African Strong, Asian Disrupters (8/3)

THE SLICE & PINT, EL SEGUNDO, CA - H1-Germany has to stop playing Asian teams in the group stage.  In 2018 WC, Korea Rep beat GER 2-0 to eliminate them from the knockout round in the last match.  In 2022 WC, Japan shocked GER 2-0 in the group stage opener that led to GER missing the knockout stage again.  Now in 2023, H4-KOR sends GER home again, securing a 1-1 draw, that combined with #72 H3-Morocco's 1-0 upset of H1-Colombia, eliminated both teams from the Round of 16.  

The COL "push" heard around the world gave MAR a PK attempt, and although they didn't score directly (the tourney's first miss after 13 straight converted), they put in the rebound in the 45'+4 for the pivotal only goal of the game.  GER's failure means 2E-USA is the only team to make it to knockout stage in every WWC.  COL still clinched 1st in the group despite the loss.  MAR loses 6-0 to GER and then qualifies over GER in the end?  What a crazy tournament.  MAR is the 3rd African team (and 1st Arab nation) to reach the R16, obviously the most ever.  #54 2G-South Africa and #40 2B-Nigeria are already in (all 3 African teams ranked 40 or worse with #77 3C-Zambia the only African nation to not qualify.

Wore my 2014 home Germany jersey with 2014 final lettering in front of our own Wrigley Field wall of ivy and it cursed them.  Speaking of jerseys, 8 teams have a bright yellow (or "orange" or "gold") jersey, way too many.

Tiocfaidh Ár Lá!!! (15th-Tied, 59 pts) was the only one to pick the KORvGER tie and 4 had MAR winning meaning 5 went 1-1 and 42 went 0-2.  Reggae Vibes (6th-T, 62) was the only to have MAR in the R16 and 14 had COL (all 47 missed GER).  Reggae Vibes got 4 of 8 points to move from 13th-T to 6th-T while 28 got 0 of 8. Vlatko Better Win is alone in 1st with 65 points with Kds911 2nd (64).  Tiny Destroyer is still last with 43 pts.

Four got 12 of 16 R16 teams correct while Tiny Destroyer only got 8 teams in.

Like Winning a Championship (6/10)

After seeing 21 goals in the first 7 matches, today saw just one in two matches.  In the biggest surprise of the tournament, D4-Japan was held to a zero-zero draw by #37 ranked D3-Argentina.  While ARG had no shots in the first half, did not have a shot on goal until the 73', had zero corner kicks, and never got into JPN's box until the 65', ARG's defense formation held firm for the whole 90 minutes.  JPN was too patient and never had many runs at ARG's defense, opting to play the ball around (sort of like men's Spain team did in '18 WC) and had just eight shots.  ARG celebrated like they had not only won but won a championship.  When you're in the shadow of the men's team, a tie is a great result.  It's a shame that the largest crowd since the opening match (1st >20,000 at 25,055) saw this dud.  D1-England leads the Group and D2-Scotland's chances have greatly improved with this result.

E1-Canada had lots of possession but only managed one goal against #46 E2-Cameroon in the lowest attended event at 10,710 fans.  But as always, getting the result of 3 points is the goal in the first match as 89% of WWC teams who won their first match, advanced to the Knockout Stage including all 9 teams in 2015.

The Asian Football Confederation is off to a

Issue #3.1.2 "Mexico, Japan, and Senegal" (After 32 Matches) (6/24)

Archive

Sunday, June 24, 2018 

ARGENTINA IN TROUBLE, SIX TEAMS IN
Ilvecchio and Spermicidal FC are tied for 1st; Next four days will pile up 64 points

LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (LAX->ATL->DCA), CA (smt) --  The second group of matches saw redemptions for some teams such as E1-Brazil and F1-Germany needed stoppage time goals to pull out wins, H3-Colombia dominated the Group H seed 3-0, and B1-Portugal and B2-Spain rebounded to narrow 1-0 wins after all five had disappointing starts.  The only world power who failed to bounce back was D1-Argentina who got shut out by D3-Croatia, 3-0, and now need help to qualify for the Round of 16.  A1-Russia (3-1), H1-Belgium (5-2), and H4-England (6-1) remained perfect after dominating victories while A4-Uruguay and C1-France struggled to 1-0 wins to remain perfect.  F2-Mexico and Croatia are the other teams to start 2-0.  Of the 7 teams at 2-0, Mexico is the only one to have not qualified for the Round of 16 yet.  

The E2-Swiss became the first team to win after allowing the first goal rallying to beat

African & Asian Teams Shine (6/25)

DAHLGREN, VA -- B4-Iran nearly scored a stoppage time goal that would have eliminated B1-Portugal but had to settle for a hard-fought 1-1 tie that featured three VAR reviews.  Ronaldo missed an early PK after getting the benefit of a PK via VAR but had to settle for 2nd in Group B after Iran scored a PK in stoppage time.  B2-Spain had to rally twice against B3-Morocco (who had scored zero goals), the latter on a smart quick corner kick late in stoppage time that VAR review looked at and overruled the lineman's offside flag.  The 2-2 tie gave Spain the Group on goals scored over Portugal and still hasn't lost in 23 matches.  Due to goals scored, ESP still would've advanced with a 2-1 loss.

In the battle for first, A4-Uruguay scored

One Favorite Proves Its Might (6/18)

While the three odds-on favorites (BRA, GER, ESP) to win the Cup have gone 0-1-2, just on the outside is G1-Belgium, ranked #3 in the world and in the second half they exploded against newbie G2-Panama scoring 3 times in a 3-0 win.  Only top group seeds A1-Russia and C1-France have managed to pick up wins, and Russia was technically the fourth-best team in the group.  H1-Poland plays Tuesday.

Harry Kane scored early and in final stoppage time to give