Issue #7.1.6 "Can't Complain" (After Group Stage)

 Archive

Friday, August 4, 2023 

Dailies: Aug 2-3 

GERMANY, BRAZIL OUT; MOROCCO, JAMAICA, SOUTH AFRICA IN
Vlatko Better Win leads with 65 points and 6 lost GER as their champ

H MART, BUENA PARK, CA (smt) --  Living in the Los Angeles area, it is hard to complain about things.  It's been high 80s with 60% humidity which I describe as "pungent hell" (one of the very few times we ever got feedback on our Major League Soccer score sheets in the early days was one time we described the weather at the Rose Bowl as not "sunny" or "humid" or "hot", but our use of "pungent hell" --- the note was quickly followed with "but that's exactly what it felt like" so we had a good laugh), but someone from Boston will say hey, it's 105F and humid here or Orlando will say it's 99% humid here.  LA had like a dozen atmospheric rivers drench the area from December-March but then someone in Tampa will say we had to evacuate due to a hurricane or Vermont is flooded.  We're known for some famous "bad" areas here but them someone from Chicago will talk about constant gun violence.   LA is also famous for smog but can't complain because the Northeast is suffocating under the Canadian wildfire smoke out.  We can only complain about high taxes... anyone top that?  Anyone?  Darn.

37 and Over (8/2)

WAITING FOR SON'S FINAL VAC SHOT (MenB), CERRITOS, CA - Two more teams ranked #37 or worse made the Round of 16 as #54 G2-South Africa (2G) came back to eliminate G3-Italy, 3-2, with a 90'+1 game-winner and #43 F2-Jamaica (2F) held F3-Brazil to a nil-nil draw to advance over the Brazilians.  They join #40 2B-Nigeria in the knockout stage.

RSA blew a lead for the 3rd straight game (led 1:0 SWE and lost 2-1, led 2-0 ARG and tied 2-2), but this time, after coming back from 1-0 to lead 2-1, they again gave up the tying goal 7 minutes later in the 74'.  But this time, they kept at it and was rewarded with a great goal in the 1st minute of stoppage time as the dancing began again.  ITA just needed a tie and fell short (but not as bad as the men's team, which failed to qualify for the last 2 World Cups).  Wore my 2010 home ITA GK jersey in front our expensive sago tree (1 of 2) and it didn't help as ITA scored on itself (for RSA's first goal) in the 32'.  I don't know why defenders are so good shooting on goal at their OWN goal instead of the opponent's (usually sky high).

37 is also the age of the legendary BRA striker, Marta (so glad got to see her many times doing stats for the LA Sol in 2009 - I actually have that jersey and may wear it during one of the off days), who started but couldn't produce in 81 minutes in her 6th, and likely final, WWC.  If you were to say JAM would allow no goals this tournament, with #5 F1-France (1F) and #8 BRA in their group, you'd be crazy.  Asylum-level paranoia.  And JAM qualified scoring just one goal... one.  And had ZERO shots on goal against BRA.  

G1-Sweden (1G) made 9 changes to their usual starting lineup and still took care of business, beating G4-Argentia, 2-0.  In just, let's play for fun, FRA won their set, 6-3, over F4-Panama, who scored their first 3 goals of the tournament, at one point cutting the deficit to 5-3 in the 87'.  The match featured 3 penalty kicks (all made, extending the WWC streak to 13 consecutive makes) and a hat trick for FRA's Kadidiatou Diani.

8 more points up for grabs as Group H concludes starting at 3 am PDT (get used to that).

Group G concluded with 35 getting SWE's win and 4 RSA's win with Of-Course-it's-US (37th-Tied, 52 pts) getting both correct.  Nine got both wrong.  45 had SWE in the Round of 16 while Rutin4Putin (41st-T, 51) and TroJenn (44th-T, 50) each got RSA with the former the only one to have both SWE and RSA in their R16.  Tiny Destroyer was the only one to miss both teams.  Rutin4Putin got 7 of 8 possible points while Tiny Destroyer got 0 of 8.

Group F concluded with 44 getting FRA's win and Merman (27th-T, 55) the only one picking the draw between JAMvBRA.  Merman was the only one to go 2-0 while three went 0-2.  All 47 had FRA in their R16 and 4 had JAM.  Four got both teams while the other 43 got one.  Flying Elvi, Mauihammy (35th-T, 53), Bean (24th-T, 56), and Kung Fu Master Kai each got 7 of 8 possible points while Eggman 2 (13th-T, 58), TroJenn, and TroJenn2 (44th-T) each got just 3 of 8.

