Saturday, June 19, 2021 ***HAPPY JUNETEENTH!***
Footballsack knocks Club Med out of first
DIGNITY HEALTH SPORTS PARK, CARSON, CA (smt) - Remember the Group of Death does include F1-Hungary, right? And that soccer powers F4-Germany and A2-Italy were on a downturn? Or that D3-Scotland is the little brother to D1-England? Well...
After seeing just two matches tied in the first 18 matches, the last six saw four ties which prevented some teams from advancing and kept others alive. HUN scored first in front of another sold-out full-capacity home crowd and held on for a 1-1 against favorite F3-France which kept their destiny in their hands (win vGER and they are in). E1-Spain actually scored but once again, 69+% possession didn't get them a win, drawing with E3-Poland 1-1 and kept the Poles from being eliminated. The two points for ESP won't be good enough to qualify, so a win is needed if they want to assure advancement. SCO hasn't scored but its 0-0 tie with ENG keeps them alive. D2-Croatia rallied to tie D4-Czech Rep to keep their hopes alive.
We had our first two comebacks as
B3-Belgium scored twice in the 2nd half to beat B1-Denmark, who scored in the first 100 seconds to electrify the home crowd still reeling from Christian Eriksen's collapse five days before. Ronaldo opened scoring for F2-Portugal only to see two first half own goals within four minutes lead to a 4-2 defeat by GER. C2-Ukraine helped themselves with a 2-1 win over C4-North Macedonia (who were the first team eliminated when later C1-Netherlands took care of C4-Austria). A3-Wales all but assured themselves in the next round beating A1-Turkey, who despite a GD of -5, still have a chance and would jump to 3rd with a win over A4-Switzerland, who got routed by ITA, 3-0. B4-Russia and E2-Sweden each posted 1-0 victories in Saint Petersburg Stadium.Only 3 teams (ITA, BEL, and NED (also won Group C)) clinched their Round of 16 berths, the same as '16 (first time Euro had 24 teams and this group format). Both 3rd place teams with 4 pts in '16 made the Round of 16 which is good news for 5 teams with 4 pts now (WAL, CZE, ENG, SWE, FRA). Head-to-head is the first tiebreaker which is why TUR and it's awful -5 GD can finish ahead of SUI with just a win and MKD are eliminated even if they beat NED 10-0 to tie AUT or UKR at 3 pts (having lost to both already).
Footballsack (16 pts) was only one to go 9-3 to finally wrestle away the lead on the last day (Day 9) from Club Med (2nd, 15), who was at least tied for the lead since Day 1 and sole position of first place since Day 4. My Euro 2020 Bracket (3rd-Tied, 14) and James Saint George (16th-T, 13) each went 8-4. Saharm17 (42nd-T, 10) and Otsego1 (47th-T, 9) each went 3-9. Otsego1 shares last place with Dagger and Wolverine1.
Although 3 teams advanced to the Round of 16, you won't get the 3 points until after that group has played its last match. Thus, the 48 who punched ITA through will get the 3 points tomorrow. Interestingly, at least one entry picked each of the 24 teams to make the R16 with four teams unanimously picked by all 49 entries (BEL, ENG, NED, ESP) and SVK, currently 2nd in Group E, picked by one. 5 missed out on MKD, who is the only team officially eliminated. While the first 9 days featured a max of 24 points, the next 4 days will feature a max of 60 points!
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I'll be doing daily matchday updates on our Blog and re-posted on Twitter. These updates will be every few days and emailed out. Everyone can view their pick and bracket by clicking the "Pick" link in the standings next to their nickname or the picks page. If you want to know who everyone is, the Who's Who in the Pool is now available.
