Friday, July 12, 2024
The European Championship Final  -   | ||||||
   
| vs |      1966 WC Champs | ||||
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ESP - Kingdom of Spain Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF)  | ENG - England The Football Assoc (The FA)  | |||||
| #8 | 1B | Winner | 6-0-0 5th Final ('64, '84, '08, '12) B1: Beat Croatia 3-0 B4: Beat Italy 1-0 B5: Beat Albania 1-0 R16: Beat 3F-Georgia 4-1 QF: Beat 1A-Germany 2-1 (aet) SF: Beat 2D-France 2-1 | #5 | 1C | Winner | 3-0-3 2nd Final ('21) C2: Beat Serbia 1-0 C4: Tied Denmark 1-1 C5: Tied Slovenia 0-0 R16: Beat Slovakia 2-1 (aet) QF: Beat 2A-Switzerland 1-1 (PSO 5-3) SF: Beat 3D-Netherlands 2-1 | |||||
Final is Noon PDT Sunday
LA MIRADA, CA (smt) - The summer of soccer continues with the conclusion of the EURO 2024 Final and the Copa América Final (Argentina vs Colombia) Sunday and then the men's and women's Olympic soccer kicks off July 24 in Paris and the Major League Soccer and Liga MX Leagues Cup kicks off July 26 with all 45 teams competing.
1B-Spain is the first team to win six games at a Euros and can make it 7-for-7 with a win over 1C-England. ENG has allowed the first goal in three straight matches but have won all the them. ESP allowed the first goal in two of their past three matches but won all of them. ENG has played two extra time matches and has one less day of rest than ESP.
ESP is the favorite to win (1.5:1) and a draw (going to penalty shootout) (1.8:1) is more likely than an ENG win (2.5:1). Straight up, ESP's odds to win their fourth Euros is 1:1.55 while ENG's odds to win their first Euros is 1.2:1. Both teams will try to follow their women's title run with ESP's women winning the 2023 Women's World Cup and the ENG's women winning the 2022 Women's Euros.
So I was told the Euros were a much better competition than the World Cup so I am glad the interest has increased in our 4th Euros pool to a record 58 entries. The 24 teams make the 3rd place bracket placement a pain but 43 of 58 entries did it correctly the first time, which is great. We will have our 4th different champion, either Jim M (Merman) with an ENG victory in his 1st Euro pool (3rd overall soccer pool) or Jesus B (JBueno) with a ESP win in his 3rd Euro pool (5th overall soccer pool).
Next year, typically an off year, we will have the inaugural new Club World Cup pool featuring 32 teams from around the world here in the USA. The old annual competition between just the six confederation winners (also called Club World Cup) will continue as the Intercontinental Cup, not to be confused (okay, there is confusion) with the Intercontinental Cup between CONMEBOL and UEFA club champions that ended in 2004. There is a concern FIFA is having trouble getting everyone on board as there is no logo nor a TV contract yet. This would be an every 4 year event which would plug our off years for the foreseeable future.
So let's look forward to the 1st HWCI Club World Cup pool in June 2025 held in the USA, the 8th HWCI World Cup Pool in June 2026 held in the USA, the 4th HWCI Women's World Cup Pool in 2027 held in Brazil, and the 5th HWCI EURO Pool in June 2028 held in the UK and Ireland. Rinse and repeat! And of course, our 30th (!) HWCI NCAA Pool begins March 2025.
    | In 2012, several people inquired about doing a European Championship (Euro) pool modeled after our successful World Cup pools we had done four times as many prefer the Euros to the higher quality (e.g., 14 of the top 18 teams were from Europe in '12). Having never watched the Euros, I was finally convinced. Since it would be our first, another request I get consistently is to pick ties for group stage matches (the previous World Cup pools was pick the winner, with ties getting 0 pts). So the experiment to pick a TIE was implemented, and was successful enough that it was kept for all future soccer pools, including the World Cup pools. With just 16 teams, the total possible points was not 196, but 148. Interest was high as we received 39 entries from 33 people. 23 people (25 entries) had participated in one of our prior World Cup pools. This was the 3rd co-hosted Euro (Poland & Ukraine) and qualification was difficult with just 14 spots available but all the regulars were there in the end (top 13 ranked European teams qualified). Netherlands was a surprise team that failed to advance and more than half the entries (20/39) were eliminated after the group stage. England (of course) and Portugal lost in the PSO. Spain trounced Italy 4-0 to win back-to-back Euros and their 3rd straight major title (WC '10). There were 5 ties of the 24 group matches with Walleye getting 16 correct. V2 Divorce Court! got 7 of 8 knockout stage teams. 13 got 3 of 4 semifinalists as just 3 had POR. Ricardo A (Salsa King) won the pool with an even 100 pts with Edmund L (Thecomebacker), Alex R (Russo) (the only one to get both ITA and ESP in final), and David F (The Mighty Mobelfakta) taking 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. 12 picked ESP. Bernice P (Advinanza) was the only one to pick ITA and would've won the pool. Everyone got at least 1 semifinalist correct. |
