Issue #7.1.6 "Can't Complain" (After Group Stage)

 Archive

Friday, August 4, 2023 

Dailies: Aug 2-3 

GERMANY, BRAZIL OUT; MOROCCO, JAMAICA, SOUTH AFRICA IN
Vlatko Better Win leads with 65 points and 6 lost GER as their champ

H MART, BUENA PARK, CA (smt) --  Living in the Los Angeles area, it is hard to complain about things.  It's been high 80s with 60% humidity which I describe as "pungent hell" (one of the very few times we ever got feedback on our Major League Soccer score sheets in the early days was one time we described the weather at the Rose Bowl as not "sunny" or "humid" or "hot", but our use of "pungent hell" --- the note was quickly followed with "but that's exactly what it felt like" so we had a good laugh), but someone from Boston will say hey, it's 105F and humid here or Orlando will say it's 99% humid here.  LA had like a dozen atmospheric rivers drench the area from December-March but then someone in Tampa will say we had to evacuate due to a hurricane or Vermont is flooded.  We're known for some famous "bad" areas here but them someone from Chicago will talk about constant gun violence.   LA is also famous for smog but can't complain because the Northeast is suffocating under the Canadian wildfire smoke out.  We can only complain about high taxes... anyone top that?  Anyone?  Darn.

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.

CK is the new PK (7/29)

NOT WATCHING BARBIE AT CERRITOS TOWN CENTER, CA - So, G1-Sweden is really the 3rd ranked team in the world after all.  Thanks to Jonna Andersson's corner kicks, SWE scored on 3 of the first 5 she took as SWE routed G3-Italy, 5-0 to become the 3rd team to advance to the Round of 16.  Comparing to penalty kicks, teams were 4 of the first 8 (technically, 4 of the first 10 if you don't count the retakes) so SWE has the corner kick cross locked down.  SWE has 4 goals from corners (the game-winning one last match was delivered by Kosovare Asllani in the 90').  Finishing has been atrocious at this WWC but SWE scored on 5 of their 7 shots on goal, bringing some great skill to this tourney.

In a preview that all the great matches will be at 3 am PDT, #5 F1-France faced #9 F3-Brazil in a marquee matchup but BRA failed to get revenge from their 2019 Round of 16 loss as FRA showed up, edging BRA 2-1.  After an embarrassing 0-0 tie with #52 F4-Jamaica, FRA is back on top of the standings (on goal differential) even after JAM beat D2-Panama, 1-0, for their first ever WWC win.  It was a rare non-UEFA confederation matchup in the group stage as the two CONCACAF teams faced each other.  PAN becomes the 5th team eliminated, leaving 24 teams battling for the final 13 knockout spots.

While the rest of the family went to see the record-breaking Barbie, I went grocery shopping.  No offense to Barbie, but most movies I just wait for streaming, especially if there are no "spoilers".  The last "movies" I've seen at a movie theater have been "Spirited Away - Live on Stage", "Macross Frontier - The False Songstress", "Macross Frontier - The Wings of Farewell", and a special Raytheon screening of "Top Gun: Maverick".  Non-traditional to say the least.  Wore my 2011 home Panama jersey as I knew they were not long for the game.  Will be visiting Panama in late August and now have 2 jerseys to wear.

So we'll start the final Group A matches in between the two Group H matches that have yet to play their second stage.  Qatar was so much simpler.  There will be an update just for the 32 matches (A-H each playing two games) like there was for the first 16.

14 entries went 3-0 including Hawkeye and Kds911 who are tied for 2nd with 22 points.  Eggman 2 still leads with 23 points.  Four went 0-3 as 33 got SWE, 28 got FRA, and 27 got JAM.  Tiny Destroyer actually went 2-1 but is still in last (11 pts).

