Sunday, July 30, 2023 
Issue #5.1.4 "First Points" 
[||| Mini-Updates | Dailies: July 28-29-30 ]

JAMAICA, SOUTH AFRICA, MOROCCO PICK UP FIRST-EVER POINTS; GERMANY FALTERS
Eggman 2 remains in the lead with 23 points of 32 possible

CARSON, CA (smt) --  After 32 matches, each team has played two matches each (even though Group A got a head start, finishing their 3rd matches a half hour before H1-Germany vs H3-Colombia started).  H2-Morocco, F2-Jamaica, and G2-South Africa picked up their first ever WWC points joining E4-Portugal and A3-Philippines earlier this week.  MAR got an early 6' goal to beat H4-Korea Rep, 1-0, to stay alive in Group H.  In a rare battle between two CONCACAF teams in the group stage, #43 JAM edged out #52 F4-Panama to stay alive and eliminate the Panamanians. #54 RSA led 2-0 in the 66' but G4-Argentina scored twice in 5 minutes to end it on a 2-2 draw, RSA's first-ever point. 

While D1-England struggles to score, they still are winning, and with D4-China PR's VAR-infected 1-0 win over D2-Haiti, all four Group D matches ended in a 1-0 score line.  #5 F1-France, which opened with a lackluster 0-0 draw with JAM, finally showed up outlasting #8 F3-Brazil, 2-1 and G3-Sweden, who had to come from behind to beat RSA in their opener, showed they are the #3 team in the world in destroying #16 G3-Italy, 5-0 with three goals off corner kicks (4 for SWE in tournament).  #2 GER had a chance to assert themselves further after their earlier 6-0 win over MAR, but fell behind to #25 COL and then lost on a 90'+7 stoppage time goal (you guessed it, off a corner kick), which kept KOR alive.  The rockin' stadium full of Colombian fans has seen COL upset the two teams above them and now face #72 MAR to try to clinch Group H.

The craziness of the last 8 matches saw just one more team push through - SWE (joining C1-Spain and C4-Japan), and just one team eliminated (PAN, joining B2-Rep of Ireland, C2-Costa Rica, C3-Zambia, and E2-Vietnam)..  All four teams are alive in Groups A, D, F, and H. 

After 32 matches, Eggman 2 keeps the lead in the pool with 23 points with four tied for 2nd with 22 points.  Jolly Old England and Tiocfaidh Ár Lá!!!, who were tied for 2nd three days ago, are now 6th-Tied (21) and 15th-T (20).  All three of Tom J's entries are tied for 2nd (Kds911, Kds911-2, Kds911-3) along with Hawkeye. Tiny Destroyer is still last with 11 pts, but now just a point behind Kung Fu Master Kai.

As each group concludes, up to 8 points can be earned (1 each for two matches, 3 each for two teams advancing) as points will pick up fast and furious.

Will Eric's "Foster's Football Brew" be back this year?  I hope so!  If anyone else wants to contribute, let me know.  Anyone else going to down under and want to send pictures or mini-reports?

The best way to keep up with the pool is to follow @HWCI_Pools on Twitter or visit the #hwciWWC 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.

