Emotional night for Ronaldo

Sub Eder on top of the world

In a Euro tournament that saw 21 of the 50 matches go into halftime scoreless (3F-Portugal participating in three of them), why would the final be any different?  For a 3F-Portugal team that tied five of their six matches after 90 minutes, why would the final be any different?  For a 1A-France team that has hosted two major tournaments in the past 32 years and won both, why would the final be any different?  Uh, on that last one... A scoreless first half and a 0-0 tie after regulation were par for the course for the Portuguese (though France's Andre-Pierre Gignac late stoppage time twirl just hit inside the left post and ricocheted out) who had to play without captain Cristiano Ronaldo who left in the 25' due to a knee injury.  France had the better of the few opportunities but after the 1st half of extra time, ran out of gas.  A minute after POR's Raphael Guerreiro hit the cross bar on a direct free kick that shouldn't have been theirs (one of the few blown calls by the ref - handball on the wrong team), POR's Eder takes it in and hits a two-bouncer 25-yard shot that just beats the keeper for the only score of the night.

Moths had more fun than the fans

Ronaldo went on a roller-coaster ride by starting the match with high anticipation and pressure, in tears after being knocked down hard in the 8' and eventually having to call for his own sub in the 25' (a la moth), and in tears again after Portugal won its first major trophy.  France started off the match well but it seems the Ronaldo injury sucked the energy

Heading to the final

In meantime, catch up on kick-ass anime
with awesome music, Macross Delta!

3F-Portugal (2-0-4) will try to snap a 10-match losing streak to 1A-France (5-0-1) when the two national teams meet up for the final in Paris, France.  In the new expanding Euro (24 teams from 16), a third-place team has reached the final.  It has happened twice in the World Cup when they had 24 teams with Argentina losing 1-0 to Germany in the '90 final and Italy losing in PKs (0-0 (3-2)) to Brazil in the '94 final.

Both teams struggled to being the tournament with France needed a late second-half goal to edge Romania while Portugal blew a 1-0 lead to tie, at the time, lowly Iceland.  After settling for a tie in their 3rd match, France has won each knockout stage scoring 9 goals.  Portugal has played even in the first 90 minutes in each of their first

Hands up # 2! Germans fall

Unnecessary handballs vs Italy & France

Sigh.  Usually it's the French who are always surrendering.  For some reason, the past two matches 1C-Germans have been holding their hands up for no apparent reason and getting called for handballs in the box.  On the final play of the first half, Bastian Schweinsteiger went hands up and the ball deflected off the head onto his hand prompting the ref to call the penalty kick. Controversial, maybe, but the way Schweinsteiger went after the cross was so unnatural -- who goes in hands up like that?  This image clearly shows how unnatural it looked as it looked like he was getting into his Superman pose and was going to fly and head the ball off.  Bad strategic decision by the captain.  Doesn't matter it was unintentional (yes, I know the rule book says it has to be deliberate, but other than Maradona, who on a 50/50 tries to handle the ball with the hand?).  The hands and arms made him look bigger and that's a disadvantage for the offensive team. Antoine Griezmann put in the PK for his 5th goal of the tourney and the dominant Germans were down 1-0 to 1A-France at the half.

For some reason, this really got the Germans self-doubting themselves and France gained confidence and kept the pressure up until

Ronaldo on a roll

Ronaldo's 9th Euro goal (ties record)

Sometimes, things just line up.  A late stoppage time goal by 2F-Iceland knocked 3F-Portugal to third and put the Portuguese in the upper bracket with no giants (e.g., ENG, ESP, FRA, GER).  They even avoided BEL thanks to 1B-Wales.  After needing a late OT goal to beat 1D-Croatia and a PSO to beat 2C-Poland, POR could've settled for another regulation tie.  But after a listless first half, Ronaldo struck with a brilliant header off a corner kick and less than three minutes later, a Ronaldo shot was re-directed in by Nani and Portugal controlled the rest of the match winning 2-0 over the Welsh.  Will Ronaldo do what Messi couldn't do and win a title for home and country at the world stage?  Will Ronaldo quit the national team if he loses in the final like Messi?  Will Portugal finally go back to their traditional red and not the green glow/night shade jersey?  It was a nice run by Wales and with Iceland out, only traditional powers 1A-France, 1C-Germany, and Portugal remain.

Portugal's win was picked by 5 entries and this also meant we won't know who will win the pool until after the final on Sunday!  Travel Bug (who was 26th before the Round of 16 matches) moved into 1st (89 pts) while

France explodes, dashing Icelandic dream

Vive la France!