Issue #3.1.2 "Favorites Revving Up" (After 16 Matches)

 Archive

Tuesday, July 25, 2023 

Dailies: July 23-24-25 

GERMANY & BRAZIL ROUT BUT FRANCE DRAWS 0-0 TO JAMAICA
Jolly Old England sits alone on top with 14 points

HOME, CA (smt) --  After 16 matches, one for each team, there has only been two clear favorite teams who have lost (A2-Norway) after #26 H3-Colombia scored twice in the first half to beat #17 H4-Korea Rep, 2-0.  D3-Denmark and D4-China PR had about the same ranking (#15 v #13) with DEN winning 1-0 earlier.  Two heavily favorite teams suffered 0-0 draws after #5 F1-France drew with #41 F2-Jamaica (#6 B4-CAN v #42 B3-NGA), and JAM rightly celebrated like it was a win.  E2-Netherlands and G3-Italy squeezed out 1-0 wins while #3 G1-Sweden became the first team to rally beating G2-South Africa, 2-1.  It was also the only match of the 16 where both teams scored (17 teams were shut out).

#2 H1-Germany routed H2-Morocco, 6-0, in a match where MAR were ranked 70 spots behind GER.  F3-Brazil got a hat trick from Ary Borges to beat F4-Panama 4-0.  Outside these two matches, just 24 goals were scored in 14 matches.  After 16 VAR interventions in the first 11 matches, there were none in the last five.  European teams went 8-3-1 this round with Africa still seeking their first win (0-3-1).  The 8 new teams in the tournament lost all 8 and were outscored 23-0.  Only 1 of 16 matches saw a match where both teams scored, resulting in 17 teams who were shut out.

Rout (7/24)

EL SEGUNDO, CA - Top teams turned it up today with H1-Germany getting a tourney-high 6 goals against debutant H2-Morocco and F3-Brazil scoring 4 against first-timer F4-Panama.  With MAR and PAN losing, all 8 teams making their WWC debut not only lost, but none of them scored a goal.

G3-Italy got a 87' game-winning header to beat G4-Argentina, 1-0.  BRA's Ary Borges got the tourney's first hat trick and GER's Alexandra Popp scored two goals, just as many as opponent MAR did (2 own goals).  There have been no VAR interventions in four matches.

Wore my 2019 Copa Oro Panama Home jersey while taking Amtrak (poorly managed, especially on the way back) from Fullerton to Solana Beach (and it was drizzling!).  PAN is ranked #52 and MAR #72 (70 spots behind GER!).  The biggest gap will be C1-Spain vs C3-Zambia (#6 v #77 - 71 spots).

Twitter is X?  So confused.

32 went 3-0 keeping the top 3 the same.  Tiny Destroyer went 1-2 to stay in last with 6 points.

Issue #7.2.2 "So Fat and Satisfied, They Can't Imagine It" (After Quarterfinals)

Archive

Saturday, December 10, 2022
Dailies: 9-10  

HEAVY FAVORITES BRAZIL & PORTUGAL STUNNED, ARGENTINA SURVIVES
Indy Ari leads but it's Soccerbix who has clinched money; 16 entries still alive and 6 can win the pool

HOME (smt) -- While nothing is a guarantee, 1G-Brazil and 1H-Portugal were coming off blow-outs where both teams were dancing and smiling heading into the quarterfinals as both thought they had the tourney now figured out (BRA just doing choreographed dances after every goal and POR benching Ronaldo).  When BRA went up 1-0 at the end of first half extra time on Neymar's beauty of a goal, BRA celebrated as if they had won and their second half of extra time was very disjointed.  2F-Croatia capitalized on their only shot on goal in the 117' to stop the dancing and in the penalty shootout, CRO made all 4 to win 4-2.

POR had lots of possession but was stunted by a stingy 1F-Morocco team and a late first half goal was all MAR needed to hold off Ronaldo (who came on as a sub) and team, 1-0.  What is cool is that MAR is now the de facto home team as the Arab powerhouse replacing host QAT, who finished #32 of 32 teams in this WC.

After Lionel Messi scored on on a PK in the 73' to put 1C-Argentina up 2-0 against a 1A-Netherlands team that didn't even have a shot on goal, ARG fans were celebrating.  But in a foul-marred match (18 yellows but only 12 in the field of play), NED pulled one back in the 78' and on potentially the very last play in the 90'+11', NED pulled a trick free kick play that was put in to tie it at 2.  Unlike BRA, ARG actually tried to win the game in extra time and when that was scoreless, came alive in the PSO to hold off NED 4-3. 

Late Comebacks & Heartache (12/9)

EL SEGUNDO, CA -- Two South American teams had leads late and both allowed European teams to rally and tie.  Only one overcame heartache to win.  