    | In 2016, the Euros expanded from 16 to 24 teams allowing for the top 4 3rd place teams to advance. The online web entry was late (just 4 days prior) but we still got 27 entries from 25 people. 6 new people participated in their first soccer pool. Portugal had 3 ties in the group stage and needed to rally to tie Hungary 3-3 to advance as a 3rd place team. 4 of the 5 teams making their Euro debuted made the R16. Italy got their revenge in the R16 to prevent Spain from winning their 3rd straight Euro title while host France rolled into the final. England got beat by tiny Iceland in the R16 while POR beat tiny Wales (who upset Belgium in the Quarters) to make the final. Cristiano Ronaldo was injured 25 min into the final but POR prevailed 1-0 in Extra Time to win their first major title. There were a lot of ties (11 of 36) with Meija12 getting 21 correct. JBueno got 13 of 16 R16 teams. 6 got 3 of 4 semifinalists with no one getting Wales. With 24 teams, the max points was 168 but 100 points was still the top score (like in '12) with Ford R (Rainman) winning the pool and Eric F's second entry (BigRedMessi2) (who got 6 of 8 quarterfinalists), Michael W (Big Blue), and Tuan L (The Eleven) taking 2nd-4th. Ford R was the only one to pick POR as his champ while 9 missed on FRA. Rogue Un was the only entry to go 0-for-the-Final-Four. |
    | In 2021, the Euros were postponed a year due to COVID-19 but still stuck with the Euro 2020 moniker. With more time, the online web entry was up early and we got a record 49 entries from 34 people. 9 new people joined thanks to Eric F's recruitment. UEFA still stuck with holding the tournament across 11 cities (was 13), as a celebration of the tourney's 60th anniversary, despite fan and travel restrictions due to the pandemic. England was supposed to just host the Final Four but complications with Brussels gave ENG 3 home matches in Group D and with Dublin gave ENG a home R16 match (since they won Group D). Thanks to newly formed Nations League, North Macedona was able to qualify out of Path C. The group stage saw very few upsets with the Group of Death still sending France, Germany, and Portugal forward. A record number of own goals and missed penalty kicks were balanced by the highest scoring tournament to date. Netherlands were upset in the R16 while top favorites France lost in the PSO in the R16 to Switzerland, who had rallied from 3-1 down in regulation. Italy won the title riding a 34-match unbeaten streak (27-0-7) and knocked off #1 Belgium in the QF. England scored just 2 goals in the group stage (still won the group) but 8 in the knockout stage thus far. With 8 ties, Slyelf still got 25 group stage matches correct. Six got 15 of the 16 R16 teams and three got 3 of the 4 semifinalists. Footballsack and Gli Azzurri got both finalists. Giacomo G's 3rd entry (Gli Azzurri) won the pool with ITA's championship run with Tuan L (Footballsack) taking 2nd, Tom J's 3rd entry (Avenger #3) took 3rd, and Frank C (FrankfromSeattle) took 4th. 3 picked ITA. 7 went 0-for-the-Final-Four. |
  | In 2024, the Euros returned to Germany proper for the first time (West Germany in '88) just three years after the last Euros. It featured the first match in former East Germany (Leipzig) and two new name changes (Türkiye for Turkey and Czechia for Czech Rep). A record 58 entries were received from a record 39 people. 5 new people joined our soccer pools and 9 others tried the Euro pool for the first time. A record 8 entered three times. Four of the 10 own goals (just short of record 11 in '21) were game-winners. While #48 Slovakia stunned #3 Belgium, #74 Georgia stunned #6 Portugal, #66 Albania drew #9 Croatia, and #57 Slovenia drew #5 England, the only surprise team to miss the Round of 16 was Croatia. Slovenia, Slovakia, #47 Romania, and Georgia were surprise entrants to the knockout stage. Ukraine had 4 points but missed out because all 4 teams in Group E had 4 pts and only the top 3 advanced (while Denmark and Slovenia with 3 pts each advanced). Group C only had 7 goals with two nil-nil ties and three 1-1 draws. The quarterfinals featured six giants (ESP, GER, POR, FRA, NED, ENG) plus Türkiye and Switzerland. There were four game-winning own goals (10 total). Toast got the most group stage matches correct (21), two got 7 of 8 quarterfinalists, 13 got all 4 semifinalists, 10 got both finalists. 13 picked ENG and will result in Jim M (Merman) winning the pool with Eric F (BigRedMessi 3) taking 2nd, Michael W (Big Blue) taking 3rd, and Ford R (Rainman) taking 4th, the top 3 going a perfect Final Four. 7 picked ESP and will result in Jesus B (JBueno) winning the pool, with Merman and BigRedMessi 3 taking 2nd & 3rd, with a tiebreaker to decide 4th between Tom J (Kds911-3), Rob C (Luis Enrique's Armada), and Big Blue with JBueno going a perfect Final Four. Soccer Guru was the only one to go 0-for-the-Final-Four. |
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Summer of soccer, indeed!...
Scott
HWCI circa 1990
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