For some reason, when I woke up to an alert that there was an explosion before the 1A-France/2F-Iceland match, I thought I read the match was postponed.  So a noontime belated Father's Day lunch in Pasadena (Lunasia Dim Sum) with my in-laws wouldn't interfere with the match after all.  As we got there just before noon, I noticed the restaurant was playing the match and the pre-game looked legit.  Then I confirmed I misread the alert and the match was taking place as planned.  While the first-level had a couple of large HDTVs playing the match, we were in a more private area on the top level with no TVs.  But not to fear, an iPad Air 2 streaming the match thanks to Verizon's UDP (unlimited data plan) hotspot on my new Moto X Pure Edition, and I never missed a beat.  Even the waiters were coming over to watch the match with me!  Oh, and thanks to my wife's sister for getting me a Euro 2016 France shirt while she watched the opening match at the Eiffel Tower.  

As for the match itself, France starting strong and unlike England or Belgium, continued the pressure and exploded for four goals in the first half.  But give Iceland credit, as they

Hands up! Germans survive

Zaza in just for PK, misses badly

1C-Germany took a 1-0 lead in a match they dominated possession but a what-is-he-thinking arms up Jerome Boateng caught the ball off his arm giving 1E-Italy a PK they did not miss in the 78'.  In the only match between group winners, both teams played it safe the rest of the match.  Going into penalties, Germany had only missed 2 in their history of Euro and World Cups (26 of 28 in six PSOs, winning 5).  Then again, Germany had never beaten Italy in a Euro or World Cup (0-4-4).

After being the first team to score against GER in this Euro, ITA started off well and then had their PK specialist Simone Zaza, who came in the 120', next but he skied the ball high.  Uncharacteristically, GER did miss

Clearing the path for Ronaldo

Run little man, run

About the only exciting thing in the later stages of the 2C-Poland-3F-Portugal match was a wave of blue shirts chasing an un-shirted fan on the pitch.  Portugal tied the match in the 33' but both teams played it safe in overtime.  About the only thing that went right for Ronaldo was his PSO goal as he was blatantly taken down in the box early with no call and flubbed two settling chances, that for a mere man would be hard, but for elite players would be gimmes.  POR hit all five PSOs to POL's three.  But the Portuguese hopefully won't be looking to the final as they will get to play 1B-Wales and not 2E-Belgium in the semis.

After going up a goal, BEL took the foot off the pedal and the Welsh took full advantage,

So improbable, the impossible has happened

Unbelievable.  Unbelievable.  The two-time reigning Euro champions are out!  Oh, there was a second match?

1E-Italy scored early and late in methodically eliminating 2D-Spain, 2-0.  The Spanish fizzled in the World Cup and continued at the Euros.  Change is coming.  Of course, the reward for Italy is a quarterfinal matchup with 1C-Germany.

My favorite tweet

I'm gonna miss hearing Vin Scully's voice and a portion of one of his most famous quotes is so applicable here:  "So improbable, the impossible has happened!".  In the second match, oh my, 2B-England got off to a dream start with a PK conversion in the 3rd minute.  Tiny 2F-Iceland would be doomed and the rout on.  But the spirit of Nordic island country fought back with two great run-of-play goals by the 18th minute.  Even with 72 minutes left, England had

Favorites Rule

Belgium lucked out

1A-France fell behind early on a PK goal by 3E-Ireland but a brace by Antoine Griezmann in 3 minutes sent the hosts to the Quarterfinals, 2-1.  IRL GK Darren Randolph did his best with 8 saves but it was not enough.  1C-Germany missed a PK but it didn't matter in routing 3B-Slovakia, 3-0.  Both GKs combined for 16 saves but 2E-Belgium scored early and then finally broke through with 3 goals in the final 12 minutes to put away 1F-Hungary, 4-0.  By NOT winning their Group, Belgium

Goals! Golazo, PSO, Own, Late OT

Shaqiri Golazo!

2A-Swiss's Xherdan Shaqiri game-tying golazo (incredible scissor kick) in the 82' was the highlight of SUI's tournament-high 29 shots but 2C-Poland held on and rifled in all 5 of their penalty-kick shootout attempts to advance to the Quarters, 1-1 (5-4).  There were a total of 50 shots in this match but just 12 on target.

In the battle of two UK countries, 1B-Wales finally broke through with a hard cross along the goal that was tapped in by a 3C-Northern Ireland defender (to be fair, if he didn't tap it in, a Welsh player would have) for the only goal of the match.