Overall, five got 11 of 16 points and Tiny Destroyer only got 4 of 16.  Flying Elvi moved from a tie for 6th to sole possession of 1st (63 pts).  Hawkeye and Vlatko Better Win dropped to a tie for 2nd (62) and Kds911 and More$ are tied for 4th (61).  Tiny Destroyer returns back to last place with 40 points, 6 points off 46th place Kung Fu Master Kai.

Issue #5.1.4 "First Points" (After 32 Matches)

 Archive

Sunday, July 30, 2023 

Dailies: July 28-29-30 

JAMAICA, SOUTH AFRICA, MOROCCO PICK UP FIRST-EVER POINTS; GERMANY FALTERS
Eggman 2 remains in the lead with 23 points of 32 possible

CARSON, CA (smt) --  After 32 matches, each team has played two matches each (even though Group A got a head start, finishing their 3rd matches a half hour before H1-Germany vs H3-Colombia started).  H2-Morocco, F2-Jamaica, and G2-South Africa picked up their first ever WWC points joining E4-Portugal and A3-Philippines earlier this week.  MAR got an early 6' goal to beat H4-Korea Rep, 1-0, to stay alive in Group H.  In a rare battle between two CONCACAF teams in the group stage, #43 JAM edged out #52 F4-Panama to stay alive and eliminate the Panamanians. #54 RSA led 2-0 in the 66' but G4-Argentina scored twice in 5 minutes to end it on a 2-2 draw, RSA's first-ever point. 

While D1-England struggles to score, they still are winning, and with D4-China PR's VAR-infected 1-0 win over D2-Haiti, all four Group D matches ended in a 1-0 score line.  #5 F1-France, which opened with a lackluster 0-0 draw with JAM, finally showed up outlasting #8 F3-Brazil, 2-1 and G3-Sweden, who had to come from behind to beat RSA in their opener, showed they are the #3 team in the world in destroying #16 G3-Italy, 5-0 with three goals off corner kicks (4 for SWE in tournament).  #2 GER had a chance to assert themselves further after their earlier 6-0 win over MAR, but fell behind to #25 COL and then lost on a 90'+7 stoppage time goal (you guessed it, off a corner kick), which kept KOR alive.  The rockin' stadium full of Colombian fans has seen COL upset the two teams above them and now face #72 MAR to try to clinch Group H.

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.

Force is Strong with Forza Pazza

Standings have been updated with 15 points up for grabs today (1 pt x 3 RR matches plus 3 pt x 4 teams that made the Round of 16).  South Africa's win snapped El Chileno and Lionelmessi's win streak at 8.  Sisyphus86 was the only one to get all 3 matches correct (pretty good picking RSA and URU).  Ten got both Group A teams correct while 9 got both Group B teams correct.  The intersection of five got all 4 teams correct (Forza Pazza, Source, EEChick1400, Big Tex, and Serrano).  Five missed both Group A teams and every entry got at least one of the two Group B teams.

That leaves Forza Pazza in first with 32 points followed by Big Tex with 31 and EEChick1400 with 30.  Serrano and Source moved from a tie for 39th to a tie for 4th place in just one day.  On the flip side, Chi-Town Mikey's and Desert17 went from a tie for 14th to a tie for 57th in just one day.  Krispy Kicker is further in the bottom with just 12 points clearing Coin Tossed by four and Samersig and SirMarcCharles by 5.

BTW, the four teams who didn't advance all put in great efforts today.  France finally scored, Greece held their own and had a better than expected Cup, Nigeria came to life in the second half (too little too late) and if they didn't have Gordo's feet, would have won by two or so goals, and host South Africa picked up a well-deserved win over the 2006 Runner-Ups.

Could it be?

Sacrebleu!  The host teams leads 1-0 and France is now down to 10 men... still over an hour of futbol left, but geez...

Host with the Most?

Host countries are 14-0-5 in their first match... can South Africa hold on for 20 more minutes to extend that streak?

UPDATE:  Yes, but they settle for a tie instead, denying 13 of 65 entries of picking up a point.

Counting...

I know I have at least one mail in entry (hopefully arrives today or tomorrow) and a couple need some slight corrections and couple need payment info, but we should be nicely over 60 entries.  The first game has kicked off and it'll tell us what kind of Cup we'll have.  A South Africa tie (or win) would show that we're not in Europe anymore while a 3-0 drubbing by Mexico would show why are we in South Africa?  Either way it should be fun!  And HD is great!

And... I can watch the World Cup on my phone!!!  If you're on Verizon, make sure you do the 30-day free trial for VCast if you have a smartphone (like the Droid Incredible!). Awesome.