37 and Over (8/2)

WAITING FOR SON'S FINAL VAC SHOT (MenB), CERRITOS, CA - Two more teams ranked #37 or worse made the Round of 16 as #54 G2-South Africa (2G) came back to eliminate G3-Italy, 3-2, with a 90'+1 game-winner and #43 F2-Jamaica (2F) held F3-Brazil to a nil-nil draw to advance over the Brazilians.  They join #40 2B-Nigeria in the knockout stage.

RSA blew a lead for the 3rd straight game (led 1:0 SWE and lost 2-1, led 2-0 ARG and tied 2-2), but this time, after coming back from 1-0 to lead 2-1, they again gave up the tying goal 7 minutes later in the 74'.  But this time, they kept at it and was rewarded with a great goal in the 1st minute of stoppage time as the dancing began again.  ITA just needed a tie and fell short (but not as bad as the men's team, which failed to qualify for the last 2 World Cups).  Wore my 2010 home ITA GK jersey in front our expensive sago tree (1 of 2) and it didn't help as ITA scored on itself (for RSA's first goal) in the 32'.  I don't know why defenders are so good shooting on goal at their OWN goal instead of the opponent's (usually sky high).

37 is also the age of the legendary BRA striker, Marta (so glad got to see her many times doing stats for the LA Sol in 2009 - I actually have that jersey and may wear it during one of the off days), who started but couldn't produce in 81 minutes in her 6th, and likely final, WWC.  If you were to say JAM would allow no goals this tournament, with #5 F1-France (1F) and #8 BRA in their group, you'd be crazy.  Asylum-level paranoia.  And JAM qualified scoring just one goal... one.  And had ZERO shots on goal against BRA.  

G1-Sweden (1G) made 9 changes to their usual starting lineup and still took care of business, beating G4-Argentia, 2-0.  In just, let's play for fun, FRA won their set, 6-3, over F4-Panama, who scored their first 3 goals of the tournament, at one point cutting the deficit to 5-3 in the 87'.  The match featured 3 penalty kicks (all made, extending the WWC streak to 13 consecutive makes) and a hat trick for FRA's Kadidiatou Diani.

8 more points up for grabs as Group H concludes starting at 3 am PDT (get used to that).

Group G concluded with 35 getting SWE's win and 4 RSA's win with Of-Course-it's-US (37th-Tied, 52 pts) getting both correct.  Nine got both wrong.  45 had SWE in the Round of 16 while Rutin4Putin (41st-T, 51) and TroJenn (44th-T, 50) each got RSA with the former the only one to have both SWE and RSA in their R16.  Tiny Destroyer was the only one to miss both teams.  Rutin4Putin got 7 of 8 possible points while Tiny Destroyer got 0 of 8.

Group F concluded with 44 getting FRA's win and Merman (27th-T, 55) the only one picking the draw between JAMvBRA.  Merman was the only one to go 2-0 while three went 0-2.  All 47 had FRA in their R16 and 4 had JAM.  Four got both teams while the other 43 got one.  Flying Elvi, Mauihammy (35th-T, 53), Bean (24th-T, 56), and Kung Fu Master Kai each got 7 of 8 possible points while Eggman 2 (13th-T, 58), TroJenn, and TroJenn2 (44th-T) each got just 3 of 8.

Overall, five got 11 of 16 points and Tiny Destroyer only got 4 of 16.  Flying Elvi moved from a tie for 6th to sole possession of 1st (63 pts).  Hawkeye and Vlatko Better Win dropped to a tie for 2nd (62) and Kds911 and More$ are tied for 4th (61).  Tiny Destroyer returns back to last place with 40 points, 6 points off 46th place Kung Fu Master Kai.