The #1 team in the world, 1G-Brazil, came off of dancing in the Round of 16 to struggle yet again on offense despite 20 shots.  In extra time, a couple of give-and-gos and great touch around the GK, provided a dramatic goal by Neymar as first half extra time expired.  Neymar's 77th goal for BRA tied him with Pele but the goal affected the team in the second half of extra time as they were confused, being passive, show-boating, and driving forward and that lack of defending focus allowed 2F-Croatia to counter with their first shot on goal slightly deflected and going into the net in the 117'.  

CRO's second straight comeback (third of this WC) sent the match to their second straight penalty shootout, a spot CRO is feeling comfortable having now played 4 in the last two WCs.  CRO's GK made another save (4th in the two PSOs) and with the PSO 4-2 in favor of CRO, BRA hit the left post, sending CRO to their second straight semifinal.  It'll be the "doink" heard around the world.  Neymar didn't even shoot as there was no fifth round of PSO.

6 of CRO's last 7 major tournament knockout matches have gone to extra time, and CRO is 4-0 if it goes to the PSO.  BRA has lost to a European team in the knockout stage in five straight WCs since their title in 2002.  

Depth (12/5)

CYPRESS, CA - One thing that separates the European and South American teams from the rest of the world is their depth.  2F-Croatia rallied to tie 1E-Japan early 1-1 in the second half and then subbed judiciously, even replacing their scorer, to wear down the JPN pressure in extra time.  JPN seemed to settle for the penalty kick shootout and that is not what should have happened, because the PSO is not a 50/50 chance, experience plays a big role.  Two of the 3 PSO scorers for CRO were substitutes and CRO's towering GK made not 1, not 2, but 3 saves to help CRO win another PSO, 3-1, to advance to the quarterfinals.

1G-Brazil which had the luxury of resting all their starters in their 3rd match (even their GK who had faced zero shots on goal in 2 matches) ran all over 2H-Korea Republic in the first half, scoring four goals, three of the pretty kind and one PK by Neymar, who returned from injury.  After each goal, BRA were dancing in choreographed moves, which after a bit, seemed like they were stomping on the dead, who hadn't died yet.  KOR did manage to get a goal in the 76' to prevent the shutout.

But just as you are ready to brand BRA the villains of this WC, they bring out a touching tribute and banner for Pele, who was hospitalized.  Great gesture.

Stoppage Time Winner (12/2)

WORK FROM HOME --  H4-Korea Republic (South Korea) scored in first minute of stoppage time to pull off upset of H1-Portugal, 2-1, to become the 3rd Asian team to make the R16.  H3-Uruguay took an early 2-0 lead over H2-Ghana but could not add to the total, and just one more goal would have advanced them.  As such, they lose the goals for tiebreaker to KOR.  I'm sure GHA will relish eliminating URU after an intentional handball by Luis Suarez (who helped with 2 URU goals today but was subbed off in the 66' after picking up a yellow card) in 2010 Quarterfinal forced GHA into a PK which they missed and URU eventually prevailed.  

While G4-Cameroon and G1-Brazil's B-team battled scoreless for most of the day, G3-Switzerland and G2-Serbia exchanged plenty of goals.  SRB rallied to take a 2-1 lead (briefly taking 2nd place slot) but SUI scored twice more to win 3-2 and make the R16 for 4th time in last 5 WCs.  CMR actually got a stoppage time goal but still would need SUI to give up two goals so a moral victory.

BRA's 17-game unbeaten streak in group stage matches came to an end (yes, it was their B-team but that's a pretty good B-team).  No team won 3 games for the first time since 1994 with 1A-ENG #1 thus far (7 pts, +7 GD).  When KOR made the R16 in 2002 they need to beat -- POR in the 3rd group match.  KORvPOR was first non-scoreless tie at halftime (then followed by SRBvSUI 2:2 at half), after the first 23 halftime ties were 0-0.

One busy Friday working from home with several Zoom meetings but still enjoyed the endings of the matches.  Wore my 2020 POR Away jersey with Nations League champion patch.  But I was rooting for KOR so maybe I need to shell out for a KOR jersey.

