Tuesday, June 18, 2024 (Standings Updated)
Issue # 2.1.1 "Just Win Baby"
[||| Mini-Updates | Dailies: Jun 14-15-16-17-18 ]

WATTS NEIGHBORHOOD, LOS ANGELES, CA (smt)- The first round of matches are complete and 11 of the 12 ended up with a winner.  Of the 11 winners, only Group E produced upsets with E2-Slovakia, ranked #48 edging #3 E1-Belgium 1-0 and #46 E3-Romania routing world darling #22 E4-Ukraine, 3-0.  The only other surprise was the one tie with #57 C1-Slovenia getting a 77' goal to tie #21 C2-Denmark 1-1.  Some favorites to win it all showed their prowess with A1-Germany winning 5-1 and B1-Spain winning 3-0 while others struggled to hold onto 1-0 victories (C4-England and D4-France, who didn't even score (own goal)).  Defending champ B3-Italy, D2-Netherlands, and F3-Portugal all had to rally from 1-0 deficits to win 2-1.  A4-Switzerland and F1-Turkey used stoppage time goals to make it a comfortable 3-1 win vs 2-1. 

As such, Group E features ROU on top with SVK while TUR leads Group F due to goal differential over POR.  With all the non-draws, GER, SUI, ESP or ITA, ENG, NED or FRA, ROU, SVK, and TUR or POR could clinch with wins before the 3rd match.  Only one team failed to produce anything with A2-Scotland only producing one shot and none on goal (their only goal was an own goal by GER and had a ridiculously low 0.01 xG (expected goals)).  Despite losing 3-0 each, UKR had 66% possession and 14 shots and B2-Croatia had more possession than ESP (first time ESP did not win this category in a competitive match since the 2008 Euro final (136 matches)) and outshot ESP 16-11 with five shots on goal.

With the harsh Euro rule of 2 yellow cards in 5 matches is an automatic suspension, you already have FRA's superstar Kylian Mbappé (for some weird reason coming back onto the field after being subbed out with a broken nose) and POR's game-winning goal scorer Francisco Conceição (taking his jersey off) picking up dumb yellows.  There is efficiency being employed with some new rule changes resulting in fewer stoppage time minutes (gone are the regular +10, +11), quicker restarts, not allowing players to all argue with the ref, and semi-auto offside technology.

We got a Euro pool record 58 entries from a record 39 different people, topping 49 and 34, respectively in 2021. With few upsets, 21 goals, Disabling Below Jobs, Fabio, M&M, and Merman are tied for first with 10 points (out of 12 possible).  There is a 24-way tie for 6th (9), however.  Disabling Below Jobs and I Say Old Chap (6th-Tied) both got the first 7 matches correct before ROU's win.  Toast (6th-T) was the only one to pick SVK while 8 picked a tie between SVNvDEN and 11 picked ROU.  The other 9 matches were picked by at least 38 entries.  All 58 picked ITA (1 of 4 games picked by everyone - others will be CRO>ALB, ENG>SVN, and POR>GEO).

FRA (18) and ENG (13) were picked the most to be the Euro champion.  Host GER was picked 8 times and ESP 7.  Five other teams were picked (POR and BEL 4 each, NED 2, and ITA and C3-Serbia one each).  B4-Albania was the only team no one picked to make the Round of 16.  49 of 58 have FRA in the semifinals and more picked ESP to make the final (23) than ENG (22).

Hopefully for the 7th time, Eric's Foster's Fubtol (or Football) Brew commentary will be back.  Expect insight into not only the Euros but Copa America and the USMNT (if applicable) as well.  I love other people's views and it is always a great read.

We are now on Twitter (@HWCI_Pools) and Discord for discussion or questions.  Please follow!  I will post using #hwcincaa mini-updates during the day so you can follow without being on Twitter (and if you are, please use #hwcincaa).  Please join our Facebook HWCI Soccer Pool Group or post comments on our blog. 

