One Step Forward, One Step on Back (8/7)

KAISER HOSPITAL, DOWNEY, CA - Like the #1 USA, #4 1D-England has had trouble scoring, barely beating #53 Haiti and #13 Denmark by 1-0 scores.  An outburst against China PR gave fans hope, but once again ENG struggled, not scoring in 120 minutes vs #40 2B-Nigeria.  NGA at one point outshot ENG 6-0 but NGA also had to settle for their 3rd 0-0 match.  Despite being a player up for 33 minutes due to a bonehead stomp by ENG's Lauren James on a downed NGA's player back that VAR correctly notified the ref "nope, that's a definite red, not yellow", NGA couldn't find the game-winner.  In penalties, 3 of the first 4 players missed (1 ENG, 2 NGA) before ENG nailed the last three, downing NGA 4-2.

Talk about being the focal point of the game, VAR intervened on a judgement call in the box and prodded the ref to change her call in the 31', negating the foul and penalty kick.  It didn't seem like a suggestion, but an order from up high.  Not clear and obvious and too bad the VAR officials wanted their 15 minutes of fame.

Meanwhile, co-host 1B-Australia weathered an early 2D-Denmark attack and got a goal in each half to advance to the quarters, 2-0.  Sam Kerr entered this WWC for the first time in the 80' after the brouhaha of her injury status at the start of the first match.  Wore my 2008 home AUS jersey when the cartoon kangaroo was in the logo.

46 had ENG making the quarters and 32 AUS and 27 got both while Rutin4Putin missed both.  Six R16 matches in, ten have gotten 5 of 6 teams and four only got 2 of 6.  Kds911-2 leads with 87 points with More$ second with 86.  Lavelle Lover and Vlatko Better Win are tied for 3rd (85).  Just 4 entries were eliminated leaving 28 alive and just one can't win the pool, leaving 16 with a chance to win the pool.  Kds911-2 has the best chance at 1st (15.6%) and money (59.8%).  Hawkeye is tied for 10th but can't win the pool while GenX99er is 26th but can still win it.  Sieger is tied for 13th (80) but is eliminated while Sebastian is tied for 34th and can still finish 2nd.  Tiny Destroyer is last with 53 pts (but can get up to 72 pts).