Friday, June 26, 1998 http://www.HWCI.com/wc98 Issue # 21.1.17 "Top seeds claim top spots..." 1998 HWCI WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT POOL =================================== ARGENTINA CLAIMS GROUP TITLE WHILE JAMAICA WINS BATTLE OF WINLESS MOLDOVAN'S GOAL SAVES ROMANIA FROM LOSING GROUP G TITLE First Round ends with MLSBob still on top of pool EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt)- Argentina became the first team to go through the first three matches without conceding a goal en route to a 1-0 win over Croatia. More action took place between winless Jamaica and winless Japan. Theodore Whitmore scored both of Jamaica's goals as they held on to a 2-1 victory, its first in World Cup play. Japan finally scored and pushed the USA to, at best, 31st place in the tourney. England easily won their match with Colombia, 2-0, to claim the final spot in the Round of 16, but Viorel Moldovan's goal in the 72nd minute gave Romania a 1-1 tie with Tunisia to give Romania the Group G title. Tunisia's tie secured USA's legacy of finishing dead last (32nd) in the tournament, and only one of two teams to go pointless (Japan being the other). Tunisia scored their first goal on a penalty kick in the 10th minute and it looked for a while that Romania might be upset. The first round is now over and the sixteen teams will start the knockout phase tomorrow with Brazil, coming off the shocking loss to Norway, facing Chile, which has not won a match yet. Italy will take on Norway in the other match. GROUP G W-L-T PT GF/A GROUP H W-L-T PT GF/A ---------------------- ---------------------- yx-Romania 2-0-1 7 4/2 yx-Argenta. 3-0-0 9 7/0 x-England 2-1-0 6 5/2 x-Croatia 2-1-0 6 4/2 Colombia 1-2-0 3 1/3 Jamaica 1-2-0 3 3/9 Tunisia 0-2-1 1 1/4 Japan 0-3-0 0 1/4 x-Advances to Round of 16 y-Wins group title Tue., 6/30: #56(7). 1G-Romania vs. 2H-Croatia, 7:30 am (PDT) #55(8). 1H-Argentina vs 2G-England, Noon (PDT) Group H: Twelve people picked Jamaica and everyone surprisingly agreed on Argentina over Croatia. All 21 had Argentina in the next round while 15 had Croatia. The top six spots remained unchanged with MLSBOB (62 pts) holding a one point lead over BIG BRI'S GOING DOWN. Group G: Although Romania was the top seed, only 14 picked them to advance, and only four thought they could finish first. Eighteen had England advancing. Sixteen had picked England over Colombia. The first round is now complete, and after the long haul, the real fun begins as 100 points are left to be taken. MLSBOB got 69 of the possible 96 points so far and leads by two over BIG BRI'S GOING DOWN and three over LE BIX and LUIS ENRIQUE'S ARMADA. MLSBOB and ARMADA tied with 27 correct first round picks. MLSBOB, BIG BRI, and LE BIX tied with 14 of 16 correct Round of 16 picks. ERIC THE RED and RUSSO only got 9 of 16. THE BRUTE SQUAD just got 19 first round picks correct. No break- Round of 16 begins tomorrow!... Scott HW -----------------------------------------\\ || /\ || // ___ 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