Day 5 (6/23) In the End, it was a Draw

TITO'S TACOS, CULVER CITY, CA - The early games for Group B saw #1 B1-Paris Saint-Germain take care of MLS's #423 B4-Seattle Sounders, 2-0, holding them to no shots on goal (the first of the tournament).  Playing simultaneously, SEA's listless play meant #10 B2-Atletico Madrid needed a 3-goal win to advance; they managed just one late goal and the 1-0 win still eliminated them and despite the loss, #58 B3-Botafogo advanced.  All three top teams had 6 points but for this tourney, the 3-way tiebreaker is head-to-head-to-head and all were 1-1-0 against each other but PSG had the better goal differential (+3, thanks to their 4-0 win over ATM) to win the group and BOT had the second-best GD (0) to hold off ATM (-3).  In the usual format (pts, wins, GD, GF, etc), a 2-0 win would've advanced ATM (via goals for) but with the 3-way head-to-head, they needed a 3-0 (or 4-1, 5-2, etc) win.

The evening games were exciting, action-packed, and in the end, didn't amount to much as the #538 A4-Inter Miami and #24 A1-Palmeiras 2-2 draw determined the whole group.  PAL rallied late with 2 goals in the final 10 minutes to tie and win the Group while #47 A2-Porto answered 4 (!) times against #55 A3-Al Ahly to tie 4-4.  AHL's Wessam Abou Ali had a hat trick with his 3rd goal off a powerful header to put AHL 3-2.  With all the goals POR and AHL scored, when MIA was up 1-0, POR just needed a 2-goal win and when MIA was up 2-0 in the 65' (about 59' in the PORvAHL match), POR needed just a win.  When PAL tied it at 2 and kept on threatening a 3rd, a PAL 3-2 lead would mean AHL needed to win by 2 and AHL was leading by one (4-3) for about the next five minutes before POR tied it at 4 in the 89' (the MIAvPAL was about 6 minutes ahead (90'+5).

The unfortunate tie meant MIA got #1 PSG instead of #58 BOT in the Round of 16 and the two Brazilian teams will face off in the other matchup (BOTvPAL).  While a MIA win would be epic, a MIA win would also break a lot of pool brackets (15 of 16 have PSG in Semifinals)!

15 picked PSG, 14 picked ATM, 5 picked MIAvPAL draw, and 2 picked PORvAHL draw.  All 16 had PSG in the Round of 16 while 11 had PAL.  Just 6 had MIA and 1 BOT (PoolraiderPSG (3rd, 21 pts)) making the knockout round and the $7.5 million that comes with it (the draws cost all 4 Group A teams $1 million each).  Alyonushka (7th-Tied, 19) and Oreshnik (7th-T) got all 4 games correct while PoolraiderPSG, Sweet Futbol Fabone, and Inter's Revenge (2nd, 22) got 3 of 4 R16 teams correct (remember, it doesn't matter if you had PSG as 1A or 2A, you still got the 3 pts).  Sweet Futbol Fabone got 12 of the 16 pts to take sole possession of 1st place with 24 pts and leads with 15 group stage wins.  PoolraiderPSG and Mauihammy (16th (last), 13) got just 1 game correct while Mauihammy got just 1 of 4 R16 teams correct (for a low of 4 pts today). 15 entries lost ATM and 14 POR in their Round of 16 bracket.  Mauihammy lost AHL.

There is this taco place that usually has long lines but the wait wasn't long when I got to Tito's Tacos and their hard tacos are very good, just maybe not $6 good (you do get chips and salsa).  I wore my 2022 Seattle Sounders home jersey to support MLS.

Day 1 (6/19) Messi Does it Again

TACOMASA, EL SEGUNDO, CA - If there was a reason why MLS (as the USA rep for FIFA) arbitrarily chose their 2024 Supporters Shield winner (while the rest of the world chose their federation champion or 4-year best ranking) to be the "host" slot in the 32-team tournament, this is why.  #538 A4-Inter Miami, the worst-ranked team in tips.gg or footballdatabase (#535) even though Auckland City is basically a semi-pro team, was going to provide excitement.  Whether it was their run to win the Leagues Cup in 2023 or nearly making the playoffs in 2023 despite the worst-record in the league 2/3rds in or breaking the points record in 2024, when Messi, Suarez, etc are on the field, you don't know what will happen.

With the game tied at 1 against #47 A2-FC Porto, Messi bent a free kick past the GK (similar to what he did in stoppage time his first-ever MIA match in a group match in the the 2023 Leagues Cup) to complete MIA's 2-1 comeback and became the first MLS team to beat an UEFA team in a competitive match.  MIA faces though a tough #24 A1-Palmeiras team who beat #55 A2-Al Ahly 2-0 to lead Group A in goal differential.  Three teams could end up with 4 points and MIA could still miss out of the Round of 16.

Group B was shook up with #58 B3-Botafogo shutting out #1 B1-Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 to lead the group with 6 points.  #10 B2-Atletico Madrid bounced back from the embarrassing rout against PSG to beat #432 Seattle, 3-1.  The Sounders are not out, but would need to beat PSG and have ATM lose by enough goals.

We got 16 entries in the first-ever HWCI Club World Cup pool from 9 people.  For comparison, our first NCAA pool had 12 entries, our first World Cup pool had 21, our first Euro pool had 39, our first Women's World Cup pool had 22, and our free MLS is Back pool had 15.

PSG was picked by 6 entries to win the title with Manchester City and Real Madrid being picked by 3 each.  Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, and Juventus each were picked by one entry.  15 of 16 have PSG in the semifinals while 12 have RMA making the semis.

In the first day of the pool (start of the 2nd round of group stage matches), three went 3-1 which happen to be all of Scott T's three entries (1 Billion Cash Grab, Inter's Revenge, and Sweet Futbol Fabone).  5 went 1-3.  The belief in Inter Miami!  12 got PAL correct, 4 MIA, 14 ATM, and no one picked BOT over PSG (this was 1 of 9 matches where all 16 picked the same team to win).  

This great chain Taco Masa (though I was calling it Tacoma-sa, like the Washington city) is caught between an all-Spanish menu to a quality American fast-food joint (like Habit Burger).  I got two punches on my 12-space punch card thanks to a nice gentleman at the cashier.  I wore my 2024 home MIA jersey which looks great in pink with badges in the middle.