Washington FT. Edmonton FT. Kraken!

Some musings.  So the NFL Washington Redskins finally got rid of their nickname not because it's the sensible thing to do but because now every fan has to buy new merchandise and advertisers finally became woke.  With no name in place (it'll take time to get the right copyrights as every rich fan is probably buying all the potential nickname site domains), the team will proceed as "Washington Football Team." Sound familiar?  Charlotte? Austin? Orlando City? NYC? Los Angeles? Toronto? Welcome, NFL, to the world of boring soccer nicknames.   Will there be chants of "Wash, Wash, Wash, F-T" in the stands (6 feet apart, of course)? 

Up north, the CFL Edmonton Eskimos also dropped their nickname they've had for more than 100 years and are now the Edmonton Football Team.  Or EE Football Team.  Which since this is community owned (no corporate owner), does that second E stand for... Eskimo?  So 2020 is the year of the rebranding.  Washington's was a "retiring" of the name and Edmonton's was a "dropping" of the name.  No word on the MLB's Cleveland Indians or Atlanta Braves yet.

Now to a great nickname but not necessarily when said out loud.  Release the Kraken is cool, the logo (especially the Space Needle anchor) is cool, the font and color scheme is cool.  The Kraken sounds great.  "Seattle Kraken", not so much, too much XFL 1 or inaugural MLS.  Maybe the Emerald City Kraken or even just Emerald Kraken rolls off the tongue better.  It was noted that this is just the 4th NHL team nickname without the plural "s" (Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning).  MLS has had more than their fair share:  Clash, Mutiny, Fire, Galaxy, Burn, Wiz, Fusion, Crew, Dynamo, Revolution, Union, maybe Republic, and not to mention three Uniteds.

MLS has changed the Knockout Bracket once again (previous change July 16).  They switched the two bottom quadrants so 2A2C1D3B will now face 1C3A1F2E and 1A3C2B2F will now face 1B3D1E2D in the semifinals (or match #46 winner faces #48 instead of #46v#47 and #45v#47 instead of #45v#48).  This is why it's just important to get your picked team into the Quarters or Semis and not necessarily which side of the bracket.  You'll get 4 points per Quarterfinal team, 6 points per Semifinal team, 8 points per finalist, and 12 points for the winner.

Finally, this is like the World Cup!  Despite winning the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup, ATL head coach Frank de Boer is out the door after 0 goals and 0 points in the tournament (mind you, they won their first 2 matches before the pandemic).  So what about LA's Guillermo Barros Schelotto?  Well, let's see if a healthy Jonathan Dos Santos and Chicharito was the difference or not.  It's the last Get Out of Jail card.

Not so easy bracket

Apparently, this was the old version but is still live on FOX's site

Well, the Women's World Cup is 11 days away and if you thought you could just find the Knockout Stage brackets easily, you'd be wrong.  The FIFA one uses this inverted vertical version of a bracket.  Other sites just have an empty bracket.  And Fox Sports has, after several hours of trying to verify, an incorrect one.  But in trying to verify, apparently I came across an old FIFA regulations guide that also had conflicting matchups and likely is the one FOX used to map the teams.  But the latest FIFA regulations guide now has the "correct" matchups that align with their website and pdf schedule.  Yet if you go the Fox Sports Fan Guide now, it's still incorrect, which is curious considering FOX is the TV broadcaster of all matches.  But this could also be why hardly anyone else wants to put out a bracket until they are sure those are the correct Round of 16 matchups. 

Well, our pool will go with the FIFA matchups and bracket.  I do have bottom bracket inverted (e.g., IV v III instead of III v IV) since it makes more sense to me the next numerical match number (38) should go first.  But it won't affect any of your picks as the matchups are still the same. 

