other teams to start 2-0. Of the 7 teams at 2-0, Mexico is
the only one to have not qualified for the Round of 16 yet.
The E2-Swiss became the first team to win after allowing the first goal rallying
to beat
E4-Serbia (Germany was then the second team the next day). There
have been no scoreless draws yet and just two red cards in the first 32 matches.
There have been, however, 16 penalty kicks which is two more than 2014's entire
64-match total (not including penalty shootouts). VAR has been responsible
for awarding 5 penalty kicks and removing one.
H1-Poland became the first top seed to be eliminated as
Group H is now a battle between H2-Senegal, H4-Japan, and Colombia.
Japan rallied twice to tie Senegal 2-2 and along with Mexico, are the lone
bright spots in their confederations. Without Mexico, CONCACAF is 0-4-0
with both E2-Costa Rica and G2-Panama already eliminated. Without Japan,
AFC is 1-6-1 with the lone win by Iran on an own goal and C2-Australia battling
C4-Denmark to a 1-1 tie. Without Senegal, CAF is 1-7-0 with the lone win
by D4-Nigeria over tiny D2-Iceland and Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia already
eliminated.
Ilvecchio and Spermicidal FC
are tied for first
with 22 points while Larzby is last with 12 points.
There have only been five ties in the tournament. As we head to the dual
played matches within each group in the next four days, each group has the
potential to pick up 8 points (1 point per match, 3 points per R16 team) or 16
points for each day. Expect movement in the standings each day.
Eric's
"Foster's
Football Brew", a HWCI EURO Pool staple, is back, already two
issues in. If anyone else wants to
contribute, let me know. Anyone else going to Russia and want to send
pictures or mini-reports?
The prize distribution and Bonus Prize will be detailed at
a later date (although eagle-eyed viewers will already have seen the
distribution). The Bonus Prize will be the same but if we go to the
Bonus2 contest, because those with 0.5 are at a disadvantage, the total
goals predicted will be doubled and include the two semifinal matches (4 matches
total).
The best way to keep up with the pool is to follow
@HWCI_Pools on Twitter
or visit the
#HWwc hashtag
(you don't need Twitter account to view) often for
daily updates. Less
often will be our
Facebook group page (post comments or organize viewing parties) and then
these newsletters every 4 days or so.
SIDES 'N KICKS: [32
Matches / 4 Ties] Goals:
85 (2.66/match) [Own: 5
(4-MARvIRN, 5-AUSvFRA, 8-NGAvCRO, 15-POLvSEN, 17-EGYvRUS), Subs (incl. Own):
4 (1-RUS 70', 4-MAR {og} 90'+5, 29-BEL 90', 30-ENG 78', 32-JPN 78'),
Stoppage: 10 (1-RUS +1, 1-RUS +4,
4-IRN +5, 14-ENG +1, 23-CRO +1, 25-BRA +1, 25-BRA +7, 27-GER +5, 28-KOR +3,
29-TUN +3)]... Scoring First: 26-2-4
(0 Nil-Nil ties; 26-SRB, 27-SWE)... Lead at Half:
11-2- 2 (17 ties; 26-SRB, 27-SWE)...
Shutout: 17 (1-KSA, 2-EGY, 4-MAR, 6-PER, 8-NGA, 10-CRC,
11-GER, 12-KOR, 13-PAN 18-KSA {2}, 19-MAR {2}, 20-IRN, 21-PER {2}, 23-ARG,
24-ISL, 25-CRC {2}, 31-POL)...
PK: 13/16 (3-POR, 5-AUS, 5-FRA,
6-per [H], 7-arg [S], 8-CRO, 12-SWE, 14-TUN, 16-JPN, 18-EGY, 22-AUS {2}, 24-isl
[H], 28-MEX, 29-BEL, 30-ENG, 30-ENG {2})...
Red Card (GF/GA): 2 (2/1) [16-COL
3' {R} (1/1), 27-GER 82' {2Y} (1/0)]...
Multiples: 10 [Cheryshev 2 (1-RUS),
Ronaldo 3 (3-POR), Costa 2 (3-ESP), Lukaku 2 (13-BEL), Kane 2 (14-ENG), Musa 2
(24-NGA), Lukaku 2 {2} (29-BEL), Hazard 2 (29-BEL), Stones 2 (30-ENG), Kane 3
{2} (30-ENG)]... Zero SOG
(Shots):
4 [1-KSA (6), 12-KOR (5), 20-IRN (5), 25-CRC (4)]... Goal Line Tech (Award):
1 (5-FRA 81')... VAR: 7
(5-FRA PK+ 56', 12-SWE PK+ 63', 17-EGY PK+ 72', 20-IRN Off+ 62', 22-AUS
PK+ 36', 25-BRA PK- 79', 24-ISL PK+ 80')... 63%+ Poss:
4 [4-MARvIRN
(63) L, 7-ARGvISL (73) D, 20-ESPvIRN (68) W, 25-BRAvCRC (69) W, 27-GERvSWE (71)
W]... 25+ Shots: 2
(7-ARG (26vISL) D, 11-GER (25vMEX) L)... Regions
(Teams): UEFA (14) 17-6-5, CONMEBOL (5) 4-4-2, AFC (5) 2-6-2, CAF (5)
2-7-1, CONCACAF (3) 2-4-0, OCEANIA (0)... 5-AUS's, 14-TUN's, and
17-EGY's
only shot on goal was their PK goal... Qualify: A-RUS
(18-URU W), A-URU (18-W), C-FRA (21-W), D-CRO (23-W), G-BEL (30-ENG W), G-ENG
(30-W)... Eliminated: A-KSA (18-URU W), A-EGY
(18-URU W), B-MAR (20-ESP W), C-PER (21-L), E-CRC (26-SUI W), G-TUN (30-ENG W),
G-PAN (30-L), H-COL (31-L) ... there were 42 fouls in the POR-MAR (19/23)
match, 38 fouls in the ARG-CRO (15/23) match and 7 yellow cards (3/4)... if you
picked all the higher ranked teams to win, you would have 17 pts (tied for
49th)... TUN hasn't won in 13 WC matches... BEL's Michy Batshuayi's goal was
first by a sub since RUS's Arlem Dzuba in the very first match (not including
MAR's own goal in 4th match)... the 16 PKs tops 2014's entire total (excluding
penalty shootouts) of 13... ENG scored 6 goals on just 12 shots (7 on goal)...
---
USB drive is corrupted, luckily had pool Excel files open and managed to save but what a pain...
Scott
USB drive is corrupted, luckily had pool Excel files open and managed to save but what a pain...
Scott
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HWCI circa 1990
HWCI circa 1990
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