Sunday, June 14, 1998	                     http://www.HWCI.com/wc98
Issue # 9.1.5 "Battle of Firsts Goes to Croatia..."

		1998 HWCI WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT POOL '98
		=======================================

	ARGENTINA, YUGOSLAVIA HOLD ON; CROATIA's DEBUT SUCCESSFUL
	Two atop pool with three games left in first phase of WC98

	ROSEMEAD, CA (smt)- Yugoslavia (1-0) just slipped by 
Iran (0-1) with a free kick goal in early Group F play.  
Argentina (1-0) fought off a fiesty Japanese team thanks to
Gabriel Batistuta's goal in the 28th minute in Group H.  The other
Group H pairing saw first-time World Cup participants Croatia (1-0)
and Jamaica (0-1) battle it off in the first half.  However, the
second half was all Croatia as they pulled out a 3-1 win.

	Yugoslavia, who was notified earlier that FIFA would
allow them to play in the World Cup despite the country's 
troubles in Kosovo, found it tough to get by Iran.  Hungary
would have replaced Yugoslavia.  Argentina, likewise, outplayed
Japan (0-1) but Japan's goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi
played outstanding in goal (a la Kasey Keller vs Brazil in this
year's Gold Cup) keeping Japan in the match.

	Meanwhile, MLSBOB and KING OF THE WORLD sit alone on top
with 8 points each with 11 others tied with 7 points each.  Four
poor souls (myself included- damn Jamaica!) sit at the bottom
with just five points each.  There are just three matches left
of the first phase of the Round Robin (each team playing one match)
and they will occur tomorrow when the USA opens up against Germany
in Group F and Group G will feature Romaina-Colombia and
England and Tunsia (supposedly the match will be played on the
soccer field, not in the streets vs French police).

	With Iran barely losing it's interesting to note that not 
one predictory thought Iran would win ANY of its round-robin games 
(ditto for Tunsia, which plays tomorrow).  Another side note is 
that the toughest matchs to predict according to the pool is the 
NGA-BGR match with 11 choosing Nigeria and 10 picking Bulgaria.

	The current standings are now posted on the HWCI WC98
website.  Also, links to some good WC98 sources have also been
added.  There must've been some complaints that Brian's (THE FLYING
ELVI) picture was scaring visitors away so now the HWCI.com 
homepage features our logo with a cryptic "Summer, 2001"
caption.  

Not looking good for the pool admistrator...
Scott HW
                                            
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Scott M Tamashiro, HWCI Engineering       \\||//\\||//  /o-o\\ \ \ `
WC98 Pool Administrator                    \  /  \  /  (o-o-o)) ) > > >
Email:    scott@hwci.com                    ||    ||    \`o'// / / ,  
Updates:  http://www.HWCI.com/wc98          ||    ||  WORLD CUP   
----------------------------------------------------  POOL 1998