One Step Forward, One Step on Back (8/7)

KAISER HOSPITAL, DOWNEY, CA - Like the #1 USA, #4 1D-England has had trouble scoring, barely beating #53 Haiti and #13 Denmark by 1-0 scores.  An outburst against China PR gave fans hope, but once again ENG struggled, not scoring in 120 minutes vs #40 2B-Nigeria.  NGA at one point outshot ENG 6-0 but NGA also had to settle for their 3rd 0-0 match.  Despite being a player up for 33 minutes due to a bonehead stomp by ENG's Lauren James on a downed NGA's player back that VAR correctly notified the ref "nope, that's a definite red, not yellow", NGA couldn't find the game-winner.  In penalties, 3 of the first 4 players missed (1 ENG, 2 NGA) before ENG nailed the last three, downing NGA 4-2.

Talk about being the focal point of the game, VAR intervened on a judgement call in the box and prodded the ref to change her call in the 31', negating the foul and penalty kick.  It didn't seem like a suggestion, but an order from up high.  Not clear and obvious and too bad the VAR officials wanted their 15 minutes of fame.

Meanwhile, co-host 1B-Australia weathered an early 2D-Denmark attack and got a goal in each half to advance to the quarters, 2-0.  Sam Kerr entered this WWC for the first time in the 80' after the brouhaha of her injury status at the start of the first match.  Wore my 2008 home AUS jersey when the cartoon kangaroo was in the logo.

46 had ENG making the quarters and 32 AUS and 27 got both while Rutin4Putin missed both.  Six R16 matches in, ten have gotten 5 of 6 teams and four only got 2 of 6.  Kds911-2 leads with 87 points with More$ second with 86.  Lavelle Lover and Vlatko Better Win are tied for 3rd (85).  Just 4 entries were eliminated leaving 28 alive and just one can't win the pool, leaving 16 with a chance to win the pool.  Kds911-2 has the best chance at 1st (15.6%) and money (59.8%).  Hawkeye is tied for 10th but can't win the pool while GenX99er is 26th but can still win it.  Sieger is tied for 13th (80) but is eliminated while Sebastian is tied for 34th and can still finish 2nd.  Tiny Destroyer is last with 53 pts (but can get up to 72 pts).

Comeback (7/23)

FLETCHER COVE, SOLANA BEACH, CA via AMTRAK - G1-Sweden rallied from a second half deficit with a goal off a CK in the 90' to stun G2-South Africa, 2-1.  This was the first match that both teams scored.  2019 runner-up E3-Netherlands got an early goal that held up for a 1-0 win over E4-Portugal.  F1-France struggled to a 0-0 draw with F2-Jamaica, JAM's first-ever WWC point.  However, a red card (2nd yellow) to their star player dampens their chances.  This was the tourney's 3rd red card, all in 2nd half stoppage time.

For the 4th straight match, no PKs (after 8 in each of the first 8 matches), not that teams would convert anyway (4/8).  In 3 of the past 4 matches, no VAR interventions (only one was overturning an offside that kept NED's goal).  

Wore my 2010 Home South Africa jersey after Wrexham demolished 16/17/18-year olds of LA Galaxy 2, 4-0, in front of a pro-Wrexham crowd.  The second season starts on September 12 and they went all out with part of the concourse dedicated to Wales and Wrexham.  In parallel next door (literally) at the Tennis Stadium, an interesting Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) was going on which bends tennis rules for fan excitement and caught some of the last match between "The Mountain" and "La Monf". Pretty cool concept and apparently Mike Tyson was in the crowd.

Tiocfaidh Ár Lá!!! was the only one to get all 3 games correct to move into a 3-way tie with Jolly Old England and ShrimpOnTheBarbie with 10 points.  Tiny Destroyer was the only one to miss all 3 to sit alone in last with 5 pts.  Just one got the FRA-JAM draw, 37 got NED, and 45 got SWE.

High Kick (11/25)

NERVOUS @ HOME - It seemed like D3-USA was using E4-Japan's strategy of absorbing pressure and saving energy for the second half but midway through the first half, the D1-England dominant possession gave way and USA had the better of chances.  Unlike against D4-Wales, USA kept the possession and pressure in the second half but could not finish, settling for a 0-0 draw, USA's first-ever 0-0 WC draw (35 matches).  With D2-IR Iran's two stoppage time goals against 10-men WAL, USA controls their destiny and need a win against IRN.  If you can't beat IRN, you don't deserve to be in the Knockout round.  

