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
have fallen behind twice before to come back with a tie and a win but this time it was too much to overcome.  There was no quit though (re: Mexico), as ISL scored first after the break and added another in the 5-2 loss.  This would seem to setup a final before the final, with the Germany-France semifinal winner likely to beat Portugal or Wales in the championship.  We'll see.

Twenty-three (23) had FRA making the semifinals (no one had ISL), keeping the status quo in the pool.  There are still 12 alive to win money and there are still 4 who can win the pool.  Six did get 3 of the 4 semifinalists correct while Rogue Un (26th-Tied, 63 pts) (yes, that's mine) was the only one to get zero.  EEChick1400 is still on top (88) but now BigRedMessi2 is 2nd (86), Big Blue is 3rd (84), and The Mighty Mobelfakta is 4th (82).   No Biting and Travel Bug moved to a 5th place tie with JBueno (81). Game of Two Halves, Rainman and TurboTobi moved into a tie for 8th while Mejia12 and The Eleven moved into a tie for 15th.  These 12 entries are the ones who are alive to win money.

If you notice now, the possibilities now include something similar to our NCAA pool:  the Final Four report where all 8 possible outcomes are outlined including the tiebreaker possibilities.  BigRedMessi has 3 of 8 chances to win the pool while EEChick1400 has 5 of 8 chances to win money.  Rainman will either win the pool if POR wins it all (thanks to being the only one to have Portugal as champs) or go home empty-handed.  Thanks to some Portugal fans, having 12 still alive at this stage is pretty exciting and having four who can still win it will make the final three matches intense (well, not for me since both of mine are eliminated!).  In all 8 cases, the tiebreaker will come into effect.  Remember, the tiebreaker is the total goals scored (not including PSO goals) in the two semifinal matches and the final (3 matches).  So that means start counting goals beginning Wednesday.  If you exclude today's possible outlier (7 goals), the previous three quarterfinal matches produced 8 total goals which is right around most people everyone picked.  If Wales beats Portugal, we will know who will have won the 2nd HWCI EURO Pool after the semifinals.