Thanks to the expansion to 24 teams and new Round of 16, 3F-Portugal was

Foster’s Football Brew Round 3 – Copa America Finals

Foster’s Football Brew

Round 3 – Copa America Finals

June 24, 2016

The Copa America has one fewer stages of play than the EURO (or World Cup for that matter), so it’s going by quickly now.  As many analysts predicted, Argentina will play Chile in the final.  Here is an overview of the knockout stage of Copa America Centenario:

Quarterfinals Game 1:  USA vs. Ecuador – UNBELIEVABLE

It really helped the US to get off to an early lead.  They aren’t the kind of team that is built for comebacks against superior opponents.  In this case, the Yanks made the most of their opportunities despite not enjoying a ton of ball possession.  It was perhaps the best performance I’ve seen Team USA put together.  They could have even run up the score if Jermaine Jones hadn’t earned himself a red card for putting his hands on another player’s face away from play (a new rule of FIFA requires an automatic red for purposefully touching an opponent above the shoulders away from the run of play).  His absence was coupled by an Ecuador red card, so the stars & stripes managed to hold on to their lead to advance to the semi-finals…quite an achievement! 

On the other hand,

No Brexit for Euros, but are Youexit in pool?

Only the Scots not at the party.

Wow, crazy that Great Britain will no longer be a part of the European Union.  But they can take solace that except for Scotland, who didn't qualify for the Euros and almost voted to secede from Great Britain a couple years ago, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland are still alive in Euro 2016.  And might as well get Ireland in there as well.  Just those Scots...

So Brexit happened, but did Youexit happen?  With 27 entries and a more wide open Euro than usual, only one single entry has been eliminated (unofficially, haven't had the time to thoroughly verify as it took many hours to run the simulation) -- Cheesy Grits FC.  Alas, his France over Spain final was a popular one (5 did this) which meant not a lot of points to pick up to try to move from 25th place.

You will also notice there is a "Possibilities" option in the top menu now.  There were 32,768 possible outcomes and this link will let you know how many of those you could win the pool and how many you could win money (finish top 4).  JBueno, with a 5 point lead, has the best shot at winning money (80.3%) and the pool (47.3%).  Four others (BigRedMessi2, Big Blue Game of Two Halves, Jurpa FC) have at least a 35% to win money.  21 of 27 can still win the pool.

Germans seal Group C, Croats rally and stop PK

ESP's 1st loss since '04 (11-0-3)

A missed PK by D1-Spain turned out to be the difference between winning Group D and finishing second as D4-Croatia rallies for a 2-1 win.  D3-Turkey finally scored en route to a 2-0 win over D2-Czech Republic, eliminating the Czechs and keeping the Turks hope alive.

C1-Germany did what they needed to do in beating C4-Northern Ireland 1-0 while C3-Poland secured 2nd place with a 1-0 win over C2-Ukraine, who were already eliminated from advancing to the Round of 16.

In race for the four 3rd place spots:

• Group E (ITA (6 pts), BEL (3 pts, +1 GD), SWE (1 pt, -1 GD), IRL (1 pt, -3 GD))
• Group F (HUN (4 pts), POR (2 pts, 0 GD), ISL (2 pts, 0 GD), AUT (1 pt, -2 GD))
• (Qualified) B4-Slovakia (4 pts, 0 GD)
• (Qualified) C4-NIR (3 pts, 0 GD)
• D3-TUR (3 pts, -2 GD, 2 GF)
• A3-Albania (3 pts, -2 GD, 1 GF)

Remember, you won't get points for
SVK and NIR until tomorrow (as well as already qualified E2-Italy and F4-Hungary).

After 32 matches, JBueno leads with 42 pts with Mejia12 (who has picked a high of 20 correct group stage matches, two better than the next entry) right behind with 41 pts. Seven have all 8 Group A/B/C/D winners and runners-up (including both of Eric F's (BigRedMessi (8th, 38), BigRedMesssi2 (3rd-Tied, 40)) while 12 entries have 6 of 8.  Cheesy Grits FC and The Eleven are last with 29 pts and both have picked a low of 11 of 32 matches correctly.

Tomorrow, 28 points are up for grabs (4 group matches, Group E&F winners, Group E&F runners-up, and 4 3rd Place qualifiers).

Go USA!

I see my picks Futbol Fabone Hut and Rogue Un are in sync, tied for 21st place (31)...

Updates!!!!

11 days into EURO 2016, I have finally managed to find some time to update everyone's picks --  which means, we have standings!  There are actually several updates.

