Sunday, June 21, 1998                     http://www.HWCI.com/wc98
Issue # 16.1.12 "Embarassing..."

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

         YUGOSLAVIA BLOWS LEAD, ARGENTINA BREEZES, USA FLOPS
	Iran's upset win spoils MLSBob's perfect record (18-1-11)

	ROSEMEAD, CA (smt)-  Yugoslavia (1-0-1) missed a chance
to advance to the Round of 16 by allowing Germany (1-0-1) to rally
from a 2-0 deficit to tie, 2-2, in Group F play.  Argentina (2-0)
advanced to the Round of 16 (as well as helping Group H mate 
Croatia do the same) by taking apart an undermatched Jamaica (0-2),
5-0.  Iran (1-1), predicted by no one to win any matches, shocks
the USA (0-2), 2-1, to eliminate the Americans from the World
Cup in a match Iran made political.

	Today mirrored yesterday in that we had a match that saw
one team rally from 2-0 down to tie (BEL-MEX) and a team rout the
other 5-0 (HOL-KOR).  The USA almost tied Iran after being down 2-0
but couldn't push one through.

BEFORE THE USA-IRAN MATCH:
	The worst possible result was about to happen to the USA:
Yugoslavia upsets Germany.  That would've meant the USA would be
virtually eliminated since Iran would have to beat Germany.  Now,
the 2nd worst possible result happened:  a tie.  Now the USA will
have to rely on others to make it to the elmination round and will
likely have to beat Yugoslavia.  The USA needs at least a 2-goal
margin of victory today.  Talk about perfect timing... I taped the
Yugo-Germany 5 am match (from 6:40-7:20), so when Argentina was
handling Jamaica, I popped in the tape.  Shock!  2-0 Yugoslavia!
It can't be!  Germany was setting up for a free kick.  This is
the worst thing that can happen!  Then, shot, deflection, goal-
Germany!  It all Germany after that, and if Juergen Klinsmann didn't 
go down, maybe Germany would have won the match.

AFTER THE USA-IRAN MATCH:
	Like I said yesterday, the USA can't finish.  It's good they
had chances, but Iran really only had a handful of chances and
scored twice.  The US had dozens of chances and their only goal
was a Brian McBride header that barely crossed the line late in the
game.  Could anyone predict that Iran would be up 2-0 in the 85th
minute?  Now, the coach (Steve Sampson) didn't miss those shots, 
didn't make one too many passes, didn't get back on defense, 
didn't not shoot on goal, but... should he be the fall guy?  Saudi
Arabia and South Korea have both fired their coaches, and they
are the only ones to be eliminated thus far.  This is definitely
a low point in US soccer history.  Who respects us now?

	Of the three matches, only one change:  TRIPLEX had Jamaica 
and falls to a tie for 13th.  MLSBOB fell to Iran like everyone
else and has 18 points, though that's only a fraction of the 
196 (184) points possible in the pool.  USA's fall will severely
hurt THE MIGHTY MOBELFAKTA, who a patriot.  

Adios Sampson!...
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