The English Helping the French

You know when you go to a meeting that you think might be 15 minutes and 2 hours later everyone is still discussing the same topic?  Yup, that's been me.  Rough couple of weeks at work as we have too much work (nice problem, I guess, in this economy). 

Anyway, it's always nice when one soccer powerhouse helps another.  The French could not get anything started as the then winless Swedes shut out France, 2-0, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic half-volleying a rocket into the net for the first goal. But luckily, FRA back-doored their way into the Last 8 when England took care of business squeaking by Ukraine, 1-0, thanks to a header by the returning Wayne Rooney.  FRA's 23-match unbeaten streak got snapped but it didn't matter as the French lazily advanced (they could've lost 10-0-- they would only be out if UKR scored twice and won).  The penalty of course is that they have to face Spain instead of Italy.  35 picked ENG (no one had thought UKR would win) while 8 picked SWE.  Eight went 2-0 while 4 went 0-2.  Twenty (20) correctly picked both ENG and FRA in the Quarterfinals while no one missed both.

For all the group matches,
Walleye got 16 of 24 correct (75.0%) while Blue Panther only got 7 of 24 (29.2%).  There were only 5 ties (20.8%) the whole group stage while everyone picked an average of 8.4 ties (201 total).  While our co-leaders picked only 1 tie each, suggesting less ties the better off you were, Walleye, in 3rd place, picked 8.  So it still depends how well you pick although I'm sure adding the "TIE" option made some overthink things.  The last 4 World Cups were 29%, 23%, 29%, and 33% so this EURO tournament had very little tied games. 

Speaking of co-leaders, Tuan joined The Flying Elvi on top with 58 points.  Soccer Guru was the only person to get a perfect 14 points today (2 per group match (4) plus 2 per correct Quarterfinalist (10)) to go from 25th-Tied to a tie for 13th but is still eliminated.  More on that later.  Mikenjo, Blue Panther (now in dead last with 34 pts), and Russo were the only ones to get just 5 points on the day.  The latter still has a chance for 2nd place.  More on that later. 

Later is here.  As my previous post detailed, today was the day you officially knew if you still had a chance to win money in the pool.  Sadly, 20 of you do not (including my sagging Futbol Fabone Five).  But that still leaves 19 with a chance to win money and nine with a chance to win the pool.  The Flying Elvi has the best chance to win money (71.9%) and 1st (26.6%).   Who has the worst luck?  V2 Divorce Court! is tied for 10th (53) and is the only person to get 7 of the 8 quarterfinalists correct!  The problem?  The one team he missed was NED and that was his champ.  Thus, he is eliminated.  Sisyphus is tied for 27th with 45 points but still has a chance to win the pool.  7 of the 9 who had NED as their champ are eliminated.  No one who had 4 or less Quartefinal teams correct are still alive.

We finally get a rest day!  Tomorrow night, hopefully, I'll detail how the $390 pot will be split among the top 4 spots.