New items in the menu above:

Standings:  Up until the end of the 2nd matches, every match was worth one point.  As the 3rd matches are played, you will get the one point per correct match PLUS the winner and runner-up of that group (3 points each).  So, today, Groups A and B have finished so 11 entries have all 4 Round of 16 teams (FRA, SUI, WAL, ENG).  Remember, it doesn't matter if you had WAL as the winner, runner-up, or 3rd place qualifier -- it's 3 points regardless.  However, not placing WAL in the correct slot may hinder getting the maximum possible points.  Currently, JBueno leads with 28 points with Mejia12 in second with 26 points.  TurboTobi is in last with 17 points and was the only entry

Foster’s Football Brew # 2: Copa America Group Stage Wrap-up

Foster’s Football Brew

Round 2 - Copa America Group Stage Wrap-up

June 16, 2016

The Copa America Elimination stage is upon us, and the US is up first against Ecuador! 

It’s really great that Team USA managed a first place finish in their group, despite getting dominated by Colombia in the opening game.  But as luck would have it, first place gave the Yanks a tough draw: Ecuador, who I’ve ranked as 3^rd best in the tourney after Argentina and Chile.  Some simulation model on Fox Sports predicted Team USA has a 52% chance to win…I would have given the US a 35% chance.  I’m thinking home field advantage factored into Hal’s computations…and the advantage is DOUBLED when you’re the USA playing in Seattle.  It’s gonna be a loud one, can’t wait!  In one of my Copa America pool brackets, I picked Enner Valencia to get the golden boot…but I’d hate to see him score against the Stars & Stripes.

Let’s cover the rest of Group B:  Peru vs. Brazil.  O Selecao seemed to play well the first two games, and figured they could put the tourney on cruise control against Peru, dominating possession and scoring opportunities.  But their efforts were half-a$$ed, as Brazil played

Admin's 2 picks - 80 minutes left!

Just over 80 minutes left to submit your entry to our HWCI EURO Pool.  In the meantime, feel free to laugh at my picks as I'll see another $20 go down the drain!  At least I'm not at a State of Emergency, though did anyone feel the earthquake last night in SoCal?

Futbol Fabone Huit
Rogue Un

I've been busy all this month but will try to check your entries later today (in case you accidentally listed France as 1A and 2A, for example).  Thanks and good luck!

Foster's Football Brew #1 (6/7) - Round 1

Foster’s Football Brew

Round 1

June 7, 2016

It’s summertime, and that means a flurry of international soccer once again!  In this first issue of Foster’s Football Brew, I will give some predictions and previews of the EURO 2016.  But first, I explore a curiosity:  Are games in the World Cup the most exciting in international soccer?  My inclination is to argue no, but do I have evidence to back such a claim?

The majority of the first round games in the Copa America Centenario featured cross-conference matchups between CONCACAF and CONMEBOL teams.  There were only three high-level, hotly contested matches, in my opinion: Mexico vs. Uruguay, Brasil vs. Ecuador, and Argentina vs. Chile.  Two of those three are matches within the same conference.   Now take the USA vs. Costa Rica game and subsequent Colombia vs. Paraguay game: both are

Online Web Entry now available!

Well, please let me know if you see any errors. You can now enter online!  Again, the EURO expanded to 24 teams (from 16) and works like the Women's World Cup last year -- the top 2 teams in each of the six groups plus the top 4 3rd place finishers.  So just be careful choosing the teams in the Round of 16 bracket (don't worry, I'll be checking if you accidentally list France twice, for example).  Also, it doesn't matter how you pick the round robin matches when you fill out your Round of 16 bracket (so if you're a homer, and pick Albania to win all three matches, you don't have to have them in your Round of 16 bracket so you don't lose more points!).

Remember, the deadline is this Friday at Noon (PDT)!  I plan to be at the Rose Bowl for Copa America on Thursday (tentative Tuesday) and the Galaxy match on June 22 if you want to pay me directly.  Otherwise, use the options on the confirmation page (e.g., PayPal, mail, Google Wallet).  As always, $10 per entry and up to 3 entries per person.

If you want to change your picks or if you made a mistake, submit another entry (select from the drop-down box "Update and Existing Entry" instead of "New Entry") or let me know and I can make the simple change for you.

EURO 2016 Pool!

Welcome to our 2nd HWCI EURO Soccer Pool!  I'm still working on the online web entry but you can download the form now (Word | PDF).  As with all our pools, nothing has changed (still $10 per entry).

Deadline is Noon (PDT) next Saturday  Friday (June 10)!

Also, if you're interested in Copa America, you only have a few hours left before the 1st match kicks off but you can enter Eric Foster's pool using this spreadsheet.  His is also $10/entry.