Stoppage Time Magic (6/23)

100th minute stunner

DON KNABE PARK, CERRITOS, CA - Minutes from an upset and minutes from a 0-0 draw, dramatic goals by A1-Germany in the 90'+2 (1:04 of 4 minutes added stoppage time) to tie A4-Switzerland to win Group A and by A3-Hungary in the 90'+10 (9:31 of 10 minutes due an injury) to stun A2-Scotland 1-0 and stay alive, the first of the simultaneous group games is off to a great start.  The Swiss finish 2nd and HUN sits in 3rd with 3 points (but a bad goal differential of -3).  

HUN's win means we lose the possibility of 2-point SCO making the Round of 16 but we still have the possibility of 2-point C1-Slovenia doing the improbable (would need B4-Albania, B2-Croatia, F2-Georgia, and F4-Czechia to all lose).  For the second time, SCO had zero shots on goal and is the only team to do this.

25 got HUN's win and 15 picked the SUIvGER draw.  All 58 had GER advancing and 49 had SUI.  Five went 2-0 in the matches while 23 went 0-2.  49 got both teams advancing while 9 got just one (GER).  El Buenísimo (4th-Tied, 22 pts), BlueIsTheColour I (10th-T, 21), Matt's Mostly Wrong (10th-T), Salah (23rd-T, 20), and Rainman (35th-T, 19) all got the max 8 points today.  At the top, it's a 3-way tie for first with 21goals, Disabling Below Jobs, and Toast tied with 23 pts.  Carseroni (52nd-T, 16), Danglish (57th, 14), and Cool Guy (58th (last), 13) all just got 3 of 8 points.  If HUN were to advance later, 34 entries had them in the Round of 16.  19 lost SCO as a R16 team.

After dropping my kids off for tennis (they hate us as we have finally hit the 90F mark), at Don Knabe Park a lot of white tents were being set up for the SMAP Unit for Humanity grand celebration (it said it started at 7 am or 10 am (Health Fair) but only a few tents and few attendees were there).  We are right next to a large Indian community so lots of meditation and yoga services being offered.  Since the USMNT started today, I wore my official 2016 away USA jersey, one of the nicer darker jerseys that look good in a casual setting.  Good to watch the USMNT win 2-0 but should have routed Bolivia who were very poor.  Hopefully goal difference doesn't come into play.

Last Day Drama (6/23)

Blame it on the sun

ROSEMEAD, CA -- This day had a lot of drama.  18 goals in 4 matches.  Two big GK gaffes.  First game-winning extra time goal.  A rally from two goals down to tie.  Two more own goals - in the same match.  First subs to score since Match # 16.  Four players scoring two goals each.  Four PKs, three in the same match.  Wow.

Group E saw E4-Slovakia's GK made a couple of great saves including one off a soft PK (E1-Spain's second missed PK this tourney) but it was a high ball into the sun/shadow that he accidentally knocked into his own net that opened the floodgates for ESP.  ESP scored four more times to rout SVK 5-0 (the last goal also an own goal) to finish 2nd and knock SVK out of the tourney with a very bad GD.  E3-Poland needed a win but E2-Sweden scored 82 seconds into the match (first of 2 goals for Emil Forsberg) to put POL on their heels.  Down 2-0 with 30 minutes left, POL's Robert Lewandowski scored twice (earlier he had to the crossbar on back-to-back sequence) to give POL hope but SWE scored four minutes into stoppage time (just the 3rd stoppage time goal this tourney) to win 3-2.  SWE wins Group E and SVK's GD meant C2-Ukraine made the Round of 16 as a 3rd place team. Could B2-Finland sneak in as well?

Group F.  Okay.  Ten minutes in, F1-Hungary, playing in Munich (GER), stunned F4-Germany (FRA 1st/POR 2nd/HUN 3rd (GER out)) with an early goal in a must-win match for HUN.  Twenty minutes later, a soft PK call is converted by F2-Portugal's Ronaldo (POR/FRA/HUN).  After tying with PK, two minutes into the 2nd half FRA scores again (after VAR negates the offsides) for a 2-1 lead (FRA/HUN/POR with FIN hoping FRA scores three more).  Another PK for Ronaldo in the 60' (to tie 2-2) essentially seals FIN's hopes (FRA/POR/HUN).  GER finally breaks through in the 66' off a missed GK punch that leads to an easy head-in (FRA/GER/POR).  About 18 seconds after kickoff, HUN scores again! (FRA/POR/HUN).  Pressure gets awarded as a GER sub scores in the 84' to tie it at 2 (FRA/GER/POR).  Both matches end in 2-2 draws eliminating HUN and FIN.

Two days to rest before the Round of 16 begins.  Breathe.

45 picked ESP, 23 SWE, 19 the POR-FRA tie, and Fantasy picked the GER-HUN tie.  All 49 got ESP into the R16, 48 FRA, 47 SWE, 46 POR, 44 GER, and 42 UKR.  Pretty clear majorities.  Today, 9 got 3 right while two got none (Rainman, Big Blue).  33 got all 6 R16 teams correct (impressive!) while two still got 4 of 6 (MK, Fabio).  Five got 21 points today while Fabio only got 14.

Amazingly, six entries got 15 of the 16 R16 correct and 23 got 14 correct.  Even MK still got 11 right.  Overall, Slyelf got 25 of the 36 round robin matches correct while Wolverine1 only got 13 (but he did 14 R16 teams correct but not enough to get out of a tie for last with 55 pts with MK).  After the Group Stage, Slyelf is first with 70 points with FrankfromSeattle second with 68 pts.

Issue # 3.1.2 "Don't You, Forget About Me" (6/19)

 Archive

Saturday, June 19, 2021 ***HAPPY JUNETEENTH!***

[Dailies: 16-17-18-19]

TIES COMPLICATE GROUPS
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

Groups E & F Scrambled (6/19)

Another loud sold-out, full-capacity crowd in Budapest, Hungary (side note: can't wait to see tonight's first full Galaxy crowd since last March), saw F1-HUN go up 1-0 right before halftime and then held on to a surprising 1-1 draw with F3-France to keep their hopes alive.  Four F4-Germany crosses resulted in goals, two on own goals four minutes apart, to lift them to a 4-2 win over F2-Portugal.  The 4th goal was on a typical German header, reminding me of all of Miraslav Klose's headers in the World Cups (who Ronaldo tied with most goals in Euros & World Cups with his 19th which put POR ahead 1-0).

E1-Spain again dominated possession and even scored, but E3-Poland tied it to keep their hopes alive (they would've been eliminated with a loss) in the 1-1 draw.  ESP had a chance to go back ahead but missed a PK, their first non-PSO PK miss in Euro history as the shot went off the left post.

So raise your hand if you had E2-Sweden and E4-Slovakia in 1st and 2nd after two matches in Group E.  Another draw for ESP would have them dependent on others so they need a win to guarantee a spot.  Group F may still see the top 3 teams in FRA, POR, and GER advance, but the FRA-HUN tie complicates things for POR and GER.  Also, since head-to-head is the first tiebreaker, GER would jump POR if tied in points, regardless of GF.

Footballsack was the only one to get the HUN-FRA tie, 12 picked GER, and 7 picked the ESP-POL tie.  Footballsack (16 pts) is our new leader as the only one to go 2-1 for the day to push Club Med to 2nd place.  There is a 3-way tie for last now (9 pts).