Issue # 3.1.2 "Ties and Stayin' Alive" (After Matchday 2)

Archive

 Saturday, June 22, 2024

[Dailies: Jun 19-20-21-22 ]

HALF THE GAMES END IN A DRAW; 23 TEAMS STILL ALIVE
21goals and Disabling Below Jobs Tied for 1st

WHITTIER, CA (smt)- After having just one draw in the opening 12 matches, the next 12 saw half (6) end in draws which has kept every team except D1-Poland alive to make the Round of 16.  POL could beat D4-France 15-0 and would lose out to the head-to-head tiebreaker with D3-Austria, who POL lost 3-1 to.  A3-Hungary is the only other team without a point but could advance with a win and some help as 3 points may not be enough, especially starting with a -4 goal differential after two matches.  4 points will not be enough for E4-Ukraine if both games in Group E draw as they will get 4th place (not 3rd) and won't be considered even if other 3rd place teams have just 3 points.  It's the best four 3rd place teams not the best 4 teams outside the top 2 in each group.

E1-Belgium bounced back with a 2-0 win over E3-Romainia to help

I Can't Dive (6/21)

Yeah, obstruction

CERRITOS, CA - D2-Netherlands thought they had a breakthrough goal against D4-France in the 69' but a defender next to FRA's GK was flagged for offsides and upheld by VAR.  Regardless if you thought the GK could dive and make the save (it was far to his left), just having a player in your peripheral vision is enough to hesitate and you can see the GK stutter-stepped instead of diving.   The game ended 0-0 which meant FRA still has not scored (their 1-0 win last game was via own goal) and it was the first Euro nil-nil draw since match #20 in 2021 (ENGvSCO) and ended a streak of 50 matches with at least one goal.  

With 4 points, both teams will be comfortably in but the draw also eliminated D1-Poland, who lost to D3-Austria 3-1 and can't finish in the top 3 (first tiebreaker is head-to-head which POL would lose to AUT even if POL beat FRA 20-0 in the next game).  

E2-Slovakia was continuing their dream run holding a 1-0 second half lead but E4-Ukraine roared back with two goals to stay alive.  More pressure on E1-Belgium tomorrow as the other three teams in Group E have 3 points already.

$5.95 for a single scoop

In two of the most split picks, 23 got AUT (16 had POL and 19 had a tie) and 18 got UKR (17 had SVK and 23 tie) while 14 got the NEDvFRA draw.  Only Toast was able to go 3-0 today and pulls into a tie with 21goals for 1st with 15 points.  18 went 0-3 with Cool Guy joining BlueIsTheColour 3 in last with 8 pts.  Just a reminder, points for teams qualifying (e.g., GER and ESP) won't be awarded until the final group match is played (e.g., you will get the 3 points for GER making the Round of 16 after Sunday's matches).  

We get a lot of transplants into my area and recently we got Sorry, Not Sorry Creamery that is based in Vegas.  The ice cream is very rich which means very good. Their popular flavor is Ube Honeycomb (I do not understand the fascination with ube, except for the bluish color) but I got Mint chocolate chunk.  Yum.  I wore my authentic 2016 home Slovakia jersey that has the anthem lyrics on the inside collar.  Then I went to Raising Canes for the kids, which is based out of Baton Rouge and opened last year in Cerritos.

Glory to the Heroes

Less than 10 months ago, I was commenting about a spat between Ukraine and Russia on UKR's jersey for Euro 2020 (ne 2021). Glory to Ukraine on the jersey was okay but the additional phrase Glory to the Heroes was interpreted as a rallying cry when you put both together so the latter had to be removed.  UKR still was able to keep the complete outline of their country on the jersey despite RUS claiming the Crimea peninsula was no longer part of UKR.

Well, on Feb 21st, RUS was at it again recognizing two eastern UKR states then three days later attacking UKR from Belarus and western Russia, determined to change the map of UKR again.  Over 400 Ukrainian civilians have been killed with the count unfortunately going up every day.

As it relates to soccer, FIFA did a slow burn penalizing RUS,

An Extra Time Stoppage Time Goal (6/29)

120'+1 Goal!

EL SEGUNDO, CA - 1A-England, playing at home, withstood 2F-Germany's attack and scored two late goals to advance to the Quarters, 2-0, posting their 4th straight shutout.  Joachim Low's 15-year tenure with GER ends on a whimper as GER was lucky not lose more than 1-0 to FRA and needed an 84' goal against HUN to advance out of the group.  GER's Thomas Mueller missed a one-on-one with the GK, not even getting the shot on frame which would have tied it.  Amazingly, ENG won a non-PSO Euro match for the first time since '68 and are 10-0-4 in Wembley Stadium.

