Issue #1.0.1 "Nobody's Listening!"

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Wednesday, November 9, 2022 
Issue #1.0.1 "Nobody's Listening!"
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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.

Issue #1.0.1 "Six Sigma Not Enough for USA"

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Sunday, June 10, 2018 ***HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFEY***

IMPROBABLE BUT NOW POSSIBLE, USA AND ITALY ARE OUT
Our 6th World Cup pool arrives late but will still be six-sigma of fun

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, PASADENA, CA (smt) --  There will be no Red, White, and Blue nor Gli Azzurri (snapping a streak of 14 straight World Cups) nor Clockwork Orange (who also missed 2016 EURO) in the World Cup in Russia.  All three teams will watch from the sidelines as 32 teams vie for the 21st World Cup including newcomers D2-Iceland (which beat G4-England at Euro 2016 and is the smallest population nation to qualify) and G2-Panama and long-awaited returns from C3-Peru (1982) and A3-Egypt (1990).   #1 ranked F1-Germany will have to battle favorites E1-Brazil and fan-favorite B2-Spain if they want to repeat as champions.  Host A1-Russia had the lowest rank when the World Cup Draw happened and will try to not become the 2nd host team to fail to qualify for the Knockout Stage (South Africa, 2010). 

For the first time, FIFA ranked all 32 qualifying teams in rank order, including pots 2, 3, and 4, which were usually divided into regional confederations.  As such, it was possible one group could have all been UEFA members or not have any UEFA members.  But there ended up being a good mix in all the groups... except for Group A, which happens to be the host country.  Russia, which was already ranked lowest in Pot 1 by far, got the 2nd worst team in Pot 2 (A4-Uruguay), the 3rd worst team in Pot 3 (A3-Egypt), and the worst team overall in Pot 4 (A4-Saudi Arabia).  C1-France (worst of Pot 1) drew the 2nd best team in Pot 2 (C2-Peru), the best team in Pot 3 (C3-Denmark), and the 3rd best team in Pot 4 (C4-Australia).  The toughest group has the 3rd best in Pot 1 (E1-Brazil), the 3rd best in Pot 2 (E2-Swiss), the 3rd best in Pot 3 (E3-Costa Rica), and the best in Pot 4 (E4-Serbia).

While Italy and the Netherlands failed to qualify in the harsh UEFA qualifying rounds, the USA somehow managed to not qualify in the easiest region in the world for the first time since 1986.  Before the ill-fated October 10, 2017 day, ESPN's Soccer Power Index (SPI) had the USA with a 97% chance of finishing in the top 4 of the CONCACAF table (top 3 advance, 4th to make playoff).  And despite playing like an amateur team against another third-rate team in front of just 1,500 people, with 43 minutes left,

Issue 0.0.0 "Blame Canada, Eh?" & Archive

Archive

Yes, we're going back to the past, before the cgi web issues, before the traveling, before the dark times.  Also wanted to let you know that all the previous standings, updates, and pool information is now contained in our 2015 archive page (click on Archive on right side) for easy viewing.

So what should've been emailed out way back on June 4th... also, take a look at our new HWCI WWC 2015 emblem and updated header graphic.

Thursday, June 4, 2015 [Posted June 20]

     NO SEPP, NO ESPN, NO GRASS, NO NORTH KOREA, NO PROBLEM!

Our first-ever Women's World Cup pool extremely delayed; new deadline Sunday 10 a.m. PDT

LEXINGTON PARK, MD (smt) -- With the popularity of women's soccer growing, FIFA has decided to stunt the growth by dominating the headlines with major scandals spanning several World Cups and the election then sudden resignation of Sepp Blatter (though it may not happen to next year... what kind of resignation is that?  Why not just say he'll resign and we'll get a new FIFA president in four years) and "experimenting" not with an U-20 or minor tournament, but THE Women's World Cup by playing all matches onturf, not grass (U-17 WCs have been played on "turf" as early as 2003).  And Fox will also be "experimenting", claiming this to be a dress rehearsal for the 2018 Men's World Cup in televising its first major tournament after outbidding ESPN.  But kudos to Fox for trying to emulate ESPN with nightly pre and post shows, hiring Heather Mitts, and getting their Fox Sports Go app out there to watch matches on your phone or tablet (apparently with optional views as well, such as a 360 channel and Tactical view channel). 

But on to positive news as after a highly successful WWC in Germany four years ago where

Issue 1.0.1 "Blitzkrieg!"

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Wednesday, June 10, 2015 (Happy Birthday Wifey!)

