Admin Picks!

 Okay, so I have submitted two entries:

• Futbol Fabone Twelf
• Glory to the Heroes

Explanations for why the nicknames forthcoming...  Good luck!  We have at least 45 entries... kickoff is minutes away!

Edit for Explanations:  This is the 12th HWCI soccer pool and since this is played across Europe instead of one host country, I picked an older language for Twelve, one where the semifinals and final will be held in England, in this case, Old English ("Twelf"), which means "two left over after ten".  Turns out 12 has more dividable (thus, desirable) properties over 10, believe it or not.

Russia was upset with Ukraine's new jerseys, which dropped just five days ago, as it has an outline of the country, including the part Russia annexed.  But since it is the UN-recognized border, UKR gets to keep the outline.

There are also two innocent phrases that individually are fine but when combined, become the rallying cry of Ukraine during the annexation.  We get this drilled into us at work, where unclassified + unclassified can be classified.  Or if you apply it to spoilers, one post may say "Luke and Vader get into an interesting conservation" which is fine, and one post may say "One reveals a family secret", which is fine, but put them both together and connecting the dots, "The Empire Strikes Back" gets spoiled for someone.

So "Glory to Ukraine" is cool and if another country had "Glory to the Heroes" that would be neat, but put them both on a Ukraine jersey, it's a political reference, and both Russians and Ukrainians will know what you are really talking about.  So "Glory to the Heroes" is to be nixed on the jersey but it survives as my nickname on my second entry!