I love the blue/yellow teams of 1E-Sweden and 3C-Ukraine.  Both teams traded first half goals but an unfortunate (but horrible) tackle by SWE changed the match in the first half of Extra Time as UKR finally capitalized in the 120'+1 (the extra time, stoppage time goal!).

ENG travels for the first time and will be in Rome to face UKR, but if ENG wins, they will be home for the semis and final.  Ironically, UKR benefited when SWE beat POL in the last group stage match to barely make the R16 as the 4th best 3rd place team.

31 picked ENG eliminating 4 (32 still alive) and preventing 5 from winning the pool (15 can win).  3 lost GER as their champ and 17 had them in the Semis.  Fabio was the only one to pick UKR into the Quarters eliminating 6 (26 left).  32 went 1-1 while 17 went 0-2. For the R16, 23 got 5 of 8 while 9 got just 3 of 8.

No change at the top (Slyelf by 2 (90 pts)) but the possibilities are shifting.  Gli Azzurri now has the best chance to win the pool (15.6%) and Slyelf has the best chance at money (57.0%).

"It's Coming Home" off to a Great Start (6/13)

D1-England came out strong and were finally rewarded in the 2nd half to win their first Euro opening match ever (was 0-3-5), 1-0, over D2-Croatia, the team they lost to in the semifinals in WC18.  "It's Coming Home" is back again, just maybe not in pubs.  Both teams now get to play their remaining two games against teams ranked in the 40s so both are still in good shape.

Lowly C4-North Macedonia played C3-Austria tight - opportunistically tying the match midway through the first half, but two late scores by two subs gave AUT the 3-1 win.  Although MKD is ranked #62, they did beat Germany in a World Cup qualifier in Duisburg and have scored in 15 of their last 16 international matches.  AUT's Stefan Lainer had a golazo in the 18' leaping high on a long cross to hit it into the far post. 

After yet another scoreless first half (5th of 7 matches), home team C1-Netherlands exploded for two goals in 7 minutes but then C2-Ukraine answered back with 2 goals in 4 minutes to tie it at 2.  But six minutes later in the 85', NED retook the lead and held on for a thrilling 3-2 victory.

In the pool, 34 picked ENG, 40 AUT, and 42 barely got NED.  23 went 3-0 while 5 went 1-2.  This left just three at the top of the standings (Club Med, Futbol Fabone Twelf, and Poolraider) with 6 points.  Isayoldchap is still last with 2 points.  

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!

Foster's Futbol Brew # 4: The Fourth Froth

June 20, 2012

Foster's Futbol Brew: The Fourth Froth

Is anyone getting tired of hearing the same White Stripes song (7 Nation Army, I think) over and over and over again when a goal is scored? Wouldn’t it be cool if each team had a pre-selected (and different) song to play when they netted one? Perhaps we could hear “The Winner Takes it All” when the Swedes score (ode to ABBA)! England would have it best with “We Are the Champions!” Funny enough, the Miami Heat started using the same song as they took a big lead late in Game 4 against the Thunder in the NBA Finals! And the crowd actually started the “woooaaah…woah woah woah woah woooaaah, woooaaah.” Woah is me!

Back to the best sport on Earth. (For those of you not keeping track,

Issue # 5.1.3 "Familiar EURO Field..."

Wow, what a tourney thus far.  In the end, don't the 8 teams look like they should be there in the EURO knockout stage (except for Czech Republic)?  But now, who is still alive in the pool? 


FRANTIC FINISHES AS KNOCKOUT STAGE SETTuan and The Flying Elvi on top as 20 are still alive

The English Helping the French

You know when you go to a meeting that you think might be 15 minutes and 2 hours later everyone is still discussing the same topic?  Yup, that's been me.  Rough couple of weeks at work as we have too much work (nice problem, I guess, in this economy). 

Anyway, it's always nice when one soccer powerhouse helps another.  The French could not get anything started as the then winless Swedes shut out France, 2-0, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic half-volleying a rocket into the net for the first goal. But luckily, FRA back-doored their way into the Last 8 when England took care of business squeaking by Ukraine, 1-0, thanks to a header by the returning Wayne Rooney.  FRA's 23-match unbeaten streak got snapped but it didn't matter as the French lazily advanced (they could've lost 10-0-- they would only be out if UKR scored twice and won).  The penalty of course is that they have to face Spain instead of Italy.  35 picked ENG (no one had thought UKR would win) while 8 picked SWE.  Eight went 2-0 while 4 went 0-2.  Twenty (20) correctly picked both ENG and FRA in the Quarterfinals while no one missed both.