   Ins & Outs - [32 Matches/5 Ties] - Goals: 73 (2.28/match) [Own: 4 (5-CRC>ESP 21', 15-MAR>GER 54', 15-MAR{2}>GER 79', 19-IRL>CAN 45'+5), Subs: 9 (6-JPN 90'+11{pk}, 8-DEN 90' {gw}, 14-ITA 87' {gw}, 15-GER 90', 20-ESP 69', 20-ESP {2} 85', 22-NGA 72' {gw}, 27-ARG 79' {gt}, 30-SWE 90'+5), 90+/120+: 4 (6-JPN +11 {pk}, 22-AUS +10, 30-SWE +5, 31-COL+7 {gw}), Extra Time: 0 (-)]... Scoring First: 24-3-2 [3 Nil-Nil ties (4-NGAvCAN, 11-FRAvJAM, 18-SUIvNOR); 12-RSAvSWE 1:2, 19-IRLvCAN 1:2, 22-AUSvNGA 2:3]... Leading at Half: 17-0-2 [13 ties (11 scoreless); -]... Shutout: 28 [1-NOR, 2-IRL, 4-CAN, 4-NGR, 3-PHI, 5-CRC, 9-VIE, 6-ZAM, 7-HAI, 8-CHN, 10-POR, 11-FRA, 11-JAM, 14-ARG, 15-MAR, 13-PAN, 16-KOR, 17-NZL, 18-SUI, 18-NOR {2}, 21-CRC {2}, 20-ZAM {2}, 24-VIE {2}, 25-DEN, 26-HAI {2}, 30-ITA, 29-PAN {2}, 32-KOR {2}]... PK: 7/11 [1-nzl (x) 90', 2-AUS 52', 4-can (s) 50', 3-SUI 45', 5-esp (s) 34', 9-usa (s) 44', 6-JPN <retake> 90'+11, 7-ENG <retake> 29', 16-COL 30', 26-CHN 74', 31-GER 89']... Extra Time: 0 [-]... PSO: 0 (-/-) [-]... Red Card (GF/GA): 4 [4-NGA R 90'+8 (0/0), 6-ZAM 2Y 90'+7 (0/1), 11-JAM 2Y 90'+2 (0/0), 26-CHN R 29' (1/0)]...  Multiple Goals: 7 [Smith 2 (9-USA), Miyazawa 2 (6-JPN), Popp 2 (15-GER), Borges 3 (13-BRA), Hermoso 2 (20-ESP), Redondo 2 (20-ESP), Ilestedt 2 (30-SWE)]... Goal Line Tech: 1 [9-USA xG 85'].. VAR (-Reversal(Taken Away), +Reversal(Added), =Confirmed, xNo Call): 24 [ 1-NOR xHB= 52', 1-NOR xHB+{pk+NZL} 87', 2-IRL xHB= 45', 4-NGA xFoul+{PK+CAN} 48', 4-NGA Y-{R+} 90'+6, 3-PHI xFoul+{PK+SUI} 43', 9-VIE xFoul+{PK+USA} 41', 9-USA Off-{g+} 45'+7, 6-JPN xOff+{g-} 21', 6-JPN xOff+{g-} 49', 6-ZAM xOff+PK-Y= 51', 6-ZAM xEnc+{retake PK+JPN} 90'+10, 7-HAI xFoul+Foul-{PK-} 17', 7-HAI xHB+{PK+ENG} 26', 7-HAI xEnc+{retake PK+ENG} 28', 10-NED Off-{g+} 13', 20-ESP Off-{g+} 70', 20-ESP Off-{g+} 85', 27-RSA Off-{g+} 30', 26--CHN Y-{R+} 28', 26-CHN Off-xFoul+{PK+} 72', 26-xFoul+Box-{n/a} 76', 26-HAI Foul-{PK-} 90'+2, 29-PAN HB-{PK-} 90'+2]... 58%+ Poss (w/in contest): 12 [3-SUIvPHI (65/24) W, 5-ESPvCRC (64/18) W, 9-USAvVIE (59/23) W, 7-ENGvHAI (63/23) W, 12-SWEvRSA (59/27) W, 11-FRAvJAM (60/24) D, 15-GERvMAR (59/22) W, 13-BRAvPAN (61/25) W, 17-NZLvPHI{2} (59/24) L, 20-ESP{2}vZAM (63/23) W, 24-PORvVIE{2} (61/24) W, 25-ENG{2}vDEN (59/27) W]... Zero SOG (Shots): 4 [3-PHI (3), 5-CRC (1), 9-VIE (0), 6-ZAM (0)]... 20+ Shots (S/SOG/G): 10 [5-ESP (46/14/2(1 og)) W, 9-USA (26/7/3) W, 6-JPN (26/11/5) W, 13-BRA (33/9/4) W, 21-JPN {2} (25/11/2) W, 20-ESP {2} (22/13/5) W, 22-AUS (27/7/2) L, 24-POR (28/9/2) W, 30-SWE (20/7/5) W, 29-JAM (20/4/1) W]... Breaks (>30 min): 0 [-]... Regions (Teams/R16/QF/SF/F/C): UEFA (12) 13-7-4, AFC (6) 5-7-0, CONCACAF (6) 3-6-3, CAF (4) 2-4-2, CONMEBOL (3) 3-2-1, OCEANIA (1) 1-1-0... Match Order of Play: RR: 1-2 | 4-3-5 | 9-6-7-8 | 12-10-11 | 14-15-13 | 16¹-17-18 | 21-20-19 | 23-24-22 | 27-25-26 | 30-28-29 | 32-33-34^A-31² | 37-38^C-35-36^B | 41-42^E-39-40^D | 45-46^G-43-44^F | 47-48^H | R16: 49-50 | 51-52 | 54-53 | 56-55 | QF: 57-58 | 59-60 | SF: 61 | 62 | 3rd: 63 | F: 64 ]...  

