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