Monday, June 29, 1998                     http://www.HWCI.com/wc98
Issue # 25.2.3 "No Mexico rally..."

		1998 HWCI WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT POOL
		===================================

  GERMANY, NOT MEXICO, RALLIES TO VICTORY; DAVIDS BOOTS DUTCH TO WIN
              The MM becomes third to fall from contention    

	EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt)-  Mexico, which had been down in each
of its three first round matches in the second half only to rally
to tie or win, made the mistake of scoring first.  Juergen Klinsmann 
(75th) and  Oliver Bierhoff (86th) scored to lift Germany (3-0-1) 
to a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Mexico (1-1-2).  Mexico 
still hasn't beaten a Eurpoean team on European soil.  Germany, 
which also rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie Yugoslavia, 
will now play the winner of tomorrow's Romania-Croatia match.  So 
far Germany has been lackadaisical against the USA, vulnerable
against Yugoslavia, and unimpressive against Iran.

	Edgar Davids' goal off a corner kick in the 90th minute 
lifted Holland (2-0-2) over Yugoslavia (2-1-1), 2-1, and sent them 
to the quarterfinals.  Yugoslavia had tied the score at 1 early in
the 2nd half.  Predrag Mijatovic missed a penalty kick, the first
in 39 past World Cup attempts, that would've given the Yugoslavs a
2-1 lead.  Who says penalty kicks are a sure thing? :-)

	The big news is that US coach Steve Sampson is gone.  After
repeatedly refuting claims that he would resign, he did so this 
morning.  Let the rebuilding begin.  If you have thoughts on this, 
post it to the message board, which is once again operational 
(http://www.HWCI.com/forum.htm).  Also, back to the France match, 
I was watching and cursing that every ball played into the middle 
was intercepted by a Paraguay player.  This happened at least five
times in overtime, wasting any opportunity.  So what happens?  France
scores on a ball played into the middle.  Go figure.

	Tomorrow's matches will feature Group G winner Romania (2-0-1)
against fellow eastern European Croatia (2-1).  Argentina (3-0), 
which hasn't allowed a goal thus far in the tourney, will take on
hooligan-supported England (2-1).  After tomorrow, there will be a 
two day break in matches before the quarterfinals begin on Friday.

	All but THE BRUTE SQUAD picked Germany to reach at least
the quarterfinals, making him finish no higher than 13th place.  
Fourteen picked Holland making THE MIGHTY MOBELFAKTA the third person 
to be eliminated from the pool money.  MLSBOB maintained his six 
point lead over SOCCER SPICE and is just a point shy of 100.  Seven
people overall have 90 or more points.  

(DISCLAIMER: My elimination claims are about 92% accurate (so there
still might be hope) because of modifications in the program not
compatible with the World Cup (used for NCAA pools).               )

Germany looks shaky...
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