Group Drama (11/30)

LA MIRADA, CA -- Yesterday, it was pretty straightforward towards the end with IRNvUSA and ECUvSEN being deciding matches.  Today, lots of drama in the final group matches of C and D as teams flip-flopped throughout the day until the final whistle.  D4-Tunisia shocked #4 D1-France's B team, 1-0, but it wasn't enough as D2-Australia shocked #10 D3-Denmark by the same score to take the 2nd place spot.  TUN was in 2nd spot for only minutes as AUS scored soon after.  DEN, needing two goals for any chance, tried to play spoiler to AUS but could not score.

C1-Argentina sat in 2nd after losing their first match and peppered C4-Poland but had their controversial PK saved in the first half.  POL was content with their superhuman GK (11 saves) even after ARG scored a couple of goals and needed to hold the line as they got outshot 25-4 and 13-0 on goal.  C3-Mexico need to make up at least four goals against POL or hope for ARG to lose.  After ARG scored to reduce the GD (goal differential) deficit to 3, MEX scored two goals (including a long FK golazo) in 6 minutes, their first goals of this WC, to cut the GD deficit to 1.  ARG scored again making MEX and POL even on GD, GF (goals for), and head-to-head (they tied).  The next tiebreaker was Fair Play (FP) points which POL started the day +2 but an early MEX yellow card increased it to +3. MEX needed a 3rd goal (almost got it in the 87' but auto-bot ruled offsides) to win on GF since POL wasn't trying to score.  But they came up short and missed the R16 for the first time since 1978 (8 straight when qualified, missed 1990 due to ban) and POL made their first R16 since 1986.

Two teams that won didn't make the R16 (TUN, MEX) and both teams also scored their first goals in their 3rd match..  Thus far, two teams with 4 points (ECU, TUN) and two teams that won their first match (ECU, KSA) failed to qualify.  AUS and ARG joined SEN as teams who lost their first match and made the R16.  All 4 matches were scoreless at the half (22 of 40 have been). 

I didn't have a MEX jersey so I wore my authentic 2022 MLS All-Star Liga MX jersey and pondered how far CONCACAF has fallen (save USA).

As it happened:

The Stars Shine (11/26)

SLEEPY @ HOME - World stars woke up as C4-Poland's Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona) scored his first WC goal, D1-France's Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain) scored a brace (to tie Zinedine Zidane for most goals for FRA (31)), and C1-Argentina's Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain), in his last WC, scored on a long strike to keep ARG alive.  POL leapfrogged #53 C2-Saudi Arabia by winning 2-0 while ARG stayed alive by defeating C3-Mexico by the same score.  FRA became the first team to qualify for the Round of 16 beating C3-Denmark, 2-1, in the only matchup between two top 10 teams in the Group Stage.  

An early goal was enough to keep D2-Australia alive in beating D4-Tunisia, 1-0.  TUN has been shutout twice but is technically still alive but will need to beat FRA and a positive result from AUS-DEN.  KSA had a chance to qualify with a win but missed a game-tying PK in first-half stoppage time and will try again against MEX.

So for TUNvAUS match, geez, these 2 am matches... just woke up at 3:35 am to see the last 10-15 min (plus stoppage time) and glad to see the Socceroos win.  Wore my authentic 2008 AUS home jersey for the day after a long night dealing with a family issue.  Now JPNvCRC is a 2 am match tomorrow.  Need my naps.

Half the group matches are done.  Three of the heavy favorites won (POL by 99, ARG 90, and FRA 66) with the most split match (34 TUN-36 AUS-39 TIE (match picked most to draw)) going to AUS.  17 went 4-0 for the day while S Rod 2 (95th-Tied, 10 pts) went 0-4.  CDOG and Kaneiscious (geez, painful to type this every time :-)) are tied for first with 16 pts with Markofthebeast and Meli still tied for last with 8 pts.

Just a reminder that no one will get the 3 points for FRA making the Round of 16 until after Group D finishes.  Everyone picked FRA so it won't make a difference.  Everyone also picked ARG and we all get a slight reprieve.  

Glory to the Heroes

Less than 10 months ago, prior to Euro 2020, I was commenting about a spat between Ukraine and Russia on UKR's jersey for Euro 2020 (ne 2021). Glory to Ukraine on the jersey was okay but the additional phrase Glory to the Heroes was interpreted as a rallying cry when you put both together so the latter had to be removed.  UKR still was able to keep the complete outline of their country on the jersey despite RUS claiming the Crimea peninsula was no longer part of UKR after annexing it in early 2014.

Well, on Feb 21st, RUS was at it again recognizing two eastern UKR states then three days later attacking UKR from Belarus and western Russia, determined to change the map of UKR again.  Over 400 Ukrainian civilians have been killed with the count unfortunately going up every day.

As it relates to soccer, FIFA did a slow burn penalizing RUS,

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

Two Advance and Three Eliminated (6/24)

LAX, CA -- G4-England's Kane scored one of the easiest hat tricks in his life, two via PKs and one shot that went off his heel and deflected into the net.  G2-Panama managed a goal after being down 6-0 but were still eliminated along with Tunisia.  H4-Japan rallied twice to tie H2-Senegal 2-2 with the latter goal by Honda surprising the GK who could only look behind him.  H3-Colombia rebounded with a

Straight Red (6/19)

The first red card of the tournament!  Just three minutes in, H4-Japan caught H3-Colombia off-guard and what could've been a red card (at least a yellow) for trying to drag down Yuya Osako as he went 1v1 on the GK, credit to Osako, he didn't dive, continued forward with the shot that was saved but the rebound shot by Shinji Kagawa is saved by Carlos Sanchez... by his arm and he reaches out to stop the ball.  Dumb play as Colombia could've easily rallied from a very early 1-0 deficit, but much harder to do with just 10 men.  In my mischief, I was kinda hoping there would be two reds on Colombia but one is good enough.  Credit to Colombia for fighting back and the classic free kick UNDER the wall was brilliantly done to level up 1-1 (reminded me of David Beckham's first match in New York in 2007, where Juan Pablo Angel did the same thing, going under the LA Galaxy wall past the GK on a free kick).  But Japan would get the game-winner off a corner and becomes the first AFC team to beat a CONMEBOL team in World Cup play.

Meanwhile, H2-Senegal used a H1-Poland own goal to gain confidence and never let