   Qualification (Advance, Group Winner, Elim, G-Group):  B-IRL (19-L)... C-ESP (20-W), C-JPN (20-ZAM L), C-ZAM (20-L), C-CRC (20-ESP W)... E-VIE (24-L)... G-SWE (30-W) | F-PAN (29-L)...

   SIDES 'N KICKS:  first-time WWC teams are 3-13-0 (PHI, VIE, ZAM, IRL, HAI, POR, MAR, PAN) (1 win due to two debutantes playing each other PORvVIE)... Group A finished before Group H played their last second stage match... MAR's Nouhaila Benzina became the first player to wear a traditional hijab in a World Cup match... SWE's Jonna Andersson delivered six corner kicks and three were converted for goals vITA... it's been rough to see a lot of misses (e.g., ESP 46 shots, scored just 2 goals vsCRC) so it's nice to see SWE convert 5 of 7 shots on goal into goals... FIFA corrected their stat sheet to show KOR with 16 shots and 1 on goal after just giving them 14 and no shots on goal (we run into this with Opta for MLS as well, as at random times sometimes shot counts get updated or taken away without any notice, usually coming to our side of the reasoning)... GER suffered its first group stage loss since 1995... CHNvHAI saw four VAR interventions including two that were head-scratchers, but evened out to one bad call for each team, denying PKs... 4 got 10 of 16 matches correct for the second stage while 3 went 5-11... the first stage saw entries get 11.1 correct, the second stage just 7.9 (19.0 correct overall)...

Locally in AUS/NZL, on Friday, Sieger went 3-0 to move from a tie for 4th into sole position of 2nd place with 20 points; Eggman 2 still leads with 21 points and 7 are tied for 3rd with 19; Tiny Destroyer and Kung Fu Master Kai both went 0-3 with the former still last with 9 pts; Seiger and KevLo 3 were the only two to get ARGvRSA draw correct while 36 got ENG and 44 CHN. ... on Saturday, 14 entries went 3-0 including Hawkeye and Kds911 who are tied for 2nd with 22 points; Eggman 2 still leads with 23 points; four went 0-3 as 33 got SWE, 28 got FRA, and 27 got JAM; Tiny Destroyer actually went 2-1 but is still in last (11 pts)... on Sunday (Group H), Looking at just Group H matches, Firewire (38th-Tied, 17 pts) and last place Tiny Destroyer (13) were the only two to pick both upsets COL (picked by 2) and MAR (picked by 7);  Eggman 2 was one of 38 to go 0-2 in Group H but keeps first (23)...

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Will LA Galaxy get a lot of rest or advance in Leagues Cup tonight..
Scott