WAL had the first red card of the tourney as their GK came out and his high kick knocked the IRN player down way outside the box in the 86'.  IRN's second of two stoppage-time goals was in the 90'+11', the latest goal in regulation... of course, this WC, refs are putting all missing time back in resulting in unusually high added minutes (this match had +9 officially).  With the free-flowing injury-free ENG-USA second half, just +4 was put up, one of the lowest this WC (for 2nd half).  The first half was just +1.

ENG had one last chance in stoppage time thanks to another errant pass by Walker Zimmerman (the same one who dumbly committed the foul in the box to allow WAL to tie USA) but Harry Kane's clear header went wide left.  You could have a drinking game whenever there is a missed pass towards midfield, and if it was Zimmerman, take a shot.  You may get drunk quickly.  Luckily, Zimmerman plays well when defending to stay a starter.

A2-Ecuador got a second-half equalizer to tie A4-Netherlands 1-1 as both sit atop Group A with 4 points while host A1-Qatar got their first goal but A3-Senegal scored 3 and eliminated QAT for the Round of 16.  QAT is the second host to not make the Round of 16 (South Africa in 2010) and will try to not become the first host to finish the group stage with zero points.

I guess my 2010 home USA jersey worked as this jersey was the same type worn in USA 1-1 tie with ENG in 2010.  Since USA needs a win in their last match like 2010 (they somehow fell into 1st in 2014), I guess it'll be the 2010 away USA jersey on Tuesday.

In the pool, only SEN's win was picked by more than 19 entries (73).  19 picked IRN, 17 had ENG-USA draw, and only 6 had NED-ECU draw.  Eggman (30th-T, 10 pts) was the only one to go 3-1 while 23 went 0-4.  This left three at the top with 13 points (Cicero, Kankleiscious, and Walloon) with Markofthebeast and Meli tied for last with 6 pts.

Errors Lead to 1-0 Shutouts (7/25)

DROPPED MY 5-YEAR OLD IPAD AIR 2, CA -- With no Extra Time and matches going straight to penalty kick shootout, it's no wonder teams were tentative and both matches had scoreless first halves.  

Host 1A-Orlando City SC scored off a defensive miscue in the 60' to win 1-0 over the 3C-Impact de Montreal to advance to the Quarterfinals.  ORL played like the favorite they were as Thierry Henry's team lacked any urgency most of the match.  The line judge played a role nullifying an ORL goal by waving his flag.  If  the ref did what he was supposed to, in this photo-finish offsides, and waited to waive his flag after the goal or kept his flag down, it could've been reviewed by VAR.  ORL has a tough match ahead of them as they will face the winner of 2B-Seattle and 2F-LAFC, but ORL will have two extra days rest.

2A-Philadelphia Union scored off a NE midfield misplay at midfield in the 63' to win 1-0 over the 2C-New England Revolution to advance to the Quarterfinals.  Both Group A teams beat Group C teams.  1C-Toronto FC should then feel weary of their match against Group A 3A-New York City FC.

NE head coach Bruce Arena was red-carded after the match.  My estimates for Disciplinary Points only include match statistics since subsequent discipline or nullifying cards can come 1-2 days later and it's still not clear (nor any official total) how the DP is recalculated.  For instance, 4A-Inter Miami FC's Juan Agudelo's first yellow card was rescinded two days later, but he got a second card for a red card, so do the 7 points go down to 3, because the red card is still there.  Does any added supplemental mean 8 points so a card 1-2 days later means 8 points instead of 3 if it happened in the match?  Does a fine for simulation mean 8 points?  We probably won't get a tally unless it comes into play as a tiebreaker.

Four had ORL and 8 had PHI in the Quarterfinals.  Six Foot Box and Deutschland = Koenig got both right and are now just 3 points behind leader Bobby Cee Racer (54 pts).   Four got none right but Super League is still in last with 39 pts.

There was a small error in my 32K simulation but in correcting it for the 8K simulation, all entries are still alive.  But just 8 now remain who can win the pool.  Bobby Cee Racer is still the overwhelming favorite to win the pool (65.8%) and prizes (93.8%).  Six Foot Box and Deutschland = Koenig have a 48.2% and 43.9% of winning a prize with the latter with a 16.9% to win the pool.  Super League still has an 18 of 8192 chance of finishing 3rd.

Kerr-fuffle (6/22)

1B-Germany scored early and recorded their 4th straight shutout, beating 3A-Nigeria, 3-0.  GER has now reached the Quarters in all 8 WWCs.  VAR reviewed the first two goals where the first it was ruled GER wasn't offsides in that the offside player was not interfering with the GK (though it was a busy box) and the second was another defender whiffing and kicking a player hard on the follow-through and VAR ruling a foul had occurred and PK was awarded.