For all the group matches,

England and France are Back

When I caught the game on Watch ESPN on my Verizon Galaxy Nexus phone, I was upset ESPN had prominently showed the UKR-FRA score at the bottom, then I realized the game was just in the 20' instead of somewhere in the second half.  So, lightning, eh?  Maybe it was the fact that this was the first match on ESPN2 instead of ESPN :-)  My DVR definitely had problems as it didn't record the first hour.  Anyway, a couple of goals three minutes apart silenced the home crowd as France beat Ukraine 2-0.  29 picked France as Walleye took a 2-win lead (4 pts). Sisyphus and Absolutely Clueless picked up their 5th win in a row.  After losing 7 in a row, V2 Wedding Bells!!! has now won 4 in a row.  Mikeonthemike lost for the 4th straight game.

England and Sweden played a wild match in which Sweden were looking to become the 2nd team to rally and win scoring twice (well, England helped with an own goal) to go up 2-1 but England rallied right back, a much different style of play from when they played France, to pull out a 3-2 victory.  24 picked ENG and Walleye maintained his 4-point lead (24) while Absolutely Clueless picked up his 6th win in a row to move into a tie for 4th. Mikeonthemike snapped his 4-game losing streak.

Foster's Futbol Brew # 3: Trouble’s a Brewin

June 13, 2012

Foster's Futbol Brew:  Trouble’s a Brewin (Third Edition)

Well, the first half of Group play has concluded, and as usual, there were plenty of surprises.

Let’s start with Holland losing to the Great Danes.  Well, as I predicted, Arjen Robben would be the guy to hold back the Dutch…but I didn’t expect a loss.  I can count at least half a dozen shots taken by Robben, only one of which was a worthwhile strike, which hit the post.  All other attempts sailed over the cross bar or were an easy save for the Danish keeper.  If Robben

Issue # 3.1.1 "Superpowers Tie Allowing Little Guys to Rise..."

So how did the first four days play out?  Who's in the lead?  How many of the 39 entries were submitted by women?  Just one, despite the fact 2 of the last 3 pool champs were women.  So go Adivinanza!  Here's my latest update...

http://www.hwci.com/euro/2012/e2012_03.htm
---
DENMARK, CROATIA, UKRAINE ON TOP OF THEIR GROUPS?An astonishing 39 entries received in our first EURO Pool

Polling & Distribution

Our poll has closed and 13 put in a vote as to who will win EURO 2012 and Germany led the way with 6 with Spain and Holland tied for second with 3 each.  And no one picked England?  So, now, what would be a good poll question to put up?  I'm taking suggestions.

The site has been updated with more information as we now have the current standings up (click on "Standings" above).  The goal is to update it soon after the last match is played, but with work and two demanding kids, it probably won't be updated until late at night.  I've tailored it from our HWCI World Cup files, so it's still a work in progress.

Next, if you want to see how many entries picked Germany (14) as their champion, then click on the "Distribution" menu item above.  It'll list all 16 teams and you'll find some gems like every team was picked at least two times to make the Quarterfinals but four teams were predicted to not reach the Semis.  Denmark, in the Group of Death is the odd man out as only two entries picked them into the Quarterfinals over Germany, Holland, and Portugal.  Six teams are picked to win it all while only eight teams had someone pick them through to the final.  Someone picked Ukraine into the Semis.

In the menu of that file, you can also see how everyone picked each Round Robin match and bracket.   You can visually scan the table to find which entry picked Ukraine into the Semis or which two entries picked Denmark to advance to the Quarters.

And now, the "Your Picks" menu item above now is complete and sorted by name and by nickname so you can find your friends and family members easier.  You can also make fun of people's nicknames or praise them on our Facebook group or any item on this blog.  Since there are links to your individual brackets, this may be referred to as the Brackets page as well.

A to the Z SPORTS! # 2: The Co-Hosts

Visit's ALBERT's BLOG: http://atothezsports.blogspot.com/

THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2012

With Euro 2012 only hours away it’s only fitting that we take at look at the teams that will be hosting the month long football fest, Poland and Ukraine.

Poland will be playing in only its second Euro; it played its first one four years ago. Ukraine will be participating in its first ever Euro since it started competing as an independent football nation in 1992.

The former Soviet Union republic will be the third national team in Euro history to play in its first final tournament due to automatic qualification as a host nation. Sweden in 1992 and Austria in 2008 are the other teams.

Out of the two nations,