As it happened:

Goals & Golazos (11/28)

CYPRESS, CA -- The day (or night here on the Left Coast) started off with a banger with G4-Cameroon scoring first before G2-Serbia scored two first-half stoppage time goals.  SRB added a third before CMR's Vincent Aboubakar looped a ball high over the GK to the lead to one in the 63'... or so they thought.  Offsides.  But wait, VAR intervened and CMR added the game-tying third goal three minutes later.  Great goals in this one as both teams exchanged flicks on direct kicks (CK for CMR, FK for SRB) and the other four all came from the run of play.

Five more goals would be found in the next match as H2-Ghana jumped to a 2-0 first half lead before H4-Korea Rep's Guesung Cho scored twice in 4 minutes in the second half to level it at 2, the latter a leaping golazo header past the GK.  But Kudos Mohammed scored his second goal 10 minutes later to give GHA the 3-2 win.  African teams went 3-1-1 this round after going 0-3-2.

G1-Brazil got a late half-volley golazo to beat G3-Swiss 1-0 and H1-Portugal got two goals from Bruno Fernandes, the first a pass just missing the head of Cristiano Ronaldo that went into the net, to defeat H3-Uruguay, 2-0.  Both winners joined D1-France into the Round of 16.

Didn't have a Serbia jersey but Slovakia has good relations with them and is one of the few countries I have visited (Bratislava).  So I wore the authentic 2016 home jersey, which as a white jersey is pretty slick with two badges on either side of the Puma logo.  Good enough to wear at a Boy Scout meeting to prepare mistletoe presents for over 300 people.  

In the pool, The Gambler was the only one to get all 4 matches correct to jump into a tie for first with DDubs, Kankileiscious, and The Gambler 1 (also him) with 20 points.  Four went 0-4 as Chris 1, Markofthebeast, and Meli are tied for last with 10 pts.  107 picked BRA, 102 POR, 24 GHA, and 18 picked the CMR-SRB tie.  

We now head into the final round of games.  16 points are up for grabs for four straight days (12 points for getting 4 R16 teams and 4 points for 4 matches).  For the 109 who picked FRA and BRA and 101 who picked POR won't get those 3 points each until their group matches are complete.

Scissor Kick (11/24)

FAMILY TURKEY DINNER @ HOME - G1-Brazil's Richarlison got one heck of a golazo scissor kick, his second goal of the match, to lead the #1 team to a 2-0 victory over G2-Serbia after a scoreless first half.  In fact, all four matches were scoreless in the first half with H1-Portugal and H2-Ghana putting up 5 total in the second half (3-2 win for POR), G3-Switzerland getting an early second half goal for a 1-0 win over G4-Cameroon, and H3-Uruguay and H4-Korea Republic playing to the tourney's 4th nil-nil draw.  In fact, neither URU nor KOR had a shot on goal!

Ronaldo scored a PK meaning he is the only player to score in 5 different World Cups (BRA's Marta has done the same for the Women's WC). KOR's tie meant that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) went 2-0-1 in their last three games after losing their first three.  Both CAF (Africa) (0-3-2) and CONCACAF (North/Central America & Caribbean) (0-2-2) were winless (excluding Oceania who didn't place any teams).  UEFA (Europe) went 7-2-4 while CONMEBOL (South America) went 2-1-1.

Wore my 100th anniversary POR jersey (2014 Home) as we hosted the family dinner this year.  Our oven was great, zipping past the 170F for turkey but with an injector using my wife's unique seasoning, everyone loved the turkey.  Whew.  

In the pool, nine entries are tied for 1st with 11 points (though not the same 9 from yesterday).  Ten went 4-0 today while 4 went 1-3.  85 picked SUI, 107 BRA, 102 POR, and 14 got the surprising URU-KOR tie.

As the second matches for teams kick off tomorrow, if a team qualifies for the Round of 16, you won't get the 3 points until after each team plays their 3rd match of the group.  

Issue #1.0.1 "Nobody's Listening!"

