Sunday, June 24, 2018 
Issue #3.1.2 "Mexico, Japan, and Senegal" (After 32 Matches)
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ARGENTINA IN TROUBLE, SIX TEAMS IN
Ilvecchio and Spermicidal FC are tied for 1st; Next four days will pile up 64 points

LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (LAX->ATL->DCA), CA (smt) --  The second group of matches saw redemptions for some teams such as E1-Brazil and F1-Germany needed stoppage time goals to pull out wins, H3-Colombia dominated the Group H seed 3-0, and B1-Portugal and B2-Spain rebounded to narrow 1-0 wins after all five had disappointing starts.  The only world power who failed to bounce back was D1-Argentina who got shut out by D3-Croatia, 3-0, and now need help to qualify for the Round of 16.  A1-Russia (3-1), H1-Belgium (5-2), and H4-England (6-1) remained perfect after dominating victories while A4-Uruguay and C1-France struggled to 1-0 wins to remain perfect.  F2-Mexico and Croatia are the other teams to start 2-0.  Of the 7 teams at 2-0, Mexico is the only one to have not qualified for the Round of 16 yet. 

The E2-Swiss became the first team to win after allowing the first goal rallying to beat E4-Serbia (Germany was then the second team the next day).  There have been no scoreless draws yet and just two red cards in the first 32 matches.  There have been, however, 16 penalty kicks which is two more than 2014's entire 64-match total (not including penalty shootouts).  VAR has been responsible for awarding 5 penalty kicks and removing one.

H1-Poland became the first top seed to be eliminated as Group H is now a  battle between H2-Senegal, H4-Japan, and Colombia.  Japan rallied twice to tie Senegal 2-2 and along with Mexico, are the lone bright spots in their confederations.  Without Mexico, CONCACAF is 0-4-0 with both E2-Costa Rica and G2-Panama already eliminated.  Without Japan, AFC is 1-6-1 with the lone win by Iran on an own goal and C2-Australia battling C4-Denmark to a 1-1 tie.  Without Senegal, CAF is 1-7-0 with the lone win by D4-Nigeria over tiny D2-Iceland and Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia already eliminated.

Ilvecchio and Spermicidal FC are tied for first with 22 points while Larzby is last with 12 points.  There have only been five ties in the tournament.  As we head to the dual played matches within each group in the next four days, each group has the potential to pick up 8 points (1 point per match, 3 points per R16 team) or 16 points for each day.  Expect movement in the standings each day. 

Eric's "Foster's Football Brew", a HWCI EURO Pool staple, is back, already two issues in.  If anyone else wants to contribute, let me know.  Anyone else going to Russia and want to send pictures or mini-reports?

The prize distribution and Bonus Prize will be detailed at a later date (although eagle-eyed viewers will already have seen the distribution).  The Bonus Prize will be the same but if we go to the Bonus2 contest, because those with 0.5 are at a disadvantage, the total goals predicted will be doubled and include the two semifinal matches (4 matches total).

The best way to keep up with the pool is to follow @HWCI_Pools on Twitter or visit the #HWwc hashtag (you don't need Twitter account to view) often for daily updates.  Less often will be our Facebook group page (post comments or organize viewing parties) and then these newsletters every 4 days or so.

   SIDES 'N KICKS:  [32 Matches / 4 Ties] Goals: 85 (2.66/match) [Own: 5 (4-MARvIRN, 5-AUSvFRA, 8-NGAvCRO, 15-POLvSEN, 17-EGYvRUS), Subs (incl. Own): 4 (1-RUS 70', 4-MAR {og} 90'+5, 29-BEL 90', 30-ENG 78', 32-JPN 78'),  Stoppage: 10 (1-RUS +1, 1-RUS +4, 4-IRN +5, 14-ENG +1, 23-CRO +1, 25-BRA +1, 25-BRA +7, 27-GER +5, 28-KOR +3, 29-TUN +3)]... Scoring First: 26-2-4 (0 Nil-Nil ties; 26-SRB, 27-SWE)... Lead at Half: 11-2- 2 (17 ties; 26-SRB, 27-SWE)... Shutout: 17 (1-KSA, 2-EGY, 4-MAR, 6-PER, 8-NGA, 10-CRC, 11-GER, 12-KOR, 13-PAN 18-KSA {2}, 19-MAR {2}, 20-IRN, 21-PER {2}, 23-ARG, 24-ISL, 25-CRC {2}, 31-POL)... PK: 13/16 (3-POR, 5-AUS, 5-FRA, 6-per [H], 7-arg [S], 8-CRO, 12-SWE, 14-TUN, 16-JPN, 18-EGY, 22-AUS {2}, 24-isl [H], 28-MEX, 29-BEL, 30-ENG, 30-ENG {2})... Red Card (GF/GA): 2 (2/1) [16-COL 3' {R} (1/1), 27-GER 82' {2Y} (1/0)]... Multiples: 10 [Cheryshev 2 (1-RUS), Ronaldo 3 (3-POR), Costa 2 (3-ESP), Lukaku 2 (13-BEL), Kane 2 (14-ENG), Musa 2 (24-NGA), Lukaku 2 {2} (29-BEL), Hazard 2 (29-BEL), Stones 2 (30-ENG), Kane 3 {2} (30-ENG)]... Zero SOG (Shots): 4 [1-KSA (6), 12-KOR (5), 20-IRN (5), 25-CRC (4)]... Goal Line Tech (Award): 1 (5-FRA 81')... VAR: 7 (5-FRA PK+ 56', 12-SWE PK+ 63', 17-EGY PK+ 72', 20-IRN Off+ 62', 22-AUS PK+ 36', 25-BRA PK- 79', 24-ISL PK+ 80')... 63%+ Poss: 4 [4-MARvIRN (63) L, 7-ARGvISL (73) D, 20-ESPvIRN (68) W, 25-BRAvCRC (69) W, 27-GERvSWE (71) W]... 25+ Shots: 2 (7-ARG (26vISL) D, 11-GER (25vMEX) L)... Regions (Teams): UEFA (14) 17-6-5, CONMEBOL (5) 4-4-2, AFC (5) 2-6-2, CAF (5) 2-7-1, CONCACAF (3) 2-4-0, OCEANIA (0)... 5-AUS's, 14-TUN's, and 17-EGY's only shot on goal was their PK goal... Qualify: A-RUS (18-URU W), A-URU (18-W), C-FRA (21-W), D-CRO (23-W), G-BEL (30-ENG W), G-ENG (30-W)... Eliminated:  A-KSA (18-URU W), A-EGY (18-URU W), B-MAR (20-ESP W), C-PER (21-L), E-CRC (26-SUI W), G-TUN (30-ENG W), G-PAN (30-L), H-COL (31-L) ...  there were 42 fouls in the POR-MAR (19/23) match, 38 fouls in the ARG-CRO (15/23) match and 7 yellow cards (3/4)... if you picked all the higher ranked teams to win, you would have 17 pts (tied for 49th)... TUN hasn't won in 13 WC matches... BEL's Michy Batshuayi's goal was first by a sub since RUS's Arlem Dzuba in the very first match (not including MAR's own goal in 4th match)... the 16 PKs tops 2014's entire total (excluding penalty shootouts) of 13... ENG scored 6 goals on just 12 shots (7 on goal)...

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USB drive is corrupted, luckily had pool Excel files open and managed to save but what a pain...
Scott