EL SEGUNDO/CERRITOS, CA (smt) - I hope everyone has set their VCRs, or for the true fan, their alarms, as the first match of the FIFA World Cup begins at 4:30 am PDT on Friday morning. France remains the favorite as the defending World Cup and European Cup champions at 3:1 odds. Argentina is at 9:2 while Italy is at 5:1. And Brazil's history has given them 11:2 odds with Europeans Spain (13:2), England (11:1), Portugal (14:1), and Germany (16:1) next. Everyone else is at 25:1 odds or worse with the USA at 300:1! China and Saudi Arabia are last at 750:1 (place your bets now!). Host co-nation Japan is at a respectable 80:1 odds while South Korea is at 150:1 (better than the United States, for heaven's sake).

Once everyone's picks are in, it'll be a long 31 days of pure entertaining and world-class soccer. Catch all the games on ESPN, espn2, Univision, and ABC at the ungawdly hours between 10:30 pm and 4:30 am PDT with selected games on tape on ABC at 12:30 pm on weekends. Catch the World Cup show at 8:30 pm on espn2 and one delayed match at 7:30 pm on Galavision on most days. KFTR-Channel 46 will also be showing many live and delayed matches. Nearly every match will be shown at least once on tape-delay with the semifinal matches getting replayed five times each (in addition to two live telecasts each)! And, (insert laugh here), watch replays of the upcoming *classic* matchups such as Brazil-Turkey and Italy-Ecuador on ESPNClassic. Huh?

As far as updates, I will likely not keep up the breakneck pace in 1998 with an update nearly every matchday. I will however, try to update the standings on the webpage every day. Expect updates every 2-3 days or when my schedule permits.

The 2nd HWCI World Cup pool FAQ, Part II
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Q. The Round of 16 bracket seems a little confusing. What exactly am I doing?
A. I have put up an example (picture) of a completed bracket on the page you enter your bracket picks. This should lessen any confusion. In a nutshell, pick your teams as you would an NCAA bracket. Your "Sweet 16" is your Round of 16 teams (top 2 teams from each group; each team should be different so make sure you don't have both 1A-France and 2A-France in the Sweet 16). Continue to pick through to the winner.

Q. I picked 1A-France vs 2F-Nigeria and 1F-Argentina vs 2A-Denmark in the Round of 16 and have picked France and Argentina to win their games to advance to the quarterfinals. But what if Nigeria finishes first and Argentina 2nd? Then in reality 1A-France will face 2F-Argentina in the Round of 16!
A. Yup. No one said this would be easy. You must choose wisely who finishes first and second. On one hand, you automatically win once (since you had both Argentina and France in the quarterfinals) but you do lose the opportunity to win twice (or lose twice).

Q. What about ties?
A. In the round-robin matches, ties are a wash. I was toying with the idea of having you pick Team A or Team B or a tie but that would get too complicated for me at this stage. Maybe in 2006. I will entertain ideas (post on our Discussion Board).

Q. How do I send a PayPal payment?
A. Please send money (via your PayPal or bank account) to "[email protected]". Please do not send credit card payments as I only have a Personal (not Business) PayPal account.

Q. How can I verify my picks and how do I update my picks? [Update]
A. Up until the deadline, you can change your picks. Just send me a quick email letting me know you have changed your picks. Just go back and re-enter the info (use a different nicknmame, e.g., "Nickname-Update", however). You can print out your Round of 16 bracket but if you want to double-check your Round Robin picks, send me an email. Right now, I am emailing everyone's picks to the email address you provided as your receipt. Make any changes before the deadline. All picks will go up sometime on Friday night. I'll be posting my picks on our Discussion board (http://www.hwci.com/forum/zix/forum.asp?H_ID=11&pageid=1) before the deadline. If you want to change your Part I picks (Round Robin matches) go here: http://www.HWCI.com/worldcup/wc02_entry.html If you want to change/udpate your Part II picks (Round of 16 Bracket) go here: http://www.HWCI.com/worldcup/wc_bracketform.html (use different nickname; e.g., "Nickname2" or "Nickname-Update").

Cheers,
Scott HW