 Archive

Wednesday, November 9, 2022 
Issue #1.0.1 "Nobody's Listening!"
[||| Mini-Updates | Enter Now! ]

ITALY BACK-TO-BACK FAILURES, BRAZIL BACK TO #1
Our 7th World Cup pool in the late autumn will test if anyone's listening

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt) --  The World Cup is a premier summer event but not this one.  When FIFA awarded Qatar the World Cup back in 2010, the country's average summer temperatures over 40 deg Celsius (104 deg F) forced FIFA to move the World Cup to winter (well, technically fall) to avoid the heat.  This messed up most of the world's domestic league's schedules (except Major League Soccer, which had their wild MLS Cup season-ender November 5) and add to it the controversies of Qatar hosting, who knew the World Cup will soon be upon us?  Can the World Cup coverage in America break though the noise and be heard with the NFL and college football in full swing (both conflicting with FOX's World Cup broadcasts), seasons underway in the NBA and NHL, and college basketball soon to start?

Qatar will feature eight stadiums all condensed within 34-miles of each other, four set kickoff times (2 am, 5 am, 8 am, and 11 am in the Pacific Standard Time), a short 29-day window, and again no gil Azzurri.

For the second straight World Cup, it will be missing 4-time champ #6-Italy which suffered an embarrassing 1-0 loss to #65-North Macedonia in one of the UEFA semi-finals.  However, #16 B3-USA bounced back from missing the World Cup in 2018 to actually make Pot 2 of the World Cup draw (avoids two top tier teams in the group).  Unfortunately, with #19 B4-Wales winning the playoff to be put in Pot 4, the USA will face #5 B1-England, Wales, and #20 B2-Iran in the only group with all four teams in the top 20.  The other 7 groups each have two teams outside the top 20.  So ENG's Group B is the closest to a Group of Death but there really isn't one this year.  Group D (#4 D1-France and #10 D3-Denmark) and E (#7 E1-Spain and #11 E3-Germany) each have two clear top teams with #8 A4-Netherlands lucky to land in Group A with #18 A3-Senegal, #44 A2-Ecuador, and host #50 A1-Qatar.  H2-Ghana is the worst-ranked team at #61.

Unsportswomanlike Conduct (6/23)

For the third time 1D-England scored within the first 15 minutes in a very uncomfortable 3-0 win over 3E-Cameroon.  A rare GK mistake as the CMR GK picked up the ball off a backpass resulting in an indirect free kick on the goalkeeper box line with ALL 11 CMR players on the goal line!  Such an odd sight and unfortunately the GK slightly deflected the shot past her line of defense behind her for the first goal.  Interestingly, had ENG decided to do a direct kick at goal and it deflected off a CMR player going in, it would be a goal since it touched two players.  However, had ENG tried the direct kick and went straight in, it would have been an illegal kick.

Topsy Turvy (6/18)

C1-Australia's Sam Kerr pounced on a C4-Jamaica GK mistake in the 83' and her 4th goal of the match proved to be the difference in securing 2nd place in Group C and facing 2A-Norway with a 4-1 win.  While C2-Italy and C3-Brazil were tied, AUS was comfortably in 2nd but a BRA PK by Marta (now the all-time WC, men's or women's, goal scorer with 17 passing GER's Miraslav Klose) in the 74' had put BRA into 2nd.  So despite BRA beating ITA 1-0 and both having 6 points (along with AUS), ITA takes 1st on goal differential and AUS takes 2nd on goals scored, leaving BRA to face either 1A-France or 1B-Germany.  Yikes.  Of course, had BRA scored again and won 2-0, they would have taken 1st (GD and GF with ITA would have been equal (both beat AUS on GD), so head-to-head comes into play).

AFC is Back (6/13)

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has had a nightmare of a WWC going 0-5-1 and that tie was the biggest upset with D4-Japan tying D3-Argentina.  But today, things have turned around.  After losing a 1-0 lead in a loss to C2-Italy, C1-Australia rallied from a two-goal deficit to stun C3-Brazil, 3-2, giving the AFC its first win.  It was just the second time a team has come back from 2-0 to win in the WWC.  Marta scored in her record 5th straight WWC with her record-extending 16th WWC goal on a penalty (a soft foul) and Cristiane scored her 3rd of the tourney to put BRA up 2-0.  AUS scored three straight times off long crosses into the box.  The first was headed and then put in before halftime, the second was let through freezing the GK for the game-tying goal, and the third was headed in by BRA into their own net.  The last was called offsides but upon VAR review, it was determined BRA's player had a controlled header on the cross was not impeded by AUS's offsides player (Monica) and therefore there was no offsides.  So we've had an own goal in 3 of the last 4 matches.  BRA made two subs at the half including taking out Marta and then used their 3rd sub to take out Cristiane in the 75' while down 3-2.  Very odd.

