Kissing Your Sister (7/28)

HOME, CA - The second half produced exciting soccer as G2-South Africa went up 2-0 in the 66' only to see G4-Argentina score twice in 5 minutes to tie it a 2.  In a match both teams needed to win to significantly improve their chances of advancing to the Round of 16, both teams frustratingly settled for a point, and remain tied for last (though RSA owns GF tiebreaker).  RSA, ranked #54, was trying to continue the African resurgence after B3-Nigeria's comeback win yesterday also missed some great opportunities.  In the end, they both helped G1-Sweden and G3-Italy's chances instead.

D1-England just chugs along one goal at a time beating D3-Denmark, 1-0.  A 6' goal is all that was needed and it's hard to tell if ENG is stable or disappointing.  

A wild match saw D4-China PR produce Group D's fourth 1-0 score line in holding off D2-Haiti.  A VAR intervention turning an initial yellow card into a straight red card put CHN down to 10 players just 28 minutes in.  Unnecessary tackle, and, ouch!  A obvious foul by HAI in the box was negated by an offsides call, except VAR intervened again and the ref determined there was no offsides so the foul counts, and thus a PK for CHN.  CHN converted in the 74' to lead 1-0.  Again, two minutes later HAI fouls CHN in the box but it is not called and VAR confirms it was a foul but outside the box (really?) so no action needed.

Turn about is fair play, right, as CHN jumps over a HAI defender and heads it down while taking the player down for a HAI PK in the 2nd minute of stoppage time.  But VAR, for the 4th time, intervenes and the ref takes another look and declares no foul so no PK, driving the French HAI coach bonkers!  A couple more close calls in the box but CHN survives almost 14 minutes of stoppage time, 1-0.  Despite all this, HAI is still alive but need to beat DEN and have CHN to lose to ENG and win the tiebreaker.

With 6 ENG players playing for Manchester City WFC, wore my 125th anniversary 2019 Manchester City home jersey while admiring that our tangerine tree is sprouting a lot of fruit and should be a good harvest come late Fall.

Sieger went 3-0 to move from a tie for 4th into sole position of 2nd place with 20 points.  Eggman 2 still leads with 21 points and 7 are tied for 3rd with 19.  Tiny Destroyer and Kung Fu Master Kai (46th, 12) went 0-3 with the former still last with 9 pts.  Seiger and KevLo 3 (42nd-Tied, 14) were the only two to get ARGvRSA draw correct while 36 got ENG and 44 CHN.

Europe Takes Out Asia (6/25)

This is turning about to be the pseudo-2019 edition of the quadrennial UEFA Women's EURO.  Seven of the 8 Quarter-finalists (QF) hail from UEFA with the 1F-USA the lone invader.  Maybe we should do a HWCI pool on that, as the 2021 year is barren (2020 Men's EURO, 2022 Men's WC, 2023 Women's WC).  And in looking at the UEFA Women's EURO 2017 which featured 16 teams, only one match was a complete blowout (Scotland lost 6-0 but they made this year's WWC) so UEFA could lobby for 12 teams in the 2023 WWC and still be competitive (unlike AFC's 5th team (THA), Concacaf's 3rd team (JAM), and Oceania (NZL)).

With all the negativity surrounding this year's WWC (salary disputes, insensitive celebrations, lack of interest by FIFA and national federations, VAR, low attendance, unsportswomanlike conduct, political takes), it's great to see that after a match, great traditions of exchanging jerseys (like a few of the ESP and USA women did -- thank goodness for sports bras) and consoling an opponent after a tough loss are still in great supply.

Twenty-Two Shots (6/17)

Each match saw one team take at least 22 shots but only two of the four won today.  B1-Germany got tired of 1-0 wins and came out swinging shooting 23 times and scoring four times in a 4-0 win over B4-South Africa to clinch Group B with 9 points.  In an interesting match where the winner would be the loser, only a loss would keep B3-Spain, holding 2nd place, from likely facing the F1-United States in the Round of 16 and yet they came out shooting 24 times with 9 shots on goal but was held to a scoreless draw by B2-China PR, who had just one shot and none on goal.  By finishing 3rd, CHN will likely play C2-Italy, C3-Brazil, C4-Australia, D1-England, or D4-Japan, all preferable over facing a hot USA team.

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.

Issue 3.0.3 "Par Excellence!"

Archive

Thursday, June 18, 2015 

     TOP 11 TEAMS ALL QUALIFY FOR ROUND OF 16
Soccerhorn rises to the top as he and YellowCard and Bailo Con Hope Solo get 15 R16 teams

NEW YORK CITY, NY (smt) -- Like the Giants, Jets, and Red Bulls, I'm claiming to write this from New York despite flying into Newark, NJ and staying at a hotel in New Brunswick, NJ.  I did ride the train to NYC to see an awesome show (Finding Neverland), so it counts!  So despite the shaky second games for teams (A1-Canada ties! C1-Germany and D1-USA draw, F1-France loses), all four won their group and in fact, the top 11 teams in the WWC made the Round of 16 (hello #16 A2-China, #18 E2-Korea Rep, #19 C2-Swiss, #28 F3-Colombia, and #53 C3-Cameroon, the first African nation to reach the knockout stage).  #14 E3-Spain and #17 A3-New Zealand were the best-ranked teams (top 24) to not make the knockout stage.  C1-Japan and E1-Brazil completed a perfect 3-0-0 record with BRA getting three shutouts. 

Out of order, as the most exciting finish happened in the very last match as