Back to Normal? (8/8)

HOME, CA - #5 1F-France scored four more goals and #25 1H-Colombia finally beat a team worse than them.  FRA left no doubt building a 3-0 halftime lead in beating #72 2H-Morocco, 4-0 including a wicked shot past an offside player who didn't interfere but watched the ball bounce off the left post and in.  MAR was ranked 67 spots worse than FRA but MAR had beaten #17 Korea Rep (55 spots better) and COL (47 spots better) but back to normal reigned supreme.  The aforementioned loss to MAR meant COL had only beat teams better than them (#2 Germany & KOR) but managed to squeak out a 1-0 win over #43 2F-Jamaica.  JAM allowed their first goal of the tourney and it cost them (they finished an odd 1 goal for-1 goal against in 4 matches).

So 7 of the 8 group winners made the quarterfinals (sorry, 1A-Swiss) which is why USA, you needed to score goals and win the group.  All 3 African and both CONCACAF teams lost while both Asian/Australian teams advanced with 5 Europeans and South American COL.  Wore my 2019 away France hexagon-dot jersey with rose pink logo in front of the sprawling Downey Kaiser hospital campus.

39 got FRA and GenX99er (21st, 81 pts) got COL.  40 went 1-1 while 7 went 0-2.  For the Round of 16, eight got 6 of 8 teams and two (Pink Penguino (45th, 66) and Rutin4Putin (46th, 64)) got just 2 of 8.  Kds911-2 maintains the one point lead (92 pts) over More$ with Lavelle Lover and Vlatko Better Win tied for 3rd (90).  Leader Tom J also sits tied for 5th (Kds911 (89)) and tied for 8th (Kds911-3, 88).  Tiny Destroyer is still last (58) but Rutin4Putin is the only entry that can't pick up any more points.

Despite picking COL, FRA winning eliminated GenX99er from the money along with two others, leaving 25 entries still in the running.  While leader Kds911-2 has the best chance to finish in the top 4 (51.6%), it's Lavelle Lover with the best chance to win the pool now (14.8%).  9 entries have a better than 1 in 5 chance to win money and 13 can still win the pool as the #3, #4, #5, and #6 ranked teams are still alive.

Hawkeye is tied for 10th (87) but can't win the pool while Jota is tied for 18th (82) and can still be champ.  Flying Elvi is tied for 16th (83) but is eliminated while Sebastian is tied for 34th (76) and can still win 2nd place.