Defensive Lapses (6/9)

Should I stay or should I go?  C1-Australia's GK on a long free kick started to come out to the ball but then stopped allowing a header which weakly got past her and into the net for the game-winner in the 90'+5.  AUS's defense also allowed the tying goal as a bad touch out of the back was stolen by C2-Italy who scored to tie the game at 1.  This match I woke for around 5:40 in the morning and watching the last 10 minutes I really liked how AUS was playing (not knowing ITA had 2 goals taken away by offsides, one by a hair) but it was a soft foul in their end that allowed the free kick that led to the game-winner.  For a team that got trounced 3-0 by NED in their last game, I guess this was not unexpected.  First upset of the tourney.

C3-Brazil was riding a 9-game losing streak but

Issue #6.2.2 "It's Coming Home" (After Quarterfinals)

Archive

Sunday, July 8, 2018 

ENGLAND ON A HIGH, HOSTS NO MORE
Flying Elvi holding on to lead; 14 still alive

STUBHUB CENTER, CARSON, CA (smt) --  2G-England scored a goal before and after halftime in shutting out 1F-Sweden, 2-0 to advance to the semifinals for the first time since '90.  English fans are going crazy as they hope this is the run that will erase 52 years of bad memories including '16's Euro loss to tiny Iceland.  While I wore my '09 era Beckham England home jersey, I got so many compliments at the Camarillo Premium Outlet including shouts of "we're bringing it back home" referring to the World Cup trophy.  Forgot how many tourists go to these outlets so a lot of soccer fans.  

The last of the giants were put down, as 1G-Belgium used

Youth and Speed (7/6)

OJAI OLIVE OIL FARM, CA -- Just like that, we only have European teams left.  South American sides 1A-Uruguay and 1E-Brazil both had allowed just one goal in four matches this tournament.  They were also the last of the non-European teams left.  The youth of 1C-France outplayed URU with an early goal in the first half and then a rocket that went through the hands of the URU GK that sealed their fate, 2-0.  FRA has scored on their last six shots on goal and advances to the Quarters for the first time since '06.

1G-Belgium got a gift of an own goal but BEL used their fast and deadly counterattack to

Issue #5.2.1 "Just a Tease" (After Round of 16) + Bonus Details

Archive

Wednesday, July 4, 2018 ***HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY***

SPAIN, PORTUGAL, MEXICO DISAPPOINT
EEChick1400 and TheComeBacker on top; 28 still alive; Bonus!

WYNDHAM GARDEN VENTURA PIERPONT INN, VENTURA, CA (smt) --  After 2F-Mexico's wins over Germany and Korea Republic, CONCACAF was riding sky high on the Tricolor's chances.  But then the egg against Sweden led to a Round of 16 match against 1E-Brazil instead of 2E-Switzerland and for the seventh straight time, MEX was eliminated in the Round of 16 while BRA won its Round of 16 match for the seventh straight time.  The Iberian powers B1-Spain and B2-Portugal were both expected to go far past their Group A opponents but Ronaldo and POR were stopped by 1A-Uruguay 2-1 and ESP, despite huge advantages on possession, shots, and passes completed, could only muster a 1-1 tie with host 2A-Russia and lost in the Penalty Shootout (PSO), 4-3.  RUS was the 70th ranked team while ESP was the 10th ranked team in the world. 

2G-England shut the door on their PSO curse by

Buzzer Beater (7/2)

TGI FRIDAY'S, LOS ANGELES - LADERA, CA -- #61 2H-Japan came out strategically and attacked when necessary to upset the #3 1G-Belgium's offense but instead of trying to play for a scoreless draw, Japan managed to score twice after the half and took a 2-0 lead. Two BEL subs in the 65' changed everything. Creating havoc off a corner kick, a routine header cross somehow managed to tuck away just under the crossbar to cut JPN's lead in half in the 69'.

Then five minutes later, sub Marouane Fellaini