Friday, June 12, 1998	                     http://www.HWCI.com/wc98
Issue # 7.1.3 "France shows the way..."

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

	GOALS SCARCE FOR EVERYONE BUT FRANCE
	Logjam at top of pool slowly being broken down

	EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt)- Five teams combined for just one goal
while France pounded out three.  Paraguay goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert
nearly scored on a free kick late in the game as Paraguay (0-0-1) and
Bulgaria (0-0-1) played to the 1998 World Cup's first scoreless tie.
Denmark's (1-0) Marc Rieper' header in the 68th minute prevented
another scoreless tie as they beat Saudi Arabia (0-1), 1-0 in Group
C action.  Denmark's win snapped the Cup's streak of four consecutive
tied matches.  Also in Group C, host country France (1-0) took apart
South Africa (0-1), 3-0.  In all, four of the six teams were goalless
after every team before them (8) had scored at least once.  Also,
France's match was the first "blowout", although South Africa was in
it until an own goal with 12 minutes left.  The other match of
Group D and both matches in Group E will take place tomorrow.

	I finally got to watch some World Cup action live.  Why isn't
ESPN showing the match?  What else could ESPN have at 6 in the morning
(PDT) that is more important that World Cup soccer?  Thank god
for Univision.  I don't get espn2 so I'm sort of bitter.  I saw
the last 30 minutes of this morning's early game, Paraguay vs
Bulgaria.  You could clearly hear the chants of "Bul-gar-ee"
but Paraguay dominated the game late.  Chilavert, a la Jorge
Campos, hit a curving shot that was just saved on a free kick.
The amazing part was not that a goalkeeper took the shot, but
the fact that he "watched" the ball after he took the shot, making
no effort to get back in the goal area.  

	The two non-tied matches whittled down the leaderboard
ever so slightly.  Two people had their hopes dashed
for a Saudi Arabia upset so it left 17 people tied for first with
two points each.  TOM FUNG was the only one to not pick France
leaving 16 tied for first with 3 points each.  With six each choosing
Brazil or Germany to win it all, the single round-robin points become
more important as people jockey for position in the first 32 games.
The last 16 matches of the round-robin will also decide which teams
will advance to the Round of 16 (3 points per team).  If you're 
behind early and picked Brazil or Germany to win it all, then
chances are you have no hope for first place.

	Check out www.HWCI.com for new pool information, updated
almost daily.  Today, the distribution list, listing how each team
fared among our predictors, is online.  By Sunday, complete standings
should also be up, as well as a downloadable Excel file so you could
keep track of the pool yourself.

Should be "The World Cup on espn2"...
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