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.

Issue 6.2.1 "Black and Blue" (After Round of 16)

Archive

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

TOP TEAMS BRUISED AND BATTERED, BUT ALL FAVORITES ADVANCE
Kds911 is first while 13 can still win Pool

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA (smt) -- All 6 group winners plus 2F-Sweden and 2A-Norway won giving the Quarterfinals a near unanimous European feel.  1B-Germany and 1D-England each won 3-0 in physical matches while 1A-France (after extra time), 1F-United States, and 1E-Netherlands held on to 2-1 wins.  NOR routed 2C-Australia in the penalty shootout 4-1 after a 1-1 tie after extra time and 1C-Italy survived a suddenly offensive-minded 3B-China PR team 2-0 and SWE got lucky as 2E-Canada missed a game-tying PK to prevail 1-0.  Cup favorites were woman-handled as GER was fouled 15 times, ENG 11, FRA 23, and the Americans 17 times.  GER was the only one to fight back fouling 3A-Nigeria 16 times.  GER will have two extra days rest on opponent SWE though.

3E-Cameroon displayed an all new look of unsportswomanlike conduct delaying kickoffs in protest, pushing referees, spitting and elbowing players, and having a coach that tolerated the behavior.  2B-Spain were lucky not to get more yellow cards including a blatant chokehold on Megan Rapinoe.  But the fact these top teams survived proves their resiliency that hopefully will take them far.  GER and NOR seem to be on the upswing while ENG, FRA, and the USA (their last 2 matches) are still trying to find their footing.  ITA, who finished last in their group in the 2017 UEFA Women's EUROs, has been the biggest surprise and gets to play a NED team, although the 2017 UEFA Women's EURO champs, struggled in the second half against 2D-Japan and needed a 90' PK to prevail. 

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.

Off the Crossbar! (6/20)

Such 3rd place drama.  With both top 2 teams in Groups E and F already qualified, the bottom two teams faced each other to try to qualify with a win.  A4-Nigeria (3 pts, -2 GD) and D3-Argentina (2 pts) were waiting to see if they could sneak in.  First of all, E4-Netherlands beat E1-Canada 2-1 to win Group E and F1-USA comfortably beat F4-Sweden 2-0 to win Group F.  Boring. 

Needing a win, both E2-Cameroon and E3-New Zealand were pushing players forward to try to break a 1-1 tie and in the end, 5 minutes into stoppage time, Ajara Nchout single-handedly worked herself through and her strike went into the right corner for the final play of the match and sent CMR into the Round of 16 and eliminated ARG.  Then E3-Chile needed a 3-goal win to advance (E4-Thailand now needed a 15-goal win margin after CMR won) and were leading 2-0 when VAR awarded them a PK in the 83'.  But Francisca Lara's PK hit the crossbar hard and match ended 2-0 sending NGA into the Round of 16.  Two African teams claimed the last two R16 spots.  In retrospect, SCO blowing a 3-goal lead against ARG cost them a R16 spot and would've sent CMR home.  So the 3rd place teams are 3E-Cameroon (BEF), 3C-Brazil (CDE), 3A-Nigeria (ACD), and 3B-China PR (ABF).