Ins & Outs - Goals (24 matches): 55 (2.29/match) [Own: 5 (1-TURvITA 53' {gw}, 10-POLvSVK 18', 12-GERvFRA 20' {gw}, 24-PORvGER 35', 24-PORvGER 39' {2}), Subs: 4 (4-BEL 27', 6-AUT 78', 6-AUT 89', 16-BEL 70'), 90+: 2 (11-POR +2, 13-WAL +5), Extra Time: -]... Scoring First: 16-2-4 [2 Nil-Nil ties (9-ESPvSWE, 20-ENGvSCO); 16-DEN, 24-POR]... Leading at Half: 10-1-3 (10 ties; 16-DEN)... Shutout: 16 [1-TUR, 2-DEN, 4-RUS, 7-CRO, 8-SCO, 9-ESP, 9-SWE, 11-HUN, 12-GER, 15-FIN, 13-TUR (2), 14-SUI, 17-AUT, 21-SVK, 20-ENG, 20-SCO (2)]... PK: 4/9 [3-den (s) 74', 11-POR 87', 14-wal (h) 61', 18-mkd (s) 57', 18-ukr (s) 84', 17-NED 11', 21-SWE 77', 19-CZE, 22-esp (p) 58']... PSO: -... Red Card (GF/GA): 1 (10-POL (0/1) 62')... Multiple Goals: 4 [Lukaku 2 (4-BEL), Schick 2 (8-CZE), Ronaldo 2 (11-POR), Locatelli 2 (14-ITA)]... Zero SOG (Shots): 3 [1-TUR (3), 9-SWE (4), 21-SVK (10)]... Goal Line Tech: 0 (-)... VAR (-Reversal(Taken Away), +Reversal(Added), =Confirmed, xNo Call): 9 [3-SUI xOff+{g-} 85', 12-FRA xOff+{g-} 85', 15-FIN xOff+{g-} 3', 14-ITA xHB+{g-} 19', 18-MKD xHB+{pk+DEN} 8', 17-AUT xFoul+{pk+NED} 80', 19-CRO xFoul+{pk+CZE} 33', 22-ESP Off-{g+} 25', 22-POL xFou+{pk+ESP}]... 63%+ Poss: 5 [3-DENvFIN (64) L, 5-NEDvUKR (63) W, 9-ESPvSWE (75) D, 11-PORvHUN (65) W, 22-ESP (69) D]... 20+ Shots (S/SOG/G): 3 [1-ITAvTUR (24/8/2+og)) W, 3-DENvFIN (23/6/0) L, 16-DENvBEL (22/6/1) L {2}]... Breaks: 1 [3-DENvFIN (Injury) 43' (90 min)]... Home Teams: 7-6-4 (3-DEN, 4-RUS, 8-SCO, 11-HUN, 12-GER)...
Qualification (x-Advance, y-Group Winner, z-Elim): x-ITA (A) (14-W)... x-BEL (B) (16-W), y-NED (C) (17-W), z-MKD (C) (18-L & 17-NED W)...
Bits 'n Bobs - all 9 teams in '16 who won their first match made the Round of 16 -- there are 10 winners this year (3 already qualified)... tiebreakers: head-to-head, GD, GF, Wins, Lower Disciplinary Pts, Position in Euopean Qualifier rankings... Disciplinary points: 3 points for a red card (either directly or as a result of receiving two yellow cards in one match) and one point for a yellow card...ITA is 24-0-5 in last 29 matches (last loss Sept 2018 vPOR) and has not allowed a goal in 10 straight (while scoring 31)... SUI lost for the first time in its last 7 Euro matches (PSOs are ties)... BEL has scored in 31 straight matches... MKD, ranked #62 in the world, has scored in 16 of their last 17 matches but were the first team eliminated from the R16... after just one shot (a goal) vDEN, FIN had 11 vRUS... DEN has had 22+ shots each match thus far, have lost both matches... DEN won the coin flip to earn the home match vRUS, who got to play the first two at home... TURvWAL was the 300th Euro match... CZE has converted 24 straight PKs in Euros (last time they missed was their first try in '60)... attendance at Hampden Park in Glasgow (SCO) was just 5,807, as most Scots went to get ready to watch SCO-ENG that started an hour after the match... CZE's Patrik Schick's PK gave him 3 goals thus far in the tourney... CRO has just 2 shots on goal and CZE just 1 in the 1-1 tie... ENG had won their last 7 matches but the scoreless draw meant they still have allowed just one goal in their last 8... ENG and SCO each had just 1 shot on goal... another full capacity crowd (55,998) in Budapest had something to cheer in HUN's goal, but due to qualifying last (Nations League finals), their opponent GER got the home match... FRA is 30-0-4 when Antoine Griezmann scores... GER is first team this Euros to lead at the half after allowing the first goal (2-1)... Ronaldo got his 3rd goal to give POR the early lead... two POR own goals makes it 5 total this Euro, a record... ESP missed their first PK (non-PSO) in Euros... two VAR reviews is last match (ESPvPOL) meant 8 of 9 reviews happened in last 13 matches... after just 2 ties in first 18 matches, there were 4 in the last 6... "Football Arena Munich" and "Saint Petersburg Stadium" are two of the UEFA renamed stadiums due to not allowing sponsorship (Allianz Arena and Gazprom Arena, respectively)... Home teams fared better going 4-1-3 this round... in the three dual hosting groups, RUS will have to travel to face DEN, SCO traveled to ENG and tied 0-0, and HUN will have to travel to GER...
On Wednesday, 37 picked RUS, 14 WAL, 39 ITA; 7 went 3-0 while 2 went 0-3; Club Med leads by 2... on Thursday, 40 picked UKR, 35 BEL, and 46 NED; 32 went 3-0 while 3 went 1-2; Club Med by 1 pt, Dagger last... on Friday, 44 picked SWE, 6 picked CRO-CZE tie, and James Saint George got the ENG-SCO tie; James Saint George was only one to go 3-0 while four went 0-3; no change at the top or bottom... on Saturday, Footballsack only one to pick HUN-FRA tie, 7 picked ESP-POL tie; Footballsack went 2-1 while 30 went 0-3...
More than 23,000 at first LA Galaxy match with no restrictions, but the result was a loss...
Scott
HWCI circa 1990
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