Updates Galore

What an incredible 8 matches so far.  There have been 28 goals and just two of the 16 teams have been shut out.  There also have been no ties (typically 30% of the round robin matches end in a tie).  Also, 4 teams have rallied to win (just 3 in 2010) so far.  Two former World Cup champs have been shocked as Spain and Uruguay now face an uphill battle.

But, more info on the pool have been revealed.  8 matches is a nice cutoff point so the first Pool Standings are now up.  Earlier, the Team Distribution (how many entries picked which team to win each match plus how many entries picked a team to reach what round) and Everyone's Picks were posted.  And I'm using Excely's World Cup spreadsheet to update the Results.

Admin's Entries

Go ahead and mock if you want... two entries, $20 down the drain:

Futbol Fabone Five (5 for our 5th World Cup pool)
Let It Goal! (since my kids love singing "Let It Go!", even the 2-year old)

I have about 30+ entries to organize and then I will send out a link to everyone's picks.  Thanks!

Status Quo

Nothing changed in the standings as there were two ties and everyone picked Brazil (except for Coin Tossed).  Corner Kick Kid, Dime 23, I R Winner! Part 2, LeftyRodriguez, and Rivas all have 7 points (of 8 possible).  Japan's win (which I can't believe I didn't even pick them in my 2nd entry at least -- boy I thought they really had no chance) yesterday prevented anyone from being perfect.  So, the three teams  who would be good bets to not score a goal in the World cup, have all scored (Japan (W), New Zealand (T), and North Korea (L)).  Which leaves powerhouses such as France and Portugal goalless.  Was eating at O-Nami's (all you can eat, better than average sushi!  Recommended!) watching the 2nd half and when North Korea scored, there were some cheers coming from the other room.  I wonder if I should report them in :-)  But at least North Koreans can actually see one highlight from the match from state-controlled TV.  Although Brazil's first goal could've been a GK mistake since he got beat nearside, but in reality, it's Brazil and every indication was that Maicon's only option was to cross and the GK played the percentages.  Whereas the English and Algeria's GKs misplayed the ball and the Paraguay's GK misjudged his jump, the PRK GK just made a calculated decision that didn't work out (what a wicked shot by Maicon though).

Sam's Pando! or Gordo? is up to nine issues already and you can always find the latest by clicking on the Pando! or Gordo? tab above.  Also, on that page you can read Sam's 2006's newsletters (called "Clap! or Crap?").

Wow.

North Korea and Brazil tied at the half?  This following one boring scoreless draw an exciting extra time tie by New Zealand. 

Having Problems Filling Out Round of 16 Bracket Online?

Here's some help for filling out the Round of 16 Bracket:

Here you are choosing the 16 teams you think will advance to the Round of 16 (top 2 teams in each of the 8 groups). MAKE SURE that you don't have the same team listed twice in the Sweet 16 (I will parse through this manually to double-check for errors). "1A-Team" indicates who you think the Group A winner and "2A-Team" indicates who you think the Group A 2nd place finisher is (again, make sure these are not the SAME team!).
It doesn't matter what you pick for the first round as long as your pick for the Round of 16 goes through (e.g., if you think France will win Group A ("1A-FRANCE"), it doesn't matter whether you pick them to beat "1A-S AFRICA" or "1A-MEXICO").
For example, if you thought France will win Group A (so "1A") and Greece will finish 2nd in Group B (so "2B") so they will face each other in the Round of 16, do the following:

Does not matter if this is 1A-S AFRICA or 1A-MEXICO (or 2B-ARGENTNA or 2B-NIGERIA)

so then "2A" (finish 2nd in Group A) will either be 2A-S AFRICA, 2A-MEXICO, or 2A-URUGUAY.  I'd recommend choosing each group first (e.g., pick 1A, 2A, then 1B, 2B, etc.) than going straight down the bracket (1A, 2B, 1C, 2D, etc.).

 

This is an example (from 2002) of how your completed bracket should look like (High Res | Low Res).Once you have your "Sweet 16", pick all the way through to the Final match using the matchups you predicted.