   Ins & Outs - [12 Matches/1 Ties] - Goals: 34 (2.83/match) [Own: 3 (1-GER>UKR 87', 8-AUT>FRA 38' {gw}, 12-CZE>POR 69'), Subs: 6 (1-GER 68', 1-GER {2} 90'+3, 2-SUI 90'+3, 7-NED 83', 11-TUR 90'+7, 12-POR 90'+2 {gw}), 90'+/120'+: 4 (1-GER +3, 2-SUI +3, 11-TUR +7, 12-POR +2 {gw}), Extra Time: 0 (-)]... Scoring First: 8-3-1 [0 Nil-Nil ties (4-ALB, 7-POL, 12-CZE)]... Leading at Half: 8-0-1 [3 ties (1 scoreless); -]... Shutout: 5 [3-CRO, 5-SRB, 10-UKR, 9-BEL, 8-AUT]... PK: 1/2 [1-GER 45'+1, 3-cro (s) 80']... Extra Time: 0 [-]... PSO: 0 (0/0) [-]... Red Card (GF/GA): 1 [1-SCO 44' (1/3)]... Multiple Goals: 0 [-]... Goal Line Tech: 0 [-]... VAR (-Reversal(Taken Away), +Reversal(Added), =Confirmed, xNo Call): 14 [1-SCO FoulBox-{PK-} 25', 1-SCO xFoul+{R+PK+GER} 42', 1-GER xOff+{g-} 76', 1-SCO xOff={og=} 87', 2-SUI Off-{g+} 12', 3-CRO xEncroach+{g-} 82', 4-ITA xOff={g=} 16', 6-DEN xFoulxPK= 53', 10-ROU xOff={g=} 57', 9-SVK xOff={g=} 7', 9-BEL xOff+{g-} 56', 9-BEL xHB+{g-} 86', 11-TUR xOff+{g-} 27', 12-POR xOff+{g-} 87']... 63%+ Poss: 6 [1-GERvSCO (68) W, 4-ITAvALB (66) W, 7-NEDvPOL (65) W, 10-UKRvROU (66) L, 12-PORvCZE (69) W]... Zero SOG (Shots): 1 [1-SCO (1)]... 20+ Shots (S/SOG/G): 3 [1-GER (20/10/5(1 og)) W, 7-NED (20/4/2) W, 11-TUR (22/8/3) W]... Breaks (>30 min): 0 [-]... Match Order of Play: RR: 1 | 2-3-4 | 7-6-5 | 10-9-8 | 11-12¹ | 15-14-13 | 18-17-16 | 21-19-20 | 24-23-22² | 25-26^A | 27-28^B | 31-32^D-29-30^C | 33-34^E-35-36^F | R16: 38-37 | 40-39 | 42-41 | 43-44 | QF: 45-46 | 47-48 | SF: 49 | 50 | FIN: 51... 

   Tids & Bits - no one has scored more than 1 goal with 31 players tied with one goal to go along with 3 own goals... FRA is 7-0-3 in opening Euro matches, the last two 1-0 by own goals... ALB scored the fastest goal in Euro history at 23 seconds thanks to a poor thrown in by ITA... CRO missed a PK and are just 1 of 5 teams to not score... goals have been happening early with just one game (PORvCZE) being scoreless at halftime... three teams have already rallied to win... no one has Fubo TV and in their first game (of 5), didn't even show the score or time during the broadcast... great stat by ESPN who does xG as BEL has 5.94 xG over the past three tournament games (2 WC, 1 Euro) and no goals to show for it (Romelu Lukaku has 2.56 by himself and had 2 goals overturned by VAR vs SVK)... so far a lot of goals outside the box (you don't see this in MLS much) (about a dozen) and quite a few scored off slight deflections (not own goals)... POR's Cristiano Ronaldo appeared in a record 6th Euro (and had 5 shots, of course) with teammate Pepe being the oldest player in Euro history... Copa America starts Thursday with Argentina v Canada with the USMNT playing Bolivia Sunday... we had just 1 entry last Sunday and no entries last Tuesday but still got a record 58 entries thanks to 14 before Sunday and 32 the last two days (17 Thursday, 15 Friday before noon)... a record 8 people entered three times with three doing two... five new people have joined our soccer pools and a total of 24 entries are playing the Euros for the first time... 12 entries have been in all 4 Euro pools and 30 entries this year have been in at least 5 of our 15 soccer pools...

On Friday, 56 of 58 picked GER... on Saturday, 35 picked SUI, 43 ESP, and all 58 picked ITA.  30 entries went 3-0 while 7 went 1-2.  30 are tied for first with 4 points while nine are tied for last with 2 pts.  Only three other games were picked by all 58 - CRO over ALB, C4-England over C1-Slovenia, and F3-Portugal over F2-Georgia... on Sunday, 53 picked NED, 50 ENG, and 8 the SVN-DEN tie.  Four entries went 3-0 which leaves Disabling Below Jobs and I Say Old Chap tied for first with a perfect 7 points.   9 went 1-2 with five tied for last with 3 points. ... on Monday, Toast was the only one to pick SVK but unfortunately didn't pick FRA (52 did) which left 10 entries getting 2 of 3 games correct.  Five went 0-3.  11 picked ROU.  6 are tied for first with 8 points (out of 10 matches) and BlueIsTheColour 3 is last with 3 pts. ... on Tuesday, 53 picked TUR and 56 picked POR.  51 got both correct while the other 7 went 1-1.  5 are tied for first with 10 points with 24 tied for 6th with 9 pts.  BlueIsTheColour 3 is last with 5 pts. ...

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So I was only able to watch live some matches and of course, none on Fubo TV...
Scott