The Stars Shine (11/26)

SLEEPY @ HOME - World stars woke up as C4-Poland's Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona) scored his first WC goal, D1-France's Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain) scored a brace (to tie Zinedine Zidane for most goals for FRA (31)), and C1-Argentina's Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain), in his last WC, scored on a long strike to keep ARG alive.  POL leapfrogged #53 C2-Saudi Arabia by winning 2-0 while ARG stayed alive by defeating C3-Mexico by the same score.  FRA became the first team to qualify for the Round of 16 beating C3-Denmark, 2-1, in the only matchup between two top 10 teams in the Group Stage.  

An early goal was enough to keep D2-Australia alive in beating D4-Tunisia, 1-0.  TUN has been shutout twice but is technically still alive but will need to beat FRA and a positive result from AUS-DEN.  KSA had a chance to qualify with a win but missed a game-tying PK in first-half stoppage time and will try again against MEX.

So for TUNvAUS match, geez, these 2 am matches... just woke up at 3:35 am to see the last 10-15 min (plus stoppage time) and glad to see the Socceroos win.  Wore my authentic 2008 AUS home jersey for the day after a long night dealing with a family issue.  Now JPNvCRC is a 2 am match tomorrow.  Need my naps.

Half the group matches are done.  Three of the heavy favorites won (POL by 99, ARG 90, and FRA 66) with the most split match (34 TUN-36 AUS-39 TIE (match picked most to draw)) going to AUS.  17 went 4-0 for the day while S Rod 2 (95th-Tied, 10 pts) went 0-4.  CDOG and Kaneiscious (geez, painful to type this every time :-)) are tied for first with 16 pts with Markofthebeast and Meli still tied for last with 8 pts.

Just a reminder that no one will get the 3 points for FRA making the Round of 16 until after Group D finishes.  Everyone picked FRA so it won't make a difference.  Everyone also picked ARG and we all get a slight reprieve.