     GERMANS ROUT, CAMEROON DOMINATES IN DEBUT
22 entries from 19 people in inaugural Women's WC pool

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt) -- B1-Germany showed why it is the #1 ranked team scoring 5 goals in each half in a 10-0 rout of the lowest-ranked team (#67) in the tournament, B2-Ivory Coast.  Fellow group-mate B3-Norway pulled off a 4-0 rout of their own.  As one of eight teams to debut in the World Cup, the second-lowest ranked team (#53) C3-Cameroon put up 3 in each half in their 6-0 rout of the third-lowest ranked team (#48) C4-Ecuador.  Three of Cameroon's six goals came off the PK spot as six (in 7 tries) of the 40 goals scored in the tourney thus far have come from the spot.  The two finalists from '11 (C1-Japan, D1-USA) struggled but came away with victories while the host (A1-Canada) needed a stoppage time PK for their win.  CONCACAF went undefeated as in addition to CAN and USA's wins, E4-Costa Rica and F4-Mexico picked up draws versus E3-Spain and F3-Colombia, respectively.  A3-Netherlands and title contenders E1-Brazil and F1-France picked up wins as well while D4-Nigeria came back twice to tie D3-Sweden 3-3.

After the first couple of 1-0 matches, the last 10 matches saw 38 goals (and no nil-nil ties thus far) despite the first six matches ending with one team shutout.  Group D (the Group of Death) is the only group where all teams have scored at least one goal, with 3 of them scoring three.  The eight newcomers to the World Cup went 2-4-2 (head-to-head: CMR won vs ECU and ESP and CRC played to a tie) while the 7 teams who have made all 7 World Cups went 5-0-2 (head-to-head: SWE and NGA played to a tie). 

The Fox Sports GO app and website hasn't been

The Cup has started, but still time to enter!

No real surprises today with CAN and NED winning 1-0 matches though most of the interesting play was watching the fake bits and sand from the artificial turf pop up all over the place and watching FOX Sports forget to show replays and sometimes forgetting to show the clock in the scoreline.

So we have over the dozen entries I was hoping to get (15 thus far with promises of more) with such short notice, and although it'd be nice to show the women's game is as important as the men's game, we'll barely get 25% of the 71 entries we got last year for the men's World Cup.

But there's still some time left and before you go to church or do stuff with your family, make sure you get your entry in by 10 am PDT though GER should be a lock vs. CIV.

Also, here are my two entries in the pool with USA winning it all in the first one and FRA, the team I picked (the only person to do so) in our first WC pool in 1998, winning the second entry.  

Futbol Fabone 7:  http://www.hwci.com/worldcup/2015/entries/Futbol%20Fabone%207.htm
Sepp 'N Turf:  http://www.hwci.com/worldcup/2015/entries/Sepp%20'N%20Turf.htm

Better late than never!

Welcome to the HWCI's 1st Quadrennial FIFA Women's World Cup pool!  With FIFA scandals, getting used to watching FOX Sports instead of ESPN (which they have already messed up - showing each match lasting only 1.5 hours vs 2 normally (maybe they don't think there's a halftime in women's soccer)), artificial turf (!), and expansion of 24 teams, this will be a very interesting World Cup.  I apologize as life and work and travel and IEEE events have trumped any free time I've had since our HWCI NCAA pool ended.  Even today, we're having issues with cgi scripts so we may have to completely go old school in getting your entries in (paper)!

Update: Online Web Entry is now up!

As the first match kicks off Saturday at 3 pm PT and the LA Galaxy kicks off at Saturday 7:30 pm PT, I am making the deadline for getting your pool entry in 10 am PT Sunday (before the 3rd match kicks off).  That means you won't be picking Canada-China or New Zealand-Netherlands matches on Saturday.  So if you're at the LA Galaxy match, visit the Press Box to drop off your entry.

As with all our pools (21 NCAA, 5 World Cup, 1 EURO), it's the standard $10 entry (up to 3 entries per person) and you pick all the matches and Round of 16 bracket (65 choices in all!) and hope for the best!  The only tricky part this year is that in addition to the top 2 teams in each group, the top 4 3rd place finishers also make the Round of 16.  If you look at each 3rd place spot in the Round of 16 bracket, each spot has 3 groups the team could be in.  When you pick your 4 3rd place finishers, there is only ONE possible way to put those 4 teams in (e.g., you can place your 3rd Place Group A team as 3rd Place Groups A/C/D or 3rd Place Groups A/B/F but only one of those spots will allow you to place your other 3 3rd Place teams correctly).  If you have questions, let us know (worldcup(at)hwci.com).

So download the Word or PDF file and complete your entry.  You can scan/take a picture of the 3rd page (entry) and email it to us (worldcup